If you meet both eligibility criteria for the Diversity Visa Lottery, you are only permitted to submit ONE application to the DV-Lottery with yourself as the main applicant, USAFIS has learned. The U.S. Congress established a random lottery system to provide a fair method for randomly selecting people to have the opportunity to apply for a Diversity Visa to immigrate to the United States.

Consequently, the U.S. State Department uses sophisticated technology to catch “cheaters” and will disqualify anyone who submits more than one application to the DV-Lottery in any given year.

Please note, however, that the Diversity Visa Lottery rules do allow two legally married spouses who both meet the eligibility criteria to each submit a separate application to the DV-Lottery, which can double their chances of being selected.  

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