The U.S. Department of State will begin accepting online registrations for the 2026 Diversity Visa (DV) lottery starting Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, at noon EDT. For Fiscal Year 2026 (FY2026), the DV lottery will allow a maximum of 55,000 “diversity immigrants” to obtain permanent residence in the United States if they are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Entries for the DV-2026 lottery must be submitted electronically by noon EST on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Applicants may access the electronic Diversity Visa entry form (E-DV) at https://dvprogram.state.gov during the registration period. Paper entries will not be accepted. More details on the DV lottery are available here.
The DV lottery is administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Department of State. For FY2026, natives of the following countries are ineligible to apply for the DV lottery because the countries sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years: Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, The People’s Republic of China (including mainland and Hong Kong born), Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea (South Korea), Venezuela and Vietnam. Persons born in Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible. Instructions for entering the DV-2026 lottery are available at the U.S. Department of State website: DV Lottery Instructions.
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