The Diversity Visa Lottery—A Cycle of Unintended Consequences in United States Immigration Policy

ANNA O. LAW

EACH YEAR SINCE 1988, the federal government of the United States runs an unusual lottery—not a lottery that awards cash, but one that awards 50,000 visas to nationals of a special list of designated countries that are deemed "underrepresented" in the current legal immigration system. The lucky winners of the visa lottery are granted a visa to enter the United States, lawful permanent residence status (the coveted green card), and the recipients eventually qualify for naturalization. Many immigration analysts and others in the public may have heard by now of this small and obscure provision,1 What is not known is the true origin of the provision including the impetus for its creation, and how far the program has strayed from its originally intended purpose. How did such a bizarre program that contradicts the philosophy of American immigration admissions become a temporary, and then later a permanent part of the Immigration and Nationality Act?