RESULTS OF THE DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA LOTTERY (DV-2003)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE ^ | June 18, 2002 | MEDIA NOTICE

[LurkedLongEnough]

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman

For Immediate Release June 18, 2002

MEDIA NOTICE

RESULTS OF THE DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA LOTTERY (DV-2003)

The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2003 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This Act makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 87,000 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, registration of a larger number of applicants is intended to ensure that all available DV-2003 numbers will be used during Fiscal Year 2003 (October 1, 2002 until September 30, 2003).

Applicants registered for the DV-2003 program were selected at random from the approximately 6.2 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period that ran from Noon on October 1, 2001 through Noon on October 31, 2001. An additional 2.5 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 one of the following: 1) a high school education or its equivalent, or 2) two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience. 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 Immigration and Naturalization Service for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2003 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2003 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2003 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2003 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2003.

Only participants in the DV-2003 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-2004 lottery if they wish. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2004 lottery are scheduled from Noon, Monday, October 7, 2002 until Noon, Wednesday, November 6, 2002. Instructions on entering the DV-2004 program will be widely publicized in late July or early August 2002.

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2003: 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.

* 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-2003 program:

AFRICA

ALGERIA 834
ANGOLA 29
BENIN 134
BOTSWANA 4
BURKINA FASO 28
BURUNDI 21
CAMEROON 675
CAPE VERDE 1
CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 8
CHAD 45
COMOROS 2
CONGO 41
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE 619 - Ebola source
COTE D'IVOIRE 298
DJIBOUTI 24
EGYPT 1,551
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 8
ERITREA 252
ETHIOPIA 5,562
GABON 20
GAMBIA, THE 32
GHANA 6,333
GUINEA 157
GUINEA-BISSAU 1
KENYA 3,194
LESOTHO 2
LIBERIA 1,067
LIBYA 61
MADAGASCAR 25
MALAWI 31 - Bubonic Plague source
MALI 46
MAURITANIA 14
MAURITIUS 25
MOROCCO 3,083
MOZAMBIQUE 5
NAMIBIA 6
NIGER 34
NIGERIA 5,989
RWANDA 21
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0
SENEGAL 199
SEYCHELLES 0
SIERRA LEONE 3,096
SOMALIA 748
SOUTH AFRICA 617
SUDAN 1,297
SWAZILAND 5
TANZANIA 349
TOGO 1,994
TUNISIA 114
UGANDA 195
ZAMBIA 109
ZIMBABWE 133

ASIA

AFGHANISTAN 45
BAHRAIN 7
BANGLADESH 4,935
BHUTAN 4
BRUNEI 1
BURMA 461
CAMBODIA 260
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMIN. REGION 190
INDONESIA 608
IRAN 768
IRAQ 71
ISRAEL 145
JAPAN 890
JORDAN 75
KUWAIT 30
LAOS 6
LEBANON 62
MALAYSIA 167
MALDIVES 0
MONGOLIA 56
NEPAL 2,320
NORTH KOREA 4
OMAN 6
QATAR 1
SAUDI ARABIA 38
SINGAPORE 80
SRI LANKA 889
SYRIA 62
TAIWAN 1,618
THAILAND 297
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 29
YEMEN 44

EUROPE

ALBANIA 1,898
ANDORRA 0
ARMENIA 630
AUSTRIA 64
AZERBAIJAN 281
BELARUS 836
BELGIUM 42
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 93
BULGARIA 2,843
CROATIA 70
CYPRUS 18
CZECH REPUBLIC 230
DENMARK 35
ESTONIA 61
FINLAND 26
FRANCE 308
Guadeloupe 4
Martinique 2
GEORGIA 332
GERMANY 850
GREECE 41
HUNGARY 170
ICELAND 7
IRELAND 288
ITALY 168
KAZAKHSTAN 454
KYRGYZSTAN 199
LATVIA 172
LIECHTENSTEIN 0
LITHUANIA 2,245
LUXEMBOURG 3
MACEDONIA, FORMER YUGOSLAV REP. OF 145
MALTA 3
MOLDOVA 418
MONACO 0
NETHERLANDS 90
Netherlands Antilles 5
Aruba 1
NORTHERN IRELAND 43
NORWAY 16
POLAND 3,855
PORTUGAL 13
Macau 21
ROMANIA 1,636
RUSSIA 2,695
SAN MARINO 0
SLOVAKIA 318
SLOVENIA 3
SPAIN 77
SWEDEN 88
SWITZERLAND 163
TAJIKISTAN 86
TURKEY 1,629
TURKMENISTAN 79
UKRAINE 4,035
UZBEKISTAN 1,192
VATICAN CITY 0
YUGOSLAVIA 245

NORTH AMERICA

BAHAMAS, THE 13

OCEANIA

AUSTRALIA 414
FIJI 524
KIRIBATI 0
MARSHALL ISLANDS 0
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF 0
NAURU 0
NEW ZEALAND 210
Cook Islands 3
PALAU 5
PAPUA NEW GUINEA 7
SAMOA 2
SOLOMON ISLANDS 0
TONGA 38
TUVALU 0
VANUATU 0

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 1
ARGENTINA 343
BARBADOS 3
BELIZE 5
BOLIVIA 65
BRAZIL 452
CHILE 27
COSTA RICA 25
CUBA 529
DOMINICA 9
ECUADOR 411
GRENADA 0
GUATEMALA 14
GUYANA 27
HONDURAS 16
NICARAGUA 24
PANAMA 18
PARAGUAY 3
PERU 1,063
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 0
SAINT LUCIA 3
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES 0
SURINAME 8
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 69
URUGUAY 32
VENEZUELA 260

[LurkedLongEnough]

Applicants registered for the DV-2003 program were selected at random

Yep, random all right...

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Call me silly, but I'm uncomfortable seeing countries such as Iraq, Iran, {Insert_Axis_of_Evil_Country_H ere}...

[lone star annie]

Why aren't Canandians and United Kingdom countries included?

[be131]

The Diversity Visa program is intended to increase the "diversity" of the Green-Card-holding population in the U.S. Since there are already many U.K. and Canadian citizens living in the U.S. with Green Cards, they aren't included in the program. You'll notice that countries like China, India and Mexico aren't included either, for the same reason.

[rageaholic]

i got one question for the INS: WHY?

[1234567]

Why? The thinking must be that if we look like the world, then we can slide into that new Order so much more easily.

[Rollee]

I don't know whether to scream, cry, barf, or all three at once. Why does the INS say they cannot clean up the immigrant mess that already exists in this country, and then turn around and admit MORE visas? I must be a moron. The INS is populated by incompetent fools from the clinton era, isn't it?

[brat]

Positively Orwellian. Be afraid America.

[be131]

It's not the INS's fault: it's the law. If you want to change it, petition your Congressional representatives.