*EPF112 06/26/00
Text: State Department Announces Results of Diversity Visa Program
(Winners of visa lottery have been notified) (1130)

Following is the text of a June 23 State Department announcement of the results of the latest diversity visa lottery:

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U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Press Statement
Press Statement by Philip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman
June 23, 2000

Results of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV-2001)

The National Visa Center at Portsmouth, New Hampshire has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2001 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 90,000 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first 50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2001 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2001 (October 1, 2000 until September 30, 2001).

Applicants registered for the DV-2001 program were selected at random from the approximately 11 million qualified entries received during the one-month application period that ran from noon on October 4, 1999 through noon on November 3, 1999. An additional 2 million applications received inside and outside of the mail-in period were disqualified for failing to properly follow directions.

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 Immigration and Naturalization Service for information on the requirements and procedures. Once the total 50,000 visa numbers have been used, the program for fiscal year 2001 will end. Selected applicants who do not receive visas by September 30, 2001 will derive no further benefit from their DV-2001 registration. Similarly, spouses and children accompanying or following to join DV-2001 principal applicants are only entitled to derivative diversity visa status until September 30, 2001.

Only participants in the DV-2001 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-2002 lottery if they wish. The dates for the mail-in period for the DV-2002 lottery are scheduled from October 2, 2000 until November 1, 2000. Instructions on entering the DV-2002 program will be widely publicized beginning on July 31, 2000 and will include the mailing address for the new Kentucky Consular Center where entries for DV-2002 should be sent.

(The Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) 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 NCARA 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-2001 program:

AFRICA

ALGERIA 949 ERITREA 245 NAMIBIA 5
ANGOLA 9 ETHIOPIA 5,007 NIGER 18
BENIN 62 GABON 11 NIGERIA 6,017
BOTSWANA 21 GAMBIA, THE 72 RWANDA 56
BURKINA FASO 18 GHANA 6,000 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE 0
BURUNDI 11 GUINEA 283 SENEGAL 316
CAMEROON 653 GUINEA-BISSAU 2 SEYCHELLES 2
CAPE VERDE 11 KENYA 1,606 SIERRA LEONE 2,240
CENTRAL AFRICAN REP. 5 LESOTHO 0 SOMALIA 2,364
CHAD 23 LIBERIA 1,193 SOUTH AFRICA 357
COMOROS 0 LIBYA 34 SUDAN 1,661
CONGO 45 MADAGASCAR 29 SWAZILAND 0
CONGO, DEMOCRATIC MALAWI 25 TANZANIA 231
REPUBLIC OF THE 596 MALI 59 TOGO 699
COTE D'IVOIRE 199 MAURITANIA 23 TUNISIA 83
DJIBOUTI 25 MAURITIUS 23 UGANDA 154
EGYPT 2,383 MOROCCO 5,000 ZAMBIA 101
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 3 MOZAMBIQUE 8 ZIMBABWE 91

ASIA

AFGHANISTAN 309 IRAQ 99 NEPAL 376
BAHRAIN 4 ISRAEL 115 OMAN 3
BANGLADESH 5,003 JAPAN 408 PAKISTAN 4,721
BHUTAN 1 JORDAN 80 QATAR 7
BRUNEI 0 NORTH KOREA 2 SAUDI ARABIA 88
BURMA 734 KUWAIT 47 SINGAPORE 41
CAMBODIA 152 LAOS 8 SRI LANKA 410
HONG KONG SPECIAL LEBANON 78 SYRIA 85
ADMIN. REGION 126 MALAYSIA 70 THAILAND 163
INDONESIA 369 MALDIVES 269 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 40
IRAN 740 MONGOLIA 24 YEMEN 201

EUROPE

ALBANIA 4,255 GERMANY 1,902 NORTHERN IRELAND 42
ANDORRA 0 GREECE 63 NORWAY 14
ARMENIA 989 HUNGARY 120 PORTUGAL 31
AUSTRIA 90 ICELAND 9 ROMANIA 2,370
AZERBAIJAN 300 IRELAND 221 RUSSIA 3,579
BELARUS 861 ITALY 141 SAN MARINO 0
BELGIUM 39 KAZAKHSTAN 876 SERBIA-MONTENEGRO 401
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 59 KYRGYZSTAN 184 SLOVAKIA 331
BULGARIA 2,893 LATVIA 175 SLOVENIA 10
CROATIA 62 LIECHTENSTEIN 0 SPAIN 37
CYPRUS 12 LITHUANIA 1,200 SWEDEN 87
CZECH REPUBLIC 137 LUXEMBOURG 2 SWITZERLAND 1660
DENMARK 45 MACEDONIA, FORMER TAJIKISTAN 46
ESTONIA 47 YUGOSLAV REP. OF 190 TURKEY 1,011
FINLAND 27 MALTA 4 TURKMENISTAN 48
FRANCE 260 MOLDOVA 269 UKRAINE 5,029
REUNION 1 MONACO 0 UZBEKISTAN 1,026
GEORGIA 287 NETHERLANDS 53
ARUBA 1

NORTH AMERICA

BAHAMAS, THE 19

OCEANIA

AUSTRALIA 333 NAURU 0 SOLOMON ISLANDS 0
FIJI 676 NEW ZEALAND 224 TONGA 55
KIRIBATI 0 PALAU 0 TUVALU 0
MARSHALL ISLANDS 0 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 3 VANUATU 1
MICRONESIA, FEDERATED
STATES OF SAMOA 8

SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA 1 DOMINICA 18 PERU 872
ARGENTINA 117 ECUADOR 1,167 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 1
BARBADOS 4 GRENADA 3 SAINT LUCIA 6
BELIZE 4 GUATEMALA 27 SAINT VINCENT AND
BOLIVIA 17 GUYANA 47 THE GRENADINES 6
BRAZIL 397 HONDURAS 47 SURINAME 0
CHILE 9 NICARAGUA 21 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 102
COSTA RICA 24 PANAMA 30 URUGUAY 12
CUBA 743 PARAGUAY 8 VENEZUELA 130

Natives of the following were not eligible were not eligible to participate in DV-2001: Canada, China (except Hong Kong S.A.R.), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, Taiwan , United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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