How many applicants win the Green Card lottery?
By law, the Diversity Lottery Program makes available a maximum of 55,000 Green Cards each year to eligible persons. Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NCARA) passed by Congress in November 1997 stipulates that 5,000 of the 55,000 annually-allocated diversity visas will be made available for use under the NCARA program. The actual reduction of the limit to 50,000 began with DV-2000 and remains in effect for the DV-2011 program.