Every Fiscal year approximately One hundred forty thousand people are under the Employment-based immigrant visa USCIS. 

The lottery is administered by the Department of State and conducted under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). It provides up to 55,000 immigrant visas annually and aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants from countries with low numbers of immigrants in the previous five years. More than 22 million people apply for the lottery each year, which means that fewer than 1 in 400 applicants receive visas.
Applicants enter the lottery by completing a form on the Department of State website, free of charge. Only those selected in the lottery must pay a fee to continue the process.