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Press Release

Internet Registration for Entering 2006 Diversity Visa Lottery Begins November 5, 2004

The Department of State has announced that registration for the 2006 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery will officially open at noon November 5, 2004 and will run through noon January 7, 2005. All persons registering for an opportunity to apply for a U.S. immigrant visa under the DV program have to do so electronically through a designated Internet website. Starting with last year's DV lottery, the Department of State no longer accepts mail-in or paper requests for diversity visa registration.

The Diversity Lottery program is an annual lottery run by the U.S. Department of State that offers up to 55,000 permanent resident visas each year to randomly selected applicants from eligible countries. Each year, approximately 6 million people worldwide register to participate in the program.

The Department of State has established the following website for registration to participate in the 2006 DV lottery:

http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/

This website includes instructions and a standard petition form to be filled out and sent electronically. Applicants are also required to include digital photographs. Successful registrations will result in the display of a confirmation screen containing the applicant's name, date of birth, country of chargeability, and a date/time stamp, which can then be printed out. Only one registration is permitted per person, although qualifying members of the same family may each submit separate registrations (e.g. spouses may each register independently if they both meet the qualifications).

The Department of State strongly encourages DV lottery entrants to register as early as possible; waiting until the last days of the program may put an applicant's entry at risk. Please note that no registrations will be accepted prior to noon (EST) November 5, 2004, and no registrations will be accepted after noon (EST) January 7, 2006 regardless of computer system-related, or other, problems.

For further information and detailed instructions on the DV lottery, in both English and Chinese, please visit the AIT website at http://www.ait.org.tw/en/visa/iv/ and choose the link for "DV 2006."