How to fill in the form on the green card: detailed instructions

Online registration for the lottery Green Card 2022 began October 5, 2022. Applications will continue to be accepted until 12:00 pm ET on November 8, 2022.

Applications for participation in the DV-2024 visa lottery must be submitted electronically ONLY on the website dvprogram.state.gov.

The registration process is absolutely free, a person with a minimum knowledge of English can fill out an application.

It is better to apply in person, without using the services of intermediaries. Firstly, intermediaries charge $ 30-150 for something that you yourself can do with minimal knowledge of English. Second, intermediaries do not in any way influence the choice of winners - they are really determined by the computer. Thirdly, the intermediary can apply next time without your knowledge, and when you decide to do it yourself, you can violate the lottery rules, because you can apply only once a year - and you will be disqualified. Fourth, the intermediary can indicate his own, and not your mailing address, in the questionnaire, and in case of winning, he will demand a tidy sum before giving you the necessary data.

ForumDaily offers detailed instructions for completing the questionnaire for those who decide to participate in the Diversification Lottery (DV).

How to fill out an application for a green card

One hour is given for everything. You need to fill in Latin letters.

The questionnaire consists of several parts. The first concerns personal data. You will have to answer 15 questions. If you indicated your spouse or children, the second part of the application will open, which you will also need to fill out.

1. Name

Last / Family Name - surname. First Name - name. Middle Name - see below.

As for the Middle Name field, then many mistakenly think that you need to enter your patronymic in this field. In fact, Middle Name and middle name are different concepts. In the West, many have a middle (middle) name, but in our country this is not common. However, now the rules have changed a little, and now you need to be guided by the following: the spelling of the middle name must match the spelling in the passport on the first page, if you have it at the time of the application.

- If there is a middle name in Latin in your passport, write it.
- If there is no middle name in Latin in your passport, but it is in Cyrillic, then DO NOT write it.
- If there is no middle name in your passport, then DO NOT write it.
- If you don't have a passport at all, then DO NOT write it.

If you do not specify the middle name, check the No Middle Name box.

2 and 3. Gender and date of birth

Male - male. female - female.

Day - choose the number of your birth from the drop-down list. Month - month. Year - year of birth (note that in the questionnaire the month is indicated first, and then the day).

January - January
February - February
March - March
April - April
May - May
June - June
July - July
August - August
September - September
October - October
November - November
December - December

4. The city where you were born

Write the current name of the settlement, which is listed in the birth certificate. That is, if Leningrad is written on the birth certificate, then Saint Petersburg should be written in the application form. It is recommended to write in the dash old and new name. For example, Leningrad - Saint Petersburg.

It is necessary to specify ONLY the name of the city or village (village). Region, district, etc. do not need to be specified. Look for the official sources of the current name of the settlement. The name must be written in Latin letters.

The source of the current name of the settlement can be a Google search for a keyword on the US Department of State website - this department holds a lottery. To do this, add the word: site: state.gov. Such a search can help determine the choice of writing. Consider the example of the city of Kharkov. What to write: Kharkiv or Kharkov? The search gave the following results:

Kharkiv occurs 965 times in the state.gov domain, and Kharkov 60 times. Accordingly, both spellings are perfectly valid. But Kharkiv is much more preferable.

If the search in the state.gov domain didn’t return, you can search all US government sites. To do this, after the keyword you need to write site: gov.

Search in the state.gov and .gov domains can be attributed to the official source of information. If this search also did not return results, you can use Wikipedia.org or maps.google.com - these are not official, but commonly used sources.

If your place of birth is unknown and is not indicated in the birth certificate, then tick the box next to Birth City Unknown.

5. Your country of birth

From the list, you must select your country of birth. If you were born in the USSR, the current name of the country is indicated. For example Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

6. Country eligible to participate in the DV program

If you were born in a country that can participate in the lottery, then you do not change anything at this point and proceed to the next item. The list of eligible countries is available in instructions.

If your country of birth is not allowed to participate in the lottery, then there are two options:

1. If your spouse was born in a country whose residents are eligible to participate in the lottery, you can classify yourself as the country of birth of your spouse. Since in this case the right of the main applicant to participate in the lottery is determined by the country of birth of the spouse, the DV-1 visa will be issued to the main applicant only if the spouse is also eligible to participate in the lottery and he / she can be issued a visa DV-2. In this case, both spouses must enter the United States together on DV visas. Likewise, a child can be assigned to the parent's country of birth.

2. You can identify yourself as the country of birth of either parent.

In this case, put a check mark next to No, and select the appropriate country from the list.

7. Member photo

Click on the button "Select file" and specify the path to your photo. Photo to participate in the DV visa lottery must comply with simple but strict rules:

• The person being photographed must look directly into the camera
• The person's head should not be tilted up, tilted down or to the side
• Head height should be between 50% and 69% of the total frame height
• A neutral, light-colored background (white, for example). Dark or patterned backgrounds are not acceptable
• The photo must be in focus
• The person being photographed must not wear glasses or have other accessories that cover their face
• Photographs of persons with their heads covered or wearing hats are acceptable only if it is dictated by their religious beliefs, provided that no part of the face is hidden
• There should be no shadows.

Technical specifications:
• Image must be in JPEG format
• Maximum image size 240 kilobytes (240 KB)
• Image resolution: 600 pixels in length, 600 pixels in width (600x600px);
• Color depth: 24 bits.

Technical parameters for scanned photo:
• Image must be in JPEG format
• Maximum image size 240 kilobytes (240 KB)
• Image resolution: 600 pixels long, 600 pixels wide (600x600px)
• Color depth: 24 bit
• Photo resolution: 300 dpi (can be set during scanning).

8. Mailing address

This could be your address, your friends, relatives or just acquaintances. You can also specify the address of your post office box. The address can be specified for any country.

You need to fill in the address in Latin letters, and remember: the address must be clear to the local postman delivering the letter to you. Agree that not every postman knows English.

In care of - here is written the name of the person to whom the mailing address is registered (meaning in cases where the discrepancy between the name and the address leads to non-delivery of correspondence, as well as specifying the address of the mailbox). If this is your own address, the field can be left blank - in any case, your name will be taken from the 1 item of the e-application form.

Address Line 1 - strings to indicate the street, house number, building number, apartment number, mailbox number, etc. The postal code, city, country do not need to be specified. For this there are corresponding fields. The second line (Address Line 2) is used if the length of the first line is not enough, as there is a limit on the maximum number of characters per line.

City / Town - the name of the settlement.

District / County / Province / State - name of the republic / territory / region / district or district. If we are talking about Moscow or St. Petersburg, which are independent subjects of the Russian Federation and are not part of other subjects of the Federation, the name of these cities should be duplicated in this field (you cannot leave the empty field). Similarly for cities under federal jurisdiction in other countries.

Postal Code / Zip Code - postcode. If the index is not in principle, then tick the box next to the No Postal Code / Zip Code.

Country - select a country from the list.

9. The country where you live today

From the list, you must select the state where you live at the time you fill out the application form. Do not confuse with citizenship and place of birth.

10. Phone number

Please enter your phone number in international format. This field is optional, but recommended. You can write both a home number and a mobile number - the main thing is that it is working and you have access to it. It may be better to provide a mobile phone number, as it is always with you.

An example of writing a mobile phone number in Moscow, if you dial it from the USA: 011-7-915-XXX-XX-XX

11. E-mail address

Write your E-mail in the first line, duplicate it in the second. Be careful.

12. Level of education

The level of education in the application is indicated in fact at the time of filling in the application. It doesn't matter that you, for example, in a month, plan to receive a certificate or diploma. But to make a decision on the applicant's compliance with the lottery requirements, the level of education that the applicant will have at the time of sending the immigration forms (in case of winning) will be taken into account.

Due to the fact that the educational systems in the United States, in the USSR and in the post-Soviet space are very different, there is no definitive table of the correspondence of our diplomas and certificates to the levels of education that can be found in this paragraph of the questionnaire. But you can roughly focus on the following comparison (with reference to the Russian Federation, but certainly suitable for other countries of the former USSR):

Primary school only - primary school only
High School, no degree - high school, without a certificate
High School degree - high school with a certificate
Vocational School - vocational school
Some University Courses - incomplete higher education (technical school is also possible)
University Degree - Higher Education
Some Graduate Level Courses - some graduate level courses
Master's Degree - Master's Degree
Some Doctorate Level Courses - incomplete postgraduate / doctoral studies
Doctorate Degree - doctorate.

Primary school only - learned in school (or another secondary school) for more than 4 years, but did not receive a complete secondary education in school (11 classes). This, in particular, includes the case when an application is submitted by a person, at the time of applying for students in the last grade or in the last year of an educational institution that provides full secondary education.

High School, no degree - completed their education until the end of secondary school (graduated from 11 classes) or fully studied in another educational institution, which provides secondary education, but for some reason did not receive a certificate (diploma) of complete secondary education.

High school degree - graduated from only 11 classes, have a certificate of secondary education.

Vocational school - graduated from a vocational college or college where, in addition to the profession, they also received a complete secondary education.

Some university courses - studied or study in the university (and passed the final exam there at least one course of study), but did not complete it. Sometimes a diploma of a technical school obtained after 14 (11 school + 3 in technical school) years of study may be included here.

University degree - received a bachelor's degree or an engineer / specialist (after 4-5 years of study at a university).

Some Graduate Level Courses - Have a bachelor's degree and continue to study in the magistracy (passed the final exam for at least one graduate course).

Master’s Degree - Master's degree or an engineer / specialist diploma (5 and more than years of high-grade university education).

Some Doctorate Level Courses - training in graduate school (passed candidate at least one subject).

Doctorate Degree - PhD or doctoral degree.

Particular attention should be paid to education, received externally, in absentia or remotely. If you can confirm the presence of a full-fledged secondary education (no matter - full or general, special, vocational), obtained in the traditional full-time (day or evening) manner, and above that you have a higher education received remotely, in absentia or external, then the validity of such a higher education Education to indicate in the application raises questions. There are two opinions:

1. The requirement for full-time education is imposed only on the minimum necessary - secondary education, and for all levels of education above secondary education form no longer matters.

2. The requirement for full-time education applies to all levels of education.

Which position to adhere to is up to you. Heated disputes have been going on for several years, and an unambiguous position has not been worked out. In case of winning in immigration forms, you will need to indicate all diplomas, regardless of the form of study.

13. Family status

Marital status is indicated at the time of filling in the application for a legally fixed state of affairs.

Unmarried - never been married / never married.

Married - married / married. Even if you have not lived with your wife / husband for a long time, but your marriage is still officially registered - you must indicate the status of “Married” and provide all the details of your spouse in the application form. If you are in the process of a divorce, but your divorce has not yet been recorded in the registry office - you must still indicate this status.

divorced - divorced / divorced.

widowed - widow / widower.

Legally separated - in Russia / Ukraine / Belarus and in most other CIS countries there is no legally enshrined status of Legally Separated. His indication in the application will lead to disqualification of the application for an interview (there is a precedent).

If you are cohabiting, but your marriage is not registered (what is erroneously called "common law"), you can NOT indicate the status of "Married" in relation to your / your cohabitant / cohabitant.

14. Amount of children

You must list all your unmarried children under the age of 21, regardless of their place of residence and intention to immigrate to the United States. The only exceptions are children - citizens or permanent residents of the United States. Just write the number of children. If there are no children, leave this field blank.

If your spouse has own children (up to 21 year) from a previous marriage, you must also indicate them in your application form. But it is not necessary to indicate the adopted children of the spouse. They are indicated only by the applicant in his profile.

Now check that you have filled out everything correctly and click on the button. Continue (proceed).

If you specified a spouse or children, the second part (Part 2) of the application will open. In the second part, you enter data for them. Everyone will need their own photo. The principle of filling is the same as for the main applicant, this should not cause difficulties.

By the way, if your spouse also wants to participate in the lottery, then she / he can fill out his application separately. That is, the 2 application is filled in - the husband is his (in which he indicates the wife and her details), and the wife fills in his own (in which he indicates the husband and his details). Thus, the chances of winning increase.

When everything is ready, click on Continue. After that, a page will open where you can check all the data you entered for the last time and correct them in case of an error.

After that, you should click Submit and get a registration number. It must be saved - it is against it that the results should be checked.

Total

When you submit the questionnaire, the computer will randomly select the winners from all the questionnaires, taking into account the limit set for each region. About 100 thousand winners are selected annually, each of whom is interviewed and has the opportunity to obtain a residence permit for himself and his family members. Every year 55 thousand green cards are issued in this way.

Official notification of the winnings will be available on the website. www.dvprogram.state.gov under Entrant Status Check from 6 of May to 2023 to 30 of September to 2024 of the year. You will need a confirmation page number to access the Entrant Status Check section.

Good luck!