The Diversity Lottery or Green Card Lottery attracts many thousands of participants every year. You would think that you would already have information about the DV-2022? That’s right, because if you want to have a chance to win a Green Card to live and work in the United States from 2022, you must register for this from October 2020. This is certainly no easy task, you have to go through many steps. What is the fastest way to a winning ticket in the 2022 Diversity Lottery?
Green Card and Diversity Lottery 2022
- Diversity Lottery 2022 (DV-2022)
- Who can participate?
- What do you need for your registration for the DV-2022?
- Strict requirements for the passport photo
- I have been selected, what now?
Diversity Lottery 2022 (DV-2022)
Anyone who has landed on this page probably has the desire to emigrate to America in the not too distant future to build a life there and find a job. In addition to building a career in America through an employer who is willing to act as a sponsor and marrying someone who has American citizenship, participating in the Diversity Lottery is one of the ways to obtain a Green Card. A Green Card is required to work legally in the United States. This can enable you to start building your American Dream, alone or together with your family. If you want to start this in 2022, you can register for participation online from the beginning of October 2020. Registration is open again this year for Dutch people as well as residents of the Dutch overseas territories.
Online registration for participation in the DV-2022 will start on October 1, 2020. The US State Department has provided very detailed instructions that you can use to ensure that you complete an error-free registration. If you accidentally provide incorrect information, you will be immediately disqualified and you will have to wait for the next lottery, which means you would not be able to go to America until 2023 at the earliest.
Who can participate?
Every year a list is drawn up of countries from which people cannot participate in the Diversity Lottery. As the name suggests, we strive for diversity. If more than 50,000 people have emigrated to the United States from a certain country in the previous year, then residents of that country are not allowed to participate in the Green Card Lottery the following year. Now, of course, this restriction never applies to the Netherlands because it emigration rate here is much lower. However, if you live in the Netherlands but do not have Dutch nationality and therefore have to arrange your registration through another consulate, you should check whether your country of origin is not on the list of excluded countries.
Excluded countries
People from the following countries cannot participate in the Green Card Lottery 2022:
- Bangladesh
- Brazil
- Canada
- China (mainland)
- Colombia
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Philippines
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- India
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Vietnam
- United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland)
- South Korea
What do you need for your registration for the DV-2022?
The registration period for the Green Card Lottery is usually about two months. Candidates are advised not to wait until the last minute as they may not have all the necessary documents together in time. So start on time! You can only participate if you meet the requirements in terms of work experience or education. This means that you must at least have a high school diploma and you must be able to prove this. If you do not have this diploma, but you have had two years of permanent work in the past five years, this may also be sufficient. In that case, check whether your profession is on the list of qualifying jobs . If you cannot meet these requirements, there is no point in registering. You will then incur costs for nothing and be excluded from participation in advance.
The entire registration for the DV-2022 is done electronically. You need the so-called DV-E entry forms , also known as DS-5501, Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form . Although registering for the lottery will certainly cost you money, such as having passport photos taken in a special format, applying for a Certificate of Good Conduct and shipping costs, the organization will never ask you for registration costs. So if you register via a website that asks you to make a payment by credit card, you are not on the official website and you are being fooled. Don’t fall for this! It is also not recommended to hire a ‘visa consultant’, they cannot do anything that you cannot do just as well or better! If you do this, always make sure you are there to check all forms for accuracy. The information you provide must contain absolutely no errors in the following categories:
- Full name
- Address
- Sex
- Birthplace
- Country of birth
- Address
- phone number
- E-mail address
- Highest education completed
- Marital status
- Children’s data
- Data partner
Errors in this can permanently invalidate your registration, even if done accidentally.
Only register for the lottery if you are sure that you actually want to go to the United States in the year of the lottery, in this case 2022. It is not possible to transfer a visa you have won to the next year. If you don’t take advantage of it, your chance has been lost and you will simply have to participate in the draw again the following year.
Strict requirements for the passport photo
When you register, you must mention all your family members (partner and unmarried children under 21). You must also submit a passport photo for everyone, unless one of them already lives in the US. Look carefully at the requirements because the passport photo must be in a different format than is usual in the Netherlands. In a studio you can simply ask for this. In the instructions you can also see what the position of the head is, the visibility of the ears, the smile, etc.
I have been selected, what now?
From May 5, 2021, you can see online whether your registration has been selected via the Entrant Status Check. The next step is an interview at the American Consulate in Amsterdam. This selection process will continue until June 2021. So you can regularly check for news between these dates. If you are not selected, you will not receive a separate confirmation, so you have to find out yourself.
If you are selected, this does not automatically mean that you will receive a Green Card. For this reason, more people are selected than there are visas available and it is possible that you meet all the requirements, are invited to the consulate, but ultimately do not receive a Green Card. It is therefore important that you respond on time because if all visas have been issued, your chance will be lost. So speed is the key in this process. You will be personally informed about what you need to take with you to the consulate, such as bank statements and passports, as well as the associated medical examination. There may be small differences from year to year.