The green card lottery, officially the Diversity Visa (DV) Program, works in three stages: you submit a free-form online entry during a short window each fall, a computer randomly selects entries against regional and per-country caps, and if you’re picked you then apply for an immigrant visa, attend an interview, and must be issued the visa before September 30 of that fiscal year. Up to 55,000 permanent resident visas are made available annually to people from countries with historically low immigration to the United States, though statutory reductions bring the real number lower. For DV-2026, roughly 51,850 visas are available against more than 20 million qualified entries.1U.S. Department of State. DV 2026 – Selected Entrants
The odds are steep, and the rules on eligibility, documentation, and deadlines are strict enough that a single mistake can end your chance at any stage.
Who Can Enter
Two things have to line up: where you were born, and either your education or your work history.
Country of birth is the starting point. The lottery is only open to natives of “low-admission” countries, meaning fewer than 50,000 people born there received family- or employment-based immigrant visas over the previous five years.2Department of State. DV-2026 Plain Language Instructions and FAQs Countries above that threshold are excluded, and the list is revised for each cycle. For DV-2026, ineligible countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland and Hong Kong), Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Natives of Macau and Taiwan remain eligible.
If you were born in an ineligible country, chargeability rules may still let you enter. You can claim your spouse’s country of birth if the spouse is on your entry and will immigrate with you, or a parent’s country of birth if neither parent was born in or a legal resident of the country where you were born at the time of your birth.3Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 503.2 Chargeability
You also have to meet one of two qualification thresholds set by federal law.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas The first is a completed 12-year course of formal elementary and secondary education comparable to a U.S. high school diploma. Correspondence programs and equivalency certificates like the GED don’t count.5U.S. Department of State. Confirm Your Qualifications The second is two years of work experience within the past five years in a job that itself requires at least two years of specialized training. The Department of State uses the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET database to judge whether an occupation qualifies; if yours doesn’t fall within the required classification, work experience won’t help regardless of how long you’ve done the job.
You don’t have to prove education or work experience when you enter. That proof comes later, at the visa interview, and failing to produce it means denial.
Registering During the Fall Window
Entries are submitted through the Department of State’s official E-DV website during a limited annual window, typically early October to early November.6USAGov. Eligibility for the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery The DV-2026 window ran October 2 to November 7, 2024.7U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Instructions There’s no late submission and no appeal for a missed deadline.
The electronic form, DS-5501, asks for your full legal name as it appears on your passport, gender, date and place of birth, country of eligibility, mailing address, country of residence, email, and highest level of education.8Federal Register. Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program You must include your spouse and every unmarried child under 21, even those who won’t immigrate with you. The only exception is a spouse who is already a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Leaving a family member off, or misrepresenting your marital status, disqualifies the entry if it’s caught later.
Every person on the entry needs a recent digital JPEG photo: square, at least 600 by 600 pixels and no larger than 1200 by 1200, in 24-bit sRGB color, with a light background and no glasses.9U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements Head coverings are allowed only for religious reasons. Photos older than six months are rejected.
Only one entry per person is allowed. Submitting more than one disqualifies all of them, and the Department of State uses detection technology to catch duplicates.10U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Submit an Entry A married couple can each file their own entry and list the other as a derivative, effectively giving the household two chances.
Two recent changes affect the entry itself. A $1 registration fee now applies, added through a consular fee schedule update effective September 2025.11Federal Register. Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Department of State and Overseas Embassies And under a 2026 rule, entrants must provide proof of a valid, unexpired passport at registration.8Federal Register. Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program If you don’t already hold a passport, get one before the window opens.
When you submit, the system issues a confirmation number. Save it. That number is the only way to check your results later.
How the Random Selection Works
After registration closes, a computer-generated random drawing pulls entries from each of six geographic regions. Every region gets a share of the 55,000 visas proportional to its population, and no single country can take more than seven percent of the total in any fiscal year.12Department of State. Update on Diversity Visa (DV) Program 2025: Close to Reaching 7 Percent Cap for Egypt Provisions of the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act and the National Defense Authorization Act reduce the ceiling in practice; the DV-2026 total came in around 51,850.1U.S. Department of State. DV 2026 – Selected Entrants
The State Department picks more people than there are visas because a large share of selectees never complete the process. Roughly 129,516 prospective applicants (selectees plus their family members) were registered for DV-2026 from 20,822,624 qualified entries.1U.S. Department of State. DV 2026 – Selected Entrants Being selected doesn’t guarantee a visa; it makes you eligible to apply. Each selectee gets a case number that determines when the application is processed. If the fiscal year’s visas run out before your number is reached, the selection expires unused.
Checking Results and Avoiding Scams
Results are available only through the Entrant Status Check on the E-DV website, starting in May of the year after registration.13U.S. Department of State. If Selected You’ll need your confirmation number. The Department of State does not send letters or emails announcing winners, and no U.S. embassy will hand out lists of selectees.
That matters because DV lottery scams are common. Emails claiming you’ve “won” and demanding a fee are a standard pattern. The government will never ask you to send money by check, wire transfer, or money order in advance.14U.S. Department of State. Fraud Warning Any message from an address that doesn’t end in .gov should be treated as suspicious. Consultants who promise to improve your odds are another red flag; no one outside the drawing itself controls who gets picked. Suspected scams can be reported through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center or econsumer.gov.
What Happens After You’re Selected
If Entrant Status Check confirms your selection, you and each family member applying must file Form DS-260, the online immigrant visa application.15Travel.State.Gov. Submit Your Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration Application It’s far more detailed than the lottery entry, covering biography, employment history, travel history, and security questions. The Kentucky Consular Center reviews DS-260 submissions and schedules interviews.16U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Interview
Start collecting civil documents right away. You’ll need birth certificates for every applicant, marriage certificates if applicable, and police certificates. Police certificate rules are specific: anyone 16 or older must provide one from their country of nationality if they lived there more than six months, from their country of current residence if different, and from any other country they lived in for 12 months or more while 16 or older.17U.S. Department of State. Step 7: Collect Civil Documents If you were ever arrested anywhere, a police certificate is required from that place regardless of age or length of stay. Documents from multiple countries can take months to obtain.
Before the interview, every applicant completes a medical exam with an authorized panel physician, screening for communicable diseases and confirming required vaccinations. Costs vary, typically running $200 to $500 or more with vaccinations. Each applicant also pays a $330 nonrefundable DV application fee, usually at the interview itself, though some embassies require advance payment.18U.S. Department of State. Prepare for the Interview – Diversity Visa Program
At the interview, a consular officer reviews original civil documents, verifies your education or work experience, and evaluates admissibility. If approved, you receive a sealed visa packet to present at a U.S. port of entry, and your permanent resident status begins on arrival. After approval and before entering the United States, you’ll also pay a $235 USCIS Immigrant Fee, which covers packet processing and production of your physical green card.19U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions on the USCIS Fee Rule
DV applicants are subject to the public charge ground of inadmissibility, so the officer also considers whether you can support yourself. Savings, real estate, investments, or a U.S. job offer can serve as evidence. If your own resources aren’t enough, a U.S.-based sponsor can file Form I-134 (Declaration of Financial Support) with a recent federal tax return. DV applicants cannot use Form I-864, the affidavit used in most other immigrant categories.20Foreign Affairs Manual. Public Charge – INA 212(a)(4)
The September 30 Cutoff
Every diversity visa expires on September 30 of the fiscal year attached to its lottery cycle. For DV-2026, that’s September 30, 2026. If your visa hasn’t been issued (or your adjustment of status hasn’t been approved) by that date, the selection is worthless. Unused diversity visas do not carry over.21U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
This is the single biggest reason selectees lose their chance. Slow document collection, delayed medical exams, uncooperative foreign records offices, or a high case number that isn’t reached before annual visas run out can all end an otherwise successful case. File the DS-260 and start gathering documents the moment you confirm your selection.
If You’re Already in the United States
Selectees already living in the U.S. on a valid visa can adjust status domestically instead of interviewing abroad, using Form I-485 filed with USCIS.22USCIS. Eligibility Requirements (Diversity Immigrant-Based Adjustment) You must have been inspected and admitted or paroled, be physically present at filing, have maintained lawful status since arrival, and have a visa number immediately available. The same September 30 deadline applies: any I-485 still pending on October 1 will be denied. USCIS processing times are unpredictable, so file as early in the fiscal year as possible.