Officially called the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, the Green Card Lottery, is a legal program organized by the government of the United States of America. It is created especially for people who are natives of countries with low immigration rates into the US. It annually grants 50,000 diversity immigrant visas, which allow the winner to live, work and study legally in the US. In addition to this, the green card holder is also permitted to bring his spouse and unmarried children of below 21 years of age into the US.

For you to qualify to a green card lottery program, you should come from an eligible country and meet either the working experience or education requirement stipulated by the Department of State. Though there was no specified age required by the program, the education or work experience necessitated for an applicant will automatically exclude individuals below 18 years of age.

Furthermore, if you are currently residing in an ineligible country but were born in legible one, then you still qualify in the green card lottery. Moreover, you must submit a recent photograph along with the photos of your spouse and unmarried children below 21 years of age. Your pictures can either be scanned using a digital scanner or taken using a digital camera. All of your pictures must adhere to the following compositional and technical specifications of the Department of State:

• Your submitted picture must be in a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format.
• The maximum photo size that can be received is 240 KB or 62,500 bytes.
• Your visa picture must have a 24-bit image color depth. You are not allowed to submit grayscale, monochrome (2-bit color depth) or black and white photographs.
• Your green card lottery photograph must have a resolution of 600 x 600 pixels and a minimum of 150 dots per inch (dpi).

Furthermore, citizens of the following countries are ineligible to join the DV-2010 Green Card Lottery since these have provided huge numbers (50,000) of immigrants within the last 5 years.

• United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland)
• South Korea
• Poland
• Peru
• Philippines
• Pakistan
• Mexico
• Jamaica
• India
• Haiti
• Guatemala
• El Salvador
• Ecuador
• Dominican Republic
• Colombia
• China (except for Hong Kong and Macau)
• Canada
• Brazil

You can join the green card lottery by initially completing the eligibility requirements, fill up the Electronic Diversity Visa (E-DV) Entry Forms found online and submit your most recent photograph. It is better that you apply along with your spouse and submit a 'family application' to increase your chances of winning. You no longer need to produce supporting documents, like education, marriage or birth certificates, since these are only required in the event that you win a green card.

If you are fortunate enough to be randomly selected in the green card lottery, then you will be notified through mail. Guidelines and fee information will also be sent to you. However, you must bear in mind that being a winner does not totally assure that you will be granted a visa. Even though you are qualified to become a green card holder, the fact still remains that the number of winners drawn is greater than the available diversity immigrant visas. You do not need to worry though since not all winners in the green card lottery are qualified to get a green card or will even opt to continue the green card application process. The moment that the 50,000 immigrant visas have been granted, the green card lottery will then end.

It may then take you about 6 to 12 months to be able to successfully migrate into the United States of America. Your green card is valid for an indefinite period providing that you stay in the US. There is no particular time restriction on how long you may live, work or study in the US. Once you get to maintain your residence for 5 years, you may start your application for a US citizenship.