The State Department will begin accepting online registrations for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 green card lottery starting October 2, 2024 at noon EDT. Foreign nationals who wish to enter the green card lottery have until November 5, 2024 at noon EST to file online.
For FY 2026, the green card lottery program will make up to 55,000 green card numbers available through random selection. FY 2026 lottery results will be announced in May 2025. Foreign nationals selected in the FY 2026 lottery can submit their green card applications starting on October 1, 2025.
Every year, millions of people apply for lawful permanent residence to the US through the Green Card Lottery. 55,000 lucky persons will get green cards.
Read the instructions carefully and apply for a green card through the link below. It is not necessary to pay either an immigration attorney or the State Department in order to apply. However, if you are selected as a “winner”, you may want to consider hiring a immigration attorney to move your paperwork through the system in a timely manner.
For example, if you are eligible to adjust your status in the United States, the State Department Visa Bulletin provides advance notification of DV Lottery cut-off numbers. This enables lottery winners to apply for adjustment of status before their visa lottery numbers become current.
You can stay up-to-date with the waiting times in the Visa Bulletin by subscribing to our Free E-Mail Newsletter.
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| Natives from the Following Countries are Excluded
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh | Brazil | Canada | China (+ Hong Kong) | Colombia | |
| Cuba | Dominican Republic | El Salvador | Haiti | Honduras | |
| India | Jamaica | Mexico | Nigeria | Pakistan | |
| Philippines | South Korea | Venezuela | Vietnam | ||
Persons born in Macau SAR, and Taiwan are eligible to apply for this year’s DV Lottery.
GREEN CARD LOTTERY INFORMATION
- Instructions for the DV-2025 Green Card Lottery Online
- Register for the Green Card Lottery
- Diversity Visa Program Statistics
Adjustment of Status
In order to adjust status through the DV Lottery, you must establish that you:
- Have been selected for a diversity visa by the DV lottery;
- Have an immigrant visa immediately available at the time of filing an adjustment application (Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status); and are admissible to the United States.
Submit the following evidence with your Form I-485:
- Two passport-style photos
- Copy of birth certificate
- Form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record
- Copy of passport page with nonimmigrant visa (if applicable)
- Copy of passport page with admission (entry) or parole stamp (if applicable)
- Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record
- Certified copies of court records (if the individual has been arrested)
- Copy of the principal applicant’s selection letter for the diversity visa lottery from DOS
- Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility (if applicable)
- Applicable fees
Applying for an Immigrant Visa Abroad
For visa availability, check the latest month’s DOS Visa Bulletin. Section B contains a chart showing the current month’s visa availability in the Diversity Immigrant category. The chart shows when the Diversity Immigrant cut-off is met. When the cut-off is met, visas will be available in that month for the applicants with Diversity Immigrant lottery rank numbers below the specified cut-off numbers for their geographic areas.
Section C contains a chart showing the Diversity Immigrant category rank cut-offs for the following month, which represents the advance notification of Diversity Immigrant visa availability. As soon as a monthly Visa Bulletin is published, anyone with a lower rank number than the rank cut-off number shown in Section C is eligible to file for adjustment of status. This provides lottery winners the opportunity to file for adjustment of status up to six or seven weeks before a visa number can actually be allocated. This gives USCIS additional time to determine your eligibility for adjustment of status before the end of the fiscal year.
A Diversity Immigrant-based adjustment application cannot be adjudicated until a visa can be allocated, as indicated in the Visa Bulletin’s current Diversity Immigrant rank cut-offs for a particular month.
Success Story – Green Card Lottery
Of the 50,000 Green Card Lottery winners, approximately 20,000 will be persons born in Europe and another 20,000 will be persons born in Africa. The other 10,000 winners will be from Asia, Latin America or from other countries around the world.
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Immigration Attorney Carl Shusterman has 40+ years of experience. He served as an attorney for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) from 1976 until 1982, when he entered private practice. He has testified as an expert witness before the US Senate Immigration Subcommittee. Carl was featured in SuperLawyers Magazine. Today, he serves as Of Counsel to JR Immigration Law Firm.