Court orders State Department to issue 2020 Diversity Visas

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the U.S. State Department to issue the 9,905 2020 Diversity Visa (DV) by the end of this fiscal year, September 30, 2022.

Key Points:

• On Oct. 13, the Court ordered the State Department to “commence processing the 9,905 DV-2020 visas” and finish processing them by Sept. 30, 2022.
• The full text of the Oct. 13 order can be found here. The State Department issued updated guidance in response to the order.

Additional Information: Previously, the District Court judge ordered the State Department to process DV-2020 applications in random order until all 9,905 visas had been granted, at a time agreed to by the parties.  The parties could not come to an agreement.  Therefore, the court stepped in to require the State Department to issue the reserved DV-2020 visas by the end of the fiscal year.

BAL Analysis: The new order marks a major win for DV-2020 applicants as they now will be receiving their DV-2020 visas within the next year. BAL will continue to monitor Diversity Visa updates and will provide important updates as information becomes available.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.

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