The Green Card Lottery for 2027 (officially the DV-2027 Diversity Visa Program) has not opened for entries yet. The Department of State delayed the DV-2027 registration period and said it will announce a start date “as soon as practicable,” with no specific timeline given.1U.S. Department of State. Changes to Entry Period for 2027 Diversity Visa Program A separate pause on all diversity visa issuance is also in effect: applicants may submit forms and attend interviews, but no diversity visas are being issued, with no exceptions.2U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Issuance Updated Guidance That pause currently affects DV-2026 and lingering DV-2025 cases; its effect on DV-2027 depends on whether it lifts before FY2027 processing begins. Watch the Department of State’s visa news page before investing time and money in an entry.
DV-2026 registration ran October 2 through November 7, 2024, which gives you a rough sense of the window’s length once DV-2027 opens.3USAGov. Find Out if You Are Eligible for the Diversity Visa Lottery and How to Register The rules below explain who can enter, what’s new for this cycle, and what a selected applicant faces afterward.
Who Can Enter
Two things decide whether you’re eligible: where you were born, and your education or work background.
Country of Birth
You must be a native of an eligible country. Each year the government excludes “high-admission” countries whose natives sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States during the previous five fiscal years.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas The DV-2027 list has not been published, but recent cycles have excluded natives of Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, mainland China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland), and Vietnam, among others.
If you were born in an ineligible country, cross-chargeability may still get you in. You can claim your spouse’s country of birth if they were born in an eligible country and will accompany you on the visa, and in certain circumstances you may claim a parent’s country of birth.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part G Chapter 2 – Eligibility Requirements
Education or Work Experience
You need a high school education, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of formal elementary and secondary education. Without that, you can qualify with two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience.6U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Confirm Your Qualifications The Department of State uses the Department of Labor’s O*NET OnLine database to decide whether a job qualifies, based on Job Zones that classify occupations by the preparation they demand.7O*NET OnLine. Job Zones
Nothing about this is checked when you enter. You can submit without proving anything. But if you’re selected and can’t document your education or work at the visa interview, your visa will be refused. Verify you actually qualify before you enter, not after.
What’s New for DV-2027
A final rule published in the Federal Register introduced changes that applicants from previous years won’t expect.8Federal Register. Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
A valid, unexpired passport is now required at the moment of entry. You must supply your passport information and upload a scan of the biographic and signature pages in JPEG format, no larger than 5 megabytes. PDFs won’t be accepted. Exemptions apply to stateless individuals, nationals of communist-controlled countries who cannot obtain a passport, and certain waiver beneficiaries. If you don’t have a valid passport, get one before the registration window opens.
A $1 registration fee is now charged on every entry. No waivers. This is separate from the $330 visa application fee later in the process. The form also uses “sex” instead of “gender” and “date of birth” instead of “age,” and the Department estimates it now takes roughly 90 minutes to complete, up from about 30, largely because of the passport scan.
How to Submit Your Entry
Entries are accepted only through the official Electronic Diversity Visa website at dvlottery.state.gov, on Form DS-5501. No other website, agent, or service is authorized to file for you. Once DV-2027 dates are announced, expect a window of roughly five weeks based on past cycles.
The form asks for your full legal name exactly as it appears on your passport, date of birth, sex, city and country of birth, country of eligibility, mailing address, email address, highest level of education, marital status, and number of children.9U.S. Embassy in Togo. Instructions for Diversity Visa Program For DV-2027 you’ll also upload the passport scan and pay the $1 fee.
You must list your spouse and every unmarried child under 21, even if they don’t plan to immigrate with you or don’t live with you. Leaving out an eligible family member, or listing someone who isn’t actually your spouse or child, can disqualify your whole family.10U.S. Department of State. Submit Your Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Application The only exceptions are a spouse you’re legally separated from (where divorce is recognized) and children who are already U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Only one entry per person is allowed. Submitting more than one disqualifies you, and the disqualification can be discovered months later at your visa interview.11U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 502.6 – Diversity Immigrant Visas
Photo Requirements
Every person on the entry needs a recent photo meeting exact specifications: square, between 600 × 600 and 1,200 × 1,200 pixels, JPEG format, no larger than 240 kilobytes, and a compression ratio no higher than 20:1.12U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements Background must be plain white or off-white. Face the camera directly, no glasses, no head coverings (daily religious head coverings are generally permitted). A photo that misses the spec causes a technical rejection before your entry is even considered.
The Confirmation Number
When you submit, the system displays a confirmation page with your name and a unique confirmation number. Print it and save digital copies in more than one place. You need this number to check whether you were selected. A retrieval tool exists if you lose it (using your name, date of birth, and the email address from your entry), but treat the confirmation number as something you cannot afford to misplace.13USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What to Do if You Were Selected
Checking Results
The Department of State does not notify winners by email, letter, or phone. Anyone who contacts you claiming you’ve won is running a scam. Check your status only through the Entrant Status Check tool at dvprogram.state.gov, using your confirmation number, last name, and year of birth.14U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning
DV-2026 results became available on May 3, 2025 and stayed accessible through at least September 30, 2026.13USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What to Do if You Were Selected DV-2027 will follow a similar pattern, with exact dates depending on when registration takes place. Keep your confirmation number until at least September 30, 2027, the end of the fiscal year and the absolute deadline for DV-2027 visas to be issued.
If You’re Selected
Selection isn’t a visa. It’s permission to apply for one. You receive a case number that sets your place in the processing queue: a lower number means an earlier interview, a higher number carries the risk that all available visas will be gone before your turn.
Every selected applicant and each accompanying family member must complete Form DS-260 (the online immigrant visa application) at ceac.state.gov, using the case number to access it. Print the confirmation page and bring it to the interview.10U.S. Department of State. Submit Your Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Application
You’ll also need originals of several civil documents:15U.S. Department of State. Prepare Supporting Documents
- A long-form birth certificate showing date of birth, place of birth, and both parents’ names. Short-form certificates are not accepted.
- Police certificates for everyone aged 16 and older from each country where you lived more than six months (country of nationality) or twelve months (other countries), plus any country where you were arrested.
- A photocopy of your passport biographic data page, plus the original passport at the interview.
- Certified copies of court and prison records for any criminal conviction, regardless of pardon or amnesty.
- Military records if you served in any country’s armed forces.
Police certificates from multiple countries take time. Start collecting the day you’re selected, not the week of your interview.
The DV application fee is $330 per person, paid at the U.S. embassy or consulate at the interview.16Federal Register. Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Department of State and Overseas Embassies The U.S. government will never ask you to send payment in advance by check, money order, or wire transfer. Any request for advance payment is a scam.14U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning Also budget for the required medical exam, which typically runs $250 to $500 depending on the provider and required vaccinations; the government does not regulate these prices.
The medical exam must be done by a Department of State-authorized panel physician abroad, or a USCIS-designated civil surgeon if you’re adjusting status in the United States. It covers a physical evaluation, mental health screening, and required vaccinations (MMR; polio; tetanus and diphtheria; pertussis; haemophilus influenzae type B; hepatitis B). Seasonal flu vaccine is required only for appointments between October 1 and March 31. The COVID-19 vaccination is no longer required as of January 2025.
Separately, other grounds of inadmissibility (certain criminal convictions, national security concerns, prior immigration fraud, prior deportations, extended unlawful presence) can bar a visa even for a properly selected applicant.17U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Inadmissibility and Waivers
Already in the United States
If you’re physically present in the U.S. on a valid visa when selected, you may adjust status without leaving, by filing Form I-485 with USCIS instead of interviewing at a consulate abroad.18USCIS. Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program You can only file once a visa number is available for your case number; check the monthly Visa Bulletin against your rank and region.
The September 30, 2027 deadline applies equally. Diversity visas do not carry over to the next fiscal year, and any unfiled or unadjudicated case expires permanently on that date.19U.S. Department of State. DV 2026 – Selected Entrants
Avoiding Scams
The DV lottery draws a large volume of fraud. Scammers pose as the U.S. government by email or letter, demanding payment to “process” or “confirm” an entry. The Department of State has flagged an increase in these schemes.14U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning
Three rules protect you. The government never notifies winners by email or letter; you check your own status at dvprogram.state.gov. Legitimate government websites and email addresses end in “.gov”; anything else is suspect. DV fees are paid in person at the embassy or consulate during your appointment, and no legitimate part of the process involves sending money in advance.
Paid services offering to “submit your entry” are not necessary. The entry form is free to access (aside from the new $1 fee) and designed for individuals to complete on their own. Some services charge substantial fees for tasks any applicant can do directly on dvlottery.state.gov.