The Immigration Act of 1990 was passed with bipartisan support and signed by President George H.W. Bush. The legislation established the current and permanent Diversity Visa (DV) program, where 55,000 immigrant visas (later reduced to 50,000) are available in an annual lottery. The lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low numbers of immigrants to the United States in the previous five years. Starting in fiscal year 1999, 5,000 of the visas from the DV program are reserved for use by the NACARA program, so the number of immigrant visas available in the lottery was reduced to 50,000.
when did the u.s. create a lottery system for immigration
1990