Immigrant Visas

General Information

The Embassy accepts applications for immigrant visas on Thursdays from 8:30 am to 10:00 am. "Immigrant visas" include immediate relatives, as well as special immigrants. This is how to apply for a visa:
Immigrant visas generally require a petition filed in the United States by an American citizen or legal permanent resident in favor of an alien beneficiary, or with the closest Department Of Homeland Security (DHS) office in the region, and few cases at Post. For more inquiries you may call us at 291-1-120004 between 2:00 PM and 6:00 PM Monday thru Thursday.

Priority dates

In all immigrant visa categories except for immediate relative ("IR") cases, U.S. law limits the number, which can be issued each year. To find out whether visas are available yet in your category, go to The Bureau of Consular Affairs Home Page or call at 202-663-1225. If your case is not yet current, the consular officer cannot issue you an immigrant visa under U.S. law.

Processing current and "IR" cases

If the Immigration Service sent you notice of approval in an immediate relative case, or if your petition is in a numerically limited category with a current priority date (see above), the consulate can process your case. If your case is current or "IR" category, the alien relative beneficiary can activate his/her case by requesting, by mail, an interview appointment. The request should include a copy of the "Notice of Approval of Petition" provided by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. It should be mailed to the attention of the Immigrant Visa Section to the address above.

Diversity Visas ("Visa Lottery")

The congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is administered on an annual basis by the Department of State and conducted under the terms of Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Section 131 of the Immigration Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-649) amended INA 203 to provide for a new class of immigrants known as "diversity immigrants" (DV immigrants). The Act makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The annual DV program makes permanent residence visas available to persons meeting the simple, but strict, eligibility requirements. A computer-generated random lottery drawing chooses applicants for Diversity Visas. The visas, however, are distributed among six geographic regions with a greater number of visas going to regions with lower rates of immigration, and with no visas going to citizens of countries sending more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years. Within each region, no one country may receive more than seven percent of the available Diversity Visas in any one year.
For further information go to THE BUREAU OF CONSULAR AFFAIRS HOME PAGE.