Jamaicans not eligible for Diversity Visa Lottery
Q. I am a Jamaican citizen and yesterday I received an email telling me that I had won the Diversity Visa Lottery! I was surprised, because I hadn’t even entered the Diversity Visa Lottery. But I am very excited that I won! What do I do next?
A. Do not respond to that email, it is certainly fraudulent! The Diversity Visa Lottery is indeed a legitimate programme of the United States government. However, it is NOT a programme that extends to Jamaican citizens. It is available to citizens of certain countries that have had fewer than 50,000 people immigrate to the United States in the past five years.
Unfortunately, Jamaica is one of a special group of countries that is not eligible for the Diversity Visa because more than 50,000 Jamaicans have received immigrant visas to migrate to the United States in the past five years.
Since Jamaicans are not eligible to participate in the Diversity Visa programme, you can be certain that anyone who contacts you and tells you that you have won that lottery is trying to swindle you. We would hate for anything bad to happen to you because of this program. For that reason, please be careful and delete that email.
This also goes for anyone who tries to receive an application fee from you to apply for the Diversity Visa programme. Since Jamaican citizens are not eligible to receive Diversity Lottery visas, they also are not able to apply for them. Therefore, the US government would never require a fee for a Jamaican to participate in the Diversity Visa Lottery programmme.
Diversity Visa Lottery fraud is a worldwide problem, even in countries where citizens are eligible to participate. Protect yourself and learn more at our worldwide page regarding Diversity Visa Lottery fraud:
travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/general/fraud.html.
You can find more information about how to travel to the US on our website,
www.kingston.usembassy.gov and the website of our authorised service provider atwww.usvisa-info.com. Keep on top of Embassy news on ourFacebook page,www.facebook.com/pages/US-Embassy-Jamaica, and by following@USEmbassyJA onTwitter. We also answer general visa questions on ourFacebook andTwitter pages.