By Hasan Legal Admin · October 28, 2026
A U.S. federal court has ordered the administration to restart the 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery. Registration is expected to open by October 29, with applications to begin by November 1. The order was issued on October 14, but applicants are still waiting for official details from the State Department. The window may be short and the dates are not yet official, so here is what has been reported, what hasn't been confirmed, who can enter, and how to avoid the scams and mistakes that cost people their entries every year.
A U.S. federal court has ordered the administration to restart the 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery. Registration is expected to open by October 29, with applications to begin by November 1. The order was issued on October 14, but applicants are still waiting for official details from the State Department.
The window may be short and the dates are not yet official, so here is what has been reported, what hasn't been confirmed, who can enter, and how to avoid the scams and mistakes that cost people their entries every year.
The Diversity Visa Lottery is one of the few routes to a green card that does not require a sponsoring employer, a family petition, or an investment. That makes it enormously popular, and it also makes it a magnet for fraud. A restart on a compressed timeline makes both problems worse, so it is worth getting the basics straight before the entry page goes live.
The summary we have is brief, and these details were not available when we wrote this:
Treat every date in this article as expected, not guaranteed, until the State Department publishes official instructions.
The DV program makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year to people from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. Entrants are chosen at random from those who register, and the program has no employer or family sponsor requirement. Two points matter more than any others. Selection is not a visa: being selected only gives you the chance to apply, and nothing guarantees permanent residence. And entrants must meet an education or work experience requirement, which is checked later, at the visa stage.
The table below reflects how the program has generally worked in prior years. The State Department's DV-2027 instructions control, so check them as soon as they are posted.
| Requirement | What it has generally meant |
|---|---|
| Country of birth | You must be born in an eligible country. In limited cases you can qualify through a spouse's or a parent's country of birth. The eligible list changes from year to year. |
| Education or work experience | A high school education or its equivalent, or two years of experience within the last five years in a qualifying occupation. |
| Entries | One entry per person per program year. Multiple entries can disqualify you. Spouses can each enter separately. |
| Cost to enter | There is no fee to enter. Fees come later, if you are selected and go through visa processing. |
| Photo | A recent photo that meets the State Department's technical specifications. |
Eligibility depends on country of birth, and countries with high levels of recent immigration to the U.S. are excluded. In recent years that has meant some of the largest sending countries, including India, have been left out. The material we have does not include the DV-2027 country list, so we can't tell you whether your country is eligible. If you are from Bangladesh or any other country in South Asia, check the State Department's official list for DV-2027 before doing anything else, because an ineligible entry is a wasted entry.
A selection letter is the beginning of a process, not the end of one. Selected entrants file a visa application, submit civil and identity documents, complete a medical exam, and attend a consular interview. DV visas have to be issued by the end of the federal fiscal year, September 30, and any visas not issued by then are gone, so a selection does not mean that every selectee gets a visa. Applicants with lower case numbers are generally processed first. DV immigrants are also subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility, like other immigrants.
Because DV visas are immigrant visas processed through consulates, current uncertainty at consulates matters. The State Department has reportedly paused immigrant visa processing at posts worldwide, and a separate policy suspending immigrant visas for applicants from 75 countries was ruled unlawful, with a possible appeal. We cover both in our pieces on the worldwide pause and the 75-country ruling. Neither is a reason not to enter, but selectees should expect consular processing to be less predictable than usual.
Court orders are not always the last word. The government could appeal or ask for the order to be paused, and the details of what must happen, and when, may shift. That is one reason to prepare now but to check official sources frequently, and to avoid relying on any single report, including this one.
Entering is free, and if you're eligible it is worth doing. But the odds are long, and nothing about your profile can improve them. For people with a strong professional or research record, merit-based routes such as EB-2 NIW, EB-1A, and O-1 work differently: they rest on your record and your plans, not on chance. Entering the lottery doesn't prevent you from pursuing them, though if you hold a status that requires you to show nonimmigrant intent, ask counsel how a selection and later filings could interact with it.
Enter the lottery if you're eligible, and don't let it be your only move. If your background could support a self-petition under EB-2 NIW, EB-1A, or O-1, we can show you where you stand, with no draw involved.
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. It is based on a short news summary of a recent court order; the court, case name, scope of the order, and the State Department's official dates and instructions were not confirmed at the time of writing and may change, including through appeal. Eligibility rules described here reflect how the program has generally worked in prior years and must be confirmed against the official DV-2027 instructions. Being selected in the lottery does not guarantee a visa or permanent residence. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Consult a licensed immigration attorney about your specific circumstances.