How many visas are available for the Green Card Lottery?
• By law, the U.S. diversity immigration program makes available a maximum of 55000 permanent residence visas each year to eligible persons. However, the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulates that beginning as early as DV-99, and for as long as necessary, 5000 of the 55000 annually-allocated diversity visas will be made available for use under the NCARA program. The actual reduction of the limit to 50000 began with DV-2000 and remains in effect for the DV-2003 program. • May persons who are in the U.S. apply for the program? • Yes, an applicant may be in the U.S. or in another country, and the entry may be mailed from the U.S. or from abroad. • How will winners be selected? • At the Consular Center, all mail received at each of the six geographic regional addresses will be individually numbered. After the end of the application period, a computer will randomly select entries from among all the mail received for each geographic
