According to the State Department, a record number of 15 million people have applied for the Green Card lottery in the United States. The Diversity Visa program caters to selecting 50,000 entrants at random which is subject to a lottery draw. These people have been granted the US Green Card or the status of Permanent Residency in the United States.

The visa program led to an increased attraction by another 25 percent higher entries for the lottery. The enrollment period for this year closed on 3rd November for this year. The duration for this period is one month.

People from many different nations had applied and submitted entries for the lottery. Of these, 7.67 million entries came from Bangladesh itself. This catered more than 50 percent of the total applications. This was followed by 1.47 million entries from Nigeria, 0.76 million from Ukraine, 0.58 million from Ethiopia and another 0.34 million from Egypt.

On the other hand, as per the critics of the visa program, this scheme only leads to bringing in more of such immigrants who are illiterate. Such people are being given first preference over other skilled migrants and those people who have family ties in the United States.

According to Republican Bob Goodlatte, increased numbers of people are becoming aware of this program. At the same time, they are even perplexed that such a program exists. Goodlatte would soon be bringing about a legislation which would enable the program to be abolished.

However, those who support this lottery say that this lottery caters to only a minute percentage of the one million immigrants coming to the United States annually. At the same time, it provided an opportunity for those not so fortunate to start afresh.