The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2012 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 100,021 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-2012 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2012 (October 1, 2011 until September 30, 2012).
Applicants registered for the DV-2012 program were selected at random from 14,768,658 qualified entries (19,672,268 with derivatives) received during the 30-day application period that ran from noon on October 5, 2010, until noon, November 3, 2010. 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 U.S. 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 2012 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2012 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2012 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2012 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2012.
Only participants in the DV-2012 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-2013 lottery if they wish. The dates for the registration period for the DV-2013 lottery program are expected to be widely publicized at some point during the coming months.
* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) 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 NACARA program. The reduction of the limit of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000.
The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2012 program:
| AFRICA | ||
| ALGERIA 1,799 ANGOLA 42 BENIN 511 BOTSWANA 7 BURKINA FASO 226 BURUNDI 56 CAMEROON 3,374 CAPE VERDE 9 CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 3 CHAD 33 COMOROS 9 CONGO 105 CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE 3,445 COTE D’IVOIRE 553 DJIBOUTI 38 EGYPT 4,664 EQUATORIAL GUINEA 4 ERITREA 670 |
ETHIOPIA 4,902 GABON 48 GAMBIA, THE 113 GHANA 5,832 GUINEA 899 GUINEA-BISSAU 3 KENYA 4,720 LESOTHO 8 LIBERIA 2,101 LIBYA 136 MADAGASCAR 17 MALAWI 16 MALI 76 MAURITANIA 29 MAURITIUS 59 MOROCCO 1,890 MOZAMBIQUE 13 NAMIBIA 10 NIGER 32 |
NIGERIA 6,024 RWANDA 333 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0 SENEGAL 270 SEYCHELLES 6 SIERRA LEONE 3,397 SOMALIA 175 SOUTH AFRICA 833 SUDAN 757 SWAZILAND 0 TANZANIA 175 TOGO 845 TUNISIA 113 UGANDA 418 ZAMBIA 79 ZIMBABWE 123 |
| ASIA | ||
| AFGHANISTAN 109 BAHRAIN 29 BANGLADESH 2,373 BHUTAN 5 BRUNEI 0 BURMA 370 CAMBODIA 596 HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMIN. REGION 54 INDONESIA 256 IRAN 4,453 |
IRAQ 153 ISRAEL 175 JAPAN 435 JORDAN 152 NORTH KOREA 0 KUWAIT 108 LAOS 1 LEBANON 274 MALAYSIA 118 MALDIVES 0 MONGOLIA 209 |
NEPAL 3,258 OMAN 11 QATAR 19 SAUDI ARABIA 217 SINGAPORE 45 SRI LANKA 708 SYRIA 160 TAIWAN 391 THAILAND 73 TIMOR-LESTE 9 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 92 YEMEN 149 |
| EUROPE | ||
| ALBANIA 1,508 ANDORRA 1 ARMENIA 998 AUSTRIA 130 AZERBAIJAN 304 BELARUS 493 BELGIUM 105 BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 83 BULGARIA 883 CROATIA 107 CYPRUS 26 CZECH REPUBLIC 104 DENMARK 73 ESTONIA 49 FINLAND 91 FRANCE 574 French Polynesia 7 New Caledonia 1 GEORGIA 620 GERMANY 1,709 GREECE 105 |
HUNGARY 325 ICELAND 56 IRELAND 213 ITALY 529 KAZAKHSTAN 434 KOSOVO 137 KYRGYZSTAN 321 LATVIA 83 LIECHTENSTEIN 0 LITHUANIA 258 LUXEMBOURG 8 MACEDONIA 160 MALTA 20 MOLDOVA 1,238 MONACO 3 MONTENEGRO 18 NETHERLANDS 149 Aruba 4 Curacao 19 St. Maarten 2 NORTHERN IRELAND 59 |
NORWAY 84 PORTUGAL 66 Macau 19 ROMANIA 1,327 RUSSIA 2,353 SAN MARINO 1 SERBIA 298 SLOVAKIA 80 SLOVENIA 16 SPAIN 232 SWEDEN 200 SWITZERLAND 229 TAJIKISTAN 270 TURKEY 3,077 TURKMENISTAN 143 UKRAINE 5,799 UZBEKISTAN 4,800 VATICAN CITY 0 |
| NORTH AMERICA | ||
| BAHAMAS, THE 15 | ||
| OCEANIA | ||
| AUSTRALIA 900 Christmas Islands 3 Cocos Islands 1 FIJI 628 KIRIBATI 14 MARSHALL ISLANDS 4 MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF 2 |
NAURU 5 NEW ZEALAND 309 Cook Islands 6 Niue 14 PALAU 5 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 0 SAMOA 0 SOLOMON ISLANDS 0 |
TONGA 93 TUVALU 0 VANUATU 8 WESTERN SAMOA 9 |
| SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN | ||
| ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 9 ARGENTINA 101 BARBADOS 25 BELIZE 9 BOLIVIA 84 CHILE 43 COSTA RICA 43 CUBA 292 |
DOMINICA 18 GRENADA 24 GUYANA 26 HONDURAS 80 NICARAGUA 49 PANAMA 21 PARAGUAY 17 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 7 |
SAINT LUCIA 4 SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES 16 SURINAME 15 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 175 URUGUAY 19 VENEZUELA 925 |
Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2012: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R. and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.