Legal Question in Immigration Law in Virginia

Re: DIversity Visa Lottery

Your girl friend must first be issued

her immigiant visa for permanent residency (green card), and then, once she's in the United States, she could then petition for a K-3 fiance visa in your behalf, to allow you to come to the U.S for the purpose of marrying her, after which she could then submit the I-130 petition for alien relative in your behalf along with the I-485 to adjust your status to lawful permanent resident, and the subsidiary forms that must accompany those documents.

As to your concern regarding the possibilty that because you've improperly overstayed your visa in the past, you might now be barred anywhere from three to ten years from entering this country, would likely depend upon when the overstay occurred and what record (if any) the USCIS still has of this matter.

Re: DIversity Visa Lottery

Correction to previous answer: The fiance visa can only be utilized by U.S. citizens and not by lawful permanent residents(LPR--green card holders). Therefore, you and your girlfriend would need to marry

before she takes up residence in the United States where she could then file the I-130 petition in your behalf

with a 2A family designation. Subsequently, in order to speed things up, if you could enter the U.S. legally with a visitor's or some other type of non-immigrant visa, your wife could then file the I-485 to adjust your status which might very well allow you to remain in the country while your status is being adjusted to lawful permanent resident.