Which Children To Add As Derivatives in DV Lottery? This guide will focus on which children to be added as derivatives during the application in the Diversity Visa Lottery Program.
In my previous post, we learned about the qualifications of a spouse who is supposed to be added as a derivative during the application in the Diversity Visa Lottery Program.
In this next guide, which is part two, we are going to learn in details on the qualifications of the children who are supposed to be added as derivatives in the application.
Therefore, we will learn about the three classes of children that are considered qualified as derivatives in the Diversity Visa Lottery Program. But first of all, all these three categories of children should fulfill the following:
- They should be under the age of 21 years old.
- They all should be unmarried and single.
Submit individual photographs of each of your children using the same technical specifications as your own photograph.
Based on the document from the travel.state.gov, as shown in sample below, in number 15, it covers about the children.
It says…..
When applying in the diversity visa lottery, you are supposed to list the number of children that you have, and you also include all these details about the children.
All unmarried and under the age of 21 years of age, regardless of whether you are living with them or intend to accompany you or follow to join you.
Which Children To Add As Derivatives in DV Lottery?
As you proceed down, you see the three categories of children that qualify as derivatives in the application.
- The first category of children include all living natural children.
This means all the children that you have given birth to or all the children that are biologically yours, they are eligible to be added as derivatives in the application.
- The second category is all living children that are legally adopted to you.
These are the children that through court procedures or legal procedures, they have been acquired by you. By the law, they belong to you. They all are eligible to be added as derivatives.
- The third category include all step-children.
These are the children of your spouse, and this spouse must be legally married to you. All the children that he or she came in to join you with, they all are qualified to be added as derivatives.
It is important to note that even if the child does not currently live with you, or even if you are no longer married to that spouse, even if you broke up, these children, they are still eligible to be added as derivatives in your diversity visa lottery application.
Married children and children who are already age 21 or older, they are not eligible. Even if your child is under the age of 21 and he or she is married, he or she is not eligible to be added as derivative.
There is another important clause from the sample above, and this is the Child Status Protection Act. What does this act do?
This act was put forth to protect all the children that attain the age of 21 years during the processing of the diversity visa. This means that when you were applying in the diversity visa lottery program, the child was not 21 years of age yet. But during the process, he or she turned 21. This act will protect that child.
Even if he or she is above 21 years during the processing, he or she is considered as under the age of 21 and is eligible for the visa.
Finally, the last clause says, a child who is already a U.S citizen or a legal permanent resident when you submit your diversity visa entry will not require to be issued a diversity visa.
This is because he or she is a citizen or she holds the green card. So he or she will not require to be issued another one.
It’s continued to say, even if you omit that child that is already in the United States in your application, you will not be penalized. So if you include him or her or you exclude him or her, it’s not a penalty.
I hope that is very clear and the information is useful. Don’t make a mistake of including any unqualified child because this will cost you the visa.
DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.