Applicants registered for the DV-2005 program were selected at random from
more than 9.5 million qualified entries received during the 60-day application period that ran from 12:00 AM on November 1, 2003, until midnight, December 30, 2003. 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 2005 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2005 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2005 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2005 principal applicants are entitled to derivative diversity visa status only until September 30, 2005.

Only participants in the DV-2005 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-2006 lottery if they wish. The dates for the registration period for the DV-2006 lottery program will be widely publicized during August 2004.
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* The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) 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 NACARA 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-2005 program:

AFRICA

ASIA

EUROPE

NORTH AMERICA

BAHAMAS, THE 14

OCEANIA

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN

Natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2005: Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

2004/806