When Does the DV Lottery 2027 Open? The Court-Ordered Dates

Before the court order: the DV program on hold since late 2025.

• No DV-2027 registration (November 5, 2025). The State Department said it was changing the entry process and would announce the DV-2027 registration period "as soon as practicable". It announced no dates after that.
• Green card applications on hold (December 19, 2025). USCIS put on hold every pending green card application filed inside the US by a DV selectee, a person picked in the lottery, pending a review with no end date.
• No diversity visas issued (December 23, 2025). The State Department paused the issuance of all diversity visas while it reviewed screening and vetting in the program. It linked the pause to a shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor. It said the suspect in both had been admitted to the US through the DV program. Selectees could still attend interviews, but no visa was issued.
• A pause for 75 countries (January 2026). The State Department also stopped issuing immigrant visas, diversity visas included, to nationals of 75 countries it listed as likely to need public benefits.

Two federal courts have since ordered the government to restart these steps. On August 28, 2026, a federal court in San Jose set aside all three pauses for DV-2026 selectees while that case continues. It later gave the State Department until October 23, 2026, to process DV-2026 cases refused under them.

The order on DV-2027 registration came from a second lawsuit, filed in August 2026 in the US District Court for the Southern District of California. It asked for a registration period of at least 30 days under the Administrative Procedure Act, the law that lets courts review what federal agencies do. District Judge Jinsook Ohta granted a preliminary injunction, an order that applies while the case continues, on October 14, 2026.

DV lottery 2027 registration dates under the court order.

When does the green card lottery open in a normal year?

New DV-2027 entry rules: a $1 fee and a passport scan.

• A $1 registration fee. A final rule effective September 16, 2025, added a $1 fee to register for the lottery, collected when the entry is submitted. The State Department said the fee spreads the cost of running the lottery over everyone who enters, instead of charging only the small share who are selected. Before it, entering cost nothing. The $330 Diversity Visa application fee that selectees pay later stays in place.
• A valid passport and a scan of it. A final rule effective April 10, 2026, requires each entry to include the entrant’s valid, unexpired passport details and a scan of the page with the photo and signature. The State Department said the rule is meant to improve the integrity of the program and combat fraud. Three groups are exempt: stateless people, nationals of a Communist-controlled country who cannot get a passport from it, and people with an individual waiver from DHS and the State Department.

Both rules amend 22 CFR 42.33, the State Department regulation for the program, and the court order requires DV-2027 entries to meet it. The DV-2027 instructions will say how the fee is paid and how the scan is uploaded.

A shorter year for DV-2027 selectees.

Entering the DV-2027 lottery once registration opens.

• Check that your country is eligible. The DV-2027 list of eligible countries comes with the instructions and can differ from last year’s. The DV-2026 list left out natives of countries such as India, Mexico, Nigeria and the Philippines. More than 50,000 people from each of them had moved to the US in five years.
• Check the education or work rule. You need a high school education or its equivalent, or two years of qualifying work experience in the past five years.
• Submit one entry per person. A second entry for the same person disqualifies all of that person’s entries. Spouses who each qualify may each submit one, and either one’s selection covers the other.
• List every family member. The entry names your spouse and all your living unmarried children under 21, including stepchildren and children who will not move with you. Only family members who are already US citizens or permanent residents are left off.
• Use recent photos. Each person on the entry needs a digital photo taken within the last six months that meets the State Department’s specifications.
• Have your passport ready. The entry asks for its number, its expiration date and a scan of the photo page.
• Pay the $1 fee. The DV-2027 instructions will say how.
• Save the confirmation number. Entrant Status Check, on the same website, is the only place to learn whether you were selected.

US embassies have warned about false reports that DV-2027 registration was open and about services that say they can raise the chance of selection. The embassies state that those claims are not true.