Green Card

[LFCGeorge]

Does anyone on this forum actively participate in the lottery or have been successful?

I participated in the 2010 lottery although was unsuccessful and not sure what happened to the 2011 or 2012 one but never applied.

Not sure when the next lottery 2014 starts but the website I use doesn't state anything about it
https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/

If anyone has any more websites which are safe and lets me apply then feel free to let me know :)

Thanks!

[Laurel Oak]

Cannot participate in the lottery if you are English. I guess you have been able to apply with being Northern Irish.

Not sure if the US has not stopped the Green Card lottery.

[LFCGeorge]

Yes I can apply being from Northern Ireland, I hope it hasn't stopped though :o

[roger]

From memory the lottery is open from around October, and is still available. Each year I hear rumours that they plan to stop it at some point.

We are from England but won it based on the fact my wife, Carolyn, was born in Germany (her father was in the forces). She only lived there for a few months. Our friends also won it recently as her parents were born in Cyprus although they lived in the UK all their lives.

Bear in mind you can enter twice. For example, Carolyn entered as she was born in Germany. I entered because I am married to someone born in Germany, so it doubles your chances.

[LFCGeorge]

Thanks Roger, hopefully it does open in October so I can try for it again

Did you apply just the once and win?

Also for the photo did you use professional services to edit the photo so it meets all the requirements or just do it yourself?

Well done on winning it :)

[MICKEYSDEN]

Thank you Roger I didn't know we could enter twice, we have been trying for the last 4 years as Mick was born in Ireland, I will make sure I try as well this year for being married to him for the last 26 years.

[Jill]

We know someone who applied last time round (not English) and is due to leave their job at the end of next month and is heading over to North Carolina but as English we are unable to enter although a large number of Stuart's family did emigrate to the States in the early 1900s.

[roger]

We applied in around 2003, then not again until 2006 and that's when Carolyn won. We entered the lottery in October 2006 and got notification of winning in April 2007. Once you are notified of winning, you then have to go through a long winded application procedure, which is quite expensive (around $2000 each by the time you factor in the application, biometrics, medical exams etc). We finally got our Green Cards early 2008.

For the photo on the application, I just did it myself with a digital camera. Once we won, there were many other steps to follow but one thing they need is proper photos, so I got some done professionally to be on the safe side.

If you win, allow up to around a year from then to get the Green Card. They notify around 100,000 winners but only go on to issue something like 55,000 green cards. You are given a number on the winning notification. We were number 23 (out of around 100,000). Over a year they allow block of numbers to submit their application, and if you have a higher number you can find that by the end of the year they have not got up to your number so you cannot proceed. I'm sure they do that just to inflict stress on the 'winners'!

[LFCGeorge]

Does indeed seem like a long and winding road but well worth it. Do you know what website you used at the time?

[roger]

Use only the official site, as it's free to enter

https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/

Avoid other sites that look similar, as they will probably charge you to collect your info then re-enter it themselves on your behlaf (if they even bother to do that!). Also, if you use other sites, you probably wont get an application reference so they you cannot trace your status online.


Does indeed seem like a long and winding road but well worth it. Do you know what website you used at the time?

[LFCGeorge]

I used that site before and will use it for the next opening

Thanks Roger

[Lyn]

I don't want to apply but just wondereing, what's wrong with being English!!

[roger]

Nothing wrong with being English (or from the UK), but the Diversity Visa lottery is aimed at getting people in that are under-represented. As so many UK people already go to the US via other means, there are too many of us to qualify. If the number of UK people getting residency in the USA were to drop then we would become eligible for the lottery again.

It's a bit of a quirk in the system that allows people from Northern Ireland to enter (there are reasons that I can't recall, but I think due to their association with Ireland)


I don't want to apply but just wondereing, what's wrong with being English!!

[steph_goodrum]

Any country that has more than 55,000 over a 5 year period emigrate to the States by other means is ineligible, so some countries with a small population will almost always be eligible.

As far as Ireland go I think when the schemes were being set up there were so many people in power in the US who had Irish ancestry they made sure they were included (that'#s my theory anyway.

[Laurel Oak]

I thought the reason why English cannot apply is because there are so many people in the US who consider their roots to be England that its the predominant background. I think there is a ridiculous statistic that something like 25% of the population of the US (or someting like that) can trace their roots back to Captain Smith and the original settlers in Virginia.

On a visit to New York a few years ago we were on Ellis Island. There is a map of the US and you can put in a code for various ethnic backgounds and it gives a figure of how many US citizens consider that to be thier background based on the last Census. The figures for Irish and Italian were not surprisingly very high but were dwarfed by the figure for English.

I think the thing with Nortern Ireland is that the Republic of Ireland had not given up its claim to the North (don't know if they have now) and so Politicians in the US considered people of Northern Irish background to be Irish and therefore eligible to participate in the lottery but I may be wrong on that one.

[carolmc]

No, claim to Northern Ireland has not, and will never, be given up!!

[LFCGeorge]

.I think the thing with Nortern Ireland is that the Republic of Ireland had not given up its claim to the North (don't know if they have now) and so Politicians in the US considered people of Northern Irish background to be Irish and therefore eligible to participate in the lottery but I may be wrong on that one.

If that's the case then happy friggin days!

[SDJ]

It apparently stemmed from The Brain Drain when all our clever people were going to USA. I understand a special Treaty came into place which was done between the President and Prime Minister.