Is the Diversity Visa a Security Risk?

Every year, the State Department randomly selects approximately 50,000 immigrants from a pool of roughly 20 million applicants for admission through the Diversity Visa Program lottery. Those selected undergo the same security screening applied to all immigrant visa categories: FBI fingerprint checks, consular interviews, police certificates from every country of residence, medical examinations, and—since 2019—disclosing all their social media account handles.

The program was created by Congress in 1990 to extend permanent legal immigration pathways to countries underrepresented in family and employment-based admissions, but it has faced criticism as a security vulnerability.