We characterize a broad class of semilinear dense range operators given by the following formula, , where , are Hilbert spaces, , and is a suitable nonlinear operator. First, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the linear operator to have dense range. Second, under some condition on the nonlinear term , we prove the following statement: If , then and for all there exists a sequence given by , such that . Finally, we apply this result to prove the approximate controllability of the following semilinear evolution equation: , where , are Hilbert spaces, is the infinitesimal generator of strongly continuous compact semigroup in , the control function belongs to , and is a suitable function. As a particular case we consider the controlled semilinear heat equation.