September 6, 2002 - The U.S. State Department has now issued instructions to the public regarding the opening of the "DV-2004 diversity visa" lottery program, also referred to as the "green card" lottery. As with prior years, there is no fee associated with the DV lottery application.

Any applications must be received no earlier than noon of Monday, October 7, 2002, and no later than noon of Wednesday, November 6, 2002. Applicants must adhere to this timeframe, as any DV lottery entries received outside this time window will be disqualified from consideration, regardless of the postmark date.

As with last year, citizens born in most countries around the world are eligible for participation in this year's DV lottery. Natives of the following nations, however, are specifically excluded from DV eligibility:

Canada
China (except Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan, which ARE eligible)
Colombia
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
Haiti
India
Jamaica
Mexico
Pakistan
Philippines
South Korea
United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland, which IS eligible)
Vietnam

Recent changes to the DV lottery program

This year, the State Department has published new rules clarifying eligibility for the DV lottery program based upon education or employment experience. To qualify for the DV lottery, applicants must have either a high school education or its equivalent.

However, the equivalency of a "high school education" is now clarified to mean either: (1) the successful completion of a twelve-year course of elementary and secondary education, or (2) two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience to perform. The State Department will look to the O*Net database [http://online.onetcenter.org] to determine if the occupation is acceptable.

For the official announcement on this year's DV-2004 lottery, please review the State Department's website, at the following URL:

http://travel.state.gov/DV2004.html