The State Department recently announced that the number of people applying for selection in the annual diversity visa lottery steeply declined from the previous year.  Of the 8.7 million applications received, 6.2 million people qualified for entry in the 2003 lottery.  Last year, 13 million people sent in applications, and 10 million were accepted.  The application period began on October 1, 2001, just as the US was gearing of its military campaign in Afghanistan.

Each year 55,000 people can receive visas through the diversity visa program.  Generally, about 70,000 or so people are notified that they have been selected, because there are always some people who either do not meet the requirements or chose to not pursue their cases.  Those who are not selected for further processing are not notified by the State Department, so an entrant who has not yet heard from the State Department has not been selected.

The full results of the numbers selected for each country follow, along with the numbers from 2002:

REGION/COUNTRY:                                             NUMBER               NUMBER
                                                                                SELECTED           SELECTED
                                                                                2003                        2002

AFRICA

Algeria                                                                       834                             1,163

Angola                                                                       29                                15

Benin                                                                         134                             70

Botswana                                                                 4                                  12

Burkina Faso                                                           28                                14       

Burundi                                                                     21                                0

Cameroon                                                                675                             775

Cape Verde                                                               1                                  12

Central African Republic                                        8                                  2

Chad                                                                          45                                19

Comoros                                                                     2                                  0

Congo                                                                       41                                76

Congo, Dem. Rep. of                                            619                             405

Cote d’Ivoire                                                           298                             163

Djibouti                                                                     24                                10

Egypt                                                                         1,551                          2,046

Equatorial Guinea                                                     8                                  0

Eritrea                                                                        252                             246

Ethiopia                                                                    5,562                          4,997

Gabon                                                                       20                                18

Gambia, The                                                            32                                63       

Ghana                                                                        6,333                          6,531

Guinea                                                                       157                             274

Guinea Bissau                                                           1                                  2

Kenya                                                                        3,194                          2,408

Lesotho                                                                    2                                  0

Liberia                                                                       1,067                          1,117

Libya                                                                          61                                26

Madagascar                                                             25                                3

Malawi                                                                       31                                27

Mali                                                                             46                                43

Mauritania                                                                14                                43

Mauritius                                                                   25                                15

Morocco                                                                   3,083                          2,956

Mozambique                                                            5                                  8

Namibia                                                                     6                                  3

Niger                                                                          34                                45

Nigeria                                                                       5,989                          6,049

Rwanda                                                                    21                                22

Sao Tome and Principe                                           0                                  0

Senegal                                                                     199                             379

Seychelles                                                               0                                  2

Sierra Leone                                                            3,096                          5,767

Somalia                                                                     748                             1,328 

South Africa                                                             617                             452

Sudan                                                                        1,297                          1,820

Swaziland                                                                5                                  5

Tanzania                                                                   349                             269    

Togo                                                                          1,994                          786

Tunisia                                                                      114                             151

Uganda                                                                     195                             192

Zambia                                                                      109                             91

Zimbabwe                                                                 133                             121

ASIA

Afghanistan                                                             45                                208

Bahrain                                                                     7                                  3

Bangladesh                                                             4,935                          5,497

Bhutan                                                                      4                                  4

Brunei                                                                       1                                  0

Burma                                                                       461                             930

Cambodia                                                                 260                             267

Hong Kong SAR                                                    190                             205

Indonesia                                                                 608                             537

Iran                                                                             768                             1,703

Iraq                                                                             71                                117

Israel                                                                          145                             199

Japan                                                                          890                             637

Jordan                                                                       75                                123

Kuwait                                                                       30                                39

Laos                                                                           6                                  6

Lebanon                                                                   62                                118

Malaysia                                                                    167                             131

Maldives                                                                   0                                  0

Mongolia                                                                   56                                69

Nepal                                                                         2,320                          729

North Korea                                                             4                                  0

Oman                                                                         6                                  6

Qatar                                                                          1                                  4

Saudi Arabia                                                            38                                50

Singapore                                                                80                                62

Sri Lanka                                                                  889                             757

Syria                                                                          62                                67

Taiwan                                                                      1,618

Thailand                                                                    297                             363

United Arab Emirates                                           29                                22

Yemen                                                                       44                                223

EUROPE

Albania                                                                      1,898                          2,331

Andorra                                                                     0                                  0

Armenia                                                                    630                             843

Austria                                                                       64                                56

Azerbaijan                                                                281                             267

Belarus                                                                     863                             775

Belgium                                                                    42                                30

Bosnia and Herzegovina                                       93                                49

Bulgaria                                                                    2,843                          2,489

Croatia                                                                      70                                43

Cyprus                                                                      18                                16

Czech Republic                                                       230                             116

Denmark                                                                   35                                26

Estonia                                                                      61                                61

Finland                                                                      26                                19

France                                                                       308                             207

            Guadeloupe                                                   4                                  1

            Martinique                                                    2

Georgia                                                                     332                             273

Germany                                                                   850                             1,090

Greece                                                                       41                                44

Hungary                                                                    170                             101

Iceland                                                                      7                                  9

Ireland                                                                       288                             135

Italy                                                                            168                             95

Kazakhstan                                                             454                             656

Kyrgyzstan                                   &nb