The number of Kenyans who have tried their luck with the US Diversity Visa lottery (green card lottery) draw keeps rising, according to latest data released by US State Department
A total of 442,966 Kenyans applied for the US green card in the Fiscal Year 2018. This was a 23 per cent rise compared to 2017 when 360,023 Kenyans entered the lottery.
In 2016, a total of 304,693 Kenyans entered the lottery draw.
The 2018 figure includes 317,029 entrants and 125,937 derivatives (spouses and children that entrants included in their application forms).
Globally, Ghana had the highest number of entrants at 2,227,5230. Other countries with high numbers of entrants included Uzbekistan (2.1 million), Iran (1.6 million), Ukraine (1.4 million), Egypt (1.2 million), Nepal (1.18 million), and Ethiopia (1.05 million).
Only a total of 55,000 entrants worldwide are selected for diversity visas each year.
The Diversity Visa lottery system makes 55,000 permanent visas available each year to nationals of countries with small populations of immigrants in the US.
In 2018, nationals from 17 countries were ineligible to participate in the program for having a large number of immigrants in the US. These included Bangladesh, India, China, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, and Nigeria.
The next registration period (DV-2021) is expected to run between October and November, 2019.
Results for last year’s lottery registration (DV-2020) are expected to be available online at the State Department website starting on May 7, 2019.