The Diversity Immigrant Visa or the Green Card Lottery is an immigration programme aimed at citizens of countries with low US immigration rate. Countries not covered by the programme are those that have sent more than 500 immigrants to the US over the past five years. Countries exempted from DV-2010 include China, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan, Colombia, South Korea and Ecuador.
If your country is not on the list of eligible recipients of the Green Card Lottery programme, you can still qualify if either one of your parents was born in any of the approved countries.
To date 80% of green card lottery visas have been issued to European and African nationals, but no single country can have more than 7% of the total issued.
To qualify for the US immigration programme, you must be a graduate of the foreign equivalent of the 12-year US primary and secondary education programmes. Completing the elementary and secondary education in one’s native land does not necessarily mean meeting the educational requirements of the immigration programme, since each country has different educational standards.
Among the citizens of countries eligible to obtain a lottery visa, educational attainment is not the only requirement. Work experience can override the educational requirements for anyone who has been employed in certain professions for two or more years. To date, workers covered by the immigration programme include accountants, computer scientists, medical personnel, physicians, teachers, engineers, cartoonists, multimedia specialists, machinists, chemists, microbiologists, biologists, musicians and veterinarians.