How to Enter and Submit the Diversity Visa Lottery Form (DS-5501)

To enter the Diversity Visa Lottery, you submit the Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form (DS-5501) for free at dvprogram.state.gov during the annual registration window, which typically runs from early October to early November. The Department of State administers the drawing by random computer selection, and only one entry per person is allowed per year. Before you start, check the program’s current status: as of early 2025, the Department of State paused diversity visa issuances, meaning selectees could attend interviews but no visas were being issued while the pause remained in effect.¹

Check Whether You Qualify First

Two things decide eligibility: where you were born, and your education or work history.

Country of Birth

You must be a native of a country the Department of State treats as “low-admission,” meaning fewer than 50,000 people from that country immigrated to the U.S. over the previous five years.² The list of excluded countries is republished each cycle. For the DV-2026 program, natives of Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, mainland China (including Hong Kong), Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam were ineligible. Natives of Macau SAR and Taiwan remained eligible despite China’s exclusion.³

Born in an excluded country? You may still qualify through cross-chargeability. You can claim your spouse’s country of birth if the spouse was born in an eligible country and the marriage existed before you filed the entry. You can also claim a parent’s country of birth if neither parent was born in — or was a legal resident of — your own birth country at the time of your birth.⁴

Education or Work Experience

You need either a high school education or its equivalent, defined as the successful completion of a 12-year course of elementary and secondary schooling, or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation that itself requires at least two years of training or experience.³ The Department of State uses the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET OnLine database to decide which jobs qualify. Occupations that count fall into Job Zone 4 or 5 with a Specific Vocational Preparation rating of 7.0 or higher. Look up your job at onetonline.org before entering.

What to Have Ready Before You Open the Form

The DS-5501 is submitted in one online session, and the portal can time out. Gather everything first:

Your full legal name — last, first, and middle — exactly as it appears on your passport.
Date and place of birth, using the country’s current name.
Gender.
Country of eligibility, normally your birth country unless you’re claiming cross-chargeability.
Mailing address and email address.
Country where you currently live.
Highest level of education completed.
Marital status and number of children.
A compliant digital photograph of yourself and every derivative family member listed.

The form also asks for a phone number, but that field is optional.⁵

Who Counts as Family on the Entry

You must list your spouse and all living unmarried children under age 21, including stepchildren, legally adopted children, and your spouse’s children, even if they don’t live with you and even if they have no intention of immigrating. Leaving out an eligible family member, or listing someone who is not actually your spouse or child, makes you ineligible for a visa, and your spouse and children lose eligibility as derivative applicants.⁶ If you’re legally separated by court order, you may omit that spouse. Merely living apart is not enough; the spouse still gets listed. Each listed family member needs their own biographical details and a separate digital photograph.

Photo Requirements

The photo is the most technical part of the entry and one of the most common reasons entries are rejected. Each photo must meet these specifications:⁷

JPEG (.jpg) file format.
Exactly 600 × 600 pixels, square.
File size 240 KB or smaller.
24 bits per pixel color depth.⁸
Head size, from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head including hair, between 50% and 69% of the image height.
Plain white or off-white background with no shadows.
Neutral expression, both eyes open, looking straight at the camera.
Taken within the last six months.

Eyeglasses are not allowed in new DV photos except in rare cases where they can’t be removed for medical reasons, supported by a signed medical statement. Head coverings are permitted only if worn daily for religious purposes, and the full face must remain visible with no shadows cast by the covering. Uniforms, headphones, and wireless earbuds are not allowed.⁷

Scanning a printed 2 × 2 inch photo instead of taking a digital one? Scan it at 300 pixels per inch to produce the required 600 × 600 pixel result. Run the image through the State Department’s free photo validation tool before you attach it.

Submitting the Entry

All entries go through dvprogram.state.gov during the annual registration window.⁹ The DV-2026 window ran from October 2, 2024, at noon EDT through November 7, 2024, at noon EST.¹⁰ There is no fee to register. The Department of State posts each year’s exact dates on travel.state.gov.

Work through the pages carefully, enter every biographical detail, upload a photo for each listed person, and review the final summary screen before you submit. Once the entry is submitted, you cannot go back and edit it.

One Entry Per Person

The law allows only one entry per person per registration period. The Department of State uses technology to detect duplicates, and if you submit more than one entry, or someone submits an additional entry on your behalf, all of your entries are disqualified.⁹ Married couples may each submit their own entry, listing each other as a spouse; if either is selected, both can immigrate. That’s not the same as two entries for one person.

Save the Confirmation Number

After a successful submission, the system displays a screen with your name and a unique confirmation number. Save it immediately. Print it, screenshot it, or save it as a PDF. The system does not email a copy, and there’s no way to retrieve the number later if you lose it. This number is the only way to check whether you were selected.

How to Check Results

The Department of State publishes results only through the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov. Not email, not phone, not postal mail. For the DV-2026 lottery, results became available on May 3, 2025, and remain accessible through at least September 30, 2026.¹¹ To check, enter your confirmation number, last name, and year of birth on the portal.

Selection lets you proceed with a formal visa application; it does not guarantee a green card. More people are selected than there are visas available, because not everyone completes the process. If you were selected, the status check page provides your case number and next-step instructions.

Watch for Scams Around the Entry Process

Fake “winner” notices arrive every year by email, phone, and letter. The Department of State never contacts selectees through any of those channels, and the only legitimate way to learn your result is to check the Entrant Status Check portal yourself.¹¹

Any message asking you to pay a fee in advance by wire transfer, gift card, money order, or check to “secure” your lottery win is fraudulent. Real DV fees are paid in person at a U.S. embassy or consulate at a scheduled appointment, or to USCIS as part of an adjustment-of-status filing.¹² If someone offers to improve your odds or submit the entry for you, that’s a red flag: the lottery is random, and if that third party submits a duplicate on your behalf, all of your entries are disqualified.

1
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Issuance Updated Guidance
2
U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 502.6 – Diversity Immigrant Visas
3
U.S. Department of State. Instructions for the 2026 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 Part G Chapter 2 – Eligibility Requirements
5
U.S. Embassy in Togo. Instructions for Diversity Visa Program
6
U.S. Department of State. Instructions for the 2025 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
7
U.S. Department of State. Photo Requirements
8
U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements
9
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Submit an Entry
10
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Instructions
11
USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What to Do if You Were Selected
12
U.S. Department of State. Fees for Visa Services