Attention: This is an incredibly important announcement for green card lottery applicants who filed in 2011. The required number of issued visas for DV-2013 has not been met and there will be a re-drawing of confirmation numbers on October 22, 2012 at noon Eastern Daylight Time. This means that all applicants whose numbers were not drawn during May of 2012 have a second chance to win the green card lottery.
This is precisely the reason why it is so important to keep your confirmation number in a safe place or entrust it to an organization that will keep it safe and secure like USAGreenCardLottery.org.
Applicants who have kept their confirmation numbers up to this point may check their status yet again on the 22nd of October to see if they have won. While this is a rare occurrence it does happen because the United States government already has a certain number of visas allotted for the purpose of diversity immigration and do not wish to see them go to waste. While most applicants are selected on the first of May the following year of their application, there is sometimes a second drawing in autumn.
Green card lottery applicants are randomly selected based on certain calculations in order to give certain nationalities a fair chance to enter the United States without insurmountable competition from other, larger countries. Once a winner has been selected they then have to go through the usual green card application process either through a consulate or as an adjustment of status process.
It is during the green card application process that many of the winners of the lottery are disqualified for one reason or another. This is why it is very important to pay particular attention to the proper completion of the applications and the supporting documentation.
After you have submitted your application to be entered into the drawing you will be presented with a screen that shows a confirmation number. If this number is lost there is no way to replace unless you use a service like USAGreenCardLottery.org.