The Department of State made the formal public announcement of the Diversity Visa (DV) 2020 program on September 25, 2018.
The electronic Diversity Visa system (E-DV) will be open for registrations beginning at noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on October 3, 2018, and will close for entries at noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST), on November 6, 2018. During this registration period, applicants may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form (E-DV) at dvlottery.state.gov. The DV-2020 program will be conducted entirely electronically and paper entries will not be accepted.
For DV-2020, there is a policy change. In addition to the past disqualification of entries that fail to include a spouse or child, DV entries will now be disqualified if the entry includes individuals who are not an eligible spouse or child of the primary applicant. (This is particularly important for Bulgarian families who live together without a formal marriage.)
The law allows only one entry for each person during each registration period. Entrants who submit more than one entry will be disqualified. However, a husband and a wife may each submit a separate entry, listing the other as a derivative dependent, if each meets the eligibility requirements.
There is no charge or fee to complete the electronic Diversity Visa entry form. Entrants will receive an official confirmation number when they register. It is very important to keep that number until September 30, 2020. This confirmation number will be the sole means by which applicants can find out if they have been selected for DV-2020. All entrants, including those not selected, will be able to check the status of their entry through the Entrant Status Check available at dvlottery.state.gov as of May 7, 2019. Selected individuals who respond to the notification instructions provided on the E-DV selectee confirmation page on Entrant Status Check also will receive notification of their scheduled immigrant visa appointment through Entrant Status Check. DV-2020 data will be available through Entrant Status Check until at least September 30, 2020. The Department of State will not send selectee notification or appointment letters to successful entrants by regular mail or by e-mail.
Please note that any person who receives a letter or email that states that he or she has been selected in the Diversity Visa program or promises a Green Card should consider the contents illegitimate and fraudulent. Furthermore, there are no third-party payments in the Diversity Visa process. The only required payment is the visa fee itself, which is paid at the U.S. Embassy.
Instructions for the DV lottery are posted in both English and Bulgarian on the Embassy’s website: bg.usembassy.gov. If you have any additional questions after reading the instructions, please send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
