Green Card Lottery Application Dates and Requirements

The green card lottery application dates and requirements follow a fixed annual pattern: registration opens in early October and closes in early November through the official site at dvprogram.state.gov, and to enter you must have been born in an eligible country and hold either a high school diploma or two years of qualifying work experience. For DV-2026, the window ran October 2 through November 7, 2024, and it is now closed.¹ For DV-2027, the Department of State has not yet announced dates because new entry rules are taking effect; the department has said it will publish the start date as soon as practicable.²

The Annual Timeline

The lottery is labeled by the fiscal year visas will actually be issued, which runs October 1 through September 30. That means registration happens roughly two years before a selected applicant can receive a visa.

Registration opens for about 30 to 35 days in October and early November. DV-2026 ran October 2 through November 7, 2024.¹
Results post on the Entrant Status Check in early May of the following year. DV-2026 results became available May 3, 2025, and remain accessible through September 30, 2026.³
Selected applicants must complete interviews and receive visas between October 1 and September 30 of the fiscal year assigned to their cycle.

That September 30 cutoff is absolute. The Department of State cannot issue a diversity visa after the fiscal year ends, regardless of how far along a case is.

New Requirements Starting With DV-2027

Two rule changes will apply the next time registration opens.

A $1 Registration Fee

Entering the lottery used to be free. Starting with DV-2027, the Department of State requires a $1 electronic registration fee paid through an authorized government payment portal at the time of submission.⁴ It is separate from the $330 per-person visa application fee that selected applicants pay later.⁵

A Valid Passport

Effective April 10, 2026, principal applicants must supply a valid, unexpired passport number at registration and upload a JPEG scan of the passport’s biographical and signature page. The file cannot exceed 5 MB, and PDFs are not accepted.⁶ No passport was needed in prior years. Limited exemptions cover stateless individuals, nationals of certain countries who cannot obtain passports, and applicants granted individual waivers. The State Department estimates the new entry process will take about 90 minutes.

Who Can Enter

Two conditions must both be met.

Country of Birth

You must be a native of a country with historically low immigration to the United States. Each year the government publishes a list of excluded countries based on the previous five years of immigration data; countries that sent more than 50,000 immigrants during that period are excluded.⁷ Mexico, mainland-born China, India, the Philippines, and South Korea are commonly excluded, though the list shifts.

If your birth country is excluded, you may still qualify through your spouse’s country of birth, provided both of you apply together and your spouse would accompany or follow you.⁸

Education or Work Experience

You need at least a high school diploma, or a foreign equivalent representing 12 years of elementary and secondary education. Without that, you can qualify with two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training, as classified by the Department of Labor’s O*Net Online database.⁹ There is no age requirement and no language requirement.

What the Entry Itself Requires

Errors on the form lead to disqualification, sometimes months later at the interview stage when it’s too late to fix.

Personal and Family Information

The form asks for your full legal name exactly as it appears on your passport, date of birth, gender, and city and country of birth. You must also list your spouse and all unmarried children under 21, including stepchildren and adopted children, whether or not they plan to immigrate with you. Leaving out an eligible family member is one of the most common reasons applications are denied at the consular interview.¹⁰

Photo Specifications

Each person listed on the entry needs a recent digital photograph meeting strict, automatically enforced requirements:

Square aspect ratio, minimum 600 × 600 pixels, maximum 1200 × 1200 pixels
JPEG format only
File size of 240 KB or smaller
Full color (24-bit), sRGB color space

The photo must be taken within the last six months and show your full face looking directly at the camera.¹¹ Photos that don’t meet these specifications cause the system to reject the entry outright.

How to Submit

The only legitimate place to submit an entry is dvprogram.state.gov. The Department of State does not use any third-party website and does not employ outside consultants to run the program.¹² Any other site offering to file for you is either charging for something you can do yourself or running a scam.

After completing the form and uploading photos, review everything on the final screen. Once you submit, the system generates a confirmation number. Save it in more than one place. It is the only way to check whether you were selected, and the Department of State will not retrieve it for you.

One entry per person per fiscal year. Submit two or more entries for the same cycle and all of them are voided, disqualifying you for that year.⁶ Married couples can each submit one entry, effectively doubling the household’s chances, but each spouse must list the other on their form.

Checking Results and What Comes Next

Results appear on the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov starting in early May of the year after registration. The government does not notify selectees by email, phone, or letter.¹³

Selection means you’re eligible to apply, not that you’ve won a visa. Selected applicants file Form DS-260 online, and the Kentucky Consular Center reviews the submission. Once a visa number is available for your region, you’re scheduled for an interview at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate.¹⁴ Visa numbers are allocated monthly by region, so a lower case number generally means an earlier interview.

At the interview you’ll present original documents, including your passport, birth certificate, proof of your education or qualifying work experience, police certificates, and a completed medical examination in a sealed envelope from a State Department-authorized panel physician. The $330 per-person application fee is paid in person on the day of the interview and is non-refundable regardless of outcome.⁵

Your Real Odds and Why Speed Matters

The statute authorizes up to 55,000 diversity visas per fiscal year, but under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act up to 5,000 can be redirected each year, bringing the effective ceiling closer to 50,000.¹⁵ To account for applicants who never complete processing, State selects far more people than there are visas: tens of millions of entries typically produce roughly 100,000 to 125,000 selectees and about 50,000 issued visas. Selectees with high case numbers may find visa numbers exhausted before their interview is scheduled. Moving quickly on every step after selection is the single most important thing you can do.

How to Recognize a Scam

Fraud around the lottery is common. The most frequent version is an email or letter claiming you’ve been selected, often with official-looking logos. The Department of State never contacts winners this way. Status is checked only through the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov using your confirmation number.¹³ Anyone asking for payment by check, money order, or wire transfer is running a scam; all legitimate fees are paid in person at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate at a scheduled appointment. Anyone claiming they can improve your odds of selection is also running a scam. The drawing is randomized by computer, and no outside party can influence it.

1
USAGov. Find Out if You Are Eligible for the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery and How to Register
2
U.S. Department of State. Changes to Entry Period for 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) Program
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USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What to Do if You Were Selected
4
Federal Register. Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Department of State and Overseas Embassies and Consulates
5
U.S. Department of State. Prepare for the Interview
6
Federal Register. Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
8
eCFR. 22 CFR 42.33 – Diversity Immigrants
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eCFR. 22 CFR 42.33 – Diversity Immigrants
10
U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Türkiye. Diversity Immigrant Visa
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U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements
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U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Submit an Entry
13
Federal Trade Commission. Diversity Visa Lottery Scam
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U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Interview
15
U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. Diversity Immigrant Visas