The Diversity Lottery Program

October 10, 2013

Hosted by:Murali Bashyam and Ame Coats

Bashyam Spiro & Coats LLP

www.bashyamspiro.com

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Outline

• What is the Diversity Lottery? • Who Qualifies? • Procedure for Filing

Today’s Dialogue Map…

Diversity Lottery

• Congressionally mandated program• Immigrants from countries with historically low

rates of immigration to the US• 50,000 visas available• Lottery entry dates: Oct. 1, 2013 through noon,

Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013.

Evidence of meeting requirements is not submitted with entry. Evidence submitted later after selection.

1. Country of Birth

•Must be born in eligible country OR•Spouse born in eligible countryOR•1 or both parents were born in country eligible in year you are applying

Eligibility

2. Education or Work Experience

•High School Education--successful completion of 12 year course of elementary and secondary education comparable to US high school education. Correspondence/equivalency courses do not count. Must be formal course study.

OR•2 Years work experience within past 5 years in qualifying occupation. The Dept. of State uses O*Net Online Database. Occupation must be designated job zone 4 or 5 with SVP of 7.0 or greater. Examples: Secondary School Teacher qualifies. Police Officer does not.

Eligibility

• Must be submitted electronically (If not completed within certain amount of time, must start over)

• Digital Photo must be submitted as well. (If digital photo not accepted, may have to start over.)

• Between noon EDT 10/1/2013 and noon EDT 11/2/2013• Disqualified if more than 1 entry submitted• No charge to submit entry• Enter at www.dvlottery.state.gov• Be sure that you receive confirmation page and print it

out. You must have Conf # to check the results.

Submitting your Entry

Selection

• Selection is made randomly by computer.

• Notification of selection is NOT sent out by email for mail. Beware of scams!

• Notification online “Entrant Status Check” Starting May 1, 2014: check entry by going to www.dvlottery.state.gov You must have confirmation number to check status.

After Selection

• Entrant Status Check will provide further instructions as to the rest of the process. (Spouse and children under 21 are included.)

• Most selectees reside abroad and will process through the National Visa Center and local US Embassy.

• Selectees residing in the US can process through USCIS by filing adjustment of status (Note that most selectees who are out of status cannot be approved.)

Obtaining Visa or AOS

• Selectees can apply for visa numbers between Oct. 1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2015.

• A visa number must be available before a selectee can be granted an immigrant visa or have status adjusted. The monthly DOS Visa Bulletin shows available visa number by lottery rank and region.

Obtaining Visa or AOS

Not all selectees will get a green card.

– More than 50,000 people will be selected, but only 50,000 visas can be granted. The numbers can run out.

– Some selectees will not be “admissible” to the US.– Some selectees will not be able to prove that they

meet the requirements (eligible country/work or education)

– All paperwork must be complete by 9/30/2015. Some in the process will not make this deadline.

All selectees and dependents must be issued visas or have status adjusted by midnight September 30, 2015.

Deadline for Visa or AOS

Questions for us?

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