President Donald Trump has not suspended the green card program, but it is the diversity lottery immigrant visa program that is under threat. The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is also called the Green Card Lottery.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in an X post, wrote,” At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”
Noem’s X post stated the reason behind taking this step – “The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.
In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.”
Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program (DV Program) makes up to 50,000 immigrant visas available annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to individuals who are from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The DV Program is administered by the U.S. Department of State (DOS).
There are, however, a small number of lottery winners each year who, at the time of “winning the lottery,” are residing in the United States in a non-immigrant or other legal status. For these winners residing inside the United States, USCIS processes adjustment of status applications.
Diversity Immigrant Visa Program Limit
After certain adjustments, the DV-2026 annual limit is reduced to approximately 52,000. DVs are divided among six geographic regions. No one country can receive more than seven percent of the available diversity visas in any one year.
The year of entitlement for all applicants registered for the DV-2026 program ends as of September 30, 2026. DV visas may not be issued to DV-2026 applicants after that date.
But now, after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s directive to USCIS, the DV program may be paused. USCIS has yet to make an official announcement.
In August, the U.S. State Department proposed new rules for the Diversity Visa (DV) Program, requiring foreign applicants to submit a scanned passport for lottery entry to reduce fraud and enhance application process integrity. The new rule mandates all Diversity Visa applicants to submit a valid, unexpired passport number, a clear image or scan of the passport’s photo and signature pages, with failure to upload or use expired passports resulting in immediate disqualification.