Green Card Lottery 2026: Suspended, Then Resumed by Court Order — What DV Applicants Need to Know Before September 30
Introduction: A Program in Legal Limbo
If you're trying to follow what's actually happening with the Diversity Visa Lottery — commonly known as the Green Card Lottery — you're not alone in being confused. Over the past nine months, the program has been suspended, partially restored by a federal court, and left without a clear timeline for its next registration cycle. For hundreds of thousands of past applicants and hopeful future ones, that uncertainty has real consequences, including a hard deadline just weeks away.
Here's the full picture, in order, and what it actually means depending on your situation.
The Timeline So Far
December 23, 2025 — The State Department announced it was pausing issuance of Diversity Visas at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, citing a review of DV screening and vetting protocols. Applicants could still submit applications and attend interviews, and existing appointments generally weren't cancelled — but no visas were being issued. Around the same time, USCIS placed a hold on pending adjustment-of-status applications from DV applicants already inside the US, and a separate State Department policy paused immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries.
Early-to-mid 2026 — Registration for the next cycle, DV-2027, which under the normal annual schedule should have opened around October 2025, remained indefinitely delayed. The State Department confirmed changes were coming to the DV entry process but did not announce new registration dates. Starting April 10, 2026, the department also introduced a new requirement for any future lottery: applicants must upload a valid, unexpired passport with their entry, or it won't be accepted.
June 24, 2026 — A group of DV-2026 selectees affected by the pause filed a class-action lawsuit, Medani et al. v. Trump et al. (Case No. 5:26-cv-06332), in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, challenging the three policies that had frozen their applications.
August 27–28, 2026 — After a hearing, Judge Edward J. Davila issued an order partially granting class certification and a preliminary injunction. The court temporarily set aside all three challenged policies — the USCIS adjustment-of-status hold, the State Department's DV issuance suspension, and the 75-country immigrant visa pause — as they applied to the certified classes: 84 affected families already in the US and 577 families abroad. The State Department was ordered to resume "ordinary adjudication" of pending DV applications and make good-faith efforts to reconsider cases that had been refused solely because of the suspended policies.
August 28, 2026 — The State Department confirmed it was complying with the order and resuming diversity visa issuance for affected applicants.
September 3, 2026 — In a separate case, Red Eagle Law v. Rubio, filed August 19 over the State Department's failure to open DV-2027 registration at all, Judge Jinsook Ohta declined to grant an emergency order forcing registration to open immediately, but allowed the underlying lawsuit to proceed on an expedited schedule. The judge indicated she would consider a motion for a preliminary injunction before the end of September.
What This Means If You're a DV-2026 Selectee
If you were selected in the DV-2026 lottery and your case was affected by the pause, the court's late-August ruling is genuinely good news — but the clock is still running. The statutory deadline to complete the process and receive your visa remains September 30, 2026. That deadline has not been extended by the court order. If you're in one of the certified classes, your case should now be moving forward again, but "good-faith efforts" is not a guarantee of same-day processing, and embassies worldwide are working through a backlog.
If you're affected, act now:
Confirm your case status directly through the Entrant Status Check on the official DV program website.
If you were previously refused solely because of the suspended policies, ask your embassy or consulate whether your case is being reconsidered under the court order.
If your interview or final processing hasn't happened yet, contact your embassy about scheduling as a matter of urgency — the September 30 deadline is fixed by statute, not by agency discretion, and further litigation is unlikely to move it.
If you believe you fall outside the certified classes (for example, you're not among the 84 US-based or 577 abroad families named in the ruling), consult an immigration attorney about your specific options, since the injunction's protections may not automatically extend to you.
What This Means If You Were Hoping to Enter DV-2027
As of now, there is still no announced registration period for DV-2027, despite the program's usual annual cycle. The Red Eagle Law lawsuit is proceeding, and a ruling on whether the court will order the State Department to open registration could come before the end of September 2026 — but there's no guarantee of that outcome, and no confirmed date if it doesn't.
Practically, this means:
There is nothing to register for right now. Be cautious of any website, consultant, or social media post claiming DV-2027 registration is currently open — the official registration, if and when it happens, only occurs through the U.S. government's own site.
Keep an eye on official channels rather than third-party predictions, since the legal situation could change quickly in either direction.
If registration does open, remember the new passport-upload requirement introduced in April 2026 — have a valid, unexpired passport ready before you try to register, since incomplete entries won't be accepted.
Why the DV Lottery Keeps Ending Up in Court
This isn't the program's first suspension. Diversity Visa issuance was frozen during the pandemic-era travel restrictions in 2020, and again in 2025 under a separate travel ban affecting select countries — both times, federal courts eventually ordered at least partial resumption, citing the government's statutory obligation to process the visas within the fiscal year. The current dispute follows a similar pattern: an executive-branch pause, litigation from affected applicants, and a court stepping in to require continued processing while the broader legal questions are resolved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Green Card Lottery officially cancelled? No. The program still exists in law, and a federal court has ordered the government to resume processing for the DV-2026 selectees covered by the Medani ruling. What remains genuinely uncertain is whether and when the next registration cycle, DV-2027, will open.
Does the September 30, 2026 deadline apply to everyone, or just people affected by the pause? It applies to all DV-2026 selectees — it's the standard statutory deadline for that fiscal year's cohort, not something created by the recent litigation. The court ruling addresses a related but separate problem: applicants whose cases were frozen by the suspended policies now having a path to be processed before that deadline.
Can I still apply for DV-2027 right now? No official registration period is open. Anything claiming otherwise should be treated with suspicion.
What should I do if I think I qualify for relief under the Medani ruling but haven't heard anything from my embassy? Check your case status through the official Entrant Status Check first, and consider contacting a licensed immigration attorney — the ruling's protections are specific to the certified classes, and individual circumstances vary significantly.
This article reflects the publicly reported status of ongoing litigation and government policy as of early September 2026. Both are actively evolving and could change with little notice. This is not legal advice — if your Diversity Visa case is affected by any of the policies described here, consult a licensed immigration attorney about your specific situation as soon as possible, given the fixed September 30 deadline.
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