Venezuela is out of the US “visa lottery” for the year 2023

The government of USA announced that on October 6 it will begin to receive applications for the “visa lottery”Corresponding to fiscal year 2023, a period for which nationals of Venezuela as well as Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, among others, have been excluded.

The registration period for this annual draw expires on November 9, and that fiscal year will deliver 55,000 visas of lawful permanent residence, or “green card”.

Between 11 million and 14 million citizens of the countries Washington lists participate in it, who can apply for free on the US Department of State website.

This year, nationals of Canada, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom and its territories with the exception of Northern Ireland were also excluded.

The sweepstakes rules exclude countries that have sent more than 50,000 migrants to the United States in the past five years, and rather open participation to citizens of countries with historically low rates of migration to the United States.

This year the draw has a particular meaning given that US President Joe Biden lifted the restrictions on the program and in general the immigration bans ordered by his predecessor, Donald Trump.

In 2017, Trump instituted a series of measures to prevent the entry into the country of citizens of countries with a Muslim majority, and the one that ultimately came into effect imposed limits on migration from eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea. , Syria, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen.

Shortly after his presidential inauguration on January 20, Biden issued a decree putting “End to discriminatory vetoes to enter the US.”

According to the State Department, in application of the rules imposed by Trump, tens of thousands of visa applications were rejected in fiscal periods 2017, 2018 and 2019.

The lottery visas It was established by a 1990 law and is aimed at applicants who meet certain requirements such as having a high school education, at least two years of work experience, and a clean criminal record.

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