U.S. Consulate General Press Releases (1998)

News Release
May 8, 1998
Friday

STATE DEPARTMENT ON DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM

Allocation of 50,000 permanent residence visas

Washington -- The State Department announced May 6 the allocation of 50,000 permanent residence visas annually distributed to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States under the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-99).

The visas are apportioned among six geographic regions, with a maximum of 7 percent of the total (3,500 visas) available to persons from any one country. The pool of those eligible to apply under the program was determined by random lottery.

Following is the State Department text:

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Office of the Spokesman

May 6, 1998

STATEMENT BY JAMES B. FOLEY, DEPUTY SPOKESMAN

RESULTS OF THE DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT VISA PROGRAM (DV-99)

The National Visa Center at Portsmouth, New Hampshire has registered and notified the winners of the DV-99 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available 50,000/1 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Almost 90,000 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 50,000/1 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-99 numbers will be used during fiscal year 1999 (October 1, 1998 until September 30, 1999).

Applicants registered for the DV-99 program were selected at random from the approximately 3.4 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period which ran from noon on October 24, 1997 through noon on November 24, 1997. An additional 2.4 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 (7% of the 50,000/1 total) 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 50,000/1 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 1999 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 1999 will derive no further benefit from their DV-99 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-99 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative DV status until September 30, 1999.

Only participants in the DV-99 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-2000 lottery. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2000 lottery are scheduled from noon on October 1, 1998 until noon on October 31, 1998. Instructions on entering the DV-2000 program will be widely publicized some time in August 1998.

The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign state chargeability of those registered for the DV-99 program:

AFRICA
ALGERIA		1,378
ANGOLA		15
BENIN		60
BOTSWANA		1
BURKINA FASO		41
BURUNDI		32
CAMEROON		1,164
CAPE VERDE		17
CENTRAL AFRICAN REP.		5
CHAD		24
COMOROS		1
CONGO		48
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE		301
COTE D'IVOIRE		394
DJIBOUTI		4
EGYPT		3,558
EQUATORIAL GUINEA		5
ERITREA		470
ETHIOPIA		3,092
GABON		12
GAMBIA, THE		205
GHANA		5,531
GUINEA		311
GUINEA-BISSAU		1
KENYA		1,328
LESOTHO		0
LIBERIA		1,218
LIBYA		40
MADAGASCAR		21
MALAWI		81
MALI		174
MAURITANIA		38
MAURITIUS		33
MOROCCO		2,606
MOZAMBIQUE		5
NAMIBIA		5
NIGER		21
NIGERIA		5,443
RWANDA		75
SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE		0
SENEGAL		479
SEYCHELLES		2
SIERRA LEONE		1,008
SOMALIA		728
SOUTH AFRICA		446
SUDAN		2,574
SWAZILAND		8
TANZANIA		357
TOGO		527
TUNISIA		112
UGANDA		215
ZAMBIA		70
ZIMBABWE		87
ASIA
AFGHANISTAN		145
BAHRAIN		1
BANGLADESH		5,031
BHUTAN		0
BRUNEI		0
BURMA		373
CAMBODIA		62
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMIN. REGION		267
INDONESIA		241
IRAN		462
IRAQ		79
ISRAEL		114
JAPAN		448
JORDAN		114
NORTH KOREA		3
KUWAIT		18
LAOS		5
LEBANON		48
MALAYSIA		69
MALDIVES		4
MONGOLIA		8
NEPAL		226
OMAN		1
PAKISTAN		3,470
QATAR		0
SAUDI ARABIA		11
SINGAPORE		19
SRI LANKA		322
SYRIA		60
THAILAND		84
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES		1
YEMEN		133
EUROPE
ALBANIA		4,482
ANDORRA		0
ARMENIA		1,068
AUSTRIA		151
AZERBAIJAN		414
BELARUS		725
BELGIUM		114
BOSNIA AND BULGARIA		4,181
CROATIA		152
CYPRUS		38
CZECH REPUBLIC		208
DENMARK		85
ESTONIA		108
FINLAND		133
FRANCE		602
Martinique		1
Guadeloupe		1
GEORGIA		381
GERMANY		2,972
GREECE		92
HUNGARY		219
ICELAND		28
IRELAND		652
ITALY		540
KAZAKHSTAN		511
KYRGYZSTAN		161
LATVIA		193
LIECHTENSTEIN		11
LITHUANIA		1,139
LUXEMBOURG		7
MACEDONIA, FORMER YUGOSLAV REP. OF		274
MALTA		9
MOLDOVA		334
MONACO		0
NETHERLANDS		188
Aruba		9
Netherlands Antilles		8
N. IRELAND		124
NORWAY		63
PORTUGAL		177
Macau		54
ROMANIA		3,693
RUSSIA		4,415
SAN MARINO		0
SERBIA-MONTENEGRO		510
HERZEGOVINA		88
SLOVAKIA		458
SLOVENIA		18
SPAIN		133
SWEDEN		298
SWITZERLAND		480
TAJIKISTAN		97
TURKEY		1,450
TURKMENISTAN		34
UKRAINE		5,047
UZBEKISTAN		663
VATICAN CITY		0
NORTH AMERICA
BAHAMAS, THE		14
OCEANIA
AUSTRALIA		389
FIJI		724
KIRIBATI		0
MARSHALL ISLANDS		2
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED STATES OF		0
NAURU		0
NEW ZEALAND		213
PALAU		0
PAPUA NEW GUINEA		5
SAMOA		15
SOLOMON ISLANDS		0
TONGA		96
TUVALU		0
VANUATU		0
SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN
ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA		2
ARGENTINA		229
BARBADOS		16
BELIZE		7
BOLIVIA		46
BRAZIL		393
CHILE		69
COSTA RICA		89
CUBA		985
DOMINICA		16
ECUADOR		345
GRENADA		37
GUATEMALA		223
GUYANA		119
HAITI		185
HONDURAS		79
NICARAGUA		62
PANAMA		41
PARAGUAY		15
PERU		612
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS		3
SAINT LUCIA		7
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES		9
SURINAME		22
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO		270
URUGUAY		28
VENEZUELA		196

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-99: Canada, China (mainland and Taiwan, except Hong Kong S.A.R.), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

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1/The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulates that beginning with DV-99, and for as long as necessary, 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas will be made available for use under the NCARA program.

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