Delays in issuing visas are disrupting the diversity visa lottery winners’ process. As a result, there is potential that these individuals will lose their chance to come to the United States. This is the second year this has been an issue.

Diversity visa winners from 2020 are delayed due to Trump-era policies. The 2021 lottery winners are delayed due to the global pandemic and as a result, the backlog for immigration processing. A court case has been filed on behalf of the 2020 and 2021 diversity visa winners to ensure they retain eligibility through the ongoing delays. Currently, diversity visa lottery winners must process documentation prior to the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30. Currently, it’s highly unlikely without an exception to the process, these individuals will lose eligibility.

The Diversity Visa Program

The program goes back to 1990 when it was first created by Congress. The program encourages immigration to the US from countries that historically do not have fair representation. A total of 55,000 immigrant visas are available each year to qualifying individuals from specific countries. However, competition is high for these coveted visas. As such, individuals are chosen through a lottery system. As an example, for fiscal year 2020, 23.2 million individuals applied for a diversity visa.

Immigration Bans

The Trump administration banned individuals from six countries in 2017. The same administration also banned most immigration into the county in 2020 to limit COVID exposure in the U.S. As such, the diversity visa program was highly impacted, nearly rendering it shut down. Nearly 40,000 individuals did not receive their diversity visa at the time the borders were essentially closed due to COVID. As such, a legal case was filed. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia required the Trump administration to continue issuing diversity visas. In addition, the court required a total of 9,095 diversity visas be held for future processing, pending the final resolution of the case. As noted previously, the court ordered the Biden administration to issue the 9,095 diversity visas from FY 2020.

Current Diversity Visa Processing

The State Department is moving slowly issuing diversity visas.  As of the end of June 2021, only 3,094 of the allotted 55,000 diversity visas for FY 2021 have been issued. The current final date to issue the allotted visas for FY2021 is September 30, 2021. Ongoing COVID issues continue to keep embassies and consulates closed or running with limited staff and appointments. In addition, diversity visas are currently the lowest priority for processing.

In June 2021, a new lawsuit was filed on behalf of FY2021 diversity visa lottery winners. Ideally, all winners’ visas will be processed and issued before the end of September. To that end, some members of Congress introduced the Keeping Our Promise Act (H.R. 3548). The bill is an effort to ensure lottery winners who did not receive a visa due to COVID restrictions remain eligible. The act specifies any diversity visa winners from fiscal years 2017 through 2021.

If you have questions about a diversity visa or any immigration-related topic, contact us at ILBSG. We are here to work with you to ensure you get the right advice.

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