2010 Diversity US Visa Lottery Ends Today

2010 Diversity Visa Lottery Registration Opened October 2, 2008
and the registration period ended December 1, 2008.

Here is an article that covers details:

Washington — The 2010 Diversity Visa Lottery (DV-2010) will be held from October 2 to December 1, 2008, the U.S. State Department announced. Applicants are urged not to wait until the last minute to apply because excessive demand on the lottery Web site may cause delays as the deadline nears.

Each year the U.S. government makes 50,000 permanent residence visas (“green cards”) available through the Diversity Immigrant Visa program. Visa applicants are selected through a computer-generated, random lottery, which is open to persons from eligible countries who meet certain education or work experience requirements. (See “Diversity Visa Applicants Must Meet Eligibility Requirements.”)

Persons seeking to enter the visa lottery must register online through the designated Web site (www.dvlottery.state.gov). Applications will be accepted only from noon Eastern Daylight Time (1600 GMT) on Thursday, October 2, to noon Eastern Standard Time (1700 GMT) on Monday, December 1, 2008. No applications will be accepted after that, the State Department said September 30.

The selection of a person’s name in the lottery does not automatically guarantee that a diversity visa will be issued; those who are selected have the opportunity to take the next steps in the visa application process.

The State Department’s Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky, will notify the lottery winners by postal mail (not e-mail) between May and July 2009. The applicants will receive instructions on how to complete the application process for DV-2010 visas, which will be issued during fiscal year 2010 (October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2010).

This lottery is only for DV-2010 visas. The DV-2009 lottery — which was for visas to be issued in fiscal year 2009 — is closed. Winners were selected from more than 9 million qualified entries and were notified by mail earlier in 2008.

Diversity visas are available only to people from eligible countries with low immigration rates to the United States. Two important changes for DV-2010 are the return of Russia to the list of eligible countries and the addition of Kosovo.

Natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply for the DV-2010 lottery because those nations sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the previous five years: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.
People born in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China, Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible to apply.

In the DV-2010 lottery, for the first time, applicants may check the status of their entries online and learn whether their entries are selected or not selected.

There is no fee for entering the lottery or downloading and completing the application form. The State Department warns applicants to be wary of fraudulent schemes asking for money, fraudulent e-mails, or Web sites posing as official U.S. government sites. Each person may enter the lottery only once; spouses may each submit an application.
The English-language version of the DV-2010 Lottery instructions is the only official version, according to the State Department. Instructions will be available in other languages (on the instructions page) as translations become available.

The announcement on the DV-2010 Diversity Visa Lottery and instructions for submitting the application online are available on the State Department Web site.

Results of the DV-2009 visa lottery are available on the State Department Web site.