NEW: Trump Admin Scores Immigration Win On ‘Randomized’ Visa Lottery System

A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked a lower-court order that required the U.S. State Department to reopen registration for the fiscal year 2027 Diversity Immigrant Visa program, commonly known as the green card lottery. The decision means the program will not begin its usual registration process on the schedule a district judge had set, at least while the government’s appeal moves forward.

The Diversity Visa program, created by a 1990 law, makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each year to people from countries that send relatively few immigrants to the United States. Applicants enter the lottery entirely at random, after which roughly 100,000 people are typically selected from millions of entries and can then apply for the visas, provided they meet other eligibility and screening requirements.

Successful applicants can later seek permanent residence in the United States.

For fiscal year 2027, the State Department did not open registration on its usual schedule. The delay continued even after the fiscal year began on October 1, 2026, effectively canceling the lottery for that year. The department had earlier paused aspects of diversity-visa processing following a December 2025 incident involving a lottery recipient who was later linked to fatal shootings.

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Another *huge* immigration win for President Trump and Secretary Rubio. Must they, now, open the diversity visa lottery program? The program gives visas to people for being from countries without many people that qualify for merit based visas. No, per the Ninth Circuit. Stayed! pic.twitter.com/u9wANV8VZu

— Eric W. (@EWess92) October 30, 2026

This past August, an immigration firm that has represented diversity-visa selectees and that derives part of its revenue from that work, sued in federal district court in San Diego. On October 14, U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta granted a preliminary injunction. She ordered the State Department to announce registration details by October 29, open a 30-day registration window by November 1, notify selectees by December 3, and process applications until the visas were exhausted or the fiscal year ended on September 30, 2027.

Judge Ohta, a Biden appointee who was born in Seoul, South Korea, ruled that the federal government had no right to bar random foreigners from entering the United States and that the firm had a sufficient legal interest to bring the case.

The government appealed and asked for a stay, which was granted by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. The panel — which included appointees of Presidents Clinton, Biden and George W. Bush — ruled unanimously that the law firm lacked standing. The court said the firm’s economic interest in potential future clients was only marginally related to the statute’s purposes. “The Diversity Visa Program … was enacted to encourage immigration, not generate revenue for law firms,” the panel wrote.

It added that it did not endorse the State Department’s decision to cancel the program, but that the firm had no current clients for a lottery that had never been held and therefore could not properly challenge the cancellation.

The stay is temporary and preserves the current situation while the full appeal is briefed and decided. The appeals court will set a schedule for further filings.

The law firm has indicated it may file a new lawsuit that includes an actual prospective entrant as a plaintiff, which could address the standing issue identified by the Ninth Circuit. Separately, some members of Congress have introduced legislation aimed at ending the Diversity Visa program.

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