Immigration News Flash: 2019 Immigrant Visa Lottery Opens On October 3

The Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery Registration for 2019 opens Wednesday, October 3, 2018. Entries must be submitted electronically at: https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ between noon on October 3, 2018, Eastern Daylight Time, and noon on November 7, 2018, Eastern Standard Time. Qualified applicants are strongly encouraged to register as early as possible. Heavy demand may result in system delays in the final days of the registration period.

The DV Lottery is administered annually by the Department of State, and provides immigrant visas (green cards) each year to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. This year there are 50,000 DVs available. The visas are distributed among six geographic regions, with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to natives of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years.