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I took place in two U.S. D.V. lotteries -- one ended up in the previous year and I wasn't selected to get an interview and another one is currently processing with the results expected in May. At the same time I received an admission offer from U.S. university and going to enroll in its Ph.D. program in STEM field starting from this fall.

My question is may the fact that I just took part in D.V. lottery seriously affects my chances of getting F-1 visa? I have read (mostly on Quora) that, on the one hand, since D.V. lottery is an immigration visa lottery it may be considered as an immigration intent which does not coincide with getting a non-immigrant visa like F-1, but, on the other hand, somebody wrote that it becomes an immigration intent only after you was selected and accepted an interview, before this point it doesn't matter.

Should I mention in any form that I previously tried to enroll in D.V. lottery if I wasn't selected? Can my local embassy somehow check that I am currently in the lottery or participated in it before?

Please remark that my current goal is to obtain F-1 student visa, not continue trying to get green card if it will affect my F-1 status.

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If you haven't been selected for further processing at any point, then you don't need to worry. My immigration lawyer told me that, due to the very low probability of being selected, it doesn't count as immigrant intent. I entered the lottery many times and it never affected my E3 (non immigrant intent) visa applications.

If you do get selected, it can potentially cause problems with these kinds of visas. I'd recommend having a chat with a good immigration lawyer if that ever happens.

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