The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia heard a case regarding possible action around the thousands of diversity visas set to expire. These have not yet been processed due to U.S. government delays. If selected in a diversity visa lottery, individuals have until the end of that fiscal year to apply and receive a visa. As the U.S. government has continued to experience delays, many lottery winners are in a position where they have not yet received their diversity visa and are running out of time to do so.

Lawyers for the DV lottery winners argue that the government has not met its burden for processing visa applications for the diversity lottery winners. The State Department, on the other hand, argues that the lawsuits are now moot since President Biden rescinded the Trump-era bans which resulted in the delayed processing to begin with. The State Department further argues that the U.S. government is simply experiencing processing delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, while the lottery winners argue that immigration officials are not doing enough to catch up and may be dragging their feet.

If the Judge on the case, Judge Mehta, doesn’t take action to protect the lottery winners’ visas before they expire, individuals will be left without recourse. However, Judge Mehta’s previous actions in a related case suggest he may be willing to find in favor of the lottery winners. In February of this year, he extended the validity of the 2020 diversity visa numbers. He could take similar action here, which would provide much needed relief to affected parties.

Judge Mehta expressed that he would not order the State Department to process a certain number of visas within a set time period or otherwise force the State Department to reorganize its priorities. However, he did state that he was open to the idea of reserving the visas. If Judge Mehta sets the visas aside, this would allow lottery winners who do not receive their diversity visa on time to remain eligible without having to compete against more people for the same number of visas available in the next year’s lottery.

The case is comprised of 24,000 individual plaintiffs, making the case more complicated than most. Judge Mehta encouraged the plaintiffs’ attorneys to consider consolidating the case to a class action, which would simplify the matter for the judge.

ILBSG is monitoring this case and will keep its clients updated with any new developments. If you have questions about any immigration-related case, contact us at ILBSG.

Diversity Visa immigration