The green card lottery for permanent residence in the United States, the Diversity Visa (DV) programme, will not reopen for now. A US appeals court has temporarily blocked a lower court’s order to start accepting applications for the fiscal year 2027 DV lottery by 1 November. The lottery, suspended by the Trump administration, therefore remains on hold.
The case began with a lawsuit by Red Eagle Law, an immigration law firm, which went to court after the US State Department failed to open the new year’s DV lottery. On 14 October, a lower court ordered that applications be opened by Sunday (1 November). Donald Trump’s administration filed an emergency appeal against that order. On Thursday, a three-judge appeals panel ruled in the administration’s favour and blocked the lower court’s order.
The appeals court did say plainly that the State Department had kept the DV lottery shut without any explanation, which it called wholly improper. But the judges questioned whether the law firm that brought the case has direct legal standing on the matter. In their view, the law was written to give ordinary people around the world a chance to immigrate to the United States, not for a law firm’s business.
Since it began in 1990, the DV lottery has granted green cards by random draw to about 55,000 people a year from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States, a list that has included Bangladesh. The sudden halt to applications has left thousands of hopeful people around the world in deep uncertainty and frustration.
The law firm, meanwhile, is not giving up despite the setback. It said it would soon bring a new legal challenge against the Trump administration on behalf of a foreign national living in the United States on a study or work visa. For now, the door to the green card stays shut until the appeals court completes its final hearing of the main case.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report