Why is Green Card not open
I wanted to write a blog to explain some thoughts about the DV2027 entry period.
There’s much confusion, speculation, and frankly, bad information about the whole thing.
So, I wanted to try and sort of explain what I think is the situation currently — and, you know, dispel any sort of concerns or rumors that you may have or have heard.
So yes, the DV27 entry period is obviously delayed.
On September 16th or thereabouts, there was an announcement that the government was planning to implement a $1 fee for the entry process itself.
It’s not entirely clear from their statement whether that’s $1 per entry or $1 per person on the entry, but I suspect it’s the former.
I suspect it’ll be implemented with a $1 fee per entry, and that derivatives will be included on that entry for the $1.
There’s also been some speculation that that fee might be variable — that it could go up in later years or perhaps even during the initial implementation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s true.
I think that once they’ve implemented a fee, it’ll probably be something they revisit, and perhaps the fees could increase in the future.
But first of all, they have to implement the fee.
They didn’t give themselves enough time.
If you watched my video where I talked about the announcement of the proposed rule to implement the $1 fee, I pointed out then that I didn’t think they had time to implement that and keep within the normal timelines for the entry period, right?
It’s fairly complicated — what they’re doing is pretty complicated.
I can tell you that because of recent experience with the DV Photo Tool (.com) app that I’ve introduced just recently — which is to aid you in taking your photos for the DV lottery entry — I became very painfully aware of how complicated it is to roll out a payment system for all the countries in the world.
It’s very difficult, and so that’s what the government is going through.
Basically, I’m talking about the payment thing because I think that that is the most reliable reason — the most likely rumor, if you like — for why we’re delayed.
I think it is because the government is trying to implement that new rule and the new payment.
I don’t think the government is going to implement the passport rule this year, but the longer the entry period is delayed, the more likely that second thing would be — that they could actually implement a passport rule.
But it’s all very much speculation at the moment. We don’t know.
In fact, there’s even been speculation that the entry period will be delayed right into next year.
Curtis Morrison and I are having a little friendly bet about this.
I personally believe that they will implement the entry period this year, in 2025 — probably in November or perhaps during December.
I think that’s roughly when they’re going to do it.
Curtis believes they’re going to push it back right into next year.
So, we’ll see who’s right about that — but it’s really just speculation right now.
We have no formal and no official document to go to, you know, to base this speculation on — and that’s worrying some people.
Then just the other day, let me just show you what was published, and we can talk about that.
Just the other day, in the visa bulletin that was published for November 2025 — just a couple of days ago — there was the information in there about the selectee numbers for DV2026, which was expected.
They put that information in there.
And then there’s this statement here:
It says “Dates for the DV2027 program registration period will be widely publicized in the coming months. Those interested in entering the DV2027 program should check the Department of State’s diversity visa web page in the coming months.”
Some people have latched on to that term “the coming months” to assume that the fact they didn’t say “the coming month” or “coming weeks” means it’s going to be months away.
Okay — now, don’t get excited about this statement.
This statement, to me, confirms that there will be a DV27 entry period — and frankly, there has to be.
It’s part of immigration law.
It’s not something they can just make up their minds about and do if they feel like it.
They are required to do the entry period because they are required to have this lottery process.
It’s part of immigration law — they can’t just stop it.
But this statement is not new.
If we go back and look at, for example, the September visa bulletin from last year — when the select numbers were published — it’s basically the same information.
And hey presto: “Dates for the DV26 program registration period will be widely publicized in the coming months. Those interested in entering the DV26 program should check the Department of State’s diversity visa web page in the coming months.”
Okay — that was what they said last year.
And you can go back and pick pretty much any year you want — I went back just for a giggle and found the DV2020 statement.
It’s identical, right? Again, “coming months.”
They always say this, guys — it’s the same statement they use every time.
It’s just a template announcement. It doesn’t mean anything.
You don’t have to read too much into it.
So, don’t get wound up about the “coming months” thing — that’s normal.
One piece of slight reporting or speculation I did read, which I found fairly credible actually, was from Kishaw Panthy, who wrote an article regarding the delay.
Kishaw is, I think, a reasonable journalist, so I take this with some credibility — but it’s not an official announcement.
It talks about a spokesperson:
A spokesperson told NEP York (in other words, Kishaw), “The Diversity Visa (DV) program is established by statute, and the Department of State will continue to implement the program as required by law.”
Yes, that’s a very true statement — and to me, it lends some credibility.
“This year, there will be changes to the DV entry process.”
Okay — that’s got some credibility. I think that’s true.
And then one of the confirmed changes is the implementation of the new $1 electronic registration fee.
The spokesperson did not confirm that this fee was the cause of the delay, nor did they confirm or deny that the government shutdown influenced the start date.
The government shutdown had nothing to do with the delay because the start date was already delayed when they didn’t announce it in September — and the shutdown didn’t start until October 1st.
So, we can ignore the shutdown as being the reason.
We know there is credible information and reporting that says the delay is probably for the implementation of the new registration fee.
Even though the spokesperson didn’t confirm that, I believe that’s probably the case.
So, what does that mean for us in terms of when there will be a DV27 entry period?
Like I say, my guess is probably November — possibly December.
My confidence rating in that is pretty high because the announcement of the results would normally be in May of next year.
That May announcement could get pushed back, just like the entry period is being pushed back, but it can’t be pushed back very much longer.
In a normal year, when they do the entry period and it finishes up in early November, they draw the results as early as December.
During December, January, February, March, and so on, they go through processes to filter out some of the bad entries and disqualify people who either applied fraudulently or didn’t use the correct photograph, and so on.
All that work has to happen before the announcement of the results, which normally comes in May.
Then in May, people start submitting their DS-260s, and that processing happens before the first interviews are scheduled in August.
There isn’t very much time to mess around with.
They’re either going to have to say, “You know what, we can’t implement this $1 fee,” and go ahead and open the entry period — or they’re going to implement the fee and then begin the entry period.
But they can’t delay it much longer. They need to get on with this work.
If they push all the dates too far, it will compress the year — less time for DS-260 processing, less time for scheduling cases — and that’s not ideal if they want to run the lottery process in an organized manner, which I believe they do.
So that’s why I think it’ll be announced fairly soon.
I’m expecting the announcement of the dates to come in the next week or two — and then we’ll see the entry period probably in November.
Maybe I’ll be a little bit wrong on that, and it’ll be a little later — maybe December — but that seems extremely late to me.
So anyway, that’s my perspective. That’s my opinion.
Let me just stress: all of this is speculation, right?
We’re all speculating about this — nobody knows.
There are people who believe they’ve got inside information — I don’t know — but nobody has any good information on this.
Only the State Department knows.
So, you can choose to just be patient, or you can believe any speculation you want.
But don’t worry — the DV2027 entry period will happen. - It will open.
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