US Green Card Lottery Results: Which African Countries Had the Fewest Winners?

The latest United States Department of State figures for the Diversity Visa (DV-2026) programme show a wide disparity in the number of selectees across African countries, with some nations recording only a handful of successful entrants.

Mauritius and Western Sahara recorded the lowest figures, with two selectees each. Eswatini and Namibia had three each, while Mozambique recorded four. Botswana had seven, Guinea-Bissau 10, and Comoros and Equatorial Guinea 12 each. The Central African Republic recorded 19.

The State Department figures include principal applicants as well as their eligible spouses and children. They therefore reflect the number of people covered by each selection rather than only the number of individual applications.

The Diversity Visa programme, commonly known as the Green Card lottery, is intended to diversify immigration to the United States by providing more than 50,000 visas each year to nationals of countries with historically low levels of migration to the US.

Applicants are selected at random through a computerised system, but countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States during the previous five years are excluded from the programme. This rule has periodically excluded populous African countries, including Nigeria and Egypt. Egypt was eligible for DV-2026, however, and recorded the highest number of selectees in Africa, with 5,527.

Algeria and Sudan were also among Africa's leading countries by number of selectees. Kenya recorded 3,949, placing it fourth on the continent. Morocco, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Togo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ghana also recorded relatively high figures.

The differences between countries reflect factors including population size, application rates and awareness of the programme. Smaller countries, or those where fewer people apply, are likely to produce fewer selectees.

Selection does not guarantee a visa or permanent residency. Successful applicants must still complete medical examinations, background checks and interviews at US consulates before they can receive a visa and proceed towards permanent residency.

The programme selects more applicants than the number of visas available because not all selected individuals will complete the process or meet all eligibility requirements. In countries with very low numbers of selectees, the withdrawal or ineligibility of even one family can therefore have a noticeable effect on the final number of people who obtain visas.