Open the Gates!
The Federal District Court for the Southern District of California has ordered the U.S. Department of State to resume the DV-2027 Green Card lottery, which was suspended at the end of 2025 by decision of President Donald Trump. Judge Jinsook Ohta granted the motion of the law firm Red Eagle Law, which had filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Initially, the court ordered the agencies responsible for the lottery to open registration for participants on October 18 of this year and conduct the procedure within 30 days. That is, the lists of winners eligible to receive a Green Card were supposed to be published by November 19. However, the plaintiff and the defendant ultimately jointly asked the judge to push back the deadlines by two weeks. Now, the State Department must open registration no later than November 1, and announce the "lucky ones" who have won the right to enter the U.S. by December 3.
At the same time, it is emphasized that the California court's decision does not mean the permanent return of the lottery, as the Trump administration can appeal the ruling. However, the White House has not yet filed any appeals.
The visa lottery project was suspended in December last year following a shooting incident at Brown University that left two people dead, including Uzbek student Muhammadaziz Umurzakov. It turned out that the gunman, Portuguese national Cláudio Manuel Neves Valente, had entered the country in 2017 through the visa lottery and subsequently obtained permanent resident status.
The Green Card lottery was launched by the U.S. State Department in 1990 and was held annually. Citizens of all countries in the world could participate in the drawing, except those from which more than 50,000 people had immigrated to the U.S. over the previous five years. The program provides for the distribution of up to 55,000 visas a year. Holders of such documents have the right to permanently reside in the U.S., legally work or start a business, as well as apply for American citizenship in the future.
Residents of Central Asian countries actively participated in the lottery and showed notable results in terms of the number of participants and winners. In this regard, Uzbekistan is one of the leaders not only in the region, but also in the world. In particular, according to the drawing results announced in May 2025, Uzbekistan topped the list of countries by the number of selected winners — 5,564 people. This figure is higher than that of its closest competitors, such as Algeria (5,526) and Russia (5,519).
In September 2025, the U.S. authorities introduced a $1 fee to participate in the lottery. The funds generated in this manner were intended to cover the annual costs of processing and protecting participant data, automatically selecting winners, and supporting the program's technical infrastructure.