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Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The DV Program is administered by the U.S. Department of State (DOS).

Most lottery winners reside outside the United States and immigrate through consular processing and issuance of an immigrant visa. To learn more, visit the U.S. Department of State's website .

Diversity Visa Winners Legally Residing In the United States: Apply Through USCIS

There are, however, a small number of lottery winners each year who, at the time of “winning the lottery,” are residing in the United States in a nonimmigrant or other legal status. For these winners residing inside the United States, USCIS processes adjustment of status applications.

The following information applies to winners legally residing in the United States only.

For an applicant to adjust status under the DV Program, you must establish that you:

• Have been selected for a diversity visa by DOS’s lottery;
• Have an immigrant visa immediately available at the time of filing an adjustment application ( Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status ); and
• Are admissible to the United States.

For visa availability, check the latest month's DOS Visa Bulletin . Section B contains a chart showing the current month's visa availability in the Diversity Immigrant category. The chart shows when the Diversity Immigrant cut-off is met. When the cut-off is met, visas will be available in that month for the applicants with Diversity Immigrant lottery rank numbers below the specified cut-off numbers for their geographic areas.

Section C contains a chart showing the Diversity Immigrant category rank cut-offs for the following month, which represents the advance notification of Diversity Immigrant visa availability. As soon as a monthly Visa Bulletin is published, anyone with a lower rank number than the rank cut-off number shown in Section C is eligible to file for adjustment of status. This provides lottery winners the opportunity to file for adjustment of status up to six or seven weeks before a visa number can actually be allocated. This gives USCIS additional time to determine your eligibility for adjustment of status before the end of the fiscal year.

A Diversity Immigrant-based adjustment application cannot be adjudicated until a visa can be allocated, as indicated in the Visa Bulletin’s current Diversity Immigrant rank cut-offs for a particular month.

To obtain a Green Card, you must file Form I-485 .

Supporting Evidence for Form I-485

Submit the following evidence with your Form I-485:

• Two passport-style photos
• Copy of birth certificate
• Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record
• Copy of passport page with nonimmigrant visa (if applicable)
• Copy of passport page with admission (entry) or parole stamp (if applicable)
• Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record
• Certified copies of court records (if the individual has been arrested)
• Copy of the principal applicant’s selection letter for the diversity visa lottery from DOS
• Copy of the receipt from DOS for the diversity visa lottery processing fee
• Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility (if applicable)
• Applicable fees

The adjustment of status process for diversity visa winners must be completed by September 30 of the fiscal year the lottery pertains to. Visas cannot be carried over to the next fiscal year.

Fraudsters may send you emails claiming you’ve won the Diversity Visa (Green Card) lottery.

Never send money to anyone who sends you a letter or email claiming you have won - learn how to protect yourself from scams .

U.S. Department of State

Bureau of consular affairs, electronic diversity visa, entrant status check: 5.9, edv esc: 5.9, entrant status check (esc), online help.

Introduction to ESC

Required information to check your status, error message: information entered is not valid, navigating in the esc web site, before you begin.

To use the Entrant Status Check (ESC) Web site to check on the status of the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form that you submitted to the program:

• You must have submitted your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form for the previous or current program year.
• You should have a copy of your DV Confirmation Page that was displayed, and that you should have printed, after you submitted your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form.

The DV Confirmation Page displays the Entrant Name, Confirmation Number, Year of Birth, and a Digital Signature. You must have this information available in order to check the status of the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form that you submitted to the program. The Confirmation Number is 16 characters long (alphanumeric); the first four characters represent the program year. Example: 20251O0DZWY3DOV9

When you are completing the Enter Entrant Information page, you may receive an error message telling you that the “Information entered is not valid…” even though you think you have entered everything correctly. Several characters in the Confirmation Number can be confusing due to their similar appearance.

Moving Between Pages

While in the ESC Web site, do not use your browser’s Forward and Back buttons to navigate between pages. The browser’s cache does not refresh, so using your browser’s navigation buttons may display outdated information. To ensure you are viewing updated information, use the buttons and links provided on the Web site.

Checking Your Status

• Welcome Page

Enter Entrant Information

Forgot confirmation number, entry status, the esc welcome page.

The Welcome page is the first page you see when you navigate to the ESC Web site. To check the status of the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form that you submitted, click Continue. You may also click Help to launch the Online Help for this ESC Web site.

The U.S. Department of State Electronic Diversity Visa Entrant Status Check for DV-2025 applicants is available until September 30, 2025. The Entrant Status Check for DV-2024 applicants will remain open until September 30, 2024.

Entrant Status Check Instructions

Please be sure to have the Entrant's Confirmation Number, Last/Family Name, and Year of Birth to check the entrant status online.

Completing the Enter Entrant Information Page

To complete the Enter Entrant Information page, you must enter the primary entrant’s information as it was entered on your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. NOTE: If you forgot your Confirmation Number, click Forgot Confirmation Number . A Web page will display to help you access the system. If you know your Confirmation Number , do the following:

• In the Confirmation Number field, enter the Confirmation Number that you received on your DV Confirmation Page. You should have printed a copy of this page when you submitted your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. The Confirmation Number format is YYYYXXXXXXXXXXXX where YYYY is the program year.
• In the Last/Family Name field, enter your Last/Family Name . Your entry must match what you entered on your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form.
• In the Year of Birth field, enter your four-digit Year of Birth (for example, 1962). Do not include the month or day.
• Click Submit.

Completing the Verify Entrant Page

If you forgot your Confirmation Number, you can click Forgot Confirmation Number from the Enter Entrant Information page. The Verify Entrant page is displayed.

• Choose the program year
• Under Name, enter the name of the primary applicant exactly as you entered it on your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. You must select the check box under any name field that was left blank.
• Under Date of Birth, type in your two-digit month and day, and four-digit year of birth (for example, 01 01 1962).
• Under Email Address, enter the same email address that you used when you completed your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form.

Viewing the Status of Your Entry

Once you have correctly completed the Enter Entrant Information page or the Verify Entrant page, the status of your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form will be displayed. Different messages will display based on whether or not your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form was selected for further processing, or if an interview appointment has been scheduled. Each message explains what else you can do based on your entry status.

Note: Click the Print button to print the text of the message. Print

• If your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form was not selected for further processing, you will see this screen:

• If your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form was selected for further processing, a letter will display with information on what to do next.

Note: For security reasons, screen shots of selectee and appointment letters are not shown.

Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application (DS-160)

Apply for a nonimmigrant visa.

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Important: before you start.

• Learn about Types of Visas.
• This website is designed to be accessed using Chrome, Edge, or Firefox only.
• Gather your documents.
• Review the instructions and FAQ.

Get Started

Select a region, additional information, additional location information nassau, bahamas, browser requirements.

• Your browser must support 128-bit encryption.
• JavaScript must be enabled.
• Transport Layer Security (TLS) must be enabled.
• This website is best supported by Internet Explorer 11 or higher and Google Chrome 58 or higher. Safari is not supported.

This site is managed by the Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein. Copyright Information   Disclaimers   Paperwork Reduction Act   FBI Privacy Act (223)

• Application ID:
• First 5 letters of applicant’s surname
• Applicant’s year of birth
• Answer to the security question (selected when the application was first created)