US Introduces New Passport Rule for Green Card Lottery Applicants

The United States has introduced sweeping changes to the Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Programme, commonly known as the Green Card Lottery, in an effort to curb widespread fraud and strengthen national security. 

The new regulations, published in the Federal Register on 3 March 2026, take effect from 3 April and mark one of the most significant overhauls of the lottery system in recent years. At the heart of the reforms is a new requirement that applicants must provide valid, unexpired passport details and upload a scan of the passport’s biographic and signature pages when submitting their electronic entry form. 

The Department of State argues that this measure will allow officials to verify identities earlier in the process, thereby reducing fraudulent submissions and enhancing vetting procedures. The electronic form will continue to collect information about applicants, their spouses, and children, as well as the nearest consular post where interviews would be conducted if selected.

The changes come against the backdrop of mounting evidence of abuse within the programme. In DV-2025 alone, US authorities reported 2.5 million fraudulent entries, many linked to unauthorised third parties and criminal enterprises. 

These groups often submitted applications without individuals’ consent, later demanding payment or coercing them into fraudulent schemes. By requiring passport documentation upfront, officials hope to deter such practices and restore integrity to the lottery.

Beyond the passport requirement, the Department has also standardised its regulations to improve clarity for consular officers. The word “shall” has been introduced to simplify guidance, “sex” will replace “gender” in official terminology, and “date of birth” will substitute “age” to better reflect the data collected during visa processing. 

While these linguistic adjustments may seem minor, they reflect a broader push to align regulatory language with operational realities. The DV Programme itself remains a cornerstone of U.S. immigration policy, offering up to 55,000 visas annually to individuals from countries with historically low levels of immigration to the United States. 

These “low-admission” states are defined as those with 50,000 or fewer natives admitted over the past five years. Applicants are selected through a computerised lottery, with no single country permitted to receive more than seven percent of the total visas in a given year. However, allocations fluctuate: for DV-2025, the annual limit was reduced to 52,056 due to statutory adjustments and competing visa categories.

The reforms have also sparked political debate. In December, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced via social media that, under the direction of President Donald Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem, it was suspending its role in the DV Programme to “protect Americans from criminal foreigners.”