United States | State Department proposes changes to diversity visa lottery

The State Department published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register on Aug. 5 proposing to amend regulations for the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program to “enhance program integrity and reduce fraud.” Public comments are open until Sept. 19, 2025.

Key Points:

• The proposed rule would require DV Program entrants to submit valid, unexpired passport details along with a scanned copy of the biographic and signature pages.
• The proposed rule provides that an applicant is exempt from the passport mandate if they are:
  • Stateless
  • A national of a communist-controlled country and unable to obtain a passport from their government
  • The beneficiary of an individual waiver approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State
• In alignment with Executive Order 14168, the proposed rule would replace the term “gender” with “sex” in official documentation. Additionally, it substitutes “age” with “date of birth” to better reflect the data collected during the visa process.
• The State Department encourages public participation and has opened a comment period ending Sept. 19, 2025. Public comments can be submitted here.

Additional Information: The proposed rule is the first step in the regulatory process.

The DV Program, aka the “DV lottery,” provides an opportunity to gain permanent U.S. residency for up to 50,000 immigrants annually from countries with historically low immigration rates to the U.S. The two primary requirements of the DV program are: (1) the petitioner is a native of a low-admission country, and (2) has at least a high school education or its equivalent, or within five years of the date of an application for a visa has two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience. The State Department randomly selects qualified petitioners for further participation in the program.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group.

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