Questions about Green Card Lottery Rules

The Green Card Lottery, also known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) program, is a lottery that makes 50,000 immigrant visas available every year for those seeking legal permanent resident status in the U.S. Green Card Lottery is one of five ways of obtaining a green card or legal resident status. The Green Card lottery program aims at diversifying the immigrants in USA with applications selected mostly from low-rated immigration countries.

Below are some of the top questions answered by Experts on the Green Card Lottery.

I have my DV-2012 (Green Card Lottery) visa interview at the embassy next month. I was an international student in the U.S before and had received a visa for five years twice. Would a bad credit score or a since-resolved parking violation affect my visa issuance?

Civil matters like parking fines are not crimes but violations and as such should have no impact on your DV visa or any other visa. You do not even need to tell the consulate about your parking ticket. With respect to your credit record, it should also be a strictly civil matter, assuming you were not charged criminally for fraud and did not incur your debts fraudulently. In both cases, your eligibility for a visa should be fine.

Is the Green Card received from the Green Card Lottery a conditional Green Card valid for two years or it is for 10 years?

The Green Card received from the green card lottery program is non-conditional and is a full 10-year card.

My parents have won the Green Card Lottery; however, I have a 24-year-old sibling living with them who has physical disability. Is it possible to get a Green Card for my sibling at the same time along with my parents and if not, is it possible for my parents to get a Green Card for my sibling faster or accelerate my sibling’s Green Card process by treating it a special case

It is not possible to get a Green Card for your sibling at the same time along with your parents. Your sibling’s Green Card can be applied for only when your parents become Green Card holders. Since your sibling is over 21 years of age and is not considered a child per immigration, your sibling would not be able to get around the immigrant visa quota. You may be able to apply for the Humanitarian Parole, but it is granted very rarely for special cases and confined to temporary stay in the U.S. For further information on Humanitarian Parole, you can visit the following link: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=accc3e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=accc3e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

Could I apply for the U.S. Green Card Lottery? I live in Canada but both of my parents are from Germany.

The nations that qualify for the Green Card Lottery program change every year. However, per the official instructions from the U.S. State Department (http://travel.state.gov/pdf/DV_2013_instructions.pdf) “if you were born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but neither of your parents was born there or resided there at the time of your birth, you may claim nativity in one of your parents’ countries of birth if it is a country whose natives qualify for the program”.

I arrived America with type R1 visa and it expired in 2007. I live in the U.S. illegally right now so I want to try the Green Card Lottery to become legal.

You would not be able to adjust your status in the U.S. even if you won the Green Card Lottery because of your lack of legal status. U.S. immigration law says maintaining legal status by the applicant at the time of filing the application in the U.S. is essential for status adjustment.

I want to know if I am really winner of Green Card Lottery or if they sent me the wrong email.

If the email received says you have to send $800 and if the email ends with .com instead of .gov, they are fake mails. For more information, please visit the official link: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1749.html

Obtaining a Green Card can be done through family, through employment, through asylum, by investment, or by the visa lottery program. The Green Card Lottery is available to those who w Mexican residents are not qualified for the Green Card lottery. With increase in the fake emails, the Department has issued a caution against the scammers and the Department says that it does not notify winners by email. Understanding the Green Card Lottery can be challenging, and a legal expert may be able to help clarify specific concerns.