Green Card Diversity Lottery: Entry, Selection, and Interview

The green card diversity lottery is an annual drawing run by the U.S. Department of State that makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year to people born in countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.¹ Entry is free (aside from a small registration fee added in 2025), the drawing is genuinely random, and selection is only the beginning — winners still have to qualify, interview, and finish the process before a hard September 30 cutoff.

Who Can Enter

Two things decide whether you’re eligible: your country of birth and your education or work background.

The statute uses birth country, not citizenship. Each year the State Department looks at immigration numbers from the previous five years, identifies countries that sent more than 50,000 immigrants during that period, and excludes people born in those countries from the next lottery.² The excluded list shifts from year to year, so check the current instructions before you enter. Recent cycles have excluded natives of countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong), Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

If you were born in an excluded country, cross-chargeability can still open the door. You may claim your spouse’s country of birth if you were married when you submitted the entry and you both plan to immigrate together. In some cases, someone born in an excluded country to parents who were not nationals or legal residents of that country can claim a different country instead.

On the education and work side, you need one of the following:³

A high school diploma or equivalent, meaning a completed 12-year course of formal education comparable to a U.S. high school education.
Two years of work within the past five years in an occupation that itself requires at least two years of training or experience, as classified in the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*Net database.

You only need one. But claiming work experience in an occupation that doesn’t meet the O*Net threshold will get your application rejected at the interview stage, even if the lottery selected you.

How to Submit an Entry

The entry itself is short. You complete Form DS-5501 online at dvprogram.state.gov during a registration window that opens in early October and closes in early November. The DV-2026 window ran from October 2 through November 7, 2024.⁴ Future cycles follow a similar rhythm, but exact dates shift each year.

The form asks for your name, date of birth, gender, city and country of birth, country of eligibility, and a mailing address. You have to list your spouse and every unmarried child under 21, even ones who don’t plan to immigrate with you. Leaving out a qualifying family member disqualifies the whole entry. The one exception: a spouse who is already a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident does not need to be listed.

Photo Requirements

Every person on the entry needs a recent digital photo that meets the State Department’s technical standards:⁵

JPEG format
240 kilobytes or smaller
Between 600 × 600 and 1,200 × 1,200 pixels, square
Facing the camera, neutral expression, both eyes open, taken within the last six months

Photos that miss any of these specs cause the entry to be rejected outright. The dvprogram.state.gov site includes a tool to crop and test your image before you submit.

One Entry Per Person

The system detects duplicate submissions. If you send more than one entry in a registration period, every entry under your name is disqualified.⁶ A married couple can each submit a separate entry listing the other as spouse, which effectively doubles the household’s chances. Each individual, though, gets one entry.

Save Your Confirmation Number

After you submit, the system generates a unique confirmation number. Screenshot it, print it, write it down. You need it to check whether you were selected. The State Department offers a retrieval tool if you lose it, but saving it at submission is far easier.⁷

Registration Fee

For most of the program’s history, entering cost nothing. A September 2025 rule change added a $1 registration fee, separate from the $330 visa application fee that selected applicants pay later.⁸ Check the official instructions for the current cycle to confirm what applies to your registration.

Checking Your Results

Results become available in early May through the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov. For DV-2026, results posted on or about May 4, 2025.⁹ You log in with your confirmation number, last name, and year of birth. The screen either shows a selection notice with next steps or tells you that you were not selected.

The State Department does not send letters or emails announcing winners.⁷ The Entrant Status Check is the only legitimate notification. Any email, letter, or phone call claiming to be the government congratulating you on winning the lottery is a scam.

One quirk worth knowing: the State Department selects far more than 55,000 entrants, because a significant share won’t qualify at interview or won’t follow through. Being selected gives you a chance at a visa, not a guarantee.¹⁰

What Happens If You’re Selected

The selection notice includes a case number and instructions to complete Form DS-260, the online immigrant visa application. It collects detailed biographical, family, employment, and security information. Submit it promptly. Interviews are scheduled by case number, and every delay pushes your interview closer to the September 30 fiscal-year cutoff.

Documents to Gather

For the consular interview, you bring originals that back up everything on the DS-260. Plan on at least:

A valid passport
Birth certificates for you and each accompanying family member
Police clearance certificates from every country where you’ve lived 12 months or more since age 16
Your high school diploma or proof of qualifying work experience
Marriage certificate, plus any divorce or death certificates from prior marriages
Military records if applicable

Medical Exam

Every applicant, including children, must complete a medical exam with a panel physician authorized by the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in your area before the interview. The exam covers a physical evaluation, medical history, blood tests, and a chest X-ray if indicated, along with proof of required vaccinations. Costs typically run from $100 to $500 depending on the country and how many vaccinations are needed. Book early — panel physicians can fill up weeks ahead, and you cannot interview without completed results.

Public Charge

The consular officer has to be satisfied that you’re unlikely to become dependent on government assistance. You can show this with personal savings, a U.S. job offer, or a Form I-134 Declaration of Financial Support from a U.S. citizen or permanent resident sponsor. A combination works too. More evidence is better than less; the officer has discretion.

Fees

Each applicant, principal and every accompanying family member, pays a $330 non-refundable visa application fee at the interview.⁸ After approval, you also pay a USCIS Immigrant Fee before entering the United States, which covers your permanent resident card. A family of four should expect well over $1,500 in government fees, not counting the medical exam.

The Interview

A consular officer reviews your documents, asks questions to verify your identity and qualifications, and makes a final decision. The officer checks that the original entry was truthful, that you meet the education or work threshold, and that no grounds of inadmissibility apply — criminal history, prior immigration violations, health-related issues, and similar problems. A family member left off the original entry, for example, results in a denial.

If You’re Already in the United States

Selected applicants who are already in the U.S. in a valid nonimmigrant status can file Form I-485 with USCIS to adjust status instead of interviewing abroad.¹¹ You can file once the monthly Visa Bulletin shows your case number below the rank cutoff. The I-485 filing fee is $1,440 for applicants age 14 and older. You still need the medical exam (done by a USCIS-designated civil surgeon inside the U.S.), all supporting documents, and the DV lottery processing fee paid to the State Department. The September 30 deadline still applies, and USCIS processing times can be unpredictable, so file as early in the fiscal year as possible.

The September 30 Deadline

Every diversity visa expires on September 30 of the fiscal year for which you were selected. Unused visas do not carry over.¹¹ If your interview hasn’t happened, your visa hasn’t been issued, or your adjustment hasn’t been approved by that date, the selection is worthless. The State Department does not extend the deadline for any reason.

This is where most preventable losses occur. People delay the DS-260, underestimate how long police certificates take to arrive from former countries of residence, or leave the medical exam too late. Results come out in May, interviews start in October, and the fiscal year ends the following September — that looks generous until document collection from multiple countries, embassy scheduling backlogs, and administrative processing eat into it. Treat every week after selection as valuable.

Avoiding Scams

The DV lottery attracts heavy fraud. The State Department has repeatedly warned about scammers sending official-looking emails and letters claiming the recipient has won and must pay a fee to proceed.¹² Some rules of thumb:

The government never emails or mails lottery results. The Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov is the only channel.
The government never asks you to send money by wire transfer, gift card, prepaid card, Western Union, MoneyGram, or PayPal. Visa fees are paid in person at the embassy cashier window at the time of interview.
Any website related to the DV program that doesn’t end in .gov should be treated as suspicious. Scam sites often use convincing logos and photographs of government buildings.
No one can improve your chances of being selected. Consultants promising better odds or insider access are lying.
Never add fake family members to your application. That’s fraud and it permanently bars you from U.S. immigration benefits.

If you receive a suspicious communication, report it to the State Department’s fraud reporting page or to the Federal Trade Commission.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part G Chapter 1 – Purpose and Background
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
USAGov. Find Out if You Are Eligible for the Diversity Visa DV Lottery and How to Register
5
U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements
6
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Submit an Entry
7
USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What to Do if You Were Selected
8
Federal Register. Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Department of State and Overseas Embassies and Consulates – Visa Services Fee Changes
9
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Selection of Applicants
10
U.S. Embassy Yaoundé. Instructions for the 2026 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program DV-2026
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
12
U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning