The US Green Card lottery for select countries now open

Here’s some interesting news on US immigration. On October 7, 2020, the US Green Card lottery opened to applicants from all countries of the world except:

• Guatemala
• Nigeria
• Canada
• Bangladesh
• Mexico
• Honduras
• China (including Hong Kong SAR)
• Dominican Republic
• Haiti
• India
• Jamaica
• Colombia
• The UK and its dependent territories (Northern Ireland excluded)
• El Salvador
• Pakistan
• South Korea
• Vietnam
• Brazil
• Philippines

The applications will be accepted until 12 noon Eastern Time on November 10, 2020. Now immigration to USA has a new opportunity that you can use.

Among the countries not allowed in the Green Card lottery, there's Nigeria, the only African country to be excluded. This followed the number of Nigerian migrants in the US exceed the maximum limit of 50,000.

People who are born in countries not eligible for the lottery can apply using a spouse’s country of birth. Also, if an applicant’s parents are born in nations eligible for the lottery, that applicant can use the country of birth of his/her parents to qualify.

The following are the criteria to qualify for a Green Card lottery:

• The applicant must be born in a country deemed eligible for the lottery. The applicant can qualify also by virtue of his/her spouse or parent’s country that’s on the eligible country list.
• The applicant must have completed at least a high school education or have 2 years of equivalent work experience within the last 5 years. The work experience must be in a job that needs a minimum of 2 years of qualifying experience or training.

Each applicant can submit an application only once. Also, as per the new qualifying criteria, the primary applicant must have a valid passport when applying for entering the lottery.

The lottery does not charge any fees. The applicants will receive a confirmation number after submitting applications mandatorily online. With the confirmation number, the applicant can check the status of his/her application through the Department of State website from May 8, 2021.

It’s important to update yourself via the Department of State website as no email or other official communication will be made.

If you are looking to Study, Work, Visit, Invest or Migrate to USA, talk to Y-Axis, the World’s No.1 Immigration & Visa Company.

If you found this blog engaging, you may also like…

US now proposes not to grant business visa for H-1B jobs