The Kentucky Consular
Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky, has registered and notified the winners of
the DV-2004 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the
terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes
available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries
with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 111,000
applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application
for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000
persons registered 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 seven 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.
Only participants in the
DV-2004 program who were selected for further processing have been notified.
Those who have not received notification were not selected. They may try for
the upcoming DV-2005 lottery if they wish. The dates for the mail-in period
for the DV-2005 lottery program will be widely publicized during August
2003.
* The Nicaraguan and
Central American Relief Act (NCARA) passed by Congress in November 1997
stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas
be made available for use under the NCARA program. The reduction of the limit
of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000.
The following is the
statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for
the DV-2004 program:
AFRICA
ALGERIA 1,285
ANGOLA
17
BENIN 209
BOTSWANA 8
BURKINA FASO 34
BURUNDI 27
CAMEROON
1,531
CAPE VERDE 4
CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 10
CHAD 41
COMOROS
0
CONGO 31
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC
REPUBLIC OF THE 455
COTE D’IVOIRE
268
DJIBOUTI 24
EGYPT 4,189
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 1
ERITREA
373
ETHIOPIA 6,353
GABON 14
GAMBIA, THE 65
GHANA
7,040
GUINEA 22
GUINEA-BISSAU 6
KENYA 5,721
LESOTHO
0
LIBERIA 1,570
LIBYA 24
MADAGASCAR 27
MALAWI 32
MALI
51
MAURITANIA 25
MAURITIUS 44
MOROCCO 5,069
MOZAMBIQUE
5
NAMIBIA 10
NIGER 35
NIGERIA 7,145
RWANDA 87
SAO TOME AND
PRINCIPE 0
SENEGAL 269
SEYCHELLES 1
SIERRA LEONE 2,149
SOMALIA
566
SOUTH AFRICA 413
SUDAN 1,183
SWAZILAND 2
TANZANIA
329
TOGO 2,819
TUNISIA 115
UGANDA 351
ZAMBIA 124
ZIMBABWE
168
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN 46
BAHRAIN
15
BANGLADESH 5,126
BHUTAN 9
BRUNEI 7
BURMA 906
CAMBODIA
237
HONG KONG SPECIAL
ADMIN. REGION 293
INDONESIA 844
IRAN
1,431
IRAQ 174
ISRAEL 465
JAPAN 1,291
JORDAN 125
KUWAIT
45
LAOS 10
LEBANON 105
MALAYSIA 222
MALDIVES 0
MONGOLIA
65
NEPAL 4,259
NORTH KOREA 4
OMAN 3
QATAR 8
SAUDI ARABIA
54
SINGAPORE 137
SRI LANKA 1,418
SYRIA 64
TAIWAN
1,833
THAILAND 297
YEMEN 106
EUROPE
ALBANIA 3,071
ANDORRA
1
ARMENIA 836
AUSTRIA 64
AZERBAIJAN 338
BELARUS 966
BELGIUM
46
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 128
BULGARIA 3,482
CROATIA
73
CYPRUS 11
CZECH REPUBLIC 172
DENMARK 39
ESTONIA
71
FINLAND 44
FRANCE 313
French Guiana 1
French
Polynesia 3
Guadeloupe 5
Reunion 2
Aruba 1
GEORGIA 479
GERMANY 1,227
GREECE
66
HUNGARY 139
ICELAND 17
IRELAND 305
ITALY 165
KAZAKHSTAN
451
KYRGYZSTAN 206
LATVIA 172
LIECHTENSTEIN 1
LITHUANIA
2,059
LUXEMBOURG 4
MACEDONIA, FORMER YUGOSLAV REP. OF 166
MALTA
10
MOLDOVA 574
MONACO 1
NETHERLANDS 94
Netherlands
Antilles 6
NORTHERN IRELAND 51
NORWAY 19
POLAND
5,467
PORTUGAL 46
Macau 0
ROMANIA 1,845
RUSSIA
2,600
SAN MARINO 0
SERBIA & MONTENEGRO 448
SLOVAKIA
392
SLOVENIA 8
SPAIN 62
SWEDEN 82
SWITZERLAND
183
TAJIKISTAN 105
TURKEY 2,343
TURKMENISTAN 95
UKRAINE
4,494
UZBEKISTAN 1,819
VATICAN CITY 0
NORTH AMERICA
BAHAMAS, THE
12
OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA 362
FIJI
738
KIRIBATI 0
Cook Islands 0
MARSHALL ISLANDS
0
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF 0
NAURU 0
NEW ZEALAND
155
PALAU 0
PAPUA NEW GUINEA 3
SAMOA 8
SOLOMON ISLANDS
2
TONGA 43
TUVALU 0
VANUATU 1
SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL
AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
6
ARGENTINA 194
BARBADOS 3
BELIZE 4
BOLIVIA 62
BRAZIL
28
CHILE 23
COSTA RICA 12
CUBA 674
DOMINICA 12
ECUADOR
746
GRENADA 6
GUATEMALA 26
GUYANA 22
HONDURAS 25
NICARAGUA
27
PANAMA 13
PARAGUAY 31
PERU 1,298
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS
2
SAINT LUCIA 5
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES 5
SURINAME
1
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 71
URUGUAY 41
VENEZUELA
194
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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