DV visa issuance is paused and DV-2026 ends September 30, 2026. What to do now, how to read the Visa Bulletin, the new $1 fee — call (305) 315-3425.
Reviewed by Ekaterina Fitenko, Esq. — Florida Bar #1064536. With 20+ years of experience in the legal field (Florida Bar licensed since 2025), she advises Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking families across South Florida on diversity visa cases, adjustment of status, and consular processing.
If you were selected in the diversity visa lottery and you are trying to work out whether your case is still alive, the honest answer is that the program is in the most unsettled state it has been in for years — and the rules you may have read about two years ago no longer describe it.
Three things are true at the same time right now, and each one changes what you should do this month:
For Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking readers in particular, this matters more than usual: the diversity lottery has historically been one of the few realistic paths to a green card without an employer or a close U.S. relative, and the community around it is exactly where fraudulent "lottery" sites concentrate.
Almost every confused question we receive comes from mixing up which DV year someone is actually in. The program runs on federal fiscal years, and at any given moment three of them are in play.
DV-2026 is the year currently being processed. Its visa application period ends September 30, 2026. If you were selected for DV-2026 and have not been issued a visa or had an adjustment of status approved by that date, your selection expires. There is no extension, no grace period, and no queue that carries you into the next year.
DV-2027 is the year whose registration was expected in the autumn of 2025 and was delayed. The Department has said the start date for DV-2027 registration and the date results become available through the Entrant Status Check will be announced "as soon as practicable." What has not changed is the visa application window for DV-2027 selectees: October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.
DV-2028 would, in an ordinary year, open for registration in the autumn of 2026. Given that DV-2027 registration has itself been delayed, treat any specific DV-2028 date you see repeated on a blog or in a Telegram channel as unverified until it appears on the Department of State site.
The practical rule: before you act on any advice, establish which year your confirmation number belongs to. A person waiting on DV-2026 and a person waiting on DV-2027 registration are in completely different situations, and the urgent advice for one is irrelevant to the other.
The pause on diversity visa issuance is the single most misunderstood element of the current situation, largely because people read "paused" as "cancelled."
What continues during the pause: submitting the DS-260 immigrant visa application, paying fees, assembling and submitting civil documents, being scheduled for an interview, and attending that interview at the consulate.
What stops: the physical issuance of the visa at the end of that process. An applicant can complete every step, be found otherwise qualified, and still leave the interview without a visa in hand because issuance itself is suspended.
Why this distinction matters so much: the September 30 deadline is a deadline for issuance, not for completing your paperwork. Being fully documented and interview-ready on September 29 is not the same as holding a visa. This is precisely the scenario where families lose a selection they did nothing wrong to earn.
If your case is at or near the interview stage, the useful question is not "will the pause lift?" — nobody outside the Department can answer that — but "is everything on my side complete, so that if issuance resumes there is nothing left to wait on?" Everything within your control should already be finished.
Under the statute, diversity visas for a given fiscal year cannot be issued after that fiscal year ends. For DV-2026 that is September 30, 2026. After that date the Department of State cannot issue the visa and USCIS cannot approve an adjustment of status based on a DV-2026 selection — regardless of how far along the case is, and regardless of the reason for the delay.
Two consequences follow that people consistently underestimate.
Derivatives are on the same clock. Your spouse and children must also be issued visas by the same date. A case where the principal applicant is ready but a dependent's documents are outstanding is a case at risk in its entirety.
Late is worse than incomplete. Between an imperfect submission made now and a perfect one made in mid-September, the earlier submission is almost always the better position, because it leaves room to correct problems. Documents that need to be obtained from abroad, translated, or re-issued are exactly the items that consume the weeks you do not have.
For anyone planning a future entry rather than processing a current selection, the entry process itself has changed in two ways that invalidate older guides.
Passport requirement. Entrants must provide valid, unexpired passport information and upload a scan of the biographic and signature pages with the electronic entry form, unless they indicate that they qualify for an exemption. In prior years an entry could be submitted without a passport in hand. If you intend to enter a future DV year and your passport is expired or close to expiring, renewing it is now a prerequisite, not a later step.
The $1 fee. A one-dollar electronic registration fee now applies and cannot be waived. The amount is trivial; the significance is not. The advice "any site asking you to pay is a scam" was the simplest and most reliable fraud test available to applicants, and it no longer works as stated. The correct test is no longer whether money is requested but where the entry is submitted and how much is requested — a dollar on the official government site is legitimate; a "processing fee" of eighty dollars on a lookalike site is not.
Both changes were introduced as part of a broader tightening of identity verification and fraud prevention in the program.
The monthly Visa Bulletin published by the Department of State contains a section specific to diversity visas, and reading it correctly is what tells a selectee when their case can move.
Being selected does not mean a visa is available to you immediately. The Department deliberately selects more entrants than there are visas, because many selectees never complete the process. Your case number, assigned at selection, determines your place in line. The Visa Bulletin publishes, for each month and each geographic region, the highest case number that may be processed — the "cut-off."
To use it: find your region, find the month, and compare the published cut-off number to your own case number. If your number is below the cut-off, your case is current and can be scheduled. If it is above, you wait for a later bulletin. Numbers advance through the fiscal year, but there is no guarantee that any particular number becomes current before the year ends — which is the structural reason some selectees never get an interview at all.
Two errors are common. First, comparing your number against the wrong region: the cut-offs differ substantially between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the other regions. Second, reading last month's bulletin. Always work from the current one on the official site.
Fraudulent diversity lottery sites are a persistent industry, and the recent rule changes have given them new material to exploit. Because there is now a legitimate $1 fee, "we ask for a small payment" no longer sounds implausible on its face.
The reliable markers of a fraudulent operation:
Keep your confirmation number. It is the only way to check your own status, it cannot be reissued if lost, and the fact that you alone hold it is what makes the official process resistant to this kind of fraud.
You were selected for DV-2026 and your case number is current. This is the urgent group. Complete every step within your control immediately: DS-260 submitted, fees paid, civil documents obtained, translations done, medical examination scheduled. Anything that depends on a third party — a foreign registry office, a translator, a police certificate — should be in motion this week, not next month.
You were selected for DV-2026 and your number is not current. Check the current Visa Bulletin each month and prepare as though your number will become current, because if it does the remaining window will be short. Preparation done in advance costs nothing if the number never advances, and saves the case if it does.
You are already in the United States in another status and were selected. Adjustment of status through USCIS rather than consular processing may be available, and the analysis differs meaningfully from consular cases — including how the September 30 deadline applies to an approval rather than an issuance. This is a situation where the sequencing genuinely benefits from professional review.
You are waiting to enter a future DV year. Confirm your passport is valid and will remain so, and watch the official site rather than social media for the registration window. Enter only at the Department of State site.
You were not selected, or your year expired. The lottery is one path among several, and for many people it is not the strongest one. Family petitions, employment-based categories such as EB-2 NIW, investor routes like the E-2 treaty investor visa, and humanitarian relief each have their own criteria. A serious assessment of which category actually fits your facts is usually more valuable than another year of waiting on chance.
Treating selection as approval. Selection is permission to apply. The visa still depends on eligibility, documents, the interview, an available number, and the calendar.
Losing the confirmation number. There is no recovery mechanism. Without it you cannot check your status.
Waiting for a notification that never comes. People miss their year entirely because they expected an email. Check the status yourself.
Errors in the entry that surface at the interview. A misspelled name, an omitted spouse, or an incorrect country of eligibility can invalidate the selection at the consulate, long after it feels settled.
Omitting a spouse or child from the entry. Family members must be listed even if they do not intend to immigrate. Omission is a common and serious ground for refusal.
Assuming the deadline will move. It has not moved for reasons far more sympathetic than most applicants' circumstances.
Many diversity visa cases are straightforward enough to handle without counsel. Several categories are not, and in those the cost of a mistake is the loss of the selection itself:
Our office works in English and Russian, which matters when documents from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and neighbouring countries have to be assembled, translated, and explained under time pressure. We serve clients from our main office at 11555 Heron Bay Blvd, Suite 227, Coral Springs, FL 33076 and our Hallandale Beach office, and we work with clients nationwide and abroad.
No. The Department of State has temporarily paused diversity visa issuance during a security review. Applications continue to be accepted and interviews continue to be scheduled and held, but visas are not issued while the pause is in effect. The pause does not extend the September 30, 2026 deadline for DV-2026.
The selection expires. Diversity visas for a fiscal year cannot be issued after that year ends, and an adjustment of status based on that selection cannot be approved afterwards either. There is no extension and no carry-over into DV-2027.
No. Since April 10, 2026 a $1 electronic registration fee applies and cannot be waived. Entrants must also provide valid passport information and upload a scan of the biographic and signature pages unless an exemption applies. Guides written before that date describing the entry as free are out of date.
The Department of State has delayed the DV-2027 registration period and has said the start date, and the date results become available through the Entrant Status Check, will be announced as soon as practicable. The visa application period for DV-2027 selectees remains October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027. Rely on the official site for the date rather than on secondary sources.
Only by checking the Entrant Status Check yourself, using the confirmation number you received when you submitted your entry. The Department of State does not notify selectees by email, letter, or telephone. Any message claiming you have won is not from the government.
More people are selected than there are visas, so selectees are processed in case-number order. The monthly Visa Bulletin publishes the highest case number that may be processed in each region. If your number is above that cut-off, your case cannot be scheduled yet. Numbers advance during the year, but there is no guarantee any particular number becomes current before the fiscal year ends.
Our initial strategy session is $200 for 30 minutes, and that fee is credited toward your retainer if you decide to engage our firm. In that session we review your case number, your timeline, and your admissibility, and tell you plainly whether the case is realistically completable before the deadline. Call (305) 315-3425 or email fitenkolaw@gmail.com to schedule.
This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The diversity visa program is changing quickly in 2026; confirm current requirements, dates, and program status with the Department of State Diversity Visa Program, the monthly Visa Bulletin, and USCIS guidance on the diversity immigrant visa program, or consult a qualified attorney about your facts.
Fitenko Law PLLC, 600 Three Islands Blvd, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009. Phone: (305) 315-3425. Email: fitenkolaw@gmail.com