The Program commonly known as American Visa Lottery is a lottery and the results of any lottery are down to pure chance. This means, there’s no way to increase your chance of winning any lottery except by buying more tickets, or by playing multiple times. However, there are things to do in order to protect your chance of winning this beautiful gift from American government.


Winning a Green card or permanent stay in the United States of America is one of the greatest gift for many people living in poor countries, finding ways to join developed nations for better life.

Since the diversity lottery is restricted to just one entry per person and your identity is reasonably easily verified , you cannot play this game multiple times at the same moment to increase your chances.

You will have exactly the same chance as everyone else who does. No matter what expensive “visa consultants” or others may say, no-one has a better chance than anyone else, with the possible exception that some nationalities may have a sightly better chance of their entry being picked due to the 7% cap on visas from any one country.

If you ignore the below secrets or you don’t respect them, you will be like a footballer who scored a goal with hand against another player who scored with foot, waiting for the match officials to decide who is the winner.

How to protect your chances in DV Lottery ?

Secret 1: Avoid Using A Third Party Service Or Let It Be Done Carefully

Many people trust visa consultants, agencies or internet cafe attendants when it comes to registering for this particular Visa Lottery. Nevertheless it’s not all of them who do this job very well. Some of them are beginners, some master it very well but they can be careless sometimes for some reasons.

The first time a friend of mine, Carolina was applying for this Lottery, she fell on a photographer. This means she had a very beautiful photo. The man was not a beginner, but made a mistake on her surname. She noticed this big typo after going back home😂.

I got a call from this girl:

– Hi Mess, I have registered for the US visa Lottery today but trust me , I don’t want to win this year😂.

The main reason is that Carolina is not ready to deal with this problem if she wins. She is also not sure whether she will win again if it happens that she wins despite the mistake and was unable to travel because of it.

This is why she wishes not to win this time especially since her name was wrongly spelled.
Fortunately or unfortunately 😂, she lost that year.

Assuming she won that year, we don’t know how this problem would be solved.

So we advise you to fill the form yourself if you can. Or you might seek assistance of someone who really knows how to do it.

Mostly during this time, there are a long queue at the offices of those who had more winners the last years. It’s also not a bad idea but it doesn’t assure that there won’t be a mess this time. Just be careful and follow the process as it’s recommended.



Secret 2: Don’t Lie

Write only the truth about yourself: Your marital status, your qualification, your nationality, Your date of birth , Name and surname (exactly as it’s on your documents), your other personal details and your family members must be accurate.

The correct country of chargability must be chosen, especially if you are using the cross-chargability rules to use the country of birth of your spouse or parent because your own country of birth is ineligible.

Secret 3: Use English letters only

While filling the form, make sure you use only English letters. It’s advisable to use capital letters than using small letters. For instance if your name is written in French: “Aimé ” you should rather write AIME in order to avoid using the accent.

Anyway, this secret might only help you apply easily and quickly. Many people fail to complete their registration because they don’t know about this.


Secret 4: Make The Right Photo

Many applicants fail at providing a correct photo. The system automatically disqualify applications which have photos not meeting requirements. There are many requirements and conditions from the background to the head size.

Read the photo specification instructions carefully and follow it. Once again, put some effort into getting the pictures correct.

Secrets 5: Submit only one entry per year

Duplicate applications submitted by one same are disqualified. It is acceptable, provided both qualify, for a husband and wife to submit their own entry as the principal applicant with the other as the derivative, thus legitimately giving two chances to be selected.

Secret 6 : Try To Apply Early

In general, there’s nothing wrong with applying too early or too late. But it’s better to submit your application before the last days.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t win if you apply at the last 5 minutes. However anything can happen. There might be some challenges such as low internet, slow loading of the website, etc.

One of my cousins missed her chance last year because she tried to apply very late. She started filling the form online at the last 2 hours on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 for DV-2022 Entry.
In fact, Elvira forgot about the deadline of the application. She even started filling this form after seeing my post on Facebook, as I usually try to remind all my followers on Facebook, about the Opening and the deadline.

She immediately started applying. unfortunately the system was very slow that time. It was the last two hours, While she thought it was the last 5 hours.

When she noticed the website was loading too slow. She stopped trying, expecting to apply later.

Elvira came back to the website 2hours later. Guess! It was already 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5). Meaning , No way to apply again. It’s closed!

Secret 7: Confirm Your Application

And African proverb says: “If you kill a snake, cut its head.”
Confirming your application is the most important and the last button! Don’t forget it. There might be some errors if you don’t use the right characters in the form.
Fix them and “Apply”!

Secret 8 : Keep The Confirmation Number

After confirming your application , you will receive your “ticket” ( the confirmation number). Don’t lose it! That’s your “ticket”, without which you will never know if you were selected or not. Keep at least a screenshot of the confirmation number in your Google drive or Google photos if possible.

Secret 9: DON’T SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH PEOPLE

Generally it’s not advisable to share your details such as, Full name, Date of birth, Passport number, or even a copy of your passport with people.

Most of you might be wondering how this can affect one’s chance to win a US green card.

Listen: Double applications are undoubtedly disqualified. Someone wishing your failure might apply even more than once, with your personal details. Be careful!


After all this, the rest is all up to Lady Luck. This means you might be part of winners of the Green card. In order words if you haven’t done the right thing, you should not even expect the result.

The entry registration period opens annually in October for about five weeks. Click here to check the date.