En esta noticia
For the first time in more than three decades, the U.S. green card lottery has no winners. The State Department never opened registration for DV-2027, and the fiscal year for those visas began Oct. 1 without a single selectee.
The dispute is now in federal court, where a lawsuit seeking to force the drawing is still pending.
What is the visa lottery?
The Diversity Visa Program, known as the “visa lottery” or “green card lottery,” gives out up to about 55,000 permanent residencies each year to people from countries with low immigration rates to the United States. Winners are chosen at random from among those who meet the requirements (being born in an eligible country and having a certain level of education or work experience).
Registration is free and is done only on the official State Department website during a period that, in previous years, usually opened in October and lasted about a month.
Why DV-2027 started without any winners
The anomaly is explained by a succession of events. In November 2025, the State Department announced that it was “implementing certain changes in the lottery registration process” and that it would announce the DV-2027 opening date “as soon as possible.” That date never came.
As a result, the 2026 fiscal year ended on September 30, 2026, without registration having opened, and the period for DV-2027 (which runs from October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027) began without a list of selectees. For the first time, the lottery was left without its registration and drawing stage.
What did the government say and what happened in court?
The case led to a lawsuit. The law firm Red Eagle Law, in California, sued the secretary of state in federal court, arguing that the State Department has the legal obligation to carry out the program and open a registration period, and that failing to do so violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
The government, however, maintains that the deadlines established by law make it impossible to hold DV-2027 registration now.
In court, Judge Jinsook Ohta rejected a request for a temporary restraining order in early September (which sought to force the drawing), considering that, given the timing, “most of the ship had already sailed.”
Subsequently, a request for a preliminary injunction remained pending, with a ruling expected in mid-October 2026. At the time of this publication, the case remains open.
What do we know about DV-2028
There are more doubts than certainties about the next edition. The State Department did not announce registration dates for DV-2028, and in the court case itself the possibility was raised that the government would directly “move on to DV-2028,” skipping the DV-2027 round.
Meanwhile, potential applicants can only wait for official announcements. The general recommendation is to follow only the State Department’s channels and distrust websites or intermediaries that promise early registrations or guarantee a result.