DV-2000 RESULTS RELEASED
The State Department has announced that all winners of the DV-2000 green card lottery have been selected and that the National Visa Center has notified winners. About 110,000 winners were selected for 50,000 actual available visas. The State Department estimates that because many people will choose not to proceed or will have already obtained permanent residency through other means, the larger number of selected applicants is necessary to ensure that all 50,000 visa slots are used.
According to the State Department, more than 8 million qualified entries were received. More than 2.5 million other applied and were rejected because they were improperly submitted. Overall, the chances of winning were just 1.25%. Nevertheless, for many, the lottery is the only way they could ever have qualified to immigrate to the US since the other routes normally require close family members who are green card holders or citizens, a skilled or professional job, a sizable investment, or a claim of asylum.
If you were selected, it is important to act quickly since all processing on a DV-2000 case must be completed by September 30th of next year. That may sound like a long time, but in immigration processing, it is very soon. Applicants in the US may want to consider applying at a State Department US consulate abroad instead of or in addition to processing in the US via adjustment of status. In the recent past, State Department processing has been much more reliable than INS processing.
The State Department will not notify people not selected in the lottery and will not confirm whether you have won or lost. If you do not have a winner’s notification package, you will be unable to process. Note that although the State Department says all winners have been notified, past experience indicates that it still may be quite a while before all winners receive their packages. Last year, we received two winner notification packages in August, more than two months after the final results memorandum was released.
The next entry period for a green card lottery will be from noon on October 4, 1999 to noon on November 3, 1999. Instructions for entering that lottery will be released on August 2, 1999 and will be posted on the Siskind, Susser, Haas & Devine web site at http://www.visalaw.com. As we have for the last five years, we will also send out a special issue of our newsletter to all of our subscribers.
The following is the breakdown of winners:
AFRICA
ALGERIA 1,499 ERITREA 220 NAMIBIA 10 ANGOLA 12 ETHIOPIA 2,284 NIGER 22 BENIN 89 GABON 24 NIGERIA 8,550 BOTSWANA 8 GAMBIA, THE 122 RWANDA 35 BURKINA FASO 31 GHANA 8,662 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0 BURUNDI 13 GUINEA 332 SENEGAL 207 CAMEROON 860 GUINEA-BISSAU 1 SEYCHELLES 3 CAPE VERDE 3 KENYA 1,514 SIERRA LEONE 2,617 CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 18 LESOTHO 3 SOMALIA 1,678 CHAD 29 LIBERIA 1,762 SOUTH AFRICA 663 COMOROS 2 LIBYA 79 SUDAN 2,294 CONGO 51 MADAGASCAR 20 SWAZILAND 2 CONGO, DEMOCRATIC MALAWI 47 TANZANIA 267 REPUBLIC OF THE 386 MALI 86 TOGO 664 COTE D'IVOIRE 333 MAURITANIA 47 TUNISIA 175 DJIBOUTI 12 MAURITIUS 28 UGANDA 169 EGYPT 3,301 MOROCCO 3,007 ZAMBIA 72 EQUATORIAL GUINEA 5 MOZAMBIQUE 7 ZIMBABWE 97
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN 59 IRAQ 49 NEPAL 128 BAHRAIN 7 ISRAEL 67 OMAN 4 BANGLADESH 9,175 JAPAN 367 PAKISTAN 3,187 BHUTAN 0 JORDAN 86 QATAR 6 BRUNEI 0 NORTH KOREA 3 SAUDI ARABIA 83 BURMA 553 KUWAIT 29 SINGAPORE 33 CAMBODIA 103 LAOS 7 SRI LANKA 220 HONG KONG SPECIAL LEBANON 47 SYRIA 66 ADMIN. REGION 136 MALAYSIA 102 THAILAND 117 INDONESIA 758 MALDIVES 0 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 42 IRAN 489 MONGOLIA 4 YEMEN 63
EUROPE
ALBANIA 6,401 GREECE 107 NORTHERN IRELAND 73 ANDORRA 0 HUNGARY 219 NORWAY 39 ARMENIA 1,214 ICELAND 35 PORTUGAL 67 AUSTRIA 170 IRELAND 564 Macau 16 AZERBAIJAN 423 ITALY 294 ROMANIA 3,494 BELARUS 896 KAZAKHSTAN 689 RUSSIA 6,481 BELGIUM 83 KYRGYZSTAN 181 SAN MARINO 0 BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 83 LATVIA 288 SERBIA-MONTENEGRO 597 BULGARIA 4,381 LIECHTENSTEIN 1 SLOVAKIA 375 CROATIA 123 LITHUANIA 1,316 SLOVENIA 26 CYPRUS 37 LUXEMBOURG 4 SPAIN 123 CZECH REPUBLIC 215 MACEDONIA, FORMER SWEDEN 272 DENMARK 88 YUGOSLAV REP. OF 397 SWITZERLAND 420 ESTONIA 152 MALTA 27 TAJIKISTAN 190 FINLAND 72 MOLDOVA 418 TURKEY 1,368 FRANCE 602 MONACO 1 TURKMENISTAN 66 Martinique 3 NETHERLANDS 112 UKRAINE 8,035 Guadeloupe 0 Aruba 2 UZBEKISTAN 964 GEORGIA 423 Netherlands Antilles 7 VATICAN CITY 0 GERMANY 3,417
NORTH AMERICA
BAHAMAS, THE 36
OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA 656 NAURU 0 SOLOMON ISLANDS 0 FIJI 1,069 NEW ZEALAND 357 TONGA 178 KIRIBATI 0 PALAU 2 TUVALU 0 MARSHALL ISLANDS 7 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 9 VANUATU 0 MICRONESIA, FEDERATED SAMOA 24 STATES OF 0
SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 11 DOMINICA 58 PERU 1,040 ARGENTINA 404 ECUADOR 496 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 7 BARBADOS 23 GRENADA 36 SAINT LUCIA 22 BELIZE 18 GUATEMALA 302 SAINT VINCENT AND BOLIVIA 78 GUYANA 166 THE GRENADINES 26 BRAZIL 940 HONDURAS 143 SURINAME 23 CHILE 75 NICARAGUA 38 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 607 COSTA RICA 150 PANAMA 100 URUGUAY 39 CUBA 1,286 PARAGUAY 7 VENEZUELA 526
Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2000: Canada, China (mainland and Taiwan, except Hong Kong S.A.R.), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.
