Diversity Visa Lottery reports figures for 2004 (11/02/03)

Diversity Visa Lottery reports figures for 2004

WASHINGTON - The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Ky., has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2004 Diversity Lottery. They may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first 50,000 persons registered (5,000 of the 55,000 annually allocated visas were made available for use under the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act) will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2004 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003, until September 30, 2004).

Applicants registered for the DV-2004 program were selected at random from the approximately 7.3 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period that ran from noon on October 7, 2002, through noon on November 6, 2002. An additional 2.9 million applications were either received outside of the mail-in period or were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions.

The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions, with a maximum of 7 percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Registrants living legally in the United States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must contact the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total 50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2004 will end.

Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2004, will derive no further benefit from their DV-2004 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2004 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2004.

The following list is culled from the complete list issued by the State Department that provides the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2004 program. Listed below are countries that had over 1,000 registrants.

Africa: Algeria, 1,285; Cameroon, 1,531; Egypt, 4,189; Ethiopia, 6,353; Kenya, 5,721; Liberia, 1,570; Morocco, 5,069; Nigeria 7,145; Sierra Leone, 2,149; Togo 2,819.
Asia: Bangladesh 5,126; Iran 1,431; Japan 1,291; Nepal 4,259; Sri Lanka 1,418; Taiwan 1,833.
Europe: Albania, 3,071; Germany, 1,227; Lithuania, 2,059; Poland, 5,467; Romania, 1,845; Russia, 2,600; Turkey, 2,343; Ukraine, 4,494; Uzbekistan, 1,819.
South America, Central America and the Caribbean: Peru 1,298.

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2004: Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

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