The Green Card Lottery

Interesting coincidence. When I moved to Harare, I lived in the embassy district on a block next to the American embassy. I walked past the embassy everyday for more than three years on my way to work, town and the park.

I was reading The Herald sometime in late 1997 when a small rectangular advertisement in the bottom right-hand corner of the paper's last page caught my eye. The advertisment was posted by the National Visa Service inviting entrants to the U.S. Green Card Lottery.

The U.S. Green Card Lottery is a diversity immigrant program administered by the United States Department of State. The U.S. government annually issues approximately 50 000 diversity visas to citizens of eligible countries randomly selected from the lottery pool.

If you are interested in entering the lottery you must visit the State Department's website and do the following:

• Check to see whether you are from an eligible country (see page 13)
• Make note of the current or next lottery's opening and closing dates
• Prepare your entry materials; usually basic personal information and two headshots as specified on the website. Importantly: You must strictly follow the photograph specifications, failure to do so will automatically disqualify your entry.
• Submit your entry as early as possible