U. S Visa lottery 2016 closes Monday, Nov. 3

Processing of applications for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program of the United States of America for the 2016 which began online Wednesday, October 1, 2014 will close Monday, November 3, 2014 at 12:00 noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4).
The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered annually by the Department of State.

Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of “diversity immigrants,” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For fiscal year 2016, 50,000 diversity visas (DVs) will be available. There is no cost to register for the DV program.

Only Nigeria is exempted from the program in Africa because more than 50,000 of natives of the country immigrated to the the United States in the last five years, according to the US Department of State.

However, natives of Nigeria and other countries that are exempted may be eligible to enter;

through two other ways: -

 Was your spouse born in a country whose natives are eligible? If yes, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth — provided that both you and your spouse are named on the selected entry, are issued diversity visas, and enter the United States simultaneously.

 Were you born in a country whose natives are ineligible, but in which neither of your parents was born or legally resident at the time of your birth? If yes, you may claim the country of birth of one of your parents if it is a country whose natives are eligible for the DV-2016 program

The other countries apart from Nigeria that their natives are not eligible to participate are Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland -born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

Applicants who are selected in the lottery (“selectees”) must meet simple, but strict, eligibility requirements in order to qualify for a diversity visa. Selectees are chosen through a randomized computer drawing. Diversity visas are distributed among six geographic regions and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.