The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky, has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2004 diversity lottery.

The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 111,000 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2004 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003 until September 30, 2004).

Applicants registered for the DV-2004 program were selected at random from the approximately 7.3 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period that ran from Noon on October 7, 2002 through Noon on November 6, 2002. An additional 2.9 million applications were either received outside of the mail-in period or were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions, with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.

Registrants living legally in the United States who wish to apply for adjustment of their status must contact the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total *50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2004 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2004, will derive no further benefit from their DV-2004 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2004 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2004. Only participants in the DV-2004 program who were selected for further processing have been notified. Those who have not received notification were not selected. They may try for the upcoming DV-2005 lottery if they wish. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2005 lottery program will be widely publicized during August 2003.

* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulated that up to 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas be made available for use under the NCARA program. The reduction of the limit of available visas to 50,000 began with DV-2000. The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state chargeability of those registered for the DV-2004 program:

AFRICA

ALGERIA 1,285 ERITREA 373 NAMIBIA 10 ANGOLA 17 ETHIOPIA 6,353 NIGER 35 BENIN 209 GABON 14 NIGERIA 7,145 BOTSWANA 8 GAMBIA, THE 65 RWANDA 87 BURKINA FASO 34 GHANA 7,040 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0 BURUNDI 27 GUINEA 22 SENEGAL 269 CAMEROON 1,531 GUINEA-BISSAU 6 SEYCHELLES 1 CAPE VERDE 4 KENYA 5,721 SIERRA LEONE 2,149 CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 10 LESOTHO 0 SOMALIA 566 CHAD 41 LIBERIA 1,570 SOUTH AFRICA 413 COMOROS 0 LIBYA 24 SUDAN 1,183 CONGO 31 MADAGASCAR 27 SWAZILAND 2 CONGO, DEMOCRATIC MALAWI 32 TANZANIA 329 REPUBLIC OF THE 455 MALI 51 TOGO 2,819 COTE D IVOIRE 268 MAURITANIA 25 TUNISIA 115 DJIBOUTI 24 MAURITIUS 44 UGANDA 351 EGYPT 4,189 MOROCCO 5,069 ZAMBIA 124 EQUATORIAL GUINEA 1 MOZAMBIQUE 5 ZIMBABWE 168

ASIA

AFGHANISTAN 46 IRAQ 174 MONGOLIA 65 BAHRAIN 15 ISRAEL 465 NEPAL 4,259 BANGLADESH 5,126 JAPAN 1,291 OMAN 3 BHUTAN 9 JORDAN 125 QATAR 8 BRUNEI 7 NORTH KOREA 4 SAUDI ARABIA 54 BURMA 906 KUWAIT 45 SINGAPORE 137 CAMBODIA 237 LAOS 10 SRI LANKA 1,418 HONG KONG SPECIAL LEBANON 105 SYRIA 64 ADMIN. REGION 293 MALAYSIA 222 TAIWAN 1,833 INDONESIA 844 MALDIVES 0 THAILAND 297 IRAN 1,431 YEMEN 106

EUROPE

ALBANIA 3,071 GERMANY 1,227 NORTHERN IRELAND 51 ANDORRA 1 GREECE 66 NORWAY 19 ARMENIA 836 HUNGARY 139 POLAND 5,467 AUSTRIA 64 ICELAND 17 PORTUGAL 46 AZERBAIJAN 338 IRELAND 305 Macau 0 BELARUS 966 ITALY 165 ROMANIA 1,845 BELGIUM 46 KAZAKHSTAN 451 RUSSIA 2,600 BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 128 KYRGYZSTAN 206 SAN MARINO 0 BULGARIA 3,482 LATVIA 172 SERBIA & MONTENEGRO 448 CROATIA 73 LIECHTENSTEIN 1 SLOVAKIA 392 CYPRUS 11 LITHUANIA 2,059 SLOVENIA 8 CZECH REPUBLIC 172 LUXEMBOURG 4 SPAIN 62 DENMARK 39 MACEDONIA, FORMER SWEDEN 82 ESTONIA 71 YUGOSLAV REP. OF 166 SWITZERLAND 183 FINLAND 44 MALTA 10 TAJIKISTAN 105 FRANCE 313 MOLDOVA 574 TURKEY 2,343 French Guiana 1 MONACO 1 TURKMENISTAN 95 French Polynesia 3 NETHERLANDS 94 UKRAINE 4,494 Guadeloupe 5 Netherlands Antilles 6 UZBEKISTAN 1,819 Reunion 2 Aruba 1

VATICAN CITY 0

GEORGIA 479

NORTH AMERICA

BAHAMAS, THE 12

OCEANIA

AUSTRALIA 362 NAURU 0 SOLOMON ISLANDS 2 FIJI 738 NEW ZEALAND 155 TONGA 43 KIRIBATI 0 Cook Islands 0 TUVALU 0 MARSHALL ISLANDS 0 PALAU 0 VANUATU 1 MICRONESIA, FEDERATED PAPUA NEW GUINEA 3 STATES OF 0 SAMOA 8 SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 6 DOMINICA 12 PERU 1,298 ARGENTINA 194 ECUADOR 746 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 2 BARBADOS 3 GRENADA 6 SAINT LUCIA 5 BELIZE 4 GUATEMALA 26 SAINT VINCENT AND BOLIVIA 62 GUYANA 22 THE GRENADINES 5 BRAZIL 287 HONDURAS 25 SURINAME 1 CHILE 23 NICARAGUA 27 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 71 COSTA RICA 12 PANAMA 13 URUGUAY 41 CUBA 674 PARAGUAY 31 VENEZUELA 194

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2004: Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam

Posted on AILA InfoNet at Doc. No. 03062547 (June 25, 2003)