State Department announces winners of the 2022 Diversity Visa Program
On Saturday, the 8th of May the State Department announced the new winners of the 2022 Diversity Immigrant Visa program (DV-2022, also known as the Green Card Lottery). Millions of people around the globe enter the U.S Department of State drawing for a chance to win an immigrant visa. According to government statistics, almost seven million qualified entries were received during the enrollment period of 2021.
Up to 55,000 people each year from countries with lower levels of immigration to the States are presented with a visa for the U.S. All green cards are awarded by random selection, and it offers selected applicants permanent residency in the U.S. After spending five years in the States, the visa winners can then apply for citizenship.
All visa lottery entrants are now able to check the status of their application on the Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs website. All DV-2022 participants need to enter their names in the Entrant Status Check search tool. In a Twitter post on Saturday, the authorities recommended checking the application status at off-peak hours, like during the evening, for a quicker service.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program promotes immigration from countries that have a low enough level of immigration to the U.S. According to law, countries that have had more than 50,000 natives immigrate to the States in the past five years, are exempt from the Visa program.
While all winners are selected for visas randomly, they still need to meet certain eligibility criteria. In order to immigrate, DV-2022 selectees must:
- complete the application form online during the specific enrollment period, the entry cannot be submitted at other times
- have at least a high school education, or equivalent
or
- have at least two years of work experience (in the last five years) in a job that requires two years of training of experience at minimum
- have a current passport from their country (additionally, they must be admissible to the U.S – categories of inadmissibility broadly involve terrorism connections)
- go through an in-person interview.
