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DV visa lottery news from the US: entry rules on spouses, children and passports, frozen winner visas, consular vetting and the court fights over the program.
10 articles tagged DV Visa Lottery
Entry fee is $1, photo must be 600×600 px and under 6 months old, birthdate goes month-day-year. A field-by-field walkthrough of the DV-2027 entry form.
A federal court ordered the State Department to open DV-2027 registration by October 18, 2026. See the court deadlines, the DV-2026 case, and the repeal bill.
DV-27 registration remains closed as of October 2026. A federal court ruling is due by October 14, and a Senate bill proposes ending the lottery entirely.
EB-2 and EB-3 retrogressed, PERM approvals got faster, and as of October 23 USCIS changes how filing deadlines are calculated. Full October 2026 breakdown.
DV2027 is off — the category vanished from the Visa Bulletin. Full timeline of Medania v. Trump and what it means for DV lottery winners waiting on visas.
A court case revealed the final visa call isn't made by a consular officer but by software. Nearly 50,000 DV lottery cases are stuck; only a few hundred got a new interview.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, known as the DV lottery, was created by the Immigration Act of 1990 and is run by the US Department of State. It offers immigrant visas to natives of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, chosen by a random computer drawing from online entries. Entering is free, and each applicant needs at least a high school education or qualifying work experience.
Every entry must list the spouse and all unmarried children under 21, even those who will not immigrate, and an omission is grounds for disqualification. Selectees check results through Entrant Status Check, then file Form DS-260 for a consular interview, or Form I-485 with USCIS if they are already in the US.
Selection is only a chance to apply, not a green card: more people are selected than there are visas available, and any diversity visa not issued by the end of the fiscal year on September 30 is lost. That deadline is why processing pauses and visa freezes quickly turn into lawsuits from winners.