Green Card

The diversity visa lottery to win green cards was a program by which a category of immigrants from underrepresented countries and those adversely effected by the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 (P.L. 89-236) were to receive a special immigration benefit. In 1986 the United States Congress attempted to assist recently disadvantaged immigrants with an emphasis on persons from the Irish Isles obtain some special way to immigrate and receive a green card to the United States. The sponsors of the Legislation, (among them prominent Irish-American members of Congress) devised a lottery program that would grant green cards to persons from otherwise underrepresented countries. Since that initial program, changes have been made. The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is also known as the Diversity Lottery program or the Green Card Lottery. It is administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203© of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants” (DV immigrants).