A US federal judge has ordered the State Department to announce the registration period for the 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery, known as the Green Card Lottery, by the end of 15 October Eastern time.
The order does not by itself open entries. Applicants can enter only after the State Department publishes the dates and opens its official electronic entry form.
The ruling matters because DV-2027 registration, which usually opens around October, never opened, so the visa year that began on 1 October has no selected applicants. This is the first year in more than three decades with no lottery winners.
What the judge ordered
US District Judge Jinsook Ohta granted a preliminary injunction on Wednesday 14, October, in a case brought by Red Eagle Law, a California immigration firm. A preliminary injunction is a temporary court order that applies while a case continues.
According to the court reporting, the announcement must give the opening and closing dates, the website for electronic entries and the requirements for taking part. The State Department must also spread the information through its usual public channels, including the Federal Register, the US government's official journal. The registration period must last 30 days.
The order also requires the department to notify selected entrants and process their cases under its usual procedures until all available visas are issued or the fiscal year ends in September 2027. The program makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year.
Why registration never opened
On 5 November 2025, the State Department said it was changing the DV entry process and would announce the DV-2027 registration dates as soon as practicable. It said the changes would not affect the visa application period for selected applicants, which stays from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027.
Red Eagle Law sued Secretary of State Marco Rubio this year, arguing that the department has a duty to run the program and set a registration period. Ohta denied an emergency order in early September.
The government argued that a 30-day period ending in fiscal year 2027 would count towards visas for fiscal year 2028, not DV-2027, and that the legal deadline had passed. The judge pressed the government over its earlier public statement that it intended to open DV-2027 registration. Red Eagle Law called the failure to open registration a de facto cancellation of the program.
A separate matter: visa issuance
The State Department halted issuance of diversity visas in December 2025 while reviewing screening and vetting, citing national security, reports say. A federal court order in August 2026 set that pause aside, and issuance has resumed for DV-2026 cases. That is a separate issue from DV-2027 registration.
Background
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, often called the Green Card Lottery, offers up to 55,000 immigrant visas a year to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the US. Selection is not a guarantee: selected applicants must still meet eligibility and screening requirements. Entries are electronic only; late or paper entries are not accepted.
The DV-2026 entry period ran from 2 October to 7 November 2024. Its selected applicants had until 30 September 2026 to get a visa.In earlier years, the entry window ran for about a month in October and November.
