143,000 Applicants including 3,760 Kenyans Won the DV-2024 Green Card Lottery - US State Department

Approximately 143,000 applicants from various countries across the world were selected for the DV-2024 Diversity Visa program (green card lottery), according to the US State Department.

Data released in September by the State Department shows that 22,185,619 individuals submitted entries during the DV-2024 registration period that ran from October 5, 2022 to November 8, 2022.

The 143,000 selectees will need to submit an application for an immigrant visa and receive their permanent resident status (green card) by September 30, 2024. Out of this number, the State Department only selects a maximum of 55,000 for permanent residency. Some who win the lottery fail to eventually get permanent resident visas for various reasons such as being ineligible based on education requirements, mistakes in their application forms, suspicion of fraud/deception. Others who may have met all the requirements fail to receive permanent residency simply because the 55,000 quota has been met.

For DV-2024, a total of 3,760 Kenyans won the lottery and will be required to completed an application for permanent residency, undergo a mandatory interview at the US consulate, and be granted permanent residency by September 30, 2024.

The DV program, which is administered by the US State Department, runs annually between October and November and is intended to diversify the immigrant population in the US. It makes available on a lottery basis up to 55,000 green cards for natives of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.

Countries that sent more than 50,000 of its citizens over the previous five years are ineligible to participate in the program. For this reason, natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2024: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Registration period for DV-2025 is set to begin on Wednesday, October 4, 2025 12pm EDT and run until Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 12pm EST (READ MORE: US Green Card Lottery Registration Period for DV-2025 Begins October 4, 2023).