The DV 2013

The DV 2012 - they are named for the fiscal year in which people will actually emigrate to the US -ended, then went down in flames, then ended again. Long story. After 12 years, a terrible way to hurt and disappoint 22,000 people who had received a winner notification, just to be told "Sorry, we had a computer glitch". Awful.

Life moves on:

The online registration period for the 2013 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2013) will begin at www.dvlottery.state.gov on Tuesday, October 4, 2011, at noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), and conclude on Saturday, November 5, 2011, at noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4).



If you have submitted your application, the only thing to do now is hope, improve on your English and on your professional skills. If you win, you'll be happy you did, and if you don't win I guess you won't regret it either.


The DV page managed by the State Department is not yet active.
Download the PDF with the official instructions, which we try to summarize in the next page. Reading them it's only useful because they'll give you an idea for the next time, it's a pretty stable set of rules.


Is it difficult to apply? Several websites want you to believe exactly that, but in reality the information you have to provide at this stage is very basic. If you are here, you can make it on your own easily. Do not

Ellis Island aerial view
trust the flags, the site design and the official-sounding names. They are all private sites which simply help you -for a price of course- doing what you could easily be doing on your own for free. If they state or imply that using their services increases your chance to win they are making a false statement, and you should definitively stay away.

There might be legitimate reasons to use one, mostly if you are not sure to meet the requirements and want to check before filing, but if you read the instructions and understand them you will see that it's not difficult at all.

Wop98 is the ONLY site that I know of which is not looking to make a nice penny out of you, and to make you believe that your chances to win shall increase if you work with some official-looking site.


The application period is quite long. This doesn't mean you should slack it off, file your application as soon as possible, so if there are issues with the pictures - which is the only part where you could have problems, unless you have forgotten your birth date - you will still have time to fix them.