DV Lottery: Eligibility, Entry, and the September 30 Deadline

The Diversity Visa Lottery, commonly called the DV lottery, is a free annual drawing that makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available to people born in countries with historically low immigration to the United States. In practice, closer to 50,000 are issued through the program each year because several thousand are redirected elsewhere.¹ Entry costs nothing, selection is random, and winners who complete every step of the follow-on process receive lawful permanent resident status. For people without a U.S. employer or close family sponsor, it is one of the few realistic routes to a green card.

Winning the drawing is only the start. The rest of this article covers who qualifies to enter, how to submit a valid entry, how to check your results safely, and what the process looks like if your number is drawn.

Who Can Enter

Two things decide whether you can register: where you were born, and your education or work background.

Country of Birth

The lottery is open to people born in countries the State Department classifies as low-admission, meaning fewer than 50,000 nationals immigrated to the U.S. over the previous five fiscal years.² Countries above that threshold are excluded, and the list changes each year. Mexico, India, mainland China, and the Philippines are typically off the list.

If your country of birth is ineligible, two narrow workarounds exist. You can claim chargeability to your spouse’s country of birth if your spouse was born in an eligible country. You can also claim chargeability to a parent’s country of birth, but only if neither parent was born in or living in your country of birth at the time you were born.³ Read those conditions carefully. They catch a lot of people out.

Education or Work Experience

You need either a high school diploma from a full 12-year course of elementary and secondary education, or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation that itself requires at least two years of training or experience.⁴ One or the other. There is no waiver.

The State Department uses the Department of Labor’s O*Net Online database to decide which jobs qualify. If your occupation isn’t in O*Net at the right training level, your work experience won’t count, and you can be refused at the interview even if you were selected.⁴

How to Submit an Entry

Entries are accepted only through the official site at dvprogram.state.gov.⁵ The registration window typically runs from early October to early November. The DV-2026 window ran from October 2 to November 7, 2024.⁶ Confirm the current year’s dates on the official site before registering.

The electronic form asks for your full legal name as printed in your passport, date of birth, gender, and city and country of birth. You must also list your spouse and every unmarried child under 21, whether or not they plan to immigrate with you. The only people you can leave off are a spouse or child who is already a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.⁷ Omitting an eligible family member can disqualify you and everyone on your entry.

The digital photo trips up a surprising number of applicants. It has to be square, between 600 by 600 and 1,200 by 1,200 pixels, saved as a JPEG at 240 KB or less, in 24-bit color. You face the camera directly against a light background, and glasses are not allowed.⁸ A photo that misses any of these will cause the system to reject the entry.

Each person gets one entry per year. Submitting more than one disqualifies all of them, and duplicates can be discovered at any point in the process, including at the visa interview.¹ A married couple can each submit their own entry, and if either one is selected, the other comes along as a derivative.

When you submit, the system displays a confirmation screen with your name and a unique confirmation number. Save or print it immediately. That number is the only way to check your results later, and the State Department will not retrieve it for you.⁵ There is no entry fee.

Checking Results and Spotting Scams

Results are posted in early May of the year after registration. You check them by going to dvprogram.state.gov and entering your confirmation number, last name, and year of birth.⁹ That is the only legitimate way to find out.

The State Department does not notify winners by email, letter, or phone. Any message claiming you won and asking for a payment is a scam, and the Department has flagged a sharp rise in fake emails and letters impersonating U.S. officials.¹⁰ Any web address or email that doesn’t end in .gov should be treated as suspect. Legitimate DV fees are paid in person at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate at the time of your appointment, never wired or mailed in advance.

What Selection Actually Means

Being selected does not guarantee a visa. The State Department picks far more selectees than there are visas, because many will not qualify or will not finish in time. Your real odds depend on your case number and how fast you move.

Case Numbers and the Visa Bulletin

Every selectee gets a case number with a regional rank. Each month, the State Department publishes a Visa Bulletin with cutoff numbers for each region. If your rank is below that month’s cutoff, you can move to the interview stage. If it isn’t, you wait.¹¹ High case numbers may never become current before visas run out or the fiscal year ends.

Form DS-260 and Documents

Your first step after selection is Form DS-260, the online Immigrant Visa Application, filed through the Consular Electronic Application Center using your DV case number.¹² It asks in detail about your residences, work history, travel, and education. Each family member applying with you needs their own DS-260.

Medical Exam

Before your interview, you complete a medical exam with a physician the U.S. Embassy has designated (a “panel physician”). The exam covers medical history, a physical, and vaccinations required under U.S. immigration law.¹³ Fees vary by country and are paid to the physician.

Showing Financial Support

At the interview, you have to show you are unlikely to become dependent on public benefits. The DV program uses Form I-134, Declaration of Financial Support, rather than the heavier Form I-864 used in family-based cases.¹⁴ Assets, a job offer, existing U.S. employment, or a U.S.-based sponsor can all be used. Bring bank statements, property records, employment verification, and, if you use a sponsor, their tax documents.

Interview and Fees

The interview is at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate, where a consular officer reviews documents, asks about your background, and decides on the visa. The application fee is $330 per person, paid at the time of the interview.¹ After approval, a separate USCIS Immigrant Fee is paid online before you travel; it covers production of your green card. The current amount is on the USCIS fee schedule at uscis.gov/g-1055.

If You Are Already in the United States

Selectees already in the U.S. on a valid nonimmigrant visa can apply to adjust status instead of going through a consulate abroad. That means filing Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, with USCIS.¹⁵ To file, a visa number has to be immediately available, which means your case number is at or below the current Visa Bulletin cutoff. You submit your selection letter, medical exam results on Form I-693, birth certificate, passport copies, and required fees, plus certified court records for any prior arrests. The same fiscal-year deadline applies here too.

The September 30 Deadline

Every diversity visa for a given fiscal year expires on September 30 of that year. If your visa hasn’t been issued, or your adjustment of status approved, by that date, your selection is dead and does not roll over.¹¹ For DV-2026 selectees, the deadline is September 30, 2026.⁶

This is where most failed cases fail. People wait to submit DS-260, put off the medical exam, or draw a case number that only becomes current late in the fiscal year, and embassy backlogs or administrative processing consume whatever time was left. Treat every step as urgent from the day you check your results. File DS-260 quickly, book the medical exam early, and gather civil documents in parallel. There is no extension.

1
U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 502.6 Diversity Immigrant Visas
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part G Chapter 2 – Eligibility Requirements
4
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – If Selected
5
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Entry
6
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Instructions
7
U.S. Department of State. DV-2026 Plain Language Instructions and FAQs
8
U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements
9
USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What to Do if You Were Selected
10
U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning
11
U.S. Department of State. Visa Bulletin for October 2025
12
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Submit Your Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Application
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual – Applicability of Medical Examination and Vaccination Requirement
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-134, Declaration of Financial Support
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program