Currently, immigration advocates are talking all about the pending immigration reform efforts in Congress and the comprehensive bill which wasn't passed. Yet there have been many other acts passed in the past that have built up the immigration system and altered the way that the USCIS and ICE operate. One of these acts was the Immigration Act of 1990, which was passed by the house on October 30th, 1990.
This particular bill overhauled the legal immigration system. In order to make it easier for immigrants to become legal aliens in the United States, this bill raised the number of permanent visas given out each year significantly. Prior to the act, there were about 290,000 visas given to immigrants annually. After the act, this number shot up to 675,000 per year.
The act also created the diversity-visa lottery. This is an annual lottery which allows 55,000 immigrants to enter the United States legally with a visa. The visas are only given to immigrants in underserved countries. Normally, these are countries that have low U.S. immigration rates. Now, anyone who wins the lottery is automatically given a permanent resident card. The lottery is conducted under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The lottery didn't start until the year 1995, but has continued since them. The lottery's main goal is to diversify the immigrant population in the United States and add new cultures to the population that can bring new innovation, inspiration and business. The program looks at the lower rates of immigration into the United States within the past five years and then decides which countries should have applicants entered into the lottery based on these statistics.
In 1995, the NACARA program took over about 5,000 of these visas, so that now there are only 50,000 visas that are granted by the lottery. Not all countries are eligible for this lottery. Applicants who are born in a territory that sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States within the previous give years are automatically disqualified from entering into the lottery to receive a diversity visa.
Those from China, Colombia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Peru, South Korea, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, or Canada cannot apply for a visa under the lottery. There are some other countries that may have had more than 50,000 immigrants within the previous five years, but if these immigrants entered the country due to refugee, asylum, or diversity lottery visas, then they don't count. Therefore, countries such as Ethiopia, Guatemala, Iran, and Cuba are still allowed to apply for this visa.
Those who want to apply for a visa and qualify have from October to November to do so. The participants can participate if their own country-of-birth is eligible or if their spouse is from a country-of-birth that is eligible. Sometimes, a parent's country-of-birth can qualify an applicant. It is important to check with the U.S. government websites each year if you would like to apply for this visa, as the countries that are eligible and ineligible often change year by year.
For example, Russia is now eligible for the lottery as well as Poland. South Sudan was recently added as an eligible country, but Nigeria is now ineligible for the visa lottery. The visas are always distributed on a regional basis, and countries that send the fewest number of immigrants to the U.S. get more visas to give out based on the lottery. About 80% of the visas are dispersed throughout Africa and Europe each year. If you want more information about visas or about this diversity lottery, don't hesitate to contact an attorney at our firm for more information!