- The U.S. excluded 19 countries from the DV-2026 lottery due to high recent immigration rates.
- A new rule mandates passport uploads and fees for all future diversity visa applicants starting April 2026.
- Current DV-2026 winners face a visa issuance pause following a security review initiated in late 2025.
The Department of State and Department of Homeland Security released the DV-2026 Diversity Visa (Green Card) Lottery eligibility rules on October 2, 2024, excluding natives of 19 countries from the program because those countries sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the previous five years.
For the 2026 cycle, the excluded countries span the Americas, Asia and Africa. In the Americas, the ineligible countries are Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico and Venezuela. In Asia, they are Bangladesh, China, including mainland and Hong Kong SAR, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea (South Korea), and Vietnam. In Africa, Nigeria is excluded.
Cuba is the notable new exclusion for DV-2026. At the same time, the instructions made clear that individuals born in Macau SAR and Taiwan remained eligible.
That exclusion list arrived before a series of policy changes reshaped the program. By March 28, 2026, the DV-2026 Diversity Visa (Green Card) Lottery had moved deep into fiscal year processing, which runs from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, but visa issuance had been disrupted by a late-2025 pause and then recast by a new rule in March 2026.
From December 18 to 23, 2025, the government imposed what became known as the Diversity Visa pause after security concerns prompted an immediate halt on visa issuances. The move altered a program that had already selected winners in the May 2025 draw and had been processing cases for months.
“Effective immediately, the Department of State has paused all visa issuances to diversity immigrant visa applicants. This action is being taken in light of concerns raised by [recent security incidents]. This pause will allow the Department to undertake a review of the screening and vetting protocols.”
In a December 23, 2025 statement, the State Department said: “Effective immediately, the Department of State has paused all visa issuances to diversity immigrant visa applicants. This action is being taken in light of concerns raised by [recent security incidents]. This pause will allow the Department to undertake a review of the screening and vetting protocols.”
That statement marked the transition from a temporary stoppage to a broader review of the program’s procedures. Then, on March 10, 2026, the State Department published a final rule in the Federal Register, cited as [91 FR 11891], reinstating a mandatory passport requirement for future lottery entries and adding a new fee.
The rule takes effect on April 10, 2026. It applies to DV-2027 and later entries, not to the original DV-2026 eligibility list announced on October 2, 2024.
Under the March 10, 2026 change, entrants in future lotteries must provide valid, unexpired passport details and upload a digital scan of the passport’s biographic page at the time of entry. The government also set a new $1 non-refundable registration fee for each lottery submission.
Those changes formalized what the government described as fraud-reduction and vetting measures. They also followed the December 18 to 23, 2025 pause, which had already interrupted processing and left selectees caught between continued interviews and a halt in actual visa issuance.
The legal framework behind the exclusion list has remained the same. Up to 55,000 diversity visas are available each year, and the statute limits eligibility for natives of countries with high recent immigration to the United States.
Specifically, the exclusion rule ties back to Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Countries become ineligible when they have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years.
That statutory formula explains why the annual list changes at the margins even while the program’s structure stays in place. For DV-2026, the official list released on October 2, 2024 set the boundaries for who could enter, while the later March 2026 rule changed how future entrants will have to prove identity and submit an application.
The State Department tied those newer requirements to fraud concerns. In the March 10, 2026 final rule, it said it found over 2.5 million duplicate entries in the FY 2025 cycle, a figure the department used to justify the passport and fee requirements.
That number connected the anti-fraud rationale to the program’s broader overhaul. A passport number requirement had previously been part of the Diversity Visa process, and the March 2026 rule reinstated it while adding the digital scan and the $1 non-refundable registration fee.
For people already selected under DV-2026, the immediate issue is not the new fee but the freeze on final visa issuance. Selectees who became “current” in the Visa Bulletin since October 2025 have faced a processing freeze tied to the security review.
USCIS and consulates may still conduct interviews, but the Department of State is not printing or issuing the physical visas for applicants caught in the pause. That distinction has left some selectees moving through parts of the process without receiving the document that completes it.
The disruption matters because the Diversity Visa program runs on a fixed fiscal-year calendar. Cases must be processed within the available time window, and DV-2026 is already in the middle of that cycle.
For future applicants, the burden will be different. People seeking to enter DV-2027 will face a more demanding process once registration opens, because they will need a valid, unexpired passport, a digital scan of the passport’s biographic page, and the new $1 non-refundable registration fee for each entry.
The registration period for the next cycle, traditionally held in October, has been delayed. That delay has added uncertainty for would-be entrants from countries that remain eligible, even before the new application rules take effect on April 10, 2026.
Those changes also recast the meaning of eligibility. Being born in a country that qualifies for the lottery, including Macau SAR or Taiwan, no longer tells the full story for future cycles. Applicants will also need to meet the new entry requirements that the March 2026 rule imposes.
For DV-2026 itself, however, the exclusion question still begins with the list issued on October 2, 2024. Natives of Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Venezuela, Bangladesh, China, including mainland and Hong Kong SAR, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Vietnam and Nigeria remain outside the eligible pool for that lottery cycle.
Everyone else affected by the pause or the later rule change must now track a system split between old and new requirements. Current DV-2026 selectees are dealing with a visa issuance halt linked to security review, while future entrants are preparing for new identity and payment demands.
The official channels for sorting those differences remain government websites. The State Department’s Diversity Visa Program pages remain the main source for program rules, eligibility instructions and entry information.
For the March 2026 rule change, the authoritative text is the Federal Register notice, 91 FR 11891. That notice sets out the passport requirement, the digital passport scan requirement, the $1 non-refundable registration fee, and the April 10, 2026 effective date.
Applicants watching for related immigration developments can also monitor the USCIS newsroom, which carries broader agency updates that can affect processing and immigration policy. For lottery results and case-related updates, the official place to check remains the Entrant Status Check.
Those verification channels matter more in a year when the program has changed midstream. The DV-2026 Diversity Visa (Green Card) Lottery began with an exclusion list published on October 2, 2024, then moved into fiscal year processing, then hit a December 18 to 23, 2025 pause, and now sits alongside a March 10, 2026 rule that will reshape future entries.
Taken together, the changes show two tracks inside one program: a statutory exclusion system based on immigrant admissions over five years, and a new enforcement system built around passport data, digital document uploads and a fee intended to reduce duplicate filings. For thousands of current selectees, the pressing issue remains whether physical visas resume. For future applicants, the next registration period will open under a tougher set of entry conditions than the lottery had when the government released the DV-2026 rules on October 2, 2024.
