The State Department issued final rules for the green card lottery or diversity visa program, rolling back measures first introduced under the Trump administration. Applicants for the green card lottery will now require a valid and unused passport from their home country before entering the lottery, which began last month. The new rules will come into effect after a month. Under the new rules, every DV program applicant must provide
- Information from valid, unexpired passport
- Upload a JPEG scan of the passport’s biographical page and signature page when submitting the Electronic Entry Form (DS-5501)
What is the Diversity Visa Program?
This is a green card lottery program through which approximately 55,000 applicants in the US can become green card holders. This is a random computerized lottery and is different from other categories of green cards. This is for countries that are underrepresented in America. Therefore, people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Philippines, Brazil, Nigeria and South Korea cannot participate in this lottery. The department said that the new rules will ensure that there is no fraud in the program. With a valid passport number, individuals from ineligible countries cannot falsify their nationality. There have been cases of criminal enterprises abusing the visa program and submitting entries in an individual’s name. The department said it detected 2.5 million fraudulent entries in the 2025 lottery. There are widespread scams running on this green card lottery as third parties contact individuals and inform them that they have the opportunity to apply for a US green card, but for more information they will have to pay a large fee or participate in fraudulent activities. According to research conducted by the Visa Office of the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, the average price of a passport in countries eligible to participate in the DV program is $74.43. Applicants will have to spend this money for America’s national security.