The Greencard DV-2027 lottery has an important new requirement: a valid passport will be needed already when filling out the entry form, not after the drawing. Without one, you cannot submit an entry — this requirement took effect on April 10, 2026 and applies starting with DV-2027. The requirement was introduced to fight fraud: in the previous DV-2025 lottery, 2.5 million fake and duplicate entries were detected.
New form fields and scan requirements
When filling out the DV-2027 form, applicants must provide their passport number, country of issuance, and their given name, surname, and middle name (if any) exactly as written in the passport, along with the expiration date.
Besides filling in the fields, applicants must upload two scans: the page with the photo and personal data, and the signature page, if the signature is on a separate page of the passport.
Only JPEG files are accepted. The system does not support PDF. Each file must be no larger than 5 MB. The website will not have a built-in file compression tool — you’ll need to compress files yourself.
Requirements for given name, surname, and middle name
The given name, surname, and middle name must be entered exactly as they appear in the passport. If there is no middle name in the passport, it should not be added. If only one name is listed, it should be entered in the surname field.
Previously, no one could verify the entry form data at the time of submission. Now the consul will see both the entry form and the passport scan simultaneously. Matching of the data will be mandatory.
Why the new requirements were introduced
In the DV-2025 lottery, 2.5 million fraudulent and duplicate entries were detected. By comparison, in the years when passport requirements were in effect, around 760,000 such entries were filtered out.
The State Department published specific fraud cases. In 2012, the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh discovered that more than 634,000 entries had come from a single IP address. Local authorities, upon inspection, found computers with thousands of entry forms, forged education documents, and staged wedding photos.
In Ukraine, fraudulent groups posing as travel agencies collected people’s personal data, bought or stole it from open sources, and submitted entries under other people’s names without their knowledge. When one of them made it onto the winners’ list, the fraudsters demanded up to $15,000 for the confirmation number.
Similar schemes were widespread in Uzbekistan and Cambodia, where extortion amounts ranged from $5,000 to $30,000. The passport requirement was introduced so that no one else could submit an entry on your behalf.
Exceptions to the passport requirement
The valid passport requirement has three exceptions:
— stateless persons; — citizens of countries under communist rule who cannot obtain a passport from their own government; — those granted an individual waiver approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State (reviewed on a case-by-case basis at the interview stage).
The State Department rejected proposals to expand the list of exceptions to people from conflict zones, politically unstable regions, or those in difficult financial circumstances. One reason given in the response: the emigration process to the U.S. itself is very expensive, and someone who cannot afford a passport is unlikely to have the funds to go through the entire procedure. The average cost of a passport in countries participating in the lottery is $74, and in some countries it exceeds $200.
How to keep proof of a valid passport
The official document recommends keeping a copy or scan of the passport indicated at the time of entry. It states directly: a person may be denied if they cannot confirm that the passport was valid at the time of registration.
Between the entry submission and the interview, a year passes, sometimes a year and a half. During this time, the passport can be damaged or lost, and a person may change their surname and get a new passport. A different document may show up at the interview, and there will be no way to prove that the old one was valid on the day of entry.
It is recommended to scan the pages with biographical data and the signature (if it’s separate) and save them in several places. It’s best to make a notarized copy of all passport pages together with printed confirmation pages and the entry number. This copy should be kept until the entire visa process is complete.
Timelines and recommendations
Registration for DV-2027 has not yet opened, and dates have not been officially announced. The visa issuance period is set from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027.
This means there is currently more time to obtain a passport than there will be later. It’s not worth waiting for the date announcement: once the registration window opens, it will last about a month, and lines at passport offices could grow significantly.
The official estimated time to fill out the entry form has been recalculated from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. The State Department recommends filling out the entry yourself. Starting with DV-2027, a $1 fee is required upon registration. No agent assistance is needed to submit an entry.
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