DV-2013 Green Card Lottery Applications fall 50 percent

Entries into the US Diversity Visa Lottery, also know as the green card lottery fell almost 50 percent last year, from 15 million the prior year to 8 million. This huge decrease in applicant entries was mainly due to natives from Sri Lanka not qualifying to enter the lottery any more. Each year the US Department of state makes a list of countries that are eligible to enter the lottery from a formula that states: Countries that have sent less than 50,000 immigrants to the US over the past 5 years are eligible to enter the lottery. This is one of the reasons why natives from Russia were allowed to enter the lottery again last year, due to the huge drop in children adopted from Russia the past 5 years. Last year natives from Poland were allowed to enter the lottery again after not being eligible for a decade.