Registration for the green card lottery ends: how to apply

There are less than 10 days left before applications for participation in the DV-2025 green card lottery close. Applications will be accepted until noon on November 7th. If you have not yet registered, then hurry up to jump into the last carriage of the departing train, and we will remind you how to do everything correctly.

Photo: IStock

Registration takes place only on the official lottery website - www.dvprogram.state.gov. The whole process absolutely free.

The application is quite simple and can be completed with minimal knowledge of English. Let's walk through this process step by step.

How to fill out a green card application

The questionnaire consists of several parts. The first part concerns personal data. You will have to answer 15 questions. If you indicated a spouse or children, the second part of the application will open, which also needs to be filled out. You are given one hour to do everything (if you don’t complete it, you’ll have to start over).

1. Name

Last / Family Name - surname. First Name - name.

Middle Name - this is NOT a middle name. In the USA and some other countries, many people have a middle (middle) name, but this is not common here. Therefore, this field must be skipped. The exception is if the middle name is indicated in your passport in Latin. That is, with Middle Name we do this:

• If your passport has a patronymic in the Latin alphabet, then write it.
• If your passport does not have a middle name in Latin, but there is in Cyrillic, then DO NOT write it.
• If there is no patronymic in your passport at all, then DO NOT write it.
• If there is no passport at all, then DO NOT write it.

If you do not specify the middle name, check the No Middle Name box.

2 and 3. Gender and date of birth

Male - male. female - female.

Day - choose the number of your birth from the drop-down list. Month - month. Year - year of birth (note that in the questionnaire the month is indicated first, and then the day).

January - January.
February - February.
March - March.
April - April.
May - May.
June - June.
July - July.
August - August.
September - September.
October - October.
November - November.
December - December.

4. The city where you were born

Write the current name of the settlement, which is listed in the birth certificate. That is, if Leningrad is written on the birth certificate, then Saint Petersburg should be written in the application form. It is recommended to write in the dash old and new name. For example, Leningrad - Saint Petersburg.

You need to indicate ONLY the name of the city or town (village). Region, district, etc. DO NOT need to be specified.

If your place of birth is unknown and is not indicated in the birth certificate, then tick the box next to Birth City Unknown.

5. Your country of birth

From the list, you must select your country of birth. If you were born in the USSR, the current name of the country is indicated. For example Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

6. Country eligible to participate in the DV program

If you were born in one of the eligible countries (here is their list), then do not change anything at this point and move on to the next question

If your country of birth is not allowed to participate in the lottery, then there are two options:

1. If your spouse was born in a country whose residents are eligible to participate in the lottery, you can count yourself as your spouse's country of birth.

2. You can identify yourself as the country of birth of either parent.

In this case, put a checkmark near No, and select the appropriate country from the list.

7. Member photo

To qualify for the DV visa lottery, your photograph must meet simple but strict rules:

• The person being photographed must look directly into the camera;
• The person's head should not be tilted up, tilted down or to the side;
• Head height should be between 50% and 69% of the total frame height;
• A neutral background in a light color (for example, white). Dark or patterned backgrounds are not acceptable;
• The photo must be in focus;
• The person being photographed should not be wearing glasses or wearing other accessories that cover his face;
• Photographs of persons with their heads covered or wearing head coverings are only acceptable where this is due to their religious beliefs, provided that no part of the face is obscured;
• There should be no shadows.

Technical specifications:

• The image must be in JPEG format;
• The maximum image size is 240 kilobytes (240 KB);
• Image resolution: 600 pixels long, 600 pixels wide (600x600px);
• Color depth: 24 bit.

You can check if your photo meets the requirements using this instrument.

8. Mailing address

This could be your address, your friends, relatives or just acquaintances. You can also specify the address of your post office box. The address can be specified for any country.

You need to fill in the address in Latin letters, and remember that the address must be understandable to the local postman delivering your letter (not every postman knows English).

In care of – the name of the person for whom the postal address is registered is written here. If this is your own address, the field can be left blank - your name will in any case be taken from paragraph 1 of the electronic application form.

Address Line 1 - strings to indicate the street, house number, building number, apartment number, mailbox number, etc. The postal code, city, country do not need to be specified. For this there are corresponding fields. The second line (Address Line 2) is used if the length of the first line is not enough, as there is a limit on the maximum number of characters per line.

City / Town - the name of the settlement.

District / County / Province / State – name of the republic/territory/region/district or district.

Postal Code / Zip Code - postcode. If the index is not in principle, then tick the box next to the No Postal Code / Zip Code.

Country - select a country from the list.

9. The country where you live today

From the list, you must select the state where you live at the time you fill out the application form. Do not confuse with citizenship and place of birth.

On the subject: Why and how to come up with a lottery with green cards

10. Phone number

Enter your phone number in international format. This field is optional, but recommended.

11. E-mail address

Write your e-mail in the first line, duplicate it in the second. Be careful.

12. Level of education

The level of education in the application is indicated in fact at the time of filling in the application. It doesn’t matter that, for example, you plan to receive a certificate or diploma in a month.

Due to the fact that the education systems in the USA, the USSR and the post-Soviet space vary greatly, there is no unambiguous table of the correspondence of our diplomas and certificates to the levels of education that can be found in this paragraph of the questionnaire. But you can roughly focus on the following comparison:

Primary school only - only primary school;
High School, no degree - high school, without a certificate;
High School degree - high school c certificate;
Vocational School - vocational school;
Some University Courses - incomplete higher education (it is possible and technical school);
University Degree - higher education;
Some Graduate Level Courses - some courses at the master's level;
Master's Degree - Master's Degree;
Some Doctorate Level Courses - incomplete postgraduate / doctoral studies;
Doctorate Degree - doctorate.

13. Family status

Marital status is indicated at the time of filling in the application for a legally fixed state of affairs.

Unmarried - never been married / never married.

Married - married / married. Even if you have not lived with your wife / husband for a long time, but your marriage is still officially registered - you must indicate the status of “Married” and provide all the details of your spouse in the application form. If you are in the process of a divorce, but your divorce has not yet been recorded in the registry office - you must still indicate this status.

divorced - divorced / divorced.

widowed - widow / widower.

Legally separated - in Russia / Ukraine / Belarus and in most other CIS countries there is no legally enshrined status of Legally Separated. His indication in the application will lead to disqualification of the application for an interview (there is a precedent).

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14. Amount of children

You must list all of your unmarried children under the age of 21, regardless of where they live or whether they intend to immigrate to the United States. The only exceptions are children who are US citizens or permanent residents. Just write down the number of children. If you have no children, leave this field blank.

If your spouse has children (under 21 years old) from a previous marriage, you must also indicate them in your application. But your spouse's adopted children do not need to be listed. They are indicated only by the applicant himself in his application form.

Now check that you have filled out everything correctly and click on the button. Continue (Continue).

If you indicated a spouse or children, the second part (Part 2) of the application will open. In the second part you enter data for them. Each person will need their own photo. The filling principle is the same as for the main applicant.

When everything is ready, click on Continue. After that, a page will open where you can check all the data you entered for the last time and correct them in case of an error.

After that, you should click Submit and get a registration number. You need to save it so that you can check the results.

Official notification of the winnings will be available on the website. www.dvprogram.state.gov under Entrant Status Check from 4 of May to 2024 to 30 of September to 2025 of the year.

Good luck!

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