DV Lottery Deadline: Noon Entry Cutoff, Results, and September 30

The DV lottery deadline that matters first is the entry cutoff: for DV-2026, registration closed at 12:00 noon Eastern Standard Time on November 7, 2024, after opening on October 2, 2024.¹ Two later deadlines then govern anyone selected: results become available in early May, and every diversity visa must be issued (or every adjustment application approved) by September 30 of the program’s fiscal year, after which unused visa numbers expire permanently.² DV-2027 dates have not been announced yet, and a new passport requirement will apply to that cycle.

The Noon Eastern Cutoff

The registration window closes at exactly 12:00 noon Eastern Time on the final day. Not midnight. Noon. The system stops accepting new entries at that moment regardless of whether you are mid-form or experiencing technical difficulties.³

If you are outside the United States, convert carefully. Noon EDT is GMT-4; noon EST is GMT-5. The registration period typically begins under daylight saving time and ends after the clocks change, so the offset shifts partway through. Entries go through the official site at dvprogram.state.gov using the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form (DS-5501). No paper entries, mailed applications, or third-party submission methods are accepted.

Traffic on the site spikes in the final hours, and slowdowns or timeouts are common. There is no extension for connectivity problems on your end. Submit several days before the deadline. Once your form is accepted, you receive a unique confirmation number: write it down, print the confirmation page, and store it somewhere you will not lose it. That number is the only way to check your results later, and the State Department has no process for recovering it if you lose it.⁴

DV-2027 Dates and the New Passport Rule

The Department of State has not yet announced specific dates for the DV-2027 registration period.⁵ A significant rule change takes effect on April 10, 2026, and will apply to DV-2027 entries: every applicant must provide valid, unexpired passport information and upload a JPEG scan of the passport’s biographic and signature page as part of the entry form. The scan must be in JPEG format and cannot exceed 5 MB. PDF files are not accepted.⁶

Limited exemptions exist for stateless individuals, nationals of Communist-controlled countries who cannot obtain a passport from their government, and applicants who have been granted an individual waiver by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.⁶ If you do not have a valid passport and do not fall into one of these categories, the practical deadline moves earlier: get one before the registration window opens. Passport processing in many countries takes weeks or months, so waiting until October is risky.

When Results Post

Selection results become available in early May of the year following registration through the Entrant Status Check portal at dvprogram.state.gov. For DV-2026, the check opened on May 3, 2025. The portal is the only legitimate way to find out whether you were selected. The State Department does not send notification letters or emails to selectees, and no embassy or consulate will provide a list of winners.⁷

If you receive an email or letter claiming you won the DV lottery and asking you to send money, it is a scam. The State Department has warned repeatedly about fraudulent emails that impersonate the U.S. government and attempt to extract payment from applicants. Legitimate government communications about the DV program will never ask for advance payment by check, money order, or wire transfer.⁸

Being selected does not mean you have a visa. It means you are eligible to apply for one, and a significant number of selectees ultimately do not receive visas because of processing delays, quota exhaustion, or disqualification during the interview.

The September 30 Final Deadline

This is the deadline that catches people off guard. Every diversity visa must be issued (or every adjustment of status application approved) before September 30 of the fiscal year for which you were selected. USCIS cannot approve any DV adjustment application after September 30. On October 1, any pending DV adjustment application from the prior fiscal year must be denied.² Visa numbers do not roll over. A case that is 90 percent complete on September 30 produces the same result as one that was never started.

For DV-2026 selectees, that deadline is September 30, 2026. The roughly 55,000 diversity visas available each fiscal year are subject to adjustment, and they are distributed across six geographic regions.⁹ Selectees are assigned a rank number that determines the order in which their cases are processed within their geographic region. Because the total number selected far exceeds 55,000 (to account for applicants who do not follow through), higher-numbered selectees face real risk that visas run out before they reach the front of the line.

The State Department encourages selectees to complete the online DS-260 Immigrant Visa Electronic Application immediately after learning they were selected.⁷ After submitting the DS-260, you need to gather supporting documents, complete a medical examination by an authorized physician, and prepare for a consular interview. Delaying any of these steps compresses your timeline against the September 30 cutoff. USCIS itself acknowledges it cannot guarantee adjudication before the fiscal year ends and urges applicants to file as early as possible.²

The Deadlines Only Apply If You Qualify

Two threshold rules decide whether the calendar above matters for you at all. First, the DV program exists for people born in countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States. For DV-2026, ineligible countries included Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland and Hong Kong), Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam.³ Eligibility is based on country of birth, not citizenship, and applicants born in an ineligible country can sometimes claim chargeability to a spouse’s or parent’s eligible country.

Second, you must meet at least one qualification path: a high school education or its equivalent, or at least two years of qualifying work experience within the past five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience.¹⁰

Deadline-Driven Mistakes That End Cases

The DV program is less forgiving than most immigration pathways because every deadline is absolute and every disqualification is permanent for that cycle. A few errors account for the majority of failed cases.

Submitting duplicate entries. If you or someone acting on your behalf submits a second entry, every entry under your name is voided for that fiscal year. Married couples can each submit separate entries if both independently meet the eligibility requirements.¹¹
Omitting family members. You must list your spouse and all unmarried children under 21, whether or not they plan to immigrate; the only exceptions are a spouse or child already a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Leaving an eligible family member off can disqualify the entire case at the interview stage, months after selection.³
Losing the confirmation number. Without it, you cannot check whether you were selected, and there is no alternative notification method.⁴
Waiting to file the DS-260. Selectees who delay submitting their visa application lose weeks or months of processing time against an immovable September 30 deadline.
Falling for scam notifications. Paying a fraudulent processing fee sometimes leads applicants to believe they have completed a step they have not, causing them to miss real deadlines.⁸

DV-2026 Deadlines at a Glance

Registration window: October 2, 2024, through November 7, 2024, closing at 12:00 noon EST.¹
Results available: beginning early May 2025 at dvprogram.state.gov (opened May 3, 2025).⁷
Visa issuance deadline: September 30, 2026.²

DV-2027 registration dates have not been announced as of this writing, and the passport requirement applies to that cycle. Monitor travel.state.gov for the official announcement, and have your passport, photos, and family information ready before the window opens.⁵

1
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Instructions
2
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Form I-485 Instructions for Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
3
U.S. Department of State. Instructions for the 2026 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
4
U.S. Embassy & Consulates. Diversity Visa
5
U.S. Department of State. Changes to Entry Period for 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) Program
6
Federal Register. Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
7
U.S. Department of State. If Selected
8
U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 – Part G – Chapter 2
10
U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 502.6 – Diversity Immigrant Visas
11
eCFR. 22 CFR 42.33 – Diversity Immigrants