DV Diversity Immigrant Visa (green card lottery)
The diversity visa programme makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year, by random selection, to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States over the previous five years. Entry is free of most requirements: no employer, no relative, no investment. What it does require, as of April 2026, is a valid passport, and the entire entitlement expires at the end of the fiscal year for which the applicant was selected.
- Срок
- permanent
- Продление
- None, and this is the category's defining hazard. Entitlement to immigrant status in the DV category lasts only through the end of the fiscal year for which the applicant was selected. For DV-2026 that is 30 September 2026, for principals and for accompanying or following-to-join derivatives alike. No visa may be issued after that date and there is no extension mechanism. Once residence is granted the green card itself is ordinary and renews on Form I-90 every ten years.
- Работа
- Yes, without restriction once residence is granted, for the selectee and every derivative. Selection itself confers nothing - no status, no work permit, no right to enter.
- Члены семьи
- The selectee's spouse and unmarried children under 21 are derivatives, listed on the original entry. A spouse or child acquired after the entry can generally still be added before the interview, but derivative entitlement ends on the same fiscal-year deadline as the principal's.
- Путь к грин-карте
- Selection is the beginning, not the end. A selectee abroad pays the DV application fee and consular processes; a selectee lawfully in the United States may file Form I-485 instead. Because far more entrants are selected than there are visas, a high regional rank number can mean a case is never reached before the fiscal year closes.
- Срок рассмотрения
- Governed entirely by rank number and the fiscal year. Selection is announced in the spring, interviews run from October of the visa year through the following September, and everything stops on 30 September. The September 2026 bulletin warns explicitly that DV visa availability through the very end of FY2026 cannot be taken for granted and that numbers could be exhausted before 30 September.
- Годовая квота и очереди
- Section 203(c) of the INA provides up to 55,000 diversity visas a year. NACARA diverts up to 5,000 of those, and visa numbers made available to NACARA applicants in FY2025 reduce the DV-2026 annual limit to 54,883. Section 5104 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2024 further deducts NDAA visas from the 55,000, reducing the DV-2026 limit to approximately 52,101. Visas are divided among six geographic regions and no single country may receive more than 7% of the available diversity visas in a year. September 2026 DV rank cut-offs, applicants below the number shown: Africa 101,250, except Algeria 85,000 and Egypt 50,000; Asia 40,000, except Nepal 13,500; Europe 47,500; North America (Bahamas) current; Oceania 3,000; South America and the Caribbean 4,750.
Кто подходит
- A native of a qualifying country - one with low admissions over the preceding five years. Natives of dependencies and overseas territories select the appropriate country of eligibility, so a native of Macau selects Portugal and a native of Martinique selects France
- A person who can claim their spouse's or a parent's country of birth where their own country is not eligible
- A person with either a high school education or its equivalent, or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring at least two years of training or experience
- The selectee's spouse and unmarried children under 21, as derivatives
Требования
- One entry only per person per registration period. Multiple entries disqualify all of them, and the Department of State uses detection technology to find them
- Entry electronically on the E-DV website during the published registration period. No late entries and no paper entries
- Since 10 April 2026, valid unexpired passport information and an uploaded scan of the passport biographic and signature page, unless an exemption applies
- Passport exemptions are narrow: stateless persons, nationals of a Communist-controlled country who cannot obtain a passport, and individually approved case-by-case waivers. Financial hardship expressly does not qualify
- A $1 entry fee, paid at registration by the principal applicant, with no waivers
- Education or work experience as above, proved at the interview
- Admissibility under INA 212(a) or an available waiver, including the public charge ground - diversity visa immigrants are subject to it
- Completion of the whole process, including visa issuance or adjustment, before the fiscal year ends
Как подать
- 1
Watch for the registration period. The Department of State publishes detailed instructions each year, and the E-DV website at dvprogram.state.gov is inactive until the published start time.
- 2
Submit one entry, with a valid unexpired passport and a scan of its biographic and signature page, and pay the $1 fee. Submitting more than one entry disqualifies every entry for that person.
- 3
Keep the confirmation number. It is the only way to check the result, through Entrant Status Check on the E-DV site. The Department of State does not notify selectees by email or letter.
- 4
If selected, act immediately. Rank number determines when a case can be processed, and the fiscal-year deadline is absolute.
- 5
Confirm your qualifications - high school or the equivalent, or two years of qualifying work experience in the last five years.
- 6
File the DS-260 and pay the $330 application fee per person, prepare supporting documents, complete the medical exam and attend the interview.
- 7
Enter the United States on the immigrant visa and pay the $235 USCIS Immigrant Fee, or if lawfully present in the United States file Form I-485 in time to be approved before 30 September.
Сборы и формы
| Diversity Visa registration fee, paid at registration by the principal applicant only | $1.00, no waivers |
| Diversity Visa application fee, per person applying as a DV selectee for a DV immigrant visa | $330 |
| Form I-485 adjustment of status, applicant 14 or older, paper | $1,440 |
| USCIS Immigrant Fee | $235 per person |
| Medical examination and vaccinations | set by the panel physician, not by the government |
Что изменилось в 2025 и 2026 годах
- 16 September 2025 - a Department of State final rule (90 FR 44524) introduced a $1 diversity visa entry fee, effective on publication, with no waivers. Selectees still pay the $330 visa application fee separately.
- 11 March 2026 - the final rule Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (91 FR 11891, Public Notice 12948, RIN 1400-AF76) was published, effective 10 April 2026. Every entrant must now supply valid unexpired passport data and upload a scan of the biographic and signature page. The rule also replaces gender with sex per Executive Order 14168 and replaces age with date of birth. The Department justified it by pointing to 2.5 million duplicate entries disqualified in FY2025 against 760,079 in FY2022 when a passport rule was last in force.
- December 2025 - diversity visa issuance was paused entirely pending a screening and vetting review. Applicants could be interviewed but no visas were issued, with no exceptions.
- 28 August 2026 - that pause ended under the court's order in Medani et al. v. Trump et al. The Department of State's guidance page carries the new lede above stale paused text; the 28 August lede governs.
- DV-2027 registration has still not opened. A 5 November 2025 notice said the start date would be announced as soon as practicable, while the visa application period remains 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027 - so registration would open barely before, or after, its own visa year begins. The DV Instructions page still presents DV-2026 as the current programme.
- DV-2028: no announcement has been published.
- DV-2026 - the registration period ran 2 October to 7 November 2024. The annual limit is reduced by NACARA to 54,883 and by NDAA FY2024 section 5104 to approximately 52,101. Entitlement ends 30 September 2026.
- 20 July 2026 - public charge final rule rescinding the 2022 regulations, effective 18 September 2026. Diversity visa immigrants are subject to the public charge ground, and they have no petitioning relative or employer behind them.
Где чаще всего ошибаются
- No passport, no entry. Since 10 April 2026 a valid unexpired passport is required at registration and financial hardship is not a ground for exemption. In many countries obtaining one is the expensive part.
- Paying an agent who submits multiple entries on your behalf. Every entry for that person is disqualified.
- Waiting for a notification letter. There is none - Entrant Status Check with the confirmation number is the only mechanism, and losing the number ends the matter.
- Treating selection as a visa. Far more people are selected than there are visas, and a high rank number in an oversubscribed region often means the case is never reached.
- Missing 30 September. The deadline is statutory and absolute, for the principal and for every derivative, and the September 2026 bulletin warns numbers may run out before the date.
- Selectees inside the United States who file an I-485 too late for it to be approved before the fiscal year closes.
- Assuming the DV-2027 registration schedule is normal. As of September 2026 it has not opened, and the visa year it feeds starts on 1 October 2026.
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