DV Lottery 2027: Who Qualifies, What It Costs and When It Opens

Someone in a WhatsApp group says the "American visa lottery" is open, and for a small fee they'll submit your form for you. It's tempting. The lottery is one of very few US green card routes that doesn't need a job offer or a relative.

But the real lottery is run by one government agency, it costs $1 to enter, and it changed a lot in 2026. If you get the details wrong, you can be selected and still lose your chance.

Here's how the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery works, where DV-2027 stands, and how to keep yourself safe. One thing first: this website doesn't take lottery entries. Only the US Department of State does, at dvprogram.state.gov.

What the DV lottery is

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program offers permanent residence to people from countries that send relatively few immigrants to the US. Winners are picked by a random computer draw.

The law allows up to 55,000 diversity visas a year, and USCIS says about 50,000 are actually available once other allocations come out. They're shared across six world regions, and no single country can get more than 7 percent of them in a year.

The competition is fierce. In its 2026 passport rule, the State Department counted 6.7 million entries for fiscal year 2021, 7.3 million for 2022 and 9.6 million for 2023, and it expected about 10 million for DV-2027. Your odds depend on where you're from, but they're small for everyone.

Where DV-2027 stands

Normally the entry window opens for about a month in October and November. DV-2026 followed that pattern, and results went live in Entrant Status Check in May 2025.

DV-2027 hasn't. In November 2025 the State Department deferred the opening, partly to give people time to get passports under the new rule, and said it would announce dates "as soon as practicable". As of mid-October 2026, almost a year later, entries still hadn't opened and no date had been published.

That delay matters. DV-2027 visas belong to the fiscal year running from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027. The later entries open, the less time selectees have to get through the process. Check travel.state.gov and dvprogram.state.gov yourself, and ignore anyone who claims to know the dates before the government does.

Who can enter

You need to pass two tests.

Test one: where you were born

You have to be a "native" of an eligible country, which usually means you were born there. The list changes every year. For DV-2026, natives of these countries couldn't enter, because more than 50,000 people from each had moved to the US in the previous five years:

Macau and Taiwan were eligible. The DV-2027 list will be in the official instructions once they're out.

Born in an ineligible country? There are two narrow ways around it. You can claim your spouse's country of birth, as long as you're both on the entry, both get visas and enter the US together. Or you can claim a parent's country of birth, if neither parent was born in, or living in, your country of birth when you were born.

Test two: school or work

You need one of these:

• A full high school education: a completed 12-year course of formal primary and secondary schooling. Equivalency certificates don't count.
• Two years of work experience in the past five years, in a job that needs at least two years of training or experience. The State Department checks this against the Department of Labor's O*Net database.

If you don't clearly meet one of these, winning won't help you. You'll be refused at the interview.

The passport rule and the $1 fee

A State Department rule that took effect on 10 April 2026 changed the entry form. You now have to enter valid, unexpired passport details and upload a scan of the page with your photo and signature. The department said this applies from DV-2027 onwards. The exemptions are narrow, for example for stateless people.

No passport yet? Start the application today. In many countries it takes months.

A separate rule, effective 16 September 2025, added a $1 registration fee, paid inside the official form. That's the only payment at the entry stage. Nobody else needs to be paid anything.

How to enter when the window opens

1. Read that year's official instructions on travel.state.gov.
2. Get your passport scan and photos ready. Photos must be recent and meet the published rules. Don't reuse an old one.
3. Go to dvprogram.state.gov yourself. Fill in the form, pay the $1 inside it and submit once. Entering more than once disqualifies every entry.
4. Save your confirmation number. Print the page or screenshot it. Without that number you can't check your result.
5. Check Entrant Status Check when results open. Nobody from the US government will contact you.

Married? If you're both eligible, you can each submit your own entry and list each other. That gives your household two chances instead of one.

If you're selected: the steps and the bill

Selection means you're allowed to apply. It isn't a visa. The State Department picks more people than there are visas, so selectees with low case numbers have the best chance. Every visa has to be issued, or green card approved, by 30 September of that fiscal year.

Most selectees fill in Form DS-260, the online immigrant visa application, and go for an interview at a US embassy or consulate. If you're already in the US legally, you may be able to apply to USCIS with Form I-485 instead, once a visa number is available.

The State Department amounts come from the consular fee schedule in federal regulations, and the USCIS amounts from its fee schedule edition dated 7 October 2026. On top of these, budget for the medical exam with an approved panel doctor, vaccinations, police certificates, translations and getting to the embassy.

The biggest bill is often the move itself: flights, a rental deposit, health insurance from day one and a few months of living costs while you find work. Open a US bank account soon after you land, and when you send money home, compare the full cost, exchange rate included. Our guide to working legally in the United States explains your rights as a new permanent resident.

Why winners still get refused

Lots of people are selected and never get the visa. Most of the reasons are avoidable if you know them early.

• Education they can't prove. The officer will want original certificates and transcripts. If your schooling adds up to less than 12 years, or your documents don't match your entry, the case fails.
• Work in the wrong kind of job. Two years in a role that needs little training won't count, however hard you worked.
• Family mistakes on the entry. A missing spouse or child, or someone listed who shouldn't be, can end the case for everyone.
• Passport or photo problems. The passport details you entered must be yours and must have been valid when you entered.
• Moving too slowly. Selectees who sit on their DS-260 for months can find the visas have run out before their interview.
• Past problems. Overstays, some criminal records or earlier visa fraud can make you ineligible no matter what.

Here's how two cases can go. A secondary school teacher in Accra, Ghana, is selected. She has her West African Senior School Certificate and her degree, she listed her husband and two children, and she sends her DS-260 within weeks. When her number comes up, she arrives at the interview with original documents and her medical results. She's in a strong position.

Her colleague is selected the same year. He left his daughter from an earlier relationship off the entry because she lives with her mother. At the interview, the child's birth certificate turns up in his records. That omission can make him ineligible, and his wife loses her chance with him.

How to spot a lottery scam

Scammers love the DV lottery because hope makes people careless. The State Department's 2026 rule described fraud rings that entered people without their knowledge, then charged winners large sums to hand over their own confirmation numbers.

Walk away from:

• Any entry site that isn't dvprogram.state.gov. Paid "registration services" can't improve your odds.
• An email, text or letter saying you've won. The State Department only tells winners through Entrant Status Check.
• Requests to send money to "secure" a visa, book an interview or hold a slot.
• Anyone offering to keep your confirmation number for you.
• "Guaranteed selection" or "better odds" packages. The draw is random. Nobody can change it.

The same goes for self-styled "visa lottery agents" on social media. You can enter on your own, for $1, in about twenty minutes.

If the lottery isn't open, or doesn't come through

Even in a normal year the lottery is a long shot, so treat it as a bonus, not your plan. The other main routes are employer sponsorship, family sponsorship and study. Our guide to ways to move to the USA compares them, and our ranking of EB visas by difficulty covers the job-based green cards.

Your checklist

• Apply for or renew your passport now.
• Check whether your country, or your spouse's, is on the latest eligible list.
• Gather proof of 12 years of schooling or two years of qualifying work.
• Write down every family member who has to be on your entry.
• Bookmark travel.state.gov and dvprogram.state.gov and check them for DV-2027 news.
• Never pay anyone except the official $1 fee.

When the window finally opens, you'll be able to enter safely, on your own, in one sitting.