U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC
June 24, 2003
The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky, has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2004 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 111,000 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, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2004 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003 until September 30, 2004).
Applicants registered for the DV-2004 program were selected at random from the approximately 7.3 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period that ran from Noon on October 7, 2002 through Noon on November 6, 2002. An additional 2.9 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 a high school education or its equivalent or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. 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 Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2004 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2004, will derive no further benefit from their DV-2004 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2004 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2004. Only participants in the DV-2004 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-2005 lottery if they wish. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2005 lottery program will be widely publicized during August 2003.
* 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.
Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2004: 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 following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2004 program:
AFRICA
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN 46
IRAQ 174
MONGOLIA 65
BAHRAIN 15
ISRAEL 465
NEPAL 4,259
BANGLADESH 5,126
JAPAN 1,291
OMAN 3
BHUTAN 9
JORDAN 125
QATAR 8
BRUNEI 7
NORTH KOREA 4
SAUDI ARABIA 54
BURMA 906
KUWAIT 45
SINGAPORE 137
CAMBODIA 237
LAOS 10
SRI LANKA 1,418
HONG KONG SPECIAL Administrative Region 293
LEBANON 105
SYRIA 64
MALAYSIA 222
TAIWAN 1,833
INDONESIA 844
MALDIVES 0
THAILAND 297
IRAN 1,431
YEMEN 106
EUROPE
ALBANIA 3,071
GERMANY 1,227
NORTHERN IRELAND 51
ANDORRA 1
GREECE 66
NORWAY 19
ARMENIA 836
HUNGARY 139
POLAND 5,467
AUSTRIA 64
ICELAND 17
PORTUGAL 46
AZERBAIJAN 338
IRELAND 305
Macau 0
BELARUS 966
ITALY 165
ROMANIA 1,845
BELGIUM 46
KAZAKHSTAN 451
RUSSIA 2,600
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 128
KYRGYZSTAN 206
SAN MARINO 0
BULGARIA 3,482
LATVIA 172
SERBIA & MONTENEGRO 448
CROATIA 73
LIECHTENSTEIN 1
SLOVAKIA 392
CYPRUS 11
LITHUANIA 2,059
SLOVENIA 8
CZECH REPUBLIC 172
LUXEMBOURG 4
SPAIN 62
DENMARK 39
MACEDONIA, FORMER YUGOSLAV REP. OF 166
SWEDEN 82
ESTONIA 71
SWITZERLAND 183
FINLAND 44
MALTA 10
TAJIKISTAN 105
FRANCE 313
MOLDOVA 574
TURKEY 2,343
French Guiana 1
MONACO 1
TURKMENISTAN 95
French Polynesia 3
NETHERLANDS 94
UKRAINE 4,494
Guadeloupe 5
Netherlands Antilles 6
UZBEKISTAN 1,819
Reunion 2
Aruba 1
VATICAN CITY 0
GEORGIA 479
NORTH AMERICA
BAHAMAS, THE 12
OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA 362
NAURU 0
SOLOMON ISLANDS 2
FIJI 738
NEW ZEALAND 155
TONGA 43
KIRIBATI 0
Cook Islands 0
TUVALU 0
MARSHALL ISLANDS 0
PALAU 0
VANUATU 1
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF 0
PAPUA NEW GUINEA 3
SAMOA 8
SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 6
DOMINICA 12
PERU 1,298
ARGENTINA 194
ECUADOR 746
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 2
BARBADOS 3
GRENADA 6
SAINT LUCIA 5
BELIZE 4
GUATEMALA 26
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES 5
BOLIVIA 62
GUYANA 22
BRAZIL 287
HONDURAS 25
SURINAME 1
CHILE 23
NICARAGUA 27
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 71
COSTA RICA 12
PANAMA 13
URUGUAY 41
CUBA 674
PARAGUAY 31
VENEZUELA 194