Relocating from Nigeria is most likely on the top of the goals list of the majority of Nigerians for obvious reasons. However, not every Nigerian can afford that luxury.
Nigerians who can’t afford the luxury of relocating with their finances turn to other options like the lottery. Fortunately, most of the countries Nigerians look forward to relocating to offer diverse lotteries.
One such lottery is the Diversity Visa lottery that the United States of America offers to immigrants from countries worldwide to diversify the US.
However, not all countries are eligible for the DV lottery. Sadly, Nigeria is not eligible for this lottery. But there’s a twist! Although Nigeria isn’t eligible, some Nigerians are eligible for this lottery. Please keep reading to find out what we mean.
Why is Nigeria not eligible for the visa lottery?
For starters, you should know that Nigeria isn’t the only country eligible for the DV visa lottery. Other countries that aren’t eligible include South Korea, China, etc. however, Nigeria is the only African country that isn’t eligible for the DV lottery, and I’ll tell you why.
In 2015, the United States crossed Nigeria off the list of eligible countries for the DV lottery because too many Nigerian immigrants had already migrated to the United States via the lottery. According to a statement, about 50,000 Nigerian immigrants migrated from Nigeria to the United States through this Visa lottery.
It should interest you to know that before Nigeria was crossed off the list, it was the second African country with the highest slots on the lottery program with 5000+ slots, after Egypt with 6000+ slots.
As a result, over the last five years before 2015 (when Nigeria was crossed off the eligibility list), a large number of Nigerians seized the opportunity to migrate to the United States, thanks to the massive slots available at the time.
Generally, the USA created the DV lottery program for countries with very low immigration numbers to the United States.
When will Nigeria be eligible for the visa lottery?
At the moment, there’s no news regarding whether or not the United States would include Nigeria on the eligibility list. Aside from the fact that Nigeria has more than 50,000 immigrants in the country, another major factor seems to make it impossible for Nigeria to ever get back on the list of countries eligible for the DV lottery.
That factor is that in early 2020, the ex-president of the United States, Donald Trump, issued a decree that banned Nigeria from immigrating to the United States.
Precisely, Nigerians can no longer dream of permanently relocating to the United States due to the ban. But people looking to temporarily migrate to the United States as Tourists, Students, etc., are not affected by the ban.
While it came as a shock to many people, the ban was justifiable to the Trump administration. It seems like the ban is still justifiable to the Biden administration as the ban hasn’t been lifted yet.
Nevertheless, there are ongoing conversations about the possibility of the ban being lifted. So, it’s possible that until the ban on Nigeria is lifted, the conversation to make Nigeria eligible for the DV lottery would not start.
Requirements
A few things are required to be eligible for the DV lottery program. I’ll share some of them with you.
- Eligible Country:The first requirement for the DV lottery is to be a native of a list of eligible countries. These countries supposedly have a low immigrant rate to the United States. While quite a few countries with low immigration rates to the United States, we can’t name them all. However, we would highlight the list of countries that are not eligible for the DV lottery. They include; Brazil, Bangladesh, Canada, Columbia, China (Hong Kong inclusive), Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (excluding Northern Ireland), Vietnam. If you are from any of these countries that aren’t eligible, you might still be able to apply on the condition that you and your parents weren’t born in the countries that aren’t eligible.
- Education or Work experience: You should have acquired secondary school education in the United States or a foreign country. That is, you must have successfully completed a 12-year education course that combines your years spent in both elementary school and secondary school. If you don’t have 12 years of the schooling experience, you would still be eligible if you have worked in a list of qualifying occupations within the space of two to five years.
- Passport Information:
The USA recently added this requirement to the list. It requires you to submit some information on your passport, including the passport number, the date it would expire, and the country that issued you the passport. However, the DV lottery team isn’t hard on this requirement. So, they created three exceptions to this requirement.
The first exception is for people who have no state or nationality. This condition is possible if the person’s country in question strips the person of their nationality for one reason or another. A person that would qualify with this exception is someone who was born in the Gaza Strip.
The other exception is if you’re from a communist state and can’t get a passport. The third exception is if you can’t get a passport. Still, the Secretary of State selection process or the Secretary of homeland security has given you a passport requirement waiver; then, you can participate in this lottery.
How to Apply:
Applying for the DV lottery is not difficult. It entails an easy process that any eligible person can go through. First, you have to log in to the website. Then, you’ll be required to take a test that’ll determine if you’re eligible for the DV lottery. After taking the test, you can now fill the form that allows you to register for this lottery.
You should bear one thing in mind that not everyone who applies for this lottery would get it. The reason is that several slots are allocated to every eligible country each year. Hence, not everyone that applies would get it. However, you can always try again every year.
Conclusion
As a Nigerian, so that you know, the DV lottery is not open to you unless you do not have native Nigerian parents and you weren’t born on Nigerian Soil.
Also, if you’re eligible to apply for the DV lottery, you should know that being eligible doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get it.
Your eligibility status only grants you the opportunity to apply for the lottery. It is not a pass that awards you the Green Card Lottery ticket instantly.
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Dear sir/ madam
I,m a Nigerian citizen, which is not eligible to apply devisity program.
I live in Japan. my spouse is u.s citizen.
She retired from the navy this year according to her contract with the military.
My question is, can l be found eligible because of my spouse being a us citizen?
Wait for your feed back.
Thank you for your explanation, I that are loving people I hope that one day I will be in USA maybe by Visa lottery or with my money…. I want to be there thank you…