Green Card Lottery Dates and Registration Deadlines

The Green Card Lottery’s registration window opens in early October and closes in early November each year, with results posted the following May. For the most recent completed cycle (DV-2026), registration ran from noon Eastern on October 2, 2024 through noon Eastern on November 7, 2024.¹ Future cycles follow the same fall pattern, with exact dates shifting by a day or two. If you’re selected, a second set of deadlines takes over, ending with an absolute September 30 cutoff the following fiscal year.

The Annual Registration Window

The Department of State opens the electronic entry portal once a year, in the first week of October, and closes it in the first or second week of November. The DV-2026 window ran October 2, 2024 to November 7, 2024, both cutoffs falling at 12:00 noon Eastern Time.¹ The noon cutoff is absolute. There is no appeal, no late filing, and no administrative workaround once the portal closes. The State Department warns against waiting until the final week because heavy traffic can slow the site.

Entries are accepted only through the official Electronic Diversity Visa website at dvprogram.state.gov. No paper entries, no third-party portals, no exceptions.

Starting with the DV-2027 cycle, a $1 electronic registration fee is due at the time of submission, paid through a government payment portal. The fee took effect on September 16, 2025 under an amendment to 22 CFR 42.33.² Before that change, initial registration was free. The $1 is separate from the $330 application fee lottery winners pay later.

Each person may submit only one entry per cycle. Duplicate entries disqualify all of your entries for that cycle, and that disqualification can surface at any point, including months later during the visa interview.³ Married couples may each submit one entry.

Results Are Posted the Following May

Results become available in the spring through the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov. For recent cycles, the portal has opened in early May and stays accessible through September 30 of the fiscal year in which the visas would be issued. You check by entering your confirmation number, last name, and year of birth. That is the only way to find out whether you were selected.

The State Department does not send emails or letters announcing winners. Any message claiming you won the lottery and asking for payment is fraudulent.⁴ You may receive a legitimate reminder to check your status online, but that message will never say you were selected or ask for money.

The September 30 Deadline That Governs Everything After Selection

Every diversity visa must be issued by September 30 of the relevant fiscal year. This is the single most unforgiving deadline in the program. If your visa has not been issued, or your adjustment of status has not been approved, by that date, your selection expires permanently.⁵ DV numbers cannot carry over to the next year.

The statutory cap under 8 U.S.C. § 1153(c) is 55,000 diversity visas per fiscal year. Since fiscal year 2000, an offset under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act has reduced the effective number to roughly 50,000.⁵ The State Department selects far more than 50,000 entrants each year, expecting many to drop out or run out of time. Visas are processed in rank-number order, and once the cap is reached, remaining selectees lose their opportunity regardless of their rank.

The monthly Visa Bulletin tracks which rank numbers are current for each geographic region, so selectees can see when their number will be reachable.⁶

Deadlines Between Selection and September 30

There is no single hard date for the intermediate steps, but the State Department urges selectees to complete the online DS-260 immigrant visa application immediately after checking results, because interview appointments are scheduled in rank order and the whole process must finish before the fiscal year ends.⁷ Delay in filing the DS-260 pushes your interview later into the fiscal year and shrinks the buffer you have for any problem that comes up.

Supporting documents you’ll need to gather:

Long-form birth certificate showing date and place of birth and both parents’ names (short-form certificates are not accepted)
Passport biographic page photocopies for each applicant
Police certificates from every country you’ve lived in since age 16, for each applicant aged 16 and older
Court and prison records if you have any criminal history
Military records if you’ve served in any country’s armed forces

Police certificates in particular can take weeks or months to obtain, which is why the State Department pushes selectees to start right away.⁸

Every applicant also needs a medical exam performed by a physician approved by the U.S. embassy or consulate, plus documented vaccinations against a list of diseases including hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, varicella, and meningococcal disease.⁹ Missing doses can be administered by the panel physician, but that adds cost and often another appointment.

The interview is where the consular officer makes the final decision. Each applicant pays a $330 nonrefundable application fee, usually collected at the embassy on the day of the interview, though some posts require advance payment.¹⁰ For a family of four, that’s $1,320 in application fees alone, before medical exams, documents, and travel.

If You’re Already in the U.S.

Selectees already in the United States on a valid nonimmigrant status may adjust status through USCIS using Form I-485 instead of going to a consular interview abroad. A diversity visa number must be immediately available based on your rank, which you check in the monthly Visa Bulletin.⁵ The same September 30 cutoff applies: USCIS must approve the case by that date.

The 2025 USCIS Processing Hold

In December 2025, USCIS issued Policy Memorandum PM-602-0193 directing agency personnel to place a hold on pending DV-based adjustment of status applications. The memo cited Executive Order 14161, issued January 20, 2025, which directed agencies to review vetting procedures for various immigration programs. The hold pauses final adjudication of Form I-485 applications filed through the DV program, along with associated work authorization, travel document, and waiver applications.¹¹

The hold remains in effect until lifted by the USCIS Director or the Secretary of Homeland Security. The September 30 fiscal year deadline does not pause with it, which creates an acute risk for selectees adjusting status inside the United States. Consular processing at embassies abroad may face separate delays depending on post-specific guidance. Anyone with a pending DV case, or planning to enter the next lottery, should watch the State Department and USCIS websites for updates.

A Note on Who Can Enter

Two eligibility rules narrow the field before dates matter. The lottery is limited to people born in countries with historically low immigration to the United States, and the excluded-country list changes slightly each year. For DV-2026, excluded countries included Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam.¹² Cross-chargeability rules let some applicants claim eligibility through a qualifying spouse’s or parent’s country of birth, though those exceptions are narrower than most people assume.³

On the education side, you need at least a high school diploma or equivalent, or two years of qualifying work experience in an occupation that itself requires at least two years of training, measured against the O*NET database.¹³ Meeting neither threshold disqualifies your entry even if you’re selected, so confirm you qualify before the October window opens.

1
U.S. Department of State. Correction of Diversity Visa 2026 Federal Register Notice
2
Federal Register. Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Department of State and Overseas Embassies
3
U.S. Department of State. 9 FAM 502.6 Diversity Immigrant Visas
4
U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part G Chapter 2 – Eligibility Requirements
7
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – If Selected
8
U.S. Department of State. Prepare Supporting Documents
9
U.S. Department of State. Vaccinations
10
U.S. Department of State. Prepare for the Interview
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. PM-602-0193 Diversity Visa Holds
12
U.S. Department of State. DV 2026 – Selected Entrants
13
eCFR. 22 CFR 42.33 – Diversity Immigrants