Program Overview

The Department of State annually administers the statutorily created Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides for a class of immigrants known as “diversity immigrants” from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. For Fiscal Year 2026, up to 55,000 Diversity Visas (DVs) will be available. There is no cost to register for the DV program, but selectees who are scheduled for an interview will be required to pay a visa application fee  prior to making their formal visa application where a consular officer will determine whether they qualify for the visa.

Applicants who are selected in the program (selectees) must meet simple but strict eligibility requirements to qualify for a DV. The Department of State determines selectees through a randomized computer drawing. The Department of State distributes diversity visas among six geographic regions, and no single country may receive more than seven percent of the available DVs in any one year.

For DV-2026, natives of the following countries and areas are not eligible to apply, because more than 50,000 natives of these countries immigrated 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, Vietnam,

Natives of Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible.

With the exception of Cuba, which is not eligible for DV-2026, there were no changes in eligibility from the previous fiscal year.

Diversity Immigrant Visa Program Eligibility

Requirement #1: Natives of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States may be eligible to enter. If you are not a native of a country with historically low rates of immigration to the United States, there are two other ways you might be able to qualify.

• Is your spouse a native of a country with historically low rates of immigration to the United States? If yes, you can claim your spouse’s country of birth – provided that you and your spouse are named on the selected entry, are found eligible and issued diversity visas, and enter the United States at the same time.
• Are you a native of a country that does not have historically low rates of immigration to the United States, and neither of your parents were born in or legally resident in your native country at the time of your birth? If both of those statements are true, you may claim the country of birth of one of your parents if it is a country whose natives are eligible for the DV-2026 program. For more details on the DV 2026 eligibility, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Requirement #2: Each DV entrant must meet the education/work experience requirement of the DV program by having either:

• at least a high school education or its equivalent, defined as successful completion of a 12-year course of formal elementary and secondary education;

OR

• two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform. The Department of State will use the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*Net Online Database to determine qualifying work experience. For more information about qualifying work experiences, see the Frequently Asked Questions.

Note: You should not submit an entry to the DV program unless you meet both of these requirements.

DV 2026 Program Entry period

Applicants must submit entries for the DV-2026 program electronically at dvprogram.state.gov between 12:00 pm (noon), Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT-4), Wednesday, October 2, 2024, and 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern Standard Time (EST) (GMT-5), Tuesday, November 5, 2024. Do not wait until the last week of the registration period to enter as heavy demand may result in website delays. No late entries or paper entries will be accepted. The law allows only one entry per person during each entry period. The Department of State uses sophisticated technology to detect multiple entries. Submission of more than one entry for a person will disqualify all entries for that person.

Completing your Electronic Entry for the DV-2026 Program

Submit your Electronic Diversity Visa Entry Form (E-DV Entry Form or DS-5501), online at dvprogram.state.gov. We will not accept incomplete entries or entries sent by any other means. There is no cost to submit the online entry form. Please use an updated browser when submitting your application; older browsers (Internet Explorer 8, for example) will likely encounter problems with the online DV system.

We strongly encourage you to complete the entry form yourself, without a “visa consultant,” “visa agent,” or other person who offers to help. If someone helps you, you should be present when your entry is prepared so that you can provide the correct answers to the questions and keep your unique confirmation number and a printout of your confirmation screen. It is extremely important that you have the printout of your confirmation page and unique confirmation number. Unscrupulous visa facilitators have been known to assist entrants with their entries, keep the confirmation page printout, and then demand more money or illegal activities in exchange for the confirmation number. Without this information, you will not be able to access the online system that informs you of your entry status. Be wary if someone offers to keep this information for you. You also should have access to the email account listed in your E-DV entry. See the Frequently Asked Questions for more information about DV program scams.

After you submit a complete entry, you will see a confirmation screen containing your name and a unique confirmation number. Print this confirmation screen for your records. Starting May 3, 2025, you will be able to check the status of your entry by returning to dvprogram.state.gov, clicking on Entrant Status Check , and entering your unique confirmation number and personal information. You must use Entrant Status Check to check if you have been selected for DV-2026 and, if selected, to view instructions on how to proceed with your application. The U.S. government will not inform you directly. Entrant Status Check is the sole source for instructions on how to proceed with your application. If you are selected and submit a visa application and required documents, you must use Entrant Status Check to check your immigrant visa interview appointment date. Please review the Frequently Asked Questions for more information about the selection process.

You must provide all of the following information to complete your entry. Failure to accurately include all the required information may make you ineligible for a DV.

1. Name – last/family name, first name, middle name – exactly as it appears on your passport, if you have a passport (for example, if your passport shows only your first and last/family name, please list your last/family name and then first name; do not include a middle name unless it is included on your passport. If your passport includes a first, middle and last/family name, please list them in the following order: last/family name, first name, middle name). If you have only one name, it must be entered in the last/family name field.
2. Gender – male or female.
3. Birth date – day, month, year.
4. City where you were born.
5. Country where you were born – Use the name of the country currently used for the place where you were born.
6. Country of eligibility for the DV program – Your country of eligibility will normally be the same as your country of birth. Your country of eligibility is not related to where you live or your nationality if it is different from your country of birth. If you were born in a country that is not eligible, please review the Frequently Asked Questions to see if there is another way you may be eligible.
7. Entrant photograph(s) – Recent photographs (taken within the last six months) of yourself, your spouse, and all your derivative children included on your entry. See Submitting a Digital Photograph  for compositional and technical specifications. You do not need to include a photograph for a spouse or child who is already a U.S. citizen or a Lawful Permanent Resident, but you will not be penalized if you do.

DV entry photographs must meet the same standards as U.S. visa photos. You may be ineligible for a DV if the entry photographs for you and your family members do not fully meet these specifications or have been manipulated in any way. Submitting the same photograph that was submitted with a prior year’s entry will make you ineligible for a DV. See Submitting a Digital Photograph (below) for more information.

8. Mailing Address – In Care Of Address Line 1

Address Line 2 City/Town
District/Country/Province/State Postal Code/Zip Code Country

9. Country where you live today.
10. Phone number (optional).
11. Email address – An email address to which you have direct access and will continue to have direct access through May of the next year. If you check the Entrant Status Check in May and learn you have been selected, you will later receive follow-up email communication from the Department of State with details if an immigrant visa interview becomes available. Note: The Department of State will never send you an email telling you that you have been selected for the DV program. See the Frequently Asked Questions for more information about the selection process.
12. Highest level of education you have achieved, as of today:

• Primary school only
• Some high school, no diploma
• High school diploma
• Vocational school
• Some university courses
• University degree
• Some graduate-level courses
• Master’s degree
• Some doctoral-level courses
• Doctorate

See the Frequently Asked Questions for more information about educational requirements.

13. Current marital status:

• Unmarried
• married and my spouse is NOT a U.S. citizen or U.S. Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR)
• married and my spouse IS a U.S. citizen or U.S. LPR
• divorced
• widowed
• legally separated

Enter the name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth of your spouse, and a photograph of your spouse meeting the same technical specifications as your photo.

Failure to list your eligible spouse or, listing someone who is not your spouse, may make you ineligible as the DV principal applicant and your spouse and children ineligible as DV derivative applicants. You must list your spouse even if you currently are separated from them unless you are legally separated. Legal separation is an arrangement when a couple remain married but live apart, following a court order. If you and your spouse are legally separated, your spouse will not be able to immigrate with you through the DV program. You will not be penalized if you choose to enter the name of a spouse from whom you are legally separated. If you are not legally separated by a court order, you must include your spouse even if you plan to be divorced before you apply for the Diversity Visa, or your spouse does not intend to immigrate. If your spouse is a U.S. citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident, do not list them in your entry. A spouse who is already a U.S. citizen or LPR will not require or be issued a visa. Therefore, if you select “married and my spouse IS a U.S. citizen or U.S. LPR” on your entry, you will not be prompted to include further information on your spouse. See the Frequently Asked Questions for more information about family members.

14. Number of children – List the name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth for all living, unmarried children under 21 years of age, regardless of whether they are living with you or intend to accompany or follow to join you, should you immigrate to the United States. Submit individual photographs of each of your children using the same technical specifications as your own photograph.

Be sure to include:

• all living natural children;
• all living children legally adopted by you; and,
• all living stepchildren who are unmarried and under the age of 21 on the date of your electronic entry, even if you are no longer legally married to the child’s parent, and even if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with you.

Married children and children who are already aged 21 or older when you submit your entry are not eligible for the DV program. However, the Child Status Protection Act protects children from “aging out” in certain circumstances: if you submit your DV entry before your unmarried child turns 21, and the child turns 21 before visa issuance, it is possible that he or she may be treated as though he or she were under 21 for visa processing purposes.

A child who is already a U.S. citizen or LPR when you submit your DV entry will not require or be issued a Diversity Visa; you will not be penalized for either including or omitting such family members from your entry.