Green Card Lottery Eligiblity

The green card lottery program is the easiest way to obtain a green card. The eligibility requirements to enter the green card lottery are simple but it is important that they are fulfilled. The main eligibility to enter the green card lottery program or DV-lottery program is to be a citizen of a qualifying country at the time of the DV-lottery. The list of eligible countries are provided during the lottery season. The countries that were eligible for the green card lottery last year are mostly eligible this year too, but there could be few changes to it. The list of eligible countries is determined by the following rule that a country to be eligible, should have sent less than 50000 immigrants to the U.S.A in the past five years. “50,000 immigrants” includes only family based visas and employment based visas. It does not include refugees,asylum seekers, NACARA beneficiaries or previous DV winners.

If you are a native of an eligible country you can apply for the DV-lottery or else there are two other ways to claim eligibility of a country.

If you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible but your spouse was born in a country whose natives are eligible, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth—provided that both you and your spouse are on the selected entry, are issued visas, and enter the United States simultaneously.

If you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but neither of your parents was born there or resided there at the time of your birth, you may claim nativity in one of your parent’s countries of birth if it is a country whose natives qualify for the US DV-lottery program.

Once you find that your country is qualified then the next qualification is to meet the educational requirement or the qualifying work experience.

Educational requrement: High School Education is required if you are qualifying through education. A high school education means successful completion of a formal course of elementary and secondary education comparable to the completion of a 12-year course in the United States.

or

Work experience: If you are qualifying through work experience then you must have worked atleast two years or trained for two years in the last five years in an occupation that is designated in the job zone 4 or 5 with Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP) rating of 7.0 or higher by the U.S. Department of Labor.

To make it simple, the list of occupations designated in the job zones 4 and 5 can be found from the following links:

Job zone 4: http://www.onetonline.org/find/zone?z=4&g=Go

Job zone 5: http://www.onetonline.org/find/zone?z=5&g=Go

If your job designation is found in one of these occupations then, atleast with two years of experience or prior training you are eligible to apply for the lottery.

You should not continue with your DV application if you do not meet the qualifying education or work experience requirements explained above. You can apply for the lottery but you will not be issued a visa if you win the lottery and any fees you pay will not be refunded.