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New State Department Submission Rules - August 18, 2003 Update
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Since the inception of the Diversity Visa Program, the Department
has required that all petitions for acceptance of an alien into the
program be submitted by mail during a thirty-day period in the fiscal
year preceding the fiscal year for which petitioners seek eligibility
for the program. To date, submission by any means other than regular
mail has been prohibited.
According to the new rule, alien petitioners for the
Diversity Visa Program will no longer be permitted to submit a petition
by mail. Instead, the Department will require that all petitions be
submitted to it in an electronic format, using an Internet website
dedicated specifically to the submission and receipt of Diversity Visa
Program petitions. The website will have contained in it a standard
petition form which the petitioner, or someone acting for the
petitioner, must fill out on-line and send electronically to the
Department at a web address. The person completing the petition form
will also be required to attach to the electronic petition individual
digital photographs of the petitioner and the petitioner's spouse and
unmarried children under 21 who will be seeking to accompany or follow
to join the petitioner should the petitioner receive a diversity
immigrant visa. The photographs will have specific requirements as to
size, composition and quality. Fees will be handled as they are under
the current rules for diversity program petitions. Because the petition
must be submitted electronically, the current requirement that the
petition and photographs be signed, is, necessarily, being eliminated.
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