The annual Diversity Visa Lottery, also known as the Green Card Lottery, is a United States government program makes available 55,000 permanent resident cards every year to persons from “underrepresented countries” which have been less represented in employment and family-based preference categories in the United States and who meet two basic eligibility requirements. The winners receive permanent residency, authorizing them and their families to live, study and work in the United States. The Green Card Lottery program is a United States congressionally-mandated program.