U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release
May 24, 1999
STATEMENT BY JAMES P. RUBIN, SPOKESMAN
RESULTS OF THE
DIVERSITY
IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM (DV-2000)
The National Visa Center at Portsmouth, New Hampshire has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2000 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 110,000 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-2000 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2000 (October 1, 1999 until September 30, 2000).
Applicants registered for the DV-2000 program were selected at random from the more than 8 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period which ran from noon on October 1, 1998 through noon on October 31, 1998. Over 2.5 million applications received inside and outside of the mail-in period were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions.
The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of 3,500 visas 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 the Immigration and Naturalization Service for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2000 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2000 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2000 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2000 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative DV status until September 30, 2000.
Only participants in the DV-2000 program who were selected for further processing have been notified. Those who have not received notification were not selected and may wish to try for next year's DV-2001 lottery. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2001 lottery are scheduled from noon on October 4, 1999 until noon on November 3, 1999. Instructions on entering the DV-2001 program will be widely publicized beginning on August 2, 1999.
*The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulated that beginning with DV-99, and for as long as necessary, 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas were made available for use under the NCARA program.
The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2000 program:
AFRICA
ALGERIA 1,499 ERITREA 220 NAMIBIA 10 ANGOLA 12 ETHIOPIA 2,284 NIGER 22 BENIN 89 GABON 24 NIGERIA 8,550 BOTSWANA 8 GAMBIA, THE 122 RWANDA 35 BURKINA FASO 31 GHANA 8,662 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0 BURUNDI 13 GUINEA 332 SENEGAL 207 CAMEROON 860 GUINEA-BISSAU 1 SEYCHELLES 3 CAPE VERDE 3 KENYA 1,514 SIERRA LEONE 2,617 CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 18 LESOTHO 3 SOMALIA 1,678 CHAD 29 LIBERIA 1,762 SOUTH AFRICA 663 COMOROS 2 LIBYA 79 SUDAN 2,294 CONGO 51 MADAGASCAR 20 SWAZILAND 2 CONGO, DEMOCRATIC MALAWI 47 TANZANIA 267 REPUBLIC OF THE 386 MALI 86 TOGO 664 COTE D'IVOIRE 333 MAURITANIA 47 TUNISIA 175 DJIBOUTI 12 MAURITIUS 28 UGANDA 169 EGYPT 3,301 MOROCCO 3,007 ZAMBIA 72 EQUATORIAL GUINEA 5 MOZAMBIQUE 7 ZIMBABWE 97
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN 59 IRAQ 49 NEPAL 128 BAHRAIN 7 ISRAEL 67 OMAN 4 BANGLADESH 9,175 JAPAN 367 PAKISTAN 3,187 BHUTAN 0 JORDAN 86 QATAR 6 BRUNEI 0 NORTH KOREA 3 SAUDI ARABIA 83 BURMA 553 KUWAIT 29 SINGAPORE 33 CAMBODIA 103 LAOS 7 SRI LANKA 220 HONG KONG SPECIAL LEBANON 47 SYRIA 66 ADMIN. REGION 136 MALAYSIA 102 THAILAND 117 INDONESIA 758 MALDIVES 0 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 42 IRAN 489 MONGOLIA 4 YEMEN 63
EUROPE
ALBANIA 6,401 GREECE 107 NORTHERN IRELAND 73 ANDORRA 0 HUNGARY 219 NORWAY 39 ARMENIA 1,214 ICELAND 35 PORTUGAL 67 AUSTRIA 170 IRELAND 564 Macau 16 AZERBAIJAN 423 ITALY 294 ROMANIA 3,494 BELARUS 896 KAZAKHSTAN 689 RUSSIA 6,481 BELGIUM 83 KYRGYZSTAN 181 SAN MARINO 0 BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 83 LATVIA 288 SERBIA-MONTENEGRO 597 BULGARIA 4,381 LIECHTENSTEIN 1 SLOVAKIA 375 CROATIA 123 LITHUANIA 1,316 SLOVENIA 26 CYPRUS 37 LUXEMBOURG 4 SPAIN 123 CZECH REPUBLIC 215 MACEDONIA, FORMER SWEDEN 272 DENMARK 88 YUGOSLAV REP. OF 397 SWITZERLAND 420 ESTONIA 152 MALTA 27 TAJIKISTAN 190 FINLAND 72 MOLDOVA 418 TURKEY 1,368 FRANCE 602 MONACO 1 TURKMENISTAN 66 Martinique 3 NETHERLANDS 112 UKRAINE 8,035 Guadeloupe 0 Aruba 2 UZBEKISTAN 964 GEORGIA 423 Netherlands Antilles 7 VATICAN CITY 0 GERMANY 3,417
NORTH AMERICA
BAHAMAS, THE 36
OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA 656 NAURU 0 SOLOMON ISLANDS 0 FIJI 1,069 NEW ZEALAND 357 TONGA 178 KIRIBATI 0 PALAU 2 TUVALU 0 MARSHALL ISLANDS 7 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 9 VANUATU 0 MICRONESIA, FEDERATED SAMOA 24 STATES OF 0
SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 11 DOMINICA 58 PERU 1,040 ARGENTINA 404 ECUADOR 496 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 7 BARBADOS 23 GRENADA 36 SAINT LUCIA 22 BELIZE 18 GUATEMALA 302 SAINT VINCENT AND BOLIVIA 78 GUYANA 166 THE GRENADINES 26 BRAZIL 940 HONDURAS 143 SURINAME 23 CHILE 75 NICARAGUA 38 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 607 COSTA RICA 150 PANAMA 100 URUGUAY 39 CUBA 1,286 PARAGUAY 7 VENEZUELA 526
Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2000: Canada, China (mainland and Taiwan, except Hong Kong S.A.R.), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.