Green card lottery update as change revealed for applicants

Applicants entering the U.S. green card lottery will soon need a valid passport from their home country, after the State Department finalized a rule to tighten screening and reduce fraud.

Why It Matters 

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, otherwise known as the green card lottery, has long been one of the few paths to permanent U.S. residency that does not require family ties or employer sponsorship. 

This new rule changes who can enter the lottery and how applications are verified, with implications for millions of prospective applicants worldwide.

What To Know

The State Department has finalized a rule requiring a valid passport to enter the Diversity Visa lottery, while applicants navigate eligibility, results, and next steps in the program.

How the Program Works

The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, often called the green card lottery, makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year. Applicants are selected at random from countries that historically send relatively few immigrants to the United States.

To qualify, applicants must meet education or work experience requirements and be nationals of an eligible country, as outlined by USA.gov. Registration is free and completed online during a limited annual entry period set by the State Department.

Those selected in the lottery are not automatically granted a green card. Instead, selection allows them to apply for an immigrant visa, undergo background checks, attend an interview at a U.S. consulate, and meet all statutory requirements before a visa is issued, according to federal guidance.

What the New Rule Changes

Prospective Diversity Visa applicants will need a valid passport to enter the annual green card lottery under a State Department final rule set to take effect 30 days after Federal Register publication, reviving a measure previously struck down on procedural grounds.

They must also upload a scan of the passport’s biographic and signature page, unless they qualify for a limited exemption, according to the State Department. The rule marks a shift from previous practice, when applicants could enter the lottery without holding a passport and only needed one later in the process if selected. 

The State Department said the change allows officials to verify identities earlier and limit duplicate or fraudulent entries. The requirement will apply to future lottery cycles, the department said. 

A similar passport mandate was briefly in place but was struck down by a federal court in 2022 for failing to follow proper rulemaking procedures, according to Bloomberg Law.

Why the State Department Says It Is Needed

In its rulemaking documents, the State Department said the passport requirement strengthens the integrity of the lottery by making it harder for bad actors to submit multiple entries or misrepresent their identity or nationality. The agency cited long?standing concerns about fraud in the program.

Alongside the passport change, the rule also updates regulatory language used in the program, including replacing the word “gender” with “sex” and “age” with “date of birth,” to better reflect the information collected during the visa process, according to the Federal Register.

What People Are Saying

John L. Armstrong, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Consular Affairs at the Department of State, wrote in the executive summary of the rule: “This rule amends how an alien petitions for entry into the DV Program, requiring that a petitioner provide information from his or her valid, unexpired passport and upload a scan of the passport biographic and signature page to the electronic entry form, subject to limited exemptions. This rule improves the integrity of, and combats fraud in, the DV program.”

What Happens Next

The passport requirement comes as immigration policy remains a central issue in Washington, with lawmakers and federal agencies continuing to debate border security, visa backlogs, and legal pathways for migration. 

Future changes to the diversity visa program, if any, would require additional rulemaking or action by Congress, according to federal procedures outlined by the State Department.

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