Visa Issues

U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong Warns of Visa Scams

News Release
December 13, 2004, Monday

The U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong advises the public to be cautious in all dealings with individuals or companies that claim to offer assistance in obtaining U.S. visas. While many of these organizations provide legitimate immigration and visa-related information and services, some seek to mislead customers into paying for services they will not receive or do not need. These "visa scams" often promise to ensure successful visa applications, winning diversity lottery entries, or documents they say will ensure visa issuance, claiming special knowledge or access to U.S. consular processes. Visa scam artists contact prospective targets via websites, e-mail contact and in person.

General Visa Applications
There should be no need to work through a third-party when applying for a U.S. visa. The latest information on applying for a U.S. visa is detailed on the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong's website at http://hongkong.usconsulate.gov.

The U.S. Department of State does not endorse, recommend or sponsor any information or material shown on non-governmental websites (using the suffixes ".com," ".org" or ".net") that provide immigration- and visa-related information and services. These websites may attempt to require payment for services, forms, and information about immigration procedures, which are otherwise free on the U.S. Consulate website.

Applications for Diversity Visa Lottery
Some companies or websites posing as the U.S. Government have sought money to "complete" entry forms for the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery. The U.S. Government charges no fee to enter the annual DV program. Every entry received during the lottery registration period will have an equally random chance of being selected within its region. Receipt of more than one entry per person, however, will disqualify the person from registration, regardless of the source of the entry.

No other organization or company is authorized by the Department of State to notify Diversity Visa lottery applicants of their winning entry. The online registration period for the DV-2006 Program began on November 5, 2004, and will end on January 7, 2005. Applicants selected in the Diversity Visa random drawing are notified by the Department of State, Kentucky Consular Center and provided instructions on how to proceed to the next step in the process.

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