DV-2027: what happens after you enter

Right after you submit: your confirmation number

When the entry goes through, the confirmation page shows your name and a unique confirmation number. Keep it in more than one place: print the page, take a screenshot on your own phone and write the number down.

• To open Entrant Status Check you need the confirmation number, your last name and your year of birth, exactly as on the entry.
• If a cyber café, agent or relative filled in the form for you, ask for the confirmation page before you leave. Nobody else should keep it for you.
• If you lose the number, Entrant Status Check has a way to find it again with the email address and personal details you used on the entry, according to the latest published DV instructions.
• Don't enter a second time "to be safe". More than one entry for the same person disqualifies all of them.

When and where the results appear

Results are only in Entrant Status Check on dvprogram.state.gov. It shows one of two things: that the entry has not been selected, or a selectee letter with a case number and instructions for what to do next.

In past years, results appeared in early May, about seven months after registration closed, and stayed available until the end of the following fiscal year (DV-2026 instructions). DV-2027 runs on a different, court-ordered timetable:

The reported date comes from news and law firm reports of the court order, listed in the DV-2027 guide; it is not official until the State Department publishes the DV-2027 instructions. Check Entrant Status Check yourself rather than waiting for a message.

If you are selected

The drawing is random, and more people are selected than there are visas, so a selection is a chance to apply, not a promise. Move quickly: DV-2027 cases have less time than usual, because every visa must be issued by 30 September 2027.

The steps below follow the latest published Diversity Visa instructions; your selectee letter in Entrant Status Check is the final word on what to do.

1. Read the selectee letter in Entrant Status Check and note your case number.
2. Fill in the DS-260 immigrant visa application online, for yourself and for each family member who will move with you.
3. Gather your documents: passport, birth certificates, police certificates, proof of your education or work experience and, if married, your marriage certificate.
4. Wait for your interview date, which is shown in Entrant Status Check.
5. Have the medical exam with a doctor the U.S. embassy approves, and get any vaccinations you need.
6. Pay the visa application fee ($330 per person under the DV-2026 instructions) and attend the interview. If you already live in the United States, you apply to USCIS to adjust your status instead.

At the interview you must show that you meet the education or work requirement and that everyone on your entry was listed correctly. Leaving out a spouse or an eligible child on the entry makes you ineligible.

Your photo after you enter

The photo on your entry still counts after you submit it: the instructions warn that a photo that does not meet the requirements, or has been edited, can disqualify an entry. If you are selected, the DS-260 asks for a photo again, under the same U.S. visa photo requirements: 600 × 600 pixels, a plain light background and no glasses.

The DV Lottery Photo Tool makes a photo of that size on your phone and checks it, and the DV Photo Checker tests one you already have. Neither uploads your photo anywhere.

If you are not selected

There is no appeal and no waiting list, and the entry does not carry over to the next year. You can enter again in the next registration, with a new photo: a photo from an earlier year's entry is not accepted. See DV-2028: how to apply to get ready.

Messages to ignore

The weeks after registration are when "you won" messages arrive. None of them are real:

• Nobody is told by email, text, WhatsApp or letter that they were selected. Only Entrant Status Check gives results.
• Nobody can add your name to the list, speed up your case or sell you a better chance.
• Fees for selected applicants are paid as the official instructions say, never to a person who contacts you.
• Never send your confirmation number or passport scan to anyone who contacts you about the DV.

More warning signs are in DV Lottery scams to avoid.