There is no scheduled date for the next DV lottery. The Department of State delayed the DV-2027 registration period from its usual fall 2025 opening, and in December 2025 the administration ordered a broader pause on the Diversity Visa program.1U.S. Department of State. Changes to Entry Period for 2027 Diversity Visa Program As of early 2026, no new entry window has been announced. If and when one opens, it will be posted at dvprogram.state.gov.
Why There Is No Date Yet
The lottery normally runs on a fixed annual rhythm: registration opens for about 30 days each fall, results post the following May, and visas are issued through September 30 of the corresponding fiscal year. DV-2026 followed that pattern, with entries accepted from October 2 through November 7, 2024 and selectee results released on May 3, 2025.2U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program Instructions3USAGov. Check the Diversity Visa Lottery Results and What To Do if You Were Selected
DV-2027 broke that rhythm. The State Department announced it would not open registration on the usual timeline and would give a new start date “as soon as practicable.” Before that new date arrived, the administration ordered the program suspended in December 2025.1U.S. Department of State. Changes to Entry Period for 2027 Diversity Visa Program
The State Department also noted that if DV-2027 selectees are eventually chosen, their visa application period would still run from October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. That timing tells you two things: any new registration would need to happen before that window, and the underlying statutory calendar has not changed.
Will the Program Come Back?
The DV lottery is authorized by federal statute, so permanently ending it would require Congress to change the law.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1153 – Allocation of Immigrant Visas The executive branch, though, controls the operational side: the registration portal, processing timelines, and consular interviews. That means the program can be effectively halted while remaining on the books, and it can also resume without new legislation.
The only reliable way to learn when the next entry window opens is the State Department’s official page at dvprogram.state.gov. There is no email list, and no third party gets the news first.
If You Already Entered DV-2026
The pause on DV-2027 does not cancel DV-2026. Result checking and visa processing for DV-2026 selectees continue through September 30, 2026.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card Through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program Every step — interview, medical exam, background check, and visa issuance or adjustment approval — must be completed by that date. Diversity visas do not carry over to the next fiscal year.
Check the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov with your confirmation number. The State Department does not notify selectees by email or letter, and it does not recover lost confirmation numbers.6U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Selection of Applicants The portal also draws additional names later in the cycle when earlier selectees do not follow through, so keep checking even if you were not initially selected.
How To Enter When Registration Reopens
Assuming a new window is announced, the entry process itself has not changed in structure, though one fee is new.
Where To Enter
Entries are submitted exclusively through the official portal at dvprogram.state.gov.7U.S. Department of State. Diversity Visa Program – Submit an Entry There is no paper option and no authorized intermediary. Any site with a different address is not the government.
The New $1 Registration Fee
Starting with the DV-2027 cycle, a $1 non-refundable registration fee applies to every entry. Previous years were free.8Federal Register. Schedule of Fees for Consular Services, Department of State and Overseas Embassies
What the Entry Form Collects
The form asks for your name, date of birth, country of birth, and educational background. You must also list the full name and birthdate of your legal spouse and every unmarried child under 21, including stepchildren and adopted children. This is required even for family members who do not plan to immigrate with you. Leaving anyone off is one of the most common reasons selectees are disqualified at the interview stage; consular officers treat it as grounds for denial.9U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Turkiye. Diversity Immigrant Visa
Photo Requirements
Every person listed needs a recent digital photo. The image must be square, at least 600 by 600 pixels and no more than 1200 by 1200, saved as a JPEG no larger than 240 kilobytes.10U.S. Department of State. Digital Image Requirements Use a plain light background, face the camera, and remove glasses. The portal has a built-in photo tool that crops and checks images before submission. Photos that fail the technical specs cause automatic rejection.
One Entry per Person
Submitting more than one entry in a single registration period disqualifies you entirely; if duplicates are detected, all of your entries become void for that fiscal year.11Federal Register. Visas – Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program Married couples are a specific exception: each spouse may file a separate entry, and if either is selected, both can immigrate.
When the system accepts your entry, it displays a confirmation number. Save it in more than one place. That number is the only way to check results later.
Who Is Eligible
Eligibility rests on two things: your country of birth, and either your education or your work experience.
Country of Birth
You qualify if you were born in a country that has not sent large numbers of immigrants to the United States in the previous five years. The State Department publishes the list of ineligible countries with each year’s instructions, and it shifts from cycle to cycle. For DV-2026, ineligible countries included Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong), Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
If you were born in an ineligible country, cross-chargeability may still get you in. You can claim your spouse’s country of birth if your spouse was born in an eligible country and the marriage existed before you submitted your entry; both spouses must then apply for status together. You can also claim a parent’s country of birth, but only if neither parent was born in or residing in your country of birth at the time you were born.12U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 7 – Part G – Chapter 2
Education or Work Experience
You need at least a high school diploma or the foreign equivalent of 12 years of elementary and secondary education. If you don’t have one, you can qualify with two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation classified as Job Zone 4 or 5 in the Department of Labor’s O*NET database, with a Specific Vocational Preparation rating of 7.0 or higher.13U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual. 9 FAM 502.6 – Diversity Immigrant Visas Practically, that covers occupations requiring substantial training, such as registered nurses, electricians, or software developers, and excludes entry-level or short-training work.
Ignore Anyone Claiming They Have News First
The pause has produced a fresh wave of scams promising early access to the next lottery. A few facts settle most of them. The U.S. government will never email you to say you won, will never ask you to wire money or send a check, and will never collect fees through a website that does not end in .gov.14U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran. Do Not Be Fooled by Scams When Applying for a U.S. Diversity Visa The only legitimate way to check results is the Entrant Status Check at dvprogram.state.gov using your confirmation number. Any fees you owe are paid in person at a U.S. embassy or consulate cashier during a scheduled appointment, or online through official USCIS systems. A message from a Gmail, Yahoo, or any non-.gov address claiming to be from the U.S. government is a scam, regardless of how official the letterhead looks.