EA - Consider entering the 2024 US diversity visa lottery by November 8 2022 - it's free and fast to do by Tyrone Barugh

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Consider entering the 2024 US diversity visa lottery by November 8 2022 - it's free and fast to do, published by Tyrone Barugh on October 7, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Epistemic status and disclaimers: I am a lawyer who has done some immigration work in New Zealand, but I am not a United States lawyer and first heard of the Diversity Visa Program this year. I think I've read and explained the background information below pretty well, but I don't know how worried to be about the risk identified below. Legal risks are usually pretty fact specific, and this is generic advice. Think carefully about your individual circumstances and if you decide to apply you should read the full Instructions/FAQ document published by the State Department. The ability to travel to the United States is valuable, especially for folks doing high impact EA work. The costs of a mistake here can be high, which means it might be worthwhile briefly speaking with a good US immigration lawyer if you are already in the United States, have firm plans to work or migrate there in the future, or have reasons to be a lot more risk averse than the typical person. This post isn't legal advice, it doesn't give rise to a lawyer-client relationship, and I'll do my absolute best to not be responsible to you if something goes bad in your life after you read it / update your priors on it / make decisions on the basis of it. If you are a United States lawyer (especially an immigration lawyer), please comment below or contact me with any corrections/suggestions/additional information. Thanks also to several people who have applied to the lottery, and to a United States lawyer (practising in an area other than immigration), for their feedback on this post - errors and omissions are entirely mine. tl;dr The United States runs a lottery for green cards, and you might be able to enter (by 8 November 2022). The US issues around 55,000 green cards (permanent residence visas) each year via a lottery. Unless you live in a country which already has really significant migration to the US (list below), you can probably enter that lottery. It does not cost you any money to enter, you don't need a passport to enter, and it probably won't take much of your time! Your chance of success in a given year as an individual ranges from around 0.28% (worst success rate for Asia region in 2007-2021 fiscal years) to around 10.03% (best success rate for Oceania region in 2007-2021 fiscal years). You can increase your probability of success by having a spouse who also applies - only one of you needs to be selected for you both to move. This is a game you can play every year, increasing your chances a fair bit (see the table below). I know of some EAs who have already done this and are already working or job searching in the United States. Carefully consider whether you applying to the Diversity Lottery is, on expectation, good for the world. If you're doing direct work, there's a good chance it is - but remember that this is a zero-sum game, and your success comes at someone else's expense. Also consider the legal risks and consequences identified below. Finally, if you are going to apply, don't forget! The deadline is 8 November 2022 at 12.00pm ET, but anecdotally the submission system is usually pretty overloaded in the last week, so consider applying earlier if you can. What is the Diversity Visa Program? Immigrant visa (green card) A United States 'immigrant visa' allows a person to reside permanently in the United States (whereas a 'nonimmigrant visa' only allows a temporary, albeit often lengthy, stay). There are three main categories of non-immigrant visa: immediate relative and family-sponsored; employer sponsored (or applied for without sponsorship on the basis of exceptional ability); and the Diversity Immigrant Visa. ...