Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
February 10, 2005

2006 Diversity Visa Lottery Registrations

Over 6.3 million entries for the 2006 Diversity Visa Lottery were received during the two-month electronic registration period, from noon on November 5, 2004, through noon January 7, 2005.

The electronic registration process continues to increase the Department's ability to screen against duplicate and other fraudulent entries. Anti-fraud technology in use for the 2006 Diversity Visa Lottery detected 31,334 exact duplicates, which were then eliminated from the eligible entry pool. An additional 5,221 entries were eliminated through the utilization of facial recognition and knowledge discovery software.

In response to demand for electronic lottery registration, the Department tripled the number of servers hosting the registration website for the 2006 lottery. In addition, persons submitting entries to the 2006 lottery received a notice of receipt containing the name, date of birth, and country of chargeability for the registrant, as well as a time/date stamp when entries had been successfully registered.

The number of winning entries by country of chargeability will be available later this year, after the random lottery process is complete.

There have been several instances of groups or individuals attempting to defraud Diversity Visa Lottery entrants. Lottery entrants selected as winners in the Diversity Visa random drawing are notified by the Department of State's Kentucky Consular Center. No other organization or company is authorized by the Department of State to notify Diversity Visa Lottery entrants of their winning entry.

Notification of winning entries will be sent to the winning entrants by mail only between May and July 2005 and will provide further instructions, including information on fees connected with immigration to the United States.

2005/175

Released on February 10, 2005