Diversity Visa Information

Diversity Lottery Visas

The Congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program makes available 55,000 permanent resident visas annually, drawn via random selection from among all entries, to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The Embassy of the United States of America in Yerevan does not handle applications for the Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery. Applications for the Diversity Lottery program must be submitted on-line from October – December of every year at the website http://www.dvlottery.state.gov. For information about the Diversity Visa lottery you may visit http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html. Diversity Visa lottery applications are located at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/. The Embassy also does not have access to the lists of winning entries. All Diversity Lottery winners will be notified via mail only by the U.S. Department of State Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) in the United States. You may check your DV entry status online by visiting http://www.dvlottery.state.gov in July and entering your confirmation number, which you received when you first registered for the lottery. If you lose your confirmation information, you will not be able to check your DV entry status by yourself, and we will not resend the confirmation page to you.

Diversity Lottery Applications are Free

Please Note: There have been instances of fraudulent websites and e-mails posing as official U.S. Government sites or correspondence. Some companies posing as the U.S. Government have sought money in order to "complete" lottery entry forms. There are also a number of commercial companies that offer to register persons for the DV lottery for a fee. While many of these commercial service providers are legitimate operations, please note that there is no charge to complete the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form at http://www.dvlottery.state.gov, and that this is the only method and website to register for the DV lottery. Instructions on how to fill out the application are available in English, Armenian, and Russian (please click on the desired language to view or download these instructions). The Department of State notifies successful Diversity Visa applicants by letter, and NOT by email.

Kentucky Consular Center

The DV program is administered directly from the U.S. Department of State Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky. The Kentucky center was established in the year 2000 by the U.S. Department of State to take over administration of the Diversity Visa Lottery program from the National Visa Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

PLEASE NOTE: The Department of State has only one Kentucky Consular Center. Other organizations using similar names have no connection to the Department of State or KCC. There is no fee charged by the Department or KCC for sending an entry to the lottery program. Applicants selected in the Diversity Visa random drawing are notified by the Department of State, Kentucky Consular Center, by letter sometime between April and July at the addresses listed on their diversity visa entry. Winners are NOT contacted by e-mail. In this letter, applicants are provided instructions on how to proceed to the next step in the process. No other organization or company is authorized by the Department of State to notify Diversity Visa lottery applicants of their winning entry. A Diversity processing fee is only charged when a winning lottery entrant applies for the Diversity visa. At the time of the visa application at a U.S. consular office, each applicant (the DV entrant and any accompanying family members) will be charged a DV processing fee and immigrant visa fee. Both of these fees are non-refundable if the visa is refused.

Selected applicants should carefully read the instruction received from the Kentucky Consular Center and then send the required documents to the Kentucky Consular Center. When the application packet is complete, the Kentucky Consular Center will schedule your interview at your local Consular Section, send you a letter informing you of this interview date, and forward your packet to the Consular Section.

Documents for Consular Section interview

Please see the Required Documents page for information on what documents you should bring to your Diversity visa interview.

**Important Information for Diversity Visa Applicants**

ATTENTION: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES CAN A VISA BE ISSUED OR AN ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES OCCUR IN YOUR CASE AFTER SEPTEMBER 30 OF YOUR PROGRAM YEAR. BECAUSE OF THE LIMITED NUMBER OF VISAS THAT MAY BE ISSUED UNDER THE DIVERSITY VISA PROGRAM, VISAS MAY CEASE TO BE AVAILABLE EVEN BEFORE SEPTEMBER 30 OF YOUR PROGRAM YEAR. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE THE CLOSER TO SEPTEMBER 30 AN APPLICATION OR RE-APPLICATION IS MADE.