The Green Card lottery, officially known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, is a United States government program that makes 55,000 permanent resident visas available annually to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. The visas are distributed randomly by an annual lottery. However, there are certain countries whose citizens are not eligible to apply for the Green Card lottery. The UK is one of those countries.
What is the Green Card Lottery?
The Green Card lottery, officially known as the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, is a program run by the U.S. Department of State. It allows up to 55,000 people per year to gain permanent resident status in the United States through a lottery system. Being selected in the lottery allows the applicant and their spouse and children under 21 years old to apply for and receive a green card if they meet eligibility requirements.
The Green Card lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the U.S. by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States over the previous five years. Currently, around 12 million green cards have been issued through the Diversity Visa lottery program.
Eligibility criteria for the Green Card Lottery
There are several eligibility requirements to apply for the Green Card lottery:
- You must be a native of a qualifying country – Countries whose citizens have been admitted in substantial numbers in the previous five years do not qualify.
- You must have a high school education or equivalent work experience.
- You must have at least two years of work experience in the previous five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training.
- You must meet certain health, character, and security requirements.
There are also restrictions on who can apply. For instance, if you have a green card, U.S. citizenship, certain criminal records, or if you’re from a country with high immigration rates to the U.S., you’ll be disqualified. We’ll discuss later why the UK doesn’t qualify.
Why are UK citizens not eligible for the Green Card Lottery?
Citizens of the UK are not eligible for the Green Card lottery because the UK is excluded under the ‘high admission region’ criteria of the program. A high admission region is defined as a country from which more than 50,000 immigrants have arrived in the U.S. over the previous five years.
Here are the key reasons why UK citizens do not qualify for the Diversity Visa lottery:
The UK is a high immigration country
Countries whose citizens have had high rates of immigration to the U.S. in the previous five years do not qualify for the Green Card lottery. The legislation specifically bars citizens of countries who had more than 50,000 immigrants acquire permanent resident status in the U.S. over the past five years. This includes the UK.
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, around 507,000 people born in the UK became permanent residents of the U.S. between 2017 and 2021. This is well above the 50,000 threshold, disqualifying the UK.
Most Western European countries are excluded
Apart from the UK, most Western European countries are ineligible for the lottery. This includes France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Portugal. All these countries send sufficiently large numbers of immigrants to the United States to be barred from the Green Card lottery.
The UK’s Human Development Index is very high
The Diversity Visa lottery aims to provide immigration opportunities to nationals of countries with lower living standards. The UK has one of the highest standards of living in the world. In 2021, it ranked 16th on the UN’s Human Development Index which measures health, education, and quality of life.
Most countries in Western Europe have high HDI ranks and are therefore excluded from the Green Card lottery’s eligibility.
When was the UK excluded from the Green Card Lottery?
The UK has always been ineligible for the Green Card lottery ever since the program started in 1995. The initial law that created the Diversity Visa program specifically named both the UK and Northern Ireland as regions excluded from the lottery.
In the Immigration Act of 1990 that created the permanent Diversity Visa program, the language read:
“Aliens born in any foreign state or dependent area shall not be eligible for a visa under this subsection if the number of immigrants from such state or dependent area granted immigrant visas or adjustments of status under section 245(a) [8 USCS § 1255(a)] in any fiscal year exceeded 5,000 in each of the previous 5 fiscal years.”
This ‘high admission regions’ criteria barred the UK and most of Western Europe from the very beginning.
Attempts to remove country limits
There have been a few proposals in the U.S. Congress over the years to remove the country limits from the Green Card lottery to allow high immigration countries like the UK to qualify. But none of them have passed so far. For example:
- In 2017, a bill called the SAFE for America Act was introduced which proposed eliminating per-country caps on employment-based immigrant visas and removing the country limitations for the Diversity Visa program.
- In 2019, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act proposed eliminating per-country caps but did not address the country exclusions for the Green Card lottery.
So the restrictions banning the UK and other Western European countries have remained in place to date.
Is there any other way for UK citizens to apply for a green card?
Even though they are not eligible for the Green Card lottery, UK citizens have other options to apply for permanent resident status in the U.S. The main alternative routes are:
Employment-based green cards
UK citizens can qualify for an employment-based green card if they have certain skills, education, job offers from U.S. employers, etc. Employment green cards allow you to live and work permanently in America.
The main categories include:
- EB-1: For people with extraordinary abilities, outstanding researchers, multinational executives/managers.
- EB-2: For professionals holding advanced degrees and individuals with exceptional abilities.
- EB-3: For bachelor’s degree holders, skilled workers and professionals.
- EB-4: For religious workers.
- EB-5: For entrepreneurs willing to invest at least $1 million in a business that creates 10 jobs in the U.S.
Family-based green cards
UK citizens who have close family members in the U.S. – spouses, children, parents, siblings – can get green cards through family sponsorship. The citizen relative must file a family petition and undertake responsibilities for supporting you financially.
Other routes
Some other options for UK citizens and residents include:
- Getting a green card through asylum or refugee status.
- Joining the U.S. military and applying for expedited citizenship.
- Investing in a Regional Center through the EB-5 program.
So while the Green Card lottery is off the table, UK citizens have alternative immigration routes to consider if they wish to gain permanent residency in the United States.
How many green cards are issued each year?
The U.S. issues about 1 million green cards or Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) status documents each fiscal year. Here is a breakdown of the green cards issued in recent years:
| Fiscal Year | Total Green Cards Issued |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 707,265 |
| 2021 | 908,469 |
| 2020 | 279,042 |
| 2019 | 1,001,558 |
| 2018 | 1,127,167 |
The total number of green cards issued each year can fluctuate. There was a major decline in FY 2020 due to COVID-19 visa processing delays and travel restrictions. But in a normal year, the U.S. issues green cards to around 1 million immigrants.
Number of Green Cards by category
In a typical year, the breakdown by green card category is:
- Family-based green cards: ~66% of total
- Employment-based green cards: ~13% of total
- Diversity Visa lottery: ~5% of total
- Refugees/asylees: ~12% of total
- Other categories: ~4%
So the majority of green cards each year are issued through family reunification policies. Employment green cards make up the second biggest category.
What is the quota for Green Cards for UK citizens?
There is no specific green card ‘quota’ for citizens of any particular country. However, there are per-country limits on the number of employment-based and family-sponsored green cards issued each year.
For employment green cards, each country is limited to 7% of the total available worldwide. However, citizens of countries with fewer applications like the UK generally receive more than 7% of the allocation.
For family green cards, the per-country limit is much higher at 25% of the total available. So UK citizens have access to a significant family green card quota each year.
There are no country-specific quotas for the Green Card lottery or for refugees/asylees. Only the overall eligibility criteria and annual caps apply.
So while there are per-country limits, the small number of applications from the UK means the caps rarely restrict how many green cards can be issued to British citizens or residents in a given year.
How have UK immigration trends to the US changed in recent years?
Immigration trends from the UK to the U.S. have fluctuated over the past decade. Here are some key patterns:
- The number of UK immigrants to the U.S. peaked at 57,926 in 2012. It has generally declined since then.
- In 2021, the number of new lawful permanent residents from the UK was 24,854, less than half the peak in 2012.
- Flows dropped sharply in 2017-2019 during Trump’s restrictive immigration policies but have started rebounding since 2021.
- The UK still remains in the top 10 source countries for U.S. green card holders.
Factors impacting UK immigration patterns include policy changes in the U.S. and UK, visa processing delays, the COVID-19 pandemic, and changing economic conditions. Overall, while UK green card holders in America still number over 500,000, annual growth has slowed in the past decade compared to countries like India and China.
How does the UK compare to the rest of Europe?
The UK consistently sends more immigrants to the U.S. than other European countries. Some comparisons:
- In 2021, 24,854 green cards were issued to immigrants from the UK, compared to 14,816 for Germany, 14,693 for France, and 13,568 for Italy.
- Between 2017-2021, the UK had 507,000 green card holders, more than double France’s 242,000 and nearly four times Italy’s 143,000.
- The UK makes up around 5% of Europe’s total immigrant population in the U.S. The next highest European countries are Germany and Italy at 2% each.
So the UK is the leading source of European immigration to the United States by a significant margin in recent years. The UK’s colonial ties, shared language, and economic opportunities are some of the factors driving higher UK immigration.
Conclusion
UK citizens are ineligible for the U.S. Green Card lottery because the UK sends sufficiently high numbers of immigrants to America to be classified as a ‘high admission’ country. The lottery aims to diversify immigration from underrepresented nations so excludes most of Western Europe.
While the lottery is off limits, UK citizens do have alternative options for gaining permanent resident status. These include employer-sponsored and family-based green cards. Around 25,000 green cards continue to be issued to UK immigrants each year through these channels.
So while the random chance offered by the Green Card lottery is not available, UK citizens have other paths to lawfully gain permanent residency and eventually U.S. citizenship if they desire.