Sorry for you but dv lottery or not you should be "going on" with your life anyway. Don't put on hold anything. Keep playing if it's really what you want (living in the states) if it is what you dream about, you shouldn't be giving up on it. Like he said, it takes 5 minutes !
I'm sorry for you Michael. I can't imagine what it is like to get the same negative outcome for 9 years in a row...
What does it mean to give up? It takes 5 minutes once a year to enter, it's not like you're actively doing anything. You just have to keep your expectations incredibly low, under no circumstance count on winning, and get used to seeing "not selected". I've seen that screen every year since I turned 18, 12 years in a row now. It's routine for me and I don't really think about it too much. I would honestly be amazed if I was ever selected, it would be next to a miracle. I mean the chance is between 1% and 2% which means you win between once every 50 and once every 100 years, so I am far from a statistical anomaly. I've lost 12 years in a row and I expect to lose for at least another 20 years before I start to feel like I have below average luck. It's much more likely I'll have permanent residence in the US thru another means by then, or the lottery will get canceled or the world/America will end before I win this lottery. You can easily play for 80 years and not win. How anyone wins is beyond me honestly, I keep reading about winners, I've met a few, and I am amazed considering there is a 98-99% chance of losing. I don't think most fully realize how lucky they are.
There's also a statistics reality which is that every year your chances reset. I was recently made aware of that. I thought the more I played the higher my chances became over time, but that's completely incorrect. It's called gambler's fallacy. Basically, there's a certain chance that you'll win once in the next X years, but once you've lost X years in a row, your chance the next year is the same as everyone else's - 1-2%. So if you've played for 20 years and lost, don't think you have a leg up on anyone else.
Anyone who seriously counts on this lottery for hope in his/her life or for a source of motivation is really doing themselves a disservice and is bound to live in disappointment for a very long time. If you want to move to America, go study there and then try to get a work visa or do MAVNI or fall in love, or get a job with a multinational company in your country and then get transferred to the US, something like that. And in the meantime, do play the lottery, but as soon as you enter forget about it and follow thru with your plans as normal. You gotta get serious, otherwise you can die trying with this lottery.
I typed way too much. Oh well, it's that day of year.
Wow you were inspired hahaWhat does it mean to give up? It takes 5 minutes once a year to enter, it's not like you're actively doing anything. You just have to keep your expectations incredibly low, under no circumstance count on winning, and get used to seeing "not selected". I've seen that screen every year since I turned 18, 12 years in a row now. It's routine for me and I don't really think about it too much. I would honestly be amazed if I was ever selected, it would be next to a miracle. I mean the chance is between 1% and 2% which means you win between once every 50 and once every 100 years, so I am far from a statistical anomaly. I've lost 12 years in a row and I expect to lose for at least another 20 years before I start to feel like I have below average luck. It's much more likely I'll have permanent residence in the US thru another means by then, or the lottery will get canceled or the world/America will end before I win this lottery. You can easily play for 80 years and not win. How anyone wins is beyond me honestly, I keep reading about winners, I've met a few, and I am amazed considering there is a 98-99% chance of losing. I don't think most fully realize how lucky they are.
There's also a statistics reality which is that every year your chances reset. I was recently made aware of that. I thought the more I played the higher my chances became over time, but that's completely incorrect. It's called gambler's fallacy. Basically, there's a certain chance that you'll win once in the next X years, but once you've lost X years in a row, your chance the next year is the same as everyone else's - 1-2%. So if you've played for 20 years and lost, don't think you have a leg up on anyone else.
Anyone who seriously counts on this lottery for hope in his/her life or for a source of motivation is really doing themselves a disservice and is bound to live in disappointment for a very long time. If you want to move to America, go study there and then try to get a work visa or do MAVNI or fall in love, or get a job with a multinational company in your country and then get transferred to the US, something like that. And in the meantime, do play the lottery, but as soon as you enter forget about it and follow thru with your plans as normal. You gotta get serious, otherwise you can die trying with this lottery.
I typed way too much. Oh well, it's that day of year.
I'm sorry you didnt make it this year Pierre.
I was extremely disappointed last year I wasn't yet aware how slim the chance of winning is. And I started reading and looking for information on the Internet (I have absorbed so many information i could write an encyclopedia about dv) I have realised that I can't rely on the dv alone. I decided to try again but to have a plan B. Actually the lottery is my plan B... but one can't help but hope to win.
LIKE LIKE LIKE. Jeez....... Of course, every time you are hoping to be selected but let's be real here, you have 1 % CHANCES. 99% of the time, you won't be selected so PLEASE people don't expect too much about this and stop being sorry about people not being selected. That's normal 99% of the time! Being selected is actually extremely rare!
True !
Congratulations! !!
Congrats!!!
,....but I hope the US will never follow EU's path.You are so right @OneHome. Myself am not even surprised I was not selected. I put so much into it the first year I entered planned around selectionand it didn't happen, but now I realise that life has to go on. I will enter the lottery each year until I get a green card or until they cancel it. In the mean time life has to go on.What does it mean to give up? It takes 5 minutes once a year to enter, it's not like you're actively doing anything. You just have to keep your expectations incredibly low, under no circumstance count on winning, and get used to seeing "not selected". I've seen that screen every year since I turned 18, 12 years in a row now. It's routine for me and I don't really think about it too much. I would honestly be amazed if I was ever selected, it would be next to a miracle. I mean the chance is between 1% and 2% which means you win between once every 50 and once every 100 years, so I am far from a statistical anomaly. I've lost 12 years in a row and I expect to lose for at least another 20 years before I start to feel like I have below average luck. It's much more likely I'll have permanent residence in the US thru another means by then, or the lottery will get canceled or the world/America will end before I win this lottery. You can easily play for 80 years and not win. How anyone wins is beyond me honestly, I keep reading about winners, I've met a few, and I am amazed considering there is a 98-99% chance of losing. I don't think most fully realize how lucky they are.
There's also a statistics reality which is that every year your chances reset. I was recently made aware of that. I thought the more I played the higher my chances became over time, but that's completely incorrect. It's called gambler's fallacy. Basically, there's a certain chance that you'll win once in the next X years, but once you've lost X years in a row, your chance the next year is the same as everyone else's - 1-2%. So if you've played for 20 years and lost, don't think you have a leg up on anyone else.
Anyone who seriously counts on this lottery for hope in his/her life or for a source of motivation is really doing themselves a disservice and is bound to live in disappointment for a very long time. If you want to move to America, go study there and then try to get a work visa or do MAVNI or fall in love, or get a job with a multinational company in your country and then get transferred to the US, something like that. And in the meantime, do play the lottery, but as soon as you enter forget about it and follow thru with your plans as normal. You gotta get serious, otherwise you can die trying with this lottery.
I typed way too much. Oh well, it's that day of year.
I understand your frustration dear, but it's a lottery and you have more chances of not winning than winning. .. you are not losing anything. And you're free to play or not. If not being selected affects you that much you should reconsider participating from the beginning.
