The U.S. diversity immigration program, more commonly known as the Immigration Lottery, makes available 55,000 permanent residence visas each year to persons meeting the eligibility requirements. However, the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulates that beginning with DV-99, and for as long as necessary, 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas will be made available for use under the NACARA program. Visas are apportioned among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and no visas going to countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. No one country can receive more than 3,500 diversity visas in any one year. Each year a 30-day period is selected for the filing of the Lottery application There is no special form for the lottery and you DO NOT need a lawyer or any other agency to file for you. The selection of winners is made at random and no outside service can improve an applicant's chances of being chosen or guarantee an entry will win. Any service that claims it can improve an applicant's odds would be promising something it cannot deliver. The Department of State made the following comment: "There is NO initial fee, other than postage, required to enter the DV-2004 program. The use of an outside intermediary or assistance to prepare a DV-2004 entry is entirely at the applicant's discretion. Qualified entries received directly from applicants or through intermediaries have equal chances of being selected by computer. There is no advantage to mailing early, or mailing from any particular place. Every entry received during the mail-in period will have an equal random chance of being selected within its region. However, more than one entry per person will disqualify the person from registration." To get more information and a free application with instruction go to the usimmigrationlottery.com site using the link below.