Tara Vance is a Senior Counsel in the
New York office
Neal Beaton is a Partner in the
New York office
The U.S. Department of State's Diversity Visa 2015 Immigrant
Visa Program (more commonly referred to as the Green Card Lottery)
begins Tuesday, October 1, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
and ends Saturday, November 2, 2013 at 12:00 p.m.
EDT.
U.S. law authorizes 50,000 immigrant visas (green cards) to be
available annually for "diversity immigrants." This is
popularly referred to as a visa lottery since applicants are
randomly chosen through a computer program among qualified
applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the
United States.
For the 2015 Green Card Lottery, nationals from the following
countries are not eligible to apply, because more than
50,000 natives from these countries have immigrated to the United
States during the past five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada,
China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador,
