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A federal judge in California has ordered the United States government to reopen registration for the Diversity Visa lottery — commonly known as the Green Card lottery — after the Trump administration suspended the programme in 2025. Under the ruling, registration must open no later than November 1, with results to be announced by December 3.
Judge Jinsuk Ota of the Federal Court for the Southern District of California issued the verdict on October 14, ruling in favour of Red Eagle Law, a legal firm specialising in immigration assistance. The firm had filed suit in August against Secretary of State Marco Rubio, demanding that registration for the so-called Diversity Visa Lottery be reinstated. The founder of Red Eagle Law, Curtis Morrison, described the outcome as a victory for applicants who had been shut out of the programme.
The court had initially ordered registration to open no later than October 18, but both parties agreed to a two-week extension for organisational reasons. The 30-day application window will now run from November 1. If the schedule holds, the programme will accept applications and publish results within roughly six weeks — a compressed timeline compared with the lottery’s usual annual cycle.
The ruling is expected to allow up to 55,000 foreign nationals to obtain visas. However, the Trump administration retains the right to appeal the verdict, which could affect whether the registration period proceeds as ordered.
Programme Background
The Diversity Visa programme was established in 1990. Under it, the US State Department annually allocated 50,000 green cards to citizens of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States. Winners receive permanent residency, the right to work and open businesses, access to social benefits, and — after five years — eligibility to apply for US citizenship.
The programme was suspended in 2025 on the direction of President Donald Trump. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued the relevant instruction to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The suspension came shortly after a shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, in which two people were killed, including Uzbek student Muhammad Aziz Umurzokov. Noem cited the case of the shooting suspect — identified as Claudio Nevis Valenti, who had entered the United States through the Diversity Visa programme in 2017 — as justification for halting the lottery.
The suspension drew legal challenge from immigration advocates who argued the administration had acted outside its authority in shutting down a congressionally mandated programme. Red Eagle Law’s August lawsuit against Rubio was among the most prominent of those challenges, and the October 14 ruling represents the first court order compelling the administration to restore the lottery.
For citizens of Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries, the Diversity Visa lottery has historically been one of the few accessible pathways to US permanent residency. The outcome of any potential government appeal, and the precise mechanics of the reopened registration process, will determine whether the November 1 window materialises as scheduled.