{"id":1373,"date":"2016-10-05T16:52:14","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T16:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/05\/visa-lottery-2018-now-open-need-know\/"},"modified":"2016-10-05T16:52:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T16:52:14","slug":"visa-lottery-2018-now-open-need-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law888.com\/?p=1373","title":{"rendered":"Visa Lottery 2018 is NOW OPEN &#8211; What you Need to Know!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Each year, the Department of State provides a visa lottery for a chance to obtain a green card to the U.S., to \u201cdiversity immigrants\u201d from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Can I still apply if I was not born in a qualifying country?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the 2018 visa lottery, people from the following countries are \u2018not eligible\u2019 to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the U.S. in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BUT &#8211; There are two EXCEPTIONS\u00a0in which you still might be eligible to apply.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, if your derivative spouse was born in an eligible country, you may claim eligibility as to\u00a0that country. As your eligibility is based on your spouse, you will only be issued an immigrant visa if your spouse is also eligible for and issued an immigrant visa. Both of you must enter the United States together using your DVs.<\/li>\n<li>Similarly, your minor dependent child can be \u201ccharged\u201d to a parent\u2019s country of birth. Second, you can be \u201ccharged\u201d to the country of birth of either of your parents as long as neither of your parents was born in or a resident of your country of birth at the time of your birth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>What is the other requirement, if I am from an eligible country?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Each DV applicant must meet the education\/work experience requirement of the DV program by having either:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>at least a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of formal elementary and secondary education;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>OR<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>When is the application\u00a0period and deadline?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Applicants must submit entries for the DV-2018 program electronically between noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Tuesday, October 4, 2016, and noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Monday, November 7, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON, OR YOU WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>How can I apply?<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>People can apply online at: dvlottery.state.gov.<\/p>\n<p>Registering and being chosen is only the first step.\u00a0 You must still be eligible for a green card in order to enter the U.S. or adjust your status.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Call our immigration attorneys today for more information and to learn about exceptions if you are unsure whether you qualify. Free consultations: 1-888-517-9888.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each year, the Department of State provides a visa lottery for a chance to obtain a green card to the U.S., to \u201cdiversity immigrants\u201d from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. Can I still apply if I was not born in a qualifying country? For the 2018 visa lottery, people [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37,69,70,10,41,71,72],"class_list":["post-1373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration","tag-advice","tag-faqs","tag-green-card","tag-immigration","tag-tips","tag-visa","tag-visa-lottery"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law888.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}