Embassy of the United States Budapest, Hungary

Last Updated on 01/10/2012

Since October 1, 1994, 50,000 immigrant visas have been made available annually to natives of foreign states which the U.S. Attorney General has determined to have had a low ratio of immigrants admitted under the other sections of the immigration law. Such immigrants are identified by random selection each year by the Secretary of State from among persons who submit applications during a specified period. Applicants for diversity immigrant status must have a high school education or two (2) years of recent work experience in a skilled job. 

• Important Notice: DV 2013 Program - The online registration period for the 2013 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2013) began on October 4, 2011 and concluded on November 5, 2011.  See the DV-2013 Instructions (PDF 280K).
• More information about the DV Program is available on the web site of the U.S. Department of State.
• Interview Preparation for Diversity Visa Winners

Warning: Diversity Immigrant Visa Fraud

There have been many recent instances of fraudulent websites posing as official U.S. Government sites, and "scam" e-mails posing as Diversity Visa lottery notification and soliciting funds. In a similar fraud scheme, some companies posing as the U.S. Government have sought money in order to "complete" lottery entry applications. There is no charge to complete the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form. To learn more see the Department of State Warning and the Federal Trade Commission Warning.

Some websites may try to mislead customers and members of the public into thinking they are official websites and may contact you by e-mail to lure you to their offers. These websites may attempt to require you to pay for services such as forms and information about immigration procedures, which are otherwise free on the Department of State Visa Services website or through U.S. embassy consular sections’ websites. Additionally, these other websites may require you to pay for services you will not receive (such as fees for DV immigration applications and visas) in an effort to steal your money. If you send in money to one of these scams, you will never see it again. Also, you should be wary of sending any personal information to these websites that might be used for identity fraud/theft.

Only the website of the U.S. Embassy in Hungary, and domestic U.S. Government sites (which always end with ".gov" as the last three letters of the address) should be trusted as authoritative sources of travel and immigration information.  If you wish to file a complaint about Internet fraud, please see the econsumer.gov website, hosted by the Federal Trade Commission, in cooperation with consumer-protection agencies from 17 nations.  You may also report fraud to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center. To file a complaint about unsolicited email, visit the Department of Justice Contact Us page.

The E-DV lottery entries are submitted on the Internet, on the official U.S. Government E-DV website. The KCC will not send notification letters to the selected applicants. The KCC, consular offices, or the U.S. Government has never sent e-mails to notify individuals they have been selected. All entrants, including those NOT selected, may check the status of their entry through the Entry Status Check on the E-DV website, and find out if their entry was or was not selected. Entrants should keep their own confirmation page information from the time of their entry until the completion of their visa application, if selected. 

Important Notice Regarding the 2012 Diversity Visa Program

The results of the selection process for the 2012 Diversity Visa (DV-2012) program have been voided.  Results previously available via the Entry Status Check (ESC) function on the Department of State website, dvlottery.state.gov, were posted in error and are now invalid.  The results were not valid because, owing to a computer error, they did not represent a fair, random selection of entrants, as required by U.S. law. 

This means that we have rescinded all notices informing entrants that they had been selected for further processing in DV-2012; if you received such a notice via ESC on dvlottery.state.gov, it is no longer valid.
A new random selection process will be conducted based on the original entries for the DV-2012 program.  If you submitted a qualified entry from October 5, 2010, to November 3, 2010, you do not need to reapply.  Your entry will be included in the new random selection.  Your confirmation number, which is required to determine the status of your entry, remains the same.  We are not accepting new entries for the DV-2012 program.

We expect the results of the new random selection process to be available by July 15, 2011, via the ESC function on dvlottery.state.gov.
We regret any inconvenience this might have caused.

For further information and future updates on the 2012 DV program, please the DV program website and the Department of State website.