Are you excited about applying for the DV Lottery? Each year, roughly 10 to 20 million people take their shot at this program. But only 55,000 people make it to the end of the road and earn their Green Card. What happens to the majority of the applicants? Besides being screened by the randomized program itself, the slightest of mistakes can get you disqualified from the running.
If you feel like you’re an unlucky case and deserved to have your Green Card refusal overturned, here’s everything you need to know about the matter.
Disputing the Lottery Results
The Diversity Visa Lottery Program is anyone’s ticket to the US, provided that you meet their eligibility criteria. Your chances of winning vary depending on available spots for your country of residence, but this year if you’re from the Oceania region, you’re in luck! Candidates from Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand have the highest chances of winning the DV Lottery!
The selection process is fairly straightforward. If you’ve managed to submit a proper application with no issues whatsoever, your name will be added to the lottery. A computer program randomly picks around 100,000 winners who can proceed to the next step. Since this is purely a game of chance, there’s no way to dispute the results if your name isn’t among those of the lucky chosen ones.
Getting Denied After Selection
If you won the DV Program lottery, made it to the Consular interview and your Green Card application was rejected – there might be something you can do. There is a host of reasons you might be excluded at this point:
Official Reasons
# The program requires that you have at least a high school degree or two-year work experience, acquired in the past five years, in a job needing professional training. If you don’t fall in either of the two categories, you can’t proceed further.
# If you have multiple entries to the lottery program, you will automatically be eliminated from the running by the Consular Officer (CO). If you think you’re helping your chances of winning by using English transliterations of your name for several entries, you’d be mistaken. At this point, you won’t be given the chance to appeal.
# If the CO detects fraudulent activity e.g., faking your marriage for the visa, you’ll be denied your Green Card.
Other Common Reasons
# You can’t just move to the US on a Green Card; you need to have financial assets to facilitate your move. In the absence of sufficient funds, you won’t get to proceed.
# Knowledge of the English language is necessary to live, work, and study in the US. You will be denied if you demonstrate that you’re unable to speak or understand English even at the basic level.
# If the CO feels that you might be a burden on the US economy, due to advanced age and/or other factors, you can get denied.
# Do you have any valuable skills to prove yourself as an important future US citizen? If yes, then great; you won’t have a problem! But if you don’t possess any in-demand skills, your chances of proceeding are very narrow.
# Submitting a Green Card application with errors (such as missing or inconsistent information, grammatical mistakes, and more).
Disputing Your Green Card Refusal
If you get refused based on your application after already being chosen by the program, then there is a way to dispute the decision. You reserve the right to have your DV case reviewed by submitting new documentation. To maximize your chances of success, you should go through the proper channels and mind the strict rules of the program.
You’ll be required to present an Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility by filling out Form I-601 available at the official US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website. You need to submit the form along with the supporting documentation to the consular section of the embassy that announced the decision to refuse your application. In turn, they will transfer it to the appropriate USCIS office to be reviewed. If denied, you can further appeal to the Administrative Appeals Office (AAO). An important thing to note: although the whole appeals process is free, you will have to pay if you’re called in for another interview.
Let Us Help You Out!
Dream of USA is a private consultancy that houses expert advisors to help you make your dream of living, working, and studying in the US come true! They offer top-notch online services to people all across the globe. So, no matter where you are in the world, the team has got your back! They will help you fill out your DV Lottery application following all the program guidelines so there’s no room for error. If you’re chosen, their team will take you through all the challenging steps to come. Increase your chances of winning a Green Card by employing their top-notch consultancy services today!