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Hi --
Will you please read this website:
US Green Card Diversity Lottery
How Much Does the Lottery Cost?
There is no fee for entering the diversity visa lottery. If you win, you must pay a fee for an immigrant visa and a separate visa lottery surcharge.
Almost every question you have asked is answered there.
Notice that the green cards that will likely be issued for DV-2009 will be 55,000, rather than the 50,000 we based our estimates on from the DV-2008.
Doing a google search for "uscis diversity lottery" or "uscis green card lottery" and looking at government sites (rather than commercial) will give many other leads to more information.
Some questions you have asked (such as, how many applications are received from a particular country) cannot be answered until after the lottery is closed.
The U.S. State Department has not issued a press release on the program for this year (yet):
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/
But, the one from last year should give some answers, also:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/72835.htm
When the government announces the DV-2009 & the details for it, it will be posted here:
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants ... _1318.html
Until then, there are some links & information to let you guess & estimate the same as the rest of us.
All these government sites can be searched for "green card lottery" or "diversity lottery 2009" or "dv-2009" to find many more document links. Many are *.pdf files that can be downloaded & printed out.
the Admin