Diversity Visa Lottery

The annual Diversity Visa program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements.  The visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years.  Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year (3,500).

PROCESS

Applicants can access the electronic entry form at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/.  There is no entry fee to participate.  The registration period for the DV-2009 Lottery closed at noon EST on December 3, 2007.  We will post information on the DV-2010 program when it becomes available.

The process is under the authority of the Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) in the United States from whom the winners will receive detailed information and instructions.  Applicants for DVs are chosen by a computer-generated random lottery drawing and are notified directly by KCC.  (NOTE:  There is no need to contact the U.S. Consulate General in Casablanca or Embassy in Rabat, because neither office can verify the selection of winners, track entries, or process changes of address.)

Having been chosen as a winner does not guarantee the issuance of a visa.  Each applicant selected must meet the qualifications for issuance.  Because many DV applicants do not qualify (see below), the number of winners selected is greater than the number of visas available.

QUALIFICATIONS

There are strict rules regarding the qualifications for the visa.  If the applicant cannot meet these requirements, he or she should NOT submit an entry to the DV program.

To qualify for a visa under this program, an applicant from Morocco must have a Baccalauréate certificate or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation designated "Job Zone 4" or higher at the  U.S. Department of Labor's O*Net OnLine database, which is used to determine qualifying work experience. Generally these are professions which entail a high degree of managerial responsibility.  Please verify that your occupation is qualified and meets the requirements of the Diversity Visa Program. 

In recent years there have been a significant number of Moroccan lottery winners lacking these qualifications who have applied for the DV.  Unfortunately, they have apparently overlooked the information provided by KCC at each step in the process about the educational and professional criteria that must be met to qualify for a DV.

The determination as to whether an applicant qualifies for the DV occurs during the interview with the Consular Officer who refers to the Department of Labor's website to determine if an applicant qualifies based on work experience.  Prior to the interview, however, a non-refundable $755 processing fee must be paid for each applicant.   Thus, unqualified applicants spend a substantial amount of money only to be refused a visa.  We therefore urge Moroccans considering the Diversity Visa to review the qualification criteria information provided by KCC.  Again, if the applicant cannot meet these requirements, he or she should NOT apply for a Diversity Visa at the U.S. Consulate General in Casablanca.

For further information, please visit http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1322.html.