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US Green Card Lottery DV-2027 Is on Hold: Status, Odds and How It Works

By Coach Chiao (George), author of Data-Driven Job Search

The US Diversity Visa lottery (the “green card lottery”) is one of the few routes to America that doesn’t need an employer. DV-2027 was supposed to open by court order on November 1, 2026. On October 29, an appeals court put that order on hold, and registration has not opened.

While we wait, here is what you need to know, in short:

Status in this article is as of November 2, 2026. Dates may change again, so check the official State Department pages before you act.

Why is everyone talking about DV-2027?

DV-2027 registration would normally have opened in October 2025. The State Department kept postponing it, saying only that the entry period would be announced “as soon as practicable.”

In October 2026, a federal district court ordered the State Department to announce the registration period by October 29, 2026, open registration by November 1, 2026, and notify selectees by December 3, 2026.

The government appealed. On October 29, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay pending appeal (Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Rubio, No. 26-6943). So there was no announcement on October 29, and registration did not open on November 1.

Why the appeals court stopped the order

The reason was not that the lottery is optional. The plaintiff was a law firm, not someone who wants to enter the lottery, and the court held that the law doesn’t protect a law firm’s interests. In the court’s words, the program “was enacted to encourage immigration, not generate revenue for law firms.”

The court was also critical of the State Department. It wrote: “We do not endorse the Department’s failure to open the lottery registration period.” It described the Department’s inaction as “effectively canceling the 2027 Diversity Visa Program.”

What could happen next

None of this means the administration won’t find other ways to reduce immigration, such as using a different law or cutting the number of visas.

The dates will keep moving. The preparation you can do now.

Last year’s numbers (DV-2026)

DV-2026
Entries worldwide20822624 (about 20.8 million)
Selectees, including spouses and childrenabout 129516
Visas availableabout 52000 (55000 minus NACARA and NDAA reductions)
Selectees per available visaabout 2.5
Taiwan selectees, including family247

All selectee counts include spouses and children. They count people, not families.

Taiwan is the example I use throughout this article because it’s where I work and where my data comes from. Here is how many Taiwan-born people were selected in each of the last five rounds:

RoundTaiwan selectees (incl. family)
DV-2022574
DV-2023188
DV-2024279
DV-2025227
DV-2026247

DV-2022 was the outlier. Since then, every round has been between 190 and 280 people.

About 55000 Taiwan-born people register each year (the DV-2016 to DV-2021 average). That works out to roughly 1 in 220 last year, and about 1 in 180 on average across the five rounds.

Being selected is not a green card

The State Department selects more people than there are visas every year, because many selectees never follow through or turn out not to qualify. After selection, people are interviewed in case-number order, and processing stops when the visas run out.

Here is how many Taiwan-born selectees actually got a green card in recent rounds (including family members, and including people who changed status inside the US):

RoundSelectedGot a green cardRate
DV-202257430152%
DV-202318811461%
DV-20242797728%

Globally the rate is about 40% to 50%. In DV-2024, Taiwan was under 30%.

That year, the State Department over-selected worldwide by more than 20%, and case numbers for the Asia region only became current in the last two months. Many people were selected but ran out of time. Japan dropped from over 50% to about 40% the same year.

From registration to green card

Going further back, the State Department has only published Taiwan’s total registration counts up to DV-2021.

From DV-2019 to DV-2021, about 43000 to 57000 Taiwan-born people registered each year. Only 142 to 180 of them ended up with a green card: roughly 1 in 240 to 1 in 400.

No separate quota for each country

Taiwan does not have its own quota. It competes with the rest of the Asia region.

The cap for any single country is 7% of all visas (about 3644). Taiwan has only two or three hundred selectees a year, so that cap doesn’t come into play.

What this means for you

  1. It’s worth entering. You don’t need an employer sponsor, and you don’t need to study in the US first. Taiwan-born people have qualified in each of the last five rounds, and every one of those rounds had Taiwan-born selectees. The DV-2027 list of eligible countries has not been published yet, so check yours when it is.
  2. Don’t count on winning. For Taiwan it was about 1 in 220 last year, and about 1 in 180 on average over five rounds.
  3. Selection is just a ticket. Over the last three rounds, only 30% to 60% of Taiwan-born selectees got a green card. And every selectee, including family members, must be issued a visa by September 30 of that fiscal year. If you run out of time, it’s gone. There is no carry-over to the next year.
  4. Spouses can each enter. If both of you qualify, that doubles your chances. But each person can only enter once. Duplicate entries get you disqualified. This matters.

Eligibility depends on your country of birth, not your citizenship or where you live now. The basic requirement is a high school education or higher, or at least two years of work experience within the past five years in a job that requires at least two years of training.

My take

Since the US$100000 H-1B fee came in, applying to US jobs from overseas and asking the company to pay for your visa has become close to impossible. Many companies have cut back on sponsoring candidates from abroad.

The green card lottery is one of the few routes that doesn’t need an employer. It takes about half an hour to fill in the form, and you get one more lottery ticket.

If you want to go to the US, enter. Treat a win as a pleasant surprise.

But if you’re thinking of moving abroad, be clear first about why you want to go. Moving abroad doesn’t guarantee you’ll do well, and you may not enjoy life there. If so, you might leave the chance to the many US job seekers and international students stuck in visa limbo.

Also, even with a green card, you still face a long job search. Job hunting abroad is hard, at least ten times harder than in Taiwan in my experience. To match the comfort of life at home, you need a good job.

A final warning

Only register on the official site, dvprogram.state.gov. Results are only posted there. The State Department will not email you to say you were selected.

Data limits

Sources

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