How to Fill Out and Submit the DV Lottery Application Form (DS-5501)

To fill out the DV lottery application, complete the DS-5501 online at dvprogram.state.gov during the fall registration window, which typically runs from early October through early November. The form is free (a $1 registration fee begins for the DV-2027 cycle), takes about fifteen minutes if your information is ready, and asks for basic biographical details, a photo that meets exact specifications, and a complete list of your immediate family. What causes trouble is not the questions themselves but the precision they demand: your entries must match your passport, your photo must meet pixel-level rules, and every eligible spouse and child must be listed.¹

Confirm You Qualify Before You Fill Anything In

Two requirements must both be met, and failing either one disqualifies you no matter how carefully you complete the form.

The first is your country of birth. The Department of State publishes a new list each year excluding countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. over the previous five years. For DV-2026, excluded countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland and Hong Kong), Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Natives of Macau and Taiwan remain eligible. If you were born in an excluded country, you can still enter by claiming your spouse’s country of birth (as long as your spouse is listed and applies with you), or by claiming a parent’s country of birth if that parent was not a citizen or legal resident of your birth country when you were born.¹

The second is education or work. You need either a high school diploma (or equivalent, meaning twelve years of formal elementary and secondary education) or at least two years of qualifying work experience in the past five years, in a job that itself requires at least two years of training or experience under the Department of Labor’s O*NET classification.²

What the DS-5501 Asks For

The form itself is short. You’ll be asked for:

Your full legal name exactly as it appears on your passport
Your gender
Your date of birth
Your city and country of birth
Your country of eligibility (usually the same as your country of birth, unless you’re claiming through a spouse or parent)
A current mailing address and email address
The highest level of education you’ve completed
Your photo, and a photo for each family member listed
Marital status, and information for your spouse and every qualifying child

Match your passport character for character. A nickname, a transposed day and month in your birthday, or a misspelled city name can surface months later when a consular officer compares your entry to your documents, and a mismatch at that stage puts the whole case at risk. If you don’t have a passport yet, get one before entering; the Department of State requires valid passport information for most entrants.¹

Getting the Photo Right

The portal runs an automated check on your photo and rejects images that don’t meet specifications. This is where most entries fail before a human ever looks at them. The rules:³

Color, taken within the last six months
Plain white or off-white background
Exactly 600 by 600 pixels, square format
Head height (bottom of chin to top of head) between 50% and 69% of the image
No eyeglasses
No head coverings, except for religious reasons, and none that obscure the face

A phone camera against a white wall works if you frame the shot carefully and crop it to the exact pixel dimensions. Every family member listed on the entry needs a separate photo meeting the same standards. An old photo, even one that looks fine, will be rejected if the system decides it doesn’t match a recent capture.

Listing Your Spouse and Children

You must list your spouse and all your living unmarried children under 21, whether or not they live with you and whether or not they intend to immigrate. That includes biological children, legally adopted children, stepchildren (even if you’ve since divorced the stepchild’s parent), and your spouse’s children. The only people you may leave off are a spouse or child who is already a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.¹

If you’re legally separated by court order, you may list your spouse without penalty, but that spouse can’t immigrate with you through DV. If you’re married and not legally separated, you must list your spouse even if a divorce is in progress.

Leaving off an eligible family member, or listing someone who isn’t actually your spouse or child, is treated as a serious discrepancy. If discovered at any stage, it makes you, your spouse, and your children ineligible for a diversity visa.

Submitting and Saving Your Confirmation

Entries go through one place only: dvprogram.state.gov. The Department of State does not accept paper entries, late entries, or entries through any other website.⁴

One entry per person per registration period. Both spouses in a married couple may each submit their own entry and list each other, which effectively doubles the household’s chances. Submitting two or more entries under the same person disqualifies all of that person’s entries; the Department uses technology to detect duplicates.

When you submit, the portal generates a confirmation page with your name and a unique confirmation number. Save that number the moment it appears. Screenshot it, print the page, email it to yourself, keep it somewhere you won’t lose it. The government provides no way to recover a lost confirmation number, and without it you cannot check whether you’ve been selected.

Mistakes That Get Entries Disqualified

The most common errors are avoidable if you know what to watch for:

Submitting more than one entry per person in the same registration period
Using a name that doesn’t match your passport (nicknames, alternate spellings, reversed first and last names)
Photos with the wrong dimensions, an old date, eyeglasses, a non-white background, or a head too small or too large in the frame
Omitting an eligible spouse or child
Leaving mandatory fields blank
Entering without meeting the education or work requirement

After You Submit

Results become available the following May through the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov. For DV-2026, results opened on May 3, 2025, and remain accessible through at least September 30, 2026.⁵ You’ll log in with your confirmation number, last name, and year of birth. The Entrant Status Check is the only way to learn if you were selected; the Department of State does not send emails, letters, or phone calls to winners.⁶

One important boundary: being selected is not the same as receiving a visa. Selection assigns you a case number that puts you in line to apply. The Department of State selects significantly more people than there are visas available, and every step of the visa process must be completed before September 30 of the fiscal year your lottery covers, with no extensions.⁷

Ignore Anyone Who Contacts You About Winning

The DV lottery attracts a large volume of fraud. Every year, people receive emails, letters, or phone calls claiming they’ve won and asking for payment to “secure” a visa. The Department of State will never email, write, or call you to tell you that you’ve been selected. The only way to check is at dvprogram.state.gov with your confirmation number.⁶

Warning signs of a scam: any message from an address that doesn’t end in “.gov,” any request for payment by wire transfer or money order before an interview, and any website other than dvprogram.state.gov claiming to accept lottery entries. The U.S. government never asks for advance payment to process your registration.⁸ Legitimate DV fees are paid at the embassy or consulate cashier’s window at the time of your appointment, or by mail to the Department of State if you’re adjusting status inside the U.S.

1
U.S. Department of State. Instructions for the 2026 Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas
3
U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements
4
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Submit an Entry
5
USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What to Do if You Were Selected
6
U.S. Department of State. If Selected
7
U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Instructions
8
U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran. Don’t Be Fooled by Scams When Applying for a U.S. Diversity Visa