Just wanted to say that not enough people know about the Green Card Diversity Lottery https://www.dvlottery.state.gov.
The odds are kinda small and there are restrictions but I know at least three people who got their green card this way.
The odds are kinda small and there are restrictions but I know at least three people who got their green card this way.
For example, when applying for an F or J visa (student/post-doc, say) the consular officer will ask you if you have intent to emigrate. The only allowed answer is a firm "No and I have permanent connections to my home country."
If you've applied for the green card lottery in the past, the consular officer could interpret this as having intent to emigrate and then deny you on any other non dual-intent visas.
Are the odds still good?
Thanks for posting it. It's super-interesting. I always suspected the chance for my country (Australia) was _reasonably_ good. This bears that out. In fact it might even be higher (5%) than I'd expected.
That being said I tried like 6-8 times and never won. But that's not too surprising even at 1 in 20.
In fact I think I've only ever met one person who had won this. As it happened he was from Russia.
Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and some other islands) happens to have few applicants relative to its regional quota.
If it is that, then it's a terrible name.
Selecting by country of birth prevents those shenanigans.
I don't know about survivor bias but I think the movies were right. The odds are ever in you favor, and you can't see past the choices you don't understand ;)