The country of eligibility for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) is determined by the country of birth of the applicant. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. For example, if an applicants spouse was born in an eligible country, they can apply with their spouse and choose their spouses birth country on their application. Similarly, if neither of the applicants parents were legal residents in their country of birth, they can choose their mother or fathers country of birth.

It is important to note that not all countries are eligible for the DV Program. The U.S. Department of State puts out a list of eligible and ineligible countries each year, and the list of countries may change from year to year. For example, for DV-2024, natives of the following countries and areas are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated to the United States in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea (South Korea), and Vietnam.