New education requirements for Diversity Lottery Visas

04 October, 2008

(The Reporter) To qualify for the Diversity lottery Visa (DV) 2010, you either have to have an Ethiopian School Leaving Certificate Examination (ESLCE), ESLCE and a teacher training certificate, post-secondary diploma (10+3) from a vocational or professional study, training, or proof of training from the Ethiopian Military Academy.

If the only qualification that you have is a 10 + 2 certificate, the US Embassy here in Addis advises people not to apply for DV. Deputy Consular Chief Heather Guimond and Vice Consul Brian Adkins told a press conference on Wednesday that the reason the rules had changed was to ensure that immigrants had a better chance of coping in the American system.

In addition, for ESLCE to be accepted the applicant must have passed at least five subjects. “Even all Ds will count, as long as, you have passed five or more subjects (or four or more subjects on the 2003 ESLCE.),” the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy added that in case applicants do not fulfill the education requirements, they can still apply for the diversity lottery given their job counts towards the requirement. “Qualifying occupations are defined as those with Specific Vocational Preparations (SVP) rating of 7 or above and are listed as job zone 4 or 5 on the US department of Labor’s Occupational Skills List found at the embassy said.

The DV 2010 announcement also gave details of how other regulations apply, such as registering dependents and spouses. The consular officials of the embassy said that applicants needed to be very careful when filling out the forms and stressed there were major consequences for providing fraudulent information.

The only legitimate source of further information regarding the DV lottery, the embassy said, was the State Department web page, www.dvlottery.state.gov. Between October 1, 2007 and September 9, 2008 some 5144 Ethiopians were interviewed for the DV, of which 3456 were issued the visa.