The green card lottery failed to open in 2025–2026 because the State Department first delayed registration over a planned change in the application process, then got tangled in litigation — a court order to reopen registration followed by an appeals court pause — so no new entries were accepted even after interview appointments for past winners resumed in August 2026.

In short

  • Registration for the green card lottery last opened in October 2024 — there hasn’t been a new launch since.
  • On October 14, a court ordered the State Department to reopen registration by November 1, but on October 29 an appeals court paused that order.
  • Past drawing winners only got the chance to do their interview in August 2026, after a court ruling.
  • Lottery slots are allotted by country separately: one country’s slots can’t be shifted to applicants from another.
  • Among the changes under discussion: a mandatory passport scan on the entry and a token $1 entry fee.

Timeline: what happened to the lottery in 2024–2026

  1. October 2024. The green card lottery, running since the 1990s, opened for what turned out to be the last time: entries opened in early October as usual, and no new registration cycle has opened since.

  2. October 2025 — no launch. Based on the annual schedule, entries should have opened in October 2025, as they had every year before. They didn’t, which was the first sign the program had stalled.

  3. November 5, 2025. The State Department formally announced it was changing how entries are submitted and how participants are vetted. It promised to name a new start date once one was possible — without giving a timeframe.

  4. December 2025. It became clear the promised “new start date” wasn’t coming anytime soon: the lottery hadn’t reopened, and on top of that, people who had already won in past drawings were feeling the pause too.

  5. Through mid-2026. No new official updates on reopening the lottery appeared.

Timeline of the green card lottery shutdown

From the last registration launch in 2024 to the open-ended pause in 2026.

  • Last registration launchOctober 2024
  • Registration was due to open but didn’tOctober 2025
  • State Dept announces process changes, no start dateNovember 5, 2025
  • It becomes clear no start date is coming soonDecember 2025The pause also hit past drawing winners
  • No official news on reopeningThrough mid-2026
Two years without a launch

October 2024 was the last time registration opened. Since then: no launch in October 2025, vague promises with no dates in November 2025, and silence through mid-2026.

What happened to past winners waiting on their interviews

Beyond the stalled new launch, a separate problem hit people who had already won a green card in earlier drawings. Winning the lottery doesn’t mean an automatic move: a winner first has to gather documents, go through a consular interview and a medical exam, and only then can travel to the U.S. It was specifically the interview stage that got suspended indefinitely, leaving people who had already cleared selection stuck in limbo with no sense of when things would move again.

Through mid-2026, there was no news on this front. The pause on visa issuance only lifted in August 2026, and only after a court ruling: past winners were allowed to come in for their scheduled interview time and pick up their documents. But that ruling only applied to people who had already won earlier. For people who simply wanted to submit a new entry, registration still hadn’t opened at that point.

The pause on visa issuance only lifted in August 2026, and only after a court ruling

The court fight over reopening registration

Red Eagle Law, a firm that helps lottery winners with their paperwork, filed its own lawsuit asking a court to order the State Department to reopen registration. On October 14, a federal judge in California ruled that the State Department had to reopen registration no later than November 1 — following standard practice, entrants were expected to get 30 days to submit applications once it opened.

The government appealed the ruling and asked the court to pause enforcement while the appeal was pending. The judge initially refused to grant a pause, but on October 29 — just days before the planned reopening — the appeals court agreed to put the order on hold. As a result, new registration never opened, and the pause remains in place with no set end date.

The key reason the appeals court sided with the government came down to who actually filed the suit. None of the plaintiffs were people who actually wanted to submit an entry: the lawsuit was filed by the law firm itself, for which reopening the lottery meant keeping its client base. The court questioned whether a firm could demand the lottery reopen on that basis — a risk of losing clients, rather than a personal right to participate. Separately, whether the government is legally allowed to leave registration closed this long is still an open question the court has yet to decide.

None of the plaintiffs were people who actually wanted to submit an entry: the lawsuit was filed by the law firm itself, for which reopening the lottery meant keeping its client base.

The court fight over reopening DV-2027 registration

The court order to reopen registration lasted only a few days.

  • California judge orders registration reopenedOctober 14No later than November 1
  • Government appeals, judge denies a pause
  • Appeals court pauses enforcement of the orderOctober 29Days before the planned reopening
  • Registration still hasn’t openedIndefinite
Registration still isn’t open

A court ordered registration reopened by November 1, but just days before that, an appeals court paused the order. There’s no new date set.

How country-by-country quotas work in the lottery

The number of lottery winners is capped every year: the total pool of slots is divided into separate quotas for each country, and no single country can claim more than its own allotted share. A hypothetical example to illustrate the principle: if Ukraine is allotted 5,000 slots, no more than 5,000 Ukrainian citizens can win — even if tens of times more people apply. For other countries, the quota can differ widely in either direction: in one hypothetical example that’s 10,000 slots, in another, just 1,000.

no single country can claim more than its own allotted share

This leads to an important nuance: the total number of slots in the lottery (say, a hypothetical 30,000) isn’t one shared pool anyone can draw from freely. Even if the lottery as a whole allots 30,000 slots, that doesn’t mean they’re all up for grabs by applicants from a single country — each country competes within its own limit. That’s exactly why the level of competition and the odds of winning differ depending on an applicant’s country of origin.

What might change in the entry rules

According to the source material, a rule change to the entry process was reportedly being planned as early as 2025 — allegedly in response to widespread fraud involving duplicate entries (no official confirmation of these plans existed at the time of publication). Under the old rules, a participant could only submit one entry, but spouses could list each other: a husband submitted his entry with his wife listed, the wife submitted her own entry with her husband listed, and if either one won, the whole family — including children — got the green card. This method legally doubled the odds of winning, but some applicants went further and started submitting multiple entries in violation of the rules.

To cut off that kind of abuse, two changes were reportedly under discussion. First, a mandatory passport scan upload alongside the entry: previously, as far as is known, only a photo had to be attached to the entry. Second, a paid entry fee. Figures of $200 or $100 were reportedly discussed at first, but according to available information the number settled on was a token $1 — the idea being to screen out bots and mass fake entries without creating a financial barrier for genuine applicants. No official approval of this fee existed at the time of publication.

The window to submit an entry after registration opens has typically run about a month — during the previous launch in fall 2024, registration ran from early October to early November.

A green card lottery winner waits for an interview date to be scheduled at a U.S. consulate
Past lottery winners waited for consular interviews to resume
Get a passport scan ready early

If this change gets approved, entries will need a passport scan attached, not just a photo. It’s worth checking that your passport is valid so you don’t lose time once registration opens.

Should you worry if you haven’t submitted an entry yet

There’s no missed deadline here: registration for the lottery simply hasn’t launched yet, so anyone worried about running out of time hasn’t lost anything. For a second year running, people are waiting for registration to open and it still hasn’t — likely the first time in the lottery’s entire history that it has failed to launch at all.

The lottery entry process is close to 30 years old, and the way entries are submitted has barely changed in that time.

Among the possible changes under discussion is adding a paid entry fee — potentially higher than the token $1 figure — to screen out bots and bad-faith applicants. Another option floated is adding scored criteria to the entry that would show applicants their rough odds of winning. None of these changes has been finalized so far, and there’s no indication yet of when registration itself will reopen.

Nothing has been missed

Registration for DV-2027 hasn’t opened even once yet, so anyone who hasn’t submitted an entry hasn’t lost anything — there’s simply nowhere to submit one yet.

Frequently asked questions

Can I submit a lottery entry right now if registration isn’t open yet

No, it’s physically impossible to submit an entry until the State Department opens a new registration period — and as of publication, it still hasn’t reopened due to the court pause. Once registration opens, entrants typically get about a month to apply, so it’s worth watching for the official announcement of a start date.

Does the lottery shutdown mean winners’ green cards already issued will be revoked

No, the pause affected the interview and visa-issuance stage for people who had already won in past drawings, not the win itself. After the August 2026 court ruling, those winners were allowed to come in for their scheduled interview time and pick up their documents — meaning their winner status held up.

Can I sue to force the State Department to reopen the lottery

Technically yes, but the Red Eagle Law case shows courts scrutinize closely who’s actually bringing the suit: the appeals court questioned whether a party with a commercial interest, rather than a person with a personal right to participate, can demand the lottery reopen. A suit from an actual applicant who genuinely wants to enter stands on different footing than one from an intermediary firm.

Does the country quota affect my odds if I apply from the U.S. or another third country

The quota is tied to the applicant’s citizenship, not the country they’re applying from, so where you live doesn’t affect your odds. What matters is how many slots are allotted to winners of your citizenship in that cycle.

Will there be a fee to submit an entry once registration reopens

A fee has been discussed, but as of publication nothing has been officially approved: figures of $200 or $100 were reportedly considered first, then the number settled on was a token $1, aimed at screening out bots and mass fake entries without a financial barrier for real applicants. Until there’s an official decision, it’s not safe to count on any specific amount.

What happens to an entry if a couple already listed each other under the old rules before the shutdown

The source material only describes the possibility of spouses listing each other under the old rules, and that this legally doubled the odds of winning as long as each spouse submitted one entry. What happens to entries of this kind that were already submitted, if the rules change, isn’t known at this point.