A link that has been circulating on Telegram claiming to be a “Norway Visa Lottery Application Form”, an opportunity facilitated for 45,000 people from all over the world, came to our attention. The message has been seen with more than 300 readers as of the time this article is written.
The link leads to a page that is alleged to be from “The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration”. The referred web page has an application form that collects personal information such as including address, email, password, and others.
The US Diversity Visa Lottery (DV), which started in 1955, avails 55,000 immigrant visas in an annual lottery. The 2023 Diversity Visa program (DV-2023) is announced to be open on October 6, 2021. The lottery application, which is available only online, will stay open until November 9, 2021.
On October 14, 2021, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Accra, Ghana announced a scam alert saying “Please be aware of a scam text message that is currently being spread pointing to a website. The text message refers to a Norwegian Visa Lottery online Application Form and asks you to apply by referring to a linked web page. This text message and web page for application is a scam and has nothing to do with any official visa application system or procedure.” The statement warns, “No such lottery exists.”
HaqCheck has also contacted The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Addis to clarify the issue. The Embassy’s consular section confirmed to us, via email, that “Norway doesn’t have a visa lottery.” Besides, since the visa (residence/work permit) section of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Addis Ababa is closed from August 1, 2019, requests are being sent to the visa section of the Norwegian Embassy in Nairobi.
Even though there are countries like the United States that have a visa lottery creating legal immigration opportunities, Norway is not officially offering a visa lottery.
Thus, the Telegram message is rendered False along with its suspicious deceitful intent of collecting personal information.
