Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program
The Department of State ("Department") is amending regulations governing the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program ("DV Program") to improve the integrity of, and combat fraud in, the program. These amendments require a petitioner to the DV Program to provide valid, unexpired passport information and to upload a scan of the biographic and signature page in the electronic entry form or to otherwise indicate that he or she is exempt from this requirement. Additionally, the Department is standardizing and amending its regulations to add the word "shall" to simplify guidance for consular officers; ensure the use of the term "sex" in lieu of "gender"; and replace the term "age" in the DV Program regulations with the phrase "date of birth" to accurately reflect the information collected and maintained by the Department during the immigrant visa process.
What this means
- This rule has been in effect since 2026-04-10. (effectiveAt)
- This document sets a rule but leaves the list of who it covers to a separate government determination, so who is affected cannot be read from this document alone. (impact.scopeDefinedElsewhere)
- The document states a requirement for the people it covers. The exact wording is quoted above — whether it applies to any particular person depends on facts this platform does not have. (impact.actionRequired)
Derived from this event’s own recorded fields — not written by a model, and not an interpretation of anyone’s case.
Who is affected
This document sets the rule but leaves the specific list of who it covers to a separate government determination. The list is not in this document, so we do not show one here — check the issuing agency's own published list. “An alien will be eligible to compete for consideration for visa issuance under INA 203(c) during a fiscal year only if he or she is a native of a low-admission foreign state, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to INA 203(c)(1)(E), with respect to the fiscal year in question; and if he or she has at least a high school education or its equivalent or, within…”
What the document says may be required
The document states a requirement for those it covers. The exact obligation, and whether it applies to a particular person, depends on the document's own terms — the relevant passage is quoted below.
“The Department's Electronic Diversity Visa website. https://dvprogram.state.gov/ . --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under section 204(a)(1)(I)(iii) of the INA, petitions (also referred to as ``entries'') for the DV Program must be in the form prescribed in regulations by the Secretary of State (``Secretary'') and contain all information and be supported…”
Assembled from the source document, not from anyone's individual circumstances. Whether a change applies to a specific person depends on facts this platform does not have. This is data context, not legal advice.