Those who want to participate in the upcoming green card lottery will now need a valid, unexpired passport.
Instructions for DV-2021 have a passport number, country of issuance, and expiration date of the passport as some of the information that will be needed to enter the lottery. The passport requirement only applies to the principal entrants, and not dependents.
Individuals who are stateless, nationals of a Communist-controlled country are exempt from the passport requirement. Also exempt are beneficiaries of an individual waiver approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State.
In previous Diversity Immigration Visa registrations, entrants did not need a passport to participate. A passport was only required for winners of the lottery at the green card interview stage.
The new passport requirement was first announced by the State Department in June of this year. In a notice on the Federal Register, the State Department said the move was necessitated by “significant number of fraudulent entries for the Diversity Visa program each year.”
In some cases, the Department said third parties are submitting entries for individuals unbeknownst to them, then charging them exorbitant fees if they won to claim their winning confirmation numbers.
The DV-2021 registration period runs from October 2nd to November 5th, 2019.
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