Official DV Lottery Green Card Program
Eligibility Check
Entrant Status Check
Apply nowFor the first time ever, applicants born in the United Kingdom and its dependent territories are eligible!
What is the DV Lottery?
The Diversity Visa Program (DV Lottery) is congressionally mandated, and allows up to 55,000 persons from nations that are historically underrepresented in terms of migration to the United States of America to qualify each year for immigrant visas, which are also known as Green Cards.
The program is called the “Green Card Lottery” or "dvlottery" because the winners are determined through a random drawing from among the 10–12 million people who enter each year worldwide.
The United States prides itself on being a nation of immigrants. However, far more people come to the USA from certain countries than from others. For example, immigrants from Mexico, China, and the Philippines alone far outnumber those from most other countries combined. In order to maintain the diversity of the population, US laws regulate immigration from certain regions of the world.
For this reason, the USA has randomly distributed 55,000 so-called Green Cards in the DV Lottery every year since 1994.
You can enter the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery for free at www.state.gov or use our service if you need further help with the application process. www.dvlottery.com is powered by The American Dream - US GreenCard Service GmbH, a government-licensed immigration consultancy. We are not affiliated with the US Government or any government agency.
Am I eligible for DV Lottery 2026?
Almost everyone can apply for the Diversity Visa Lottery! There are only two requirements to qualify for a U.S. Green Card:
- Country of birth according to current world political maps
- education and/or working experiences
Use the DV Lottery Check to find out with just a few clicks if you qualify for the DV Lottery 2026!
How can I apply for the DV Lottery?
Participation in the annual DV Lottery is basically free, and all eligible individuals can register on the US Department of State's website. But what many do not know is this: In each lottery, up to 40 % of all applicants are disqualified due to formal or deadline errors in their applications!
The acceptance or rejection of applications for the Diversity Visa Lottery is an electronic process, but applicants are not informed of the outcome. You won't be notified if your application is selected for the lottery or not.
However, The American Dream Green Card Service agency guarantees your participation in the official DV Lottery!
Each application is individually reviewed by licensed immigration consultants and submitted to the US government in a timely manner.
With their expert knowledge, our team has already accompanied more than 21,000 Green Card winners on their way to the USA!
Advantages of a US Green Card
A US Green Card gives you the legal right to live and work permanently in the United States. In addition, you have almost all the rights of a US citizen!
DV Lottery Status Check
Have you been drawn as a winner in the DV Lottery? From May 4, 2024, you can check your result for the DV-2025 via the Status Check.
Please note: A status query is only possible if you have applied for the DV-2025 by November 7, 2023. If you are already participating in the DV-2026, you can retrieve the results for this from May 2025.
History of the DV Program
The famous immigrant visa was first introduced in the 1940s as the “Alien Registration Receipt Card.” The first of these credit card-sized IDs bore green writing and a greenish photo. Thus, the expression “Green Card” was coined and quickly became common. Meanwhile, the Green Card has changed its color several times. For a while, it had even been pink, since 1999 a light green shade is used again. More than 10 million foreigners are currently living in the USA with a Green Card.
Since 1994 the DV program has already been executed three times in February, once in November, and several times in October. The responsible institution changed in 2000. The formerly appointed National Visa Center in Portsmouth had to hand the processing over to the Kentucky Consular Center, which since then has been in charge of the receipt and evaluation of the applications.
In the first year, it was still possible to enter several applications per person into the DV lottery. This led to a few persons applying hundreds of times and, thus, most probably receiving a Green Card. The effects were a completely overloaded institution and injustices in the distribution, as better-off persons could file more applications. Since then, each person is only entitled to submit one application per year and has to trust Fortuna.
The Diversity Visa (DV) or DV Lottery Program is based on §201 to 204 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) determines the eligible countries and application rules based on a calculation laid down in law. These rules can change from year to year.
DV Lottery Instructions
Do you have questions about submitting your DV-2026 online registration?
The video below uncovers the most important DV Program instructions and shows you step-by-step how to register successfully for the official US Green Card Lottery. This guidance video is, therefore, very helpful to DV-2026 applicants.
The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants" (DV immigrants). The Act makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
From the State Department: "Alien petitioners for the Diversity Visa Program will no longer be permitted to submit a petition by mail. Instead, the Department will require that all petitions be submitted to it in an electronic format, using an Internet website dedicated specifically to the submission and receipt of Diversity Visa."
