Visa Lottery

⚠ PROGRAM STATUS AND RULE CHANGES — Updated July 2026

Visa issuance is paused. Effective December 23, 2025, the U.S. Department of State paused all diversity visa issuance pending a review of screening and vetting protocols. Selectees may still file applications and attend interviews, but no diversity visas are being issued, and the Department has stated that there are no exceptions. Previously issued visas have not been revoked.

DV-2027 registration has not opened. The Department has announced changes to the entry process but has not yet published a start date for the DV-2027 registration period. The DV-2027 visa application period remains October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.

Two new requirements apply beginning with DV-2027: a $1 registration fee (90 FR 44524, effective September 16, 2025) and a valid, unexpired passport plus an uploaded scan of its biographic and signature page (91 FR 11891, effective April 10, 2026). Entering the lottery is no longer free.

What is the Visa Lottery?

The Diversity Visa (DV) Program — commonly called the “green card lottery” — is an annual drawing that makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available to people from countries that send few immigrants to the United States. If you are selected and you qualify, you may apply for lawful permanent residence, which lets you live and work in the United States permanently. Your spouse and your unmarried children under 21 may immigrate with you.

Entry takes place entirely online during a short registration window each year. Beginning with DV-2027, entering requires a $1 registration fee and a valid, unexpired passport. Countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years are excluded, and the State Department publishes an updated list of eligible and ineligible countries before each drawing.

Are you eligible?

You must meet two separate requirements: a country requirement and an education-or-experience requirement.

1. Country of eligibility

  • You were born in a country on that year’s eligible list; or
  • Your spouse was born in an eligible country and you both immigrate together; or
  • You were born in an ineligible country, but neither of your parents was born in — or a legal resident of — that country when you were born, in which case you may claim a parent’s country of birth.

2. Education or work experience

  • Education: completion of a formal 12-year course of elementary and secondary school. Equivalency certificates such as the GED do not count; or
  • Work: two years of experience within the past five years in an occupation classified by the U.S. Department of Labor as O*NET Job Zone 4 or 5 with an SVP rating of 7.0 or higher.

Only the principal applicant must meet this second requirement — a spouse and children do not.

How the process works

  1. Get a passport first. Beginning with DV-2027, you must enter the number, issuing country or authority, and expiration date of a valid, unexpired passport, and upload a scan of its biographic and signature page. Only narrow exemptions apply, such as for stateless persons; inability to afford a passport is not one of them.
  2. Pay the $1 registration fee and submit your entry. The fee is paid by the principal applicant only, through the official U.S. government payment portal, before your entry is submitted. There are no fee waivers. There is still no paper entry, no late entry, and only one entry per person — filing more than once disqualifies every entry you submit.
  3. Save your confirmation number. It is the only way to check your result, and it cannot be re-sent to you if you lose it.
  4. Check your status. The State Department selects entries at random and posts results through Entrant Status Check on the E-DV website. It never mails letters or emails selectees, and embassies will not tell you whether you were chosen.
  5. Apply if selected. Selection is not a visa. You must still file the immigrant visa application, gather civil and financial documents, pay the $330 diversity visa application fee, and pass a consular interview and all admissibility checks.
  6. Finish before the deadline. Every DV case must be completed by September 30 of that program’s fiscal year. Unused numbers do not carry over.

Avoid lottery scams

The only money the government collects at the entry stage is the $1 registration fee, and it is collected only through the official U.S. government payment portal on the E-DV site. Selectees later pay a $330 diversity visa application fee. Any email, letter, or website telling you that you have “won” and asking you to wire money, or offering to pay the registration fee on your behalf, is a scam. Results are posted only through Entrant Status Check; the State Department does not mail or email selectees.

How we can help

The rules on country chargeability, qualifying work experience, derivative family members, and the new passport documentation requirement are easy to get wrong, and mistakes are usually not fixable after the entry window closes. Contact our office to discuss whether you qualify and how the current issuance pause affects your case.