Hi,

I am an international student at an American  college, and have
applied to the Diversity Visa Program held every year by the I.N.S. I
am an Italian citizen and, unfortunately, I have never been selected
in the past four years when I have applied. I have become curious as
to what kind of chances I have to actually win it. Basically, I know
that there have been 202 Italians who won the lottery this year, but I
would like to know what kind of statistical chance did they (and I)
have to win it. I am unsure if the lottery quotas are set based on
geographical region (such as Europe or Asia) - in which case I guess
the chances are quite slim- or by country, which should make it easier
for me (I think). In any case, I would really appreciate any help on
this! Thank you.

Hello Samo82,

The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to
persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements.
Applicants for Diversity Visas are chosen by a computer-generated
random lottery drawing.

The visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions with
a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of
immigration, and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending
more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years.

Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent
of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html
 

WHAT ARE THE REGIONAL DIVERSITY VISA (DV) LIMITS FOR DV-2006?

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determines the
DV regional limits for each year according to a formula specified in
Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html

The following is the statistical breakdown by foreign-state
chargeability of those registered for the DV-2005 program

EUROPE

Italy 202
Albania 3,380
Andorra 1
Armenia 1,004
Austria 91
Azerbaijan 235
Belarus 925
Belgium 81
Bosnia & herzegovina 103
Bulgaria 4,068
Croatia 69
Cyprus 14
Czech republic 169
Denmark 42
Estonia 64
Finland 59
France 384
French Southern &
Antarctic Lands 1
Martinique 2
New Caledonia 1
Reunion 3
Georgia 375
Germany 1,275
Greece 78
Hungary 181
Iceland 5
Ireland 205
Kazakhstan 296
Kyrgyzstan 206
Latvia 158
Liechtenstein 1
Lithuania 1,114
Luxembourg 2
Macedonia, former
Yugoslav rep. Of 306
Malta 0
Moldova 383
Monaco 0
Netherlands 130
Netherlands antilles 10
Aruba 2
Northern ireland 75
Norway 25
Poland 6,211
Portugal 51
Macau 12
Romania 2,521
San marino 0
Serbia & montenegro 425
Slovakia 398
Slovenia 6
Spain 134
Sweden 115
Switzerland 136
Tajikistan 83
Turkey 1,803
Turkmenistan 78
Ukraine 5,361
Uzbekistan 1,551
Vatican city 0

Check out the numbers for the other regions here:
http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1347.html


Please let me know if this answers your question?

Thanks,
Bobbie7
Google Answers Researcher

Thanks, but I found those data as well. I know that 202 Italians got
the visa this year, but I wanted to know what are the chances of
getting it. That is, what is my percentage chance, as an Italian
applicant, to get the visa... is it 1%, 2%, 10% or 0.001%?
Thanks for the answer, though.

Best,
Samo82