In this video, I'm going to talk about the Green Card Lottery, what it's about what's
going to happen to it, and what you need to know now. So, stay tuned and let's see on
the other side. So in this video, we'll talk about the electronic diversity visa program,
also known as the Green Card Lottery. But before that, I asked you to subscribe to our
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wherever we can. So, let's dive in. We are in October right now and the visa lottery
opened October 2nd. So, let's talk about what is the diversity visa lottery program? And
what you need to know. So, first things first, this is a program that started in the early
‘90s by the Immigration Act of 1990. And the idea was to create a diversity of immigrants
in the United States because they realize that there are too many immigrants that come
from certain countries and they wanted to create more of a diversity in the United States,
culturally, and so people can be able to come here from countries that typically don't have
a chance, either because it's financially impossible or for other reasons, because of
visa restrictions. So, they've created this program. Every year 50,000 visas are issued
to random people that apply for this program online. It used to be a paper application
in the past several years. It's online, it's on the State Department website. We can link
that also in the video so you know. And it opens October 2nd and it closes on November
5th. So now is the perfect timing to do so. Now, there's been a lot of talk about canceling
this program. This is not going to be forever. It's been around for so many years, other
bills that were introduced, and talking about eliminating this program and using those visas
for something else. But as of today, as of now, this program is active, it's available,
it's still going on. And so, again, it's available right now, we don't know what's going to happen
next year. It's not going to affect any other visa if you apply for an H1B or an E2 visa,
applying for the lottery is not going to hurt your visa application, any visa application.
So, who is eligible? So, first of all, you have to be born in a country, you have to
be actually born, not be a citizen, but actually born in a country that is on the list. So,
if you go on the website of the State Department and the lottery website, you will see a list
of countries that are eligible. You will also see a list of countries that are excluded
from the lottery, like Mexico, India, UK. So, if you're born in one of those countries,
you are not eligible to apply. But if your country is not on the restricted list, then
you're able to apply. But what do you do if your country is excluded, what do you do?
So, there are two things you can do. There are two ways you can still qualify. First
of all, if you're married to a person, that was born in one of the countries that is not
excluded. So let's say if you're a citizen of Mexico, which is not on the list, but you're
married to a person from Germany, then you can apply because your wife is going to be
a principal applicant, and you'll be able to get it because you're married to her. Another
option is that if your parents are not residents of the country were born. So let's say your
parents are German and French, but then they lived in Mexico while you were born in Mexico.
So you can still apply under your parents’ nationality in some cases. So, that's one
way how you qualify. The other thing is you have to have a certain education. So, either
you have at least a high school diploma, or you have to have two years’ experience in
the past five years in an occupation that requires two years’ experience under the
US Department of Labor criteria. And again, there's a website under the US Department
of Labor, that states which occupations require at least two years of experience. And therefore,
if you meet those requirements, you'll be able to do so. So again, either through a
spouse, or through a parent, or through education. You have to have those requirements before
you can apply because if you’re not eligible, this application will be denied at some point.
Where do you apply? You go on the website of the Department of State, again, will link
their website. It's a simple application form. You don't have to pay anybody. There's a lot
of websites out there that charge fees. You don't need to do this anymore. There's a website
for free offered by the State Department. You can only apply once. So, you cannot do
multiple applications for one person and you'll be disqualified. You complete the application,
you put the country of eligibility, which is the country you were born, the country
of birth, or the country for eligibility, if you qualify based on the things that I
mentioned before. And a few other questions about education, and things like that. And
it's not a complicated application. And you complete that, you submit it and you're going
to get a case number. There is a case number because in May of that year when you apply…
of the following year. So, right now, we're in October, in May of next year, they will
announce the winners. And you have to look at your number to see if you're one of the
winners. And if you are, you'll be able to proceed to the next step, which is applying
for your immigrant visa. Now, remember, once you get notified that you won, you have to
act really fast because you have to look at the visa bulletin and see if your number…
the visa bulletin is going to state a number that qualifies any number on there [inaudible]
qualifies to continue and file for the winning lottery. And you have to be very quick to
do so because remember, the fiscal year starts in October 1st of the year after you apply,
you can apply if you're selected 90 days before to make sure that your application is in because
otherwise if you miss that, even if you won, you're not going to be able to qualify. So
again, to explain that, you get selected, you get a number, then you check on the visa
bulletin to see if your number is below the number they have on the visa bulletin. That
means that you're eligible, and you go ahead and file a certain form that will get you
in the system so you can continue the process. You have to do so before October 1st of the
fiscal year when you apply, you can do it like 90 days before. And again, then it depends
if you're in the US or abroad. Most people who apply for the visa lottery are not in
the US so they're going to have to complete the form DS-260 and finish their green card
application to the US Embassy in their home country. Very few people who are here on work
visas and student visas or any other legal status may proceed and file their Adjustment
of Status. And again, it's important to do it fast before the visa numbers run out. Okay?
So, I know it was a quick overview of a process that is quite confusing. So the application
itself is simple. And again, I want to kind of summarize what I said. You have to qualify
based on country of birth, or you can be eligible based on a spouse or a parent, you must have
the education requirements like I mentioned before, once you know you qualify, you apply
with the online form, diversity visa, electronic diversity visa website, which we’ll link
below. You do so between October 2nd and November 5th and then you wait. And then in May of
the following year, they’ll notify the winners. If you won, you have to immediately proceed
and file a further application, you have to do so before October 1st of that fiscal year.
You can do so a few months before to make sure because you have to act fast because
those numbers will run out as well even if you're selected. And then if you’re in the
US, you do Adjustment of Status. If you're in the home country, you do consular processing,
apply for the immigrant visa at the US Embassy abroad, and then you get your immigrant visa,
you come to the United States and you get your green card. If you're in the United States,
you can apply for an Adjustment of Status and get your green card in the United States.
So, hopefully, this overview was helpful. If you have any questions, please post them
in the comments below. Give us a like, share this video with somebody that they may be
interested and may need this information. And we'll see you in our next video.