The Green Card Lottery’s Hardest Deadline Falls on 30 September — and the Final Cut-Off Numbers Are Now Out
If you were selected in the DV-2026 green card lottery, the most important sentence written about your case this year is not on a news site. It is in the State Department’s own Visa Bulletin, and it is blunt: entitlement to immigrant status in the DV category lasts only through the end of the fiscal year for which the applicant was selected. For everyone registered under DV-2026, that year of entitlement ends on 30 September 2026, and DV visas may not be issued to DV-2026 applicants after that date.
There is no extension. There is no carry-over into next year. And there is one more line in that same bulletin that most coverage has skipped entirely.
The short answer
What is the DV lottery deadline 2026? All DV-2026 diversity visas must be issued by 30 September 2026. After that date the selection expires permanently, including for spouses and children. The State Department also warns that visa numbers could run out before 30 September, so reaching the deadline is not guaranteed.
The September cut-off numbers are published
The August 2026 Visa Bulletin carries the final month’s rank cut-offs. For September, DV numbers are available to qualified DV-2026 applicants with regional rank numbers below: Africa 101,250 (Algeria 85,000, Egypt 50,000); Asia 40,000 (Nepal 13,500); Europe 47,500; North America (Bahamas) current; Oceania 3,000; South America and the Caribbean 4,750.
Compare that with the month before. For August the same regions sat at Africa 60,000 (Algeria 51,250, Egypt 36,000), Asia 40,000 with Nepal at 13,500, Europe 29,000, Oceania 2,050, and South America and the Caribbean 4,000.
Africa and Europe jump substantially. Asia does not move at all, and Nepal — the single largest Asian source of selectees most years — stays frozen at 13,500.
The trap: “current” does not mean “issuable”
This is the part that is costing people sleep and money, and it is where nearly every page you will find gets it wrong.
A Visa Bulletin cut-off answers one question only: is a visa number available for your rank in that month? It does not answer whether a visa can actually be placed in your passport.
Those became two different questions this year. Reporting through July noted that separate State Department guidance pausing diversity visa issuance was still in effect, meaning a rank number falling within the published range did not override that pause — both things could be true simultaneously. That pause took effect in December 2025, alongside a separate January 2026 restriction on immigrant visa processing for nationals of 75 countries. Under it, applicants could continue submitting applications and attending interviews, but diversity visas were not being issued during the review period.
The August bulletin itself does not mention the pause. That silence is not evidence it has been lifted — the bulletin has never been the place where such guidance is published. Before you act on anything in this article, check the Diversity Visa news page on travel.state.gov for the current issuance status. If the pause has ended since publication, the practical advice below gets easier, not different.
Why the maths is brutal this year
Selection was never a visa. It was a place in a queue that is deliberately overbooked.
The DV programme is authorised for up to 55,000 visas a year, but NACARA and Section 5104 of the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act both take deductions from that pool — reducing the DV-2026 annual limit to approximately 52,000. Against that, reported figures for DV-2026 put qualified entries at more than 20.8 million, from which the Kentucky Consular Center registered roughly 129,516 selectees and eligible family members.
Roughly 129,000 people chasing roughly 52,000 visas, in a year where issuance was interrupted for months. That ratio, not bad luck, is why so many valid cases will simply expire.
What DV-2026 selectees should do in the remaining weeks
- Check your Entrant Status Check and DS-260 status today, at dvprogram.state.gov and nowhere else. If your DS-260 is unsubmitted, that is the single blocking item.
- Confirm your rank number against the September cut-off above. If your number is above it, a visa cannot be issued to you in September even if everything else is perfect.
- Get your medical, police certificates and civil documents completed now, not after an interview is scheduled. A missing document in the last fortnight of September is fatal, because the deadline does not pause for administrative processing.
- If you are inside the US on adjustment of status, understand that your I-485 is on a different track from consular cases and has been subject to its own hold. Speak to a licensed attorney about your specific posture.
- Understand what litigation can and cannot do. Courts have previously ordered the government to process diversity visa cases in good faith before the statutory cut-off — as in the DV-2020 and DV-2021 cases — but under US law all diversity visas must be issued by 30 September of the relevant fiscal year, and courts do not have authority to order visas issued after it. A lawsuit can compel action inside the window. It cannot extend the window.
- Keep every confirmation number and receipt. If your case does expire, that paperwork is what you will need for any future filing or claim.
DV-2027: still not open, and that is not a rumour
If you are waiting to enter the next lottery, here is the honest status.
The State Department announced on 5 November 2025 that it was implementing changes to the DV entry process, and said the start date for DV-2027 registration and the date selection results would appear in Entry Status Check would be announced “as soon as practicable.” That notice also confirmed the visa application period for anyone eventually selected under DV-2027 remains 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027, and it does not say DV-2027 is cancelled. No official DV-2028 registration dates or eligibility instructions have been published either.
In normal years registration opens in early October and closes in early November. That pattern has already been broken once, so treat any specific date you see circulating as unverified until it appears on travel.state.gov or in the Federal Register.
Two new entry rules to prepare for now
Whenever the next registration window does open, the form will not be the one you remember.
A State Department final rule effective 10 April 2026 requires DV entrants to provide valid, unexpired passport information and upload a scan of the passport biographic and signature page in the electronic entry form, unless a limited exemption applies. The scan must be JPEG/JFIF — PDFs are not accepted — and must not exceed 5 MB. The same rule established a $1 registration fee, which is separate from the existing $330 diversity visa application fee paid later by selected applicants.
The practical consequence: if your passport has expired, renewing it is now a prerequisite for entering at all. In many countries passport renewal takes longer than the registration window stays open. Start that process before the announcement, not after.
The scam wave is already running
This gap — programme delayed, no date announced, millions of people refreshing — is exactly the environment fraud operations wait for.
US embassies have issued alerts about false claims that DV registration was open, and about individuals or services claiming they can increase your chance of selection. Those claims are untrue, and official registration dates are announced by the Department of State. Applicants have been advised not to pay websites, agents or social media accounts claiming they can register you.
Three rules that will keep you safe with no legal knowledge at all:
- Selection is random. No fee, agent, “premium entry” or “priority processing” affects it. Anyone promising better odds is lying.
- You are never notified you won. The Department of State does not contact selectees, and does not ask for advance payment. You check yourself, using your confirmation number.
- Only two domains matter: dvprogram.state.gov and travel.state.gov. Any other site charging you to “register” is not the government.
If you have already paid such a site, stop further payments, keep the transaction records, and do not send passport scans or bank details onward.
If DV is your only plan, it shouldn’t be
A programme with a one-in-many-hundreds selection rate, an interrupted issuance year, and no announced registration date is not a migration plan. It is a lottery ticket, and it should sit alongside routes you can actually influence.
Employer-sponsored and skills-based routes are open right now in several countries, with published criteria you can work toward rather than wait on: Australia’s Skills in Demand visa, New Zealand’s residence pathway for trades, Canada’s Express Entry system, and the UK’s Skilled Worker route all reward qualifications, English scores and job offers — things within your control.
Enter the lottery when it opens. Just don’t let it be the only door you are standing at.
Key Takeaways
- 30 September 2026 is a statutory wall. No DV-2026 visa can be issued after it, and derivative status for spouses and children ends the same day.
- September cut-offs are published: Africa 101,250, Asia 40,000 (Nepal 13,500), Europe 47,500, Oceania 3,000, South America/Caribbean 4,750, North America current.
- A rank number in range is not the same as a visa being issuable. Check the DV issuance guidance separately.
- Numbers may run out before 30 September — the bulletin says availability to the very end cannot be assumed.
- DV-2027 registration has not opened and no date has been announced. DV-2028 instructions do not exist.
- New entry rules apply from 10 April 2026: passport details plus a JPEG bio-page scan, and a $1 registration fee.
- Nobody can improve your odds. Any offer to do so is a scam.
FAQ
When is the DV lottery deadline 2026?
30 September 2026. DV visas may not be issued to DV-2026 applicants after that date, and accompanying spouses and children are only entitled to derivative status until then.
Can the 30 September deadline be extended?
No. It is set by statute for the fiscal year of selection. Courts have ordered good-faith processing before the cut-off in past DV cases, but they do not have authority to order visas issued after it.
When does DV-2027 registration open?
No date has been announced. The State Department said the registration start date and the Entry Status Check results date would be announced as soon as practicable. Anything more specific circulating online is unverified.