Why Nigeria is excluded from participating in the American Visa Lottery

by Staff writer

The Diversity Visa lottery has that name because it is designed to encourage diversity of origin in the US immigrant population.

For that reason, countries that have sent 50,000 or more immigrants to the US in the previous five years are not eligible.

Each country has a set number of people they can send to the U.S. through the lottery scheme, and Nigeria has exceeded her quota, hence, her exclusion from participating in the lottery.

18 countries whose nationals cannot enter the 2019 lottery are:

1. Bangladesh

2. Brazil

3. Canada

4. China (mainland born)

5. Colombia

6. Dominican Republic

7. El Salvador

8. Haiti

9. India

10. Jamaica

11. Mexico

12. Nigeria

13. Pakistan

14. Peru

15. Philippines

16. South Korea

17. United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and

18. Vietnam.

This list has not changed as from 2018.

Lottery applications for the 2019 draw has since started since May 2017.