Green Card Lottery hangs in limbo as 2027 registration window shrinks

SAN DIEGO (CN) — The State Department announced last year the start date for the 2027 diversity visa lottery would come at some later date. But almost a year later, no date has been announced.The Trump administration’s pause on the visa lottery program for immigrants shows its contempt for the constitutional process, former Connecticut Congressman Bruce Morrison, a key proponent of the 1990 Immigration Act, which established the program, says.“The debate is not whether you like diversity or whether a diversity visa immigrant has done something bad,” Morrison told Courthouse News. “The debate is if you want to change the law, change the constitutional structure. That’s true whether I like the program or hate the program.”“This is not a mistake. This is an example of thumbing your nose at the law," he added.The Trump administration has directed the government to pause the program, following deadly shootings at Brown University and MIT in late 2025. Proponents of the diversity visa lottery program, such as Morrison, have described the administration’s pause as a de facto cancellation of the program.The diversity visa lottery, often referred to as the Green Card Lottery, randomly selects people from eligible countries to apply for permanent residency in the U.S. But the lottery process, which can take more than a year, is in uncharted territory since the Trump administration has not reopened the program to new applicants.The program has provided up to 55,000 diversity visas to noncitizen applicants every year.The registration period for new applicants is historically scheduled during the first week of October.Red Eagle Law owner and founder Curtis Morrison (unrelated to Bruce Morrison) accused the administration of gaslighting his firm into believing the program was still on track to begin up until the last possible moment. He says that the administration’s failure to open the registration period for fiscal year 2027 has negatively affected his clients and business.Red Eagle Law filed its own lawsuit last month against Secretary of State Marco Rubio in federal court to compel the Trump administration to open the registration process before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta, a Joe Biden appointee, denied Red Eagle Law’s request for a temporary restraining order but said she would consider a preliminary injunction during a hearing Thursday, Sept. 24, instead. Her decision could determine whether there is a diversity visa lottery in 2027.Conservatives have been critical of the program for years. President Donald Trump banned diversity visa recipients from entering the country in 2020, but that ban was overturned later that year by a federal judge in the District of Columbia.The current pause has left many applicants uncertain about their future.Red Eagle Law clients who spoke to Courthouse News said that the administration’s cancellation of the program was unfair.“It’s a little disappointing and upsetting,” said Kacper Trela, who is Polish by birth, but who has lived in Scotland for the last 15 years.Trela, who travels to the U.S. for work a few times each year, said he began to explore the possibility of permanently moving to the U.S., most likely to Miami, after his colleagues at work planted the idea.“The criteria is very strict,” Trela said of the diversity visa program. “It’s not a free-for-all. I think the administration doesn’t realize people want to come and become part of society to enrich it in a good way and learn from it.”Trela understands the desire to limit immigration but believes that the administration’s focus on a few incidents should not cast a shadow on the lottery program as a whole. He said he was worried speaking on the record could jeopardize his chances of coming to the U.S.“But if no one speaks up, nothing will change,” he said. “I do hope the administration will hold itself to the values the country is built on.”Daniel Butterworth, from England, shared a similar sentiment. Butterworth, a veteran of the British Army, hoped to enter the U.S. and work in the firearms and defense industry in either Kansas City, San Antonio, Las Vegas or Montana.“You’ve got someone with my skillset, with my experience wanting to not only make my life better, but to try to improve those in America,” he said. “It’s not just myself. My wife is a lab technician with a degree in forensic science. We have skills and experience that ideally your country would love to have.”Assil Lounissi, a 24-year-old living in Algeria, also expressed disappointment in the program’s pause. Lounissi is a graduate student of German studies who also works as a hairdresser and volunteer at the Red Crescent.“Honestly, I don’t think it is fair when people who are waiting for the diversity visa program do not have a clear registration date,” Lounissi wrote in an email.Red Eagle Law is also representing diversity visa applicants in Medani v. Trump, a class action challenging federal policies that placed indefinite holds on applications. Senior U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, a Barack Obama appointee, ordered the government to resume processing before the fiscal year ends.Ohta, the federal judge in the Southern District of California, expressed some doubt as to whether there was anything the court could do this late in the process — a point the Department of Justice also made during oral argument earlier this month.“It’s important to understand that the authors of the Immigration Act of 1990 were not doing this because of charity for particular countries or individuals, but as something to strengthen the United States to broaden access and relationships," Bruce Morrison, the former congressman, said. “We believed in broadening the geography from which Americans came was a good thing. The current administration doesn’t seem to believe in those things.”The former congressman said the program, as it stands, is obsolete and should be rewritten to better meet the demands of 2026. But ultimately, that’s not one person’s decision to make.“That’s up to Congress,” he said. “The president does not make those decisions.”The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads