SAN FRANCISCO, United States — The United States Department of State has announced that it will no longer offer free electronic registration for the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery, commonly known as the Green Card lottery. Starting with the registration period in October 2025, applicants, including those from Kenya and other eligible nations, will be required to pay a $1 (KSh 129.15) electronic registration fee.
The DV lottery is a US government initiative that annually makes 55,000 immigrant visas available. These visas allow individuals and families from countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States to obtain a Permanent Resident card, regardless of whether they have family or employment ties.
The new fee structure will be enforced beginning with the DV-2027 program registration.
“The Department of State (‘Department’) proposes an adjustment to the Schedule of Fees for Consular Services of the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs (‘Schedule of Fees’ or ‘Schedule’) to establish a $1 fee to register for the Diversity Visa lottery programme,” reads part of a summary published by the Federal Register.
Rationale for the fee
The Department stated that the new $1 fee is intended to more fairly distribute the cost of administering the lottery program. Instead of charging only the small percentage of successful applicants, the fee ensures that all individuals who enter the DV application process contribute to its operational costs.
The Department explained the reasoning: “This change will more fairly place the burden of the lottery registration on individuals seeking the benefit of gaining access to the DV application process instead of charging only the small percentage of successful registrants for the costs associated with administering the lottery program for all registrants.”
The State Department confirmed that the payment requirement will only be enforced starting with the October 2025 registration period. Earlier lotteries (DV-2026 and prior) remain unaffected.
The change necessitates amending existing regulations. Specifically, the Department is amending 22 CFR 42.33(b)(3) by deleting the sentence: “No fee will be collected at the time of submission of a petition, but a processing fee may be collected at a later date, as provided in paragraph (i) of this section.”
Additionally, 22 CFR 42.33(i) is updated to mandate that the registration fee be paid through an authorized U.S. government payment portal at the time of registration, before the application can be submitted and completed.
Application requirements and process
To be eligible for the DV-2027 program, applicants must be natives of countries with historically low immigration rates to the US. Alternatively, those not from eligible countries may qualify if their spouse or one of their parents is a native of an eligible country.
Mandatory qualifications include a high school education or at least two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring a minimum of two years of training or experience.
While there is no minimum age requirement, the education and work experience rules effectively disqualify most individuals under the age of 18.
All married applicants must include their spouse’s name, and all unmarried children under 21 must be listed.
Applications must be submitted electronically on the official Department of State DV Programme website between October 1 and November 1, 2025. Submitting more than one entry per person will result in automatic disqualification.
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After submission, applicants will receive a confirmation screen with a unique confirmation number, which they must save.
Applicants will be able to check the status of their entries on the DV-2027 website starting May 2026 to see if they have been selected.
Explaining the breakdown of costs, the State Department added: “The Department is creating a $1 fee to register for the DV lottery programme. This fee reflects the operational costs of running the annual DV lottery, including system updates, data storage, automated random selection of lottery winners, and associated security reviews.”
It further clarified that the existing $330 Diversity Visa application fee will continue to cover other costs associated with administering the overall program.
“Separating the lottery registration from the DV application ensures that the cost of managing the lottery is borne by registrants rather than only the small percentage who eventually succeed,” the statement concluded.
