Number of people participating in Green Card lottery is growing in Georgia

The number of people participating in the Green Card lottery to emigrate to the United States has grown significantly in Georgia said the director of the Turebi.ge company Niko Gogoladze in the “Sakmiani Dila” program of TV Pirveli. According to him, if in 2011 20,000 people from Georgia registered in the Green Card draw, then in 2021 their number is already 112,000.

The Green Card Lottery was established by the 1990 US Immigration Act and is administered by the Department of State once a year.

550,000 immigrant visas are issued annually to preserve the diversity of the US population and allow citizens of different countries to live there legally.

Green Card holders become permanent residents of the United States, are allowed to live and work legally, receive government health insurance, concessional loans, and have a US Social Security number.

However, as is often the case, obtaining a Green Card does not mean obtaining citizenship – it is a much more complicated and time-consuming process.

“This year the statistics are growing even more, and if you take the first three weeks of the draw, the number of applications has doubled. We help register about 10% of this number, and so many messages are sent to us by users through social media, this has never happened before”, Gogoladze said.

According to general statistics, the highest percentage of winners in Georgia was recorded in 2018, when the map was won by 1,195 people out of 122,109 participants.

As for the lowest indicator, it was recorded in 2007 and amounted to 323 people out of 26,065 participants.

Niko Gogoladze also says that in addition to the Green Card, the demand for tourist visas in the United States has grown, so there are no places for interviews at the embassy until February 2023. Also, statistics on work visas to Mexico and Poland are growing.

According to the US Department of State, 112,464 applications were filed for the Green Card lottery from Georgia this year. This is 29,000 applications less than last year.

According to State Department statistics, among European countries, the most applications were registered this year in non-EU countries:

● Albania (240 886)
● Armenia (160,965)
● Azerbaijan (166 646)
● Moldova (214,036)
● Russia (533,169)
● Turkey (231,910)
● Ukraine (426 209)

Most of the Green Card winners had in Georgia was recorded in the 2021 fiscal year – 1,899 people.