What is the Diversity Visa Lottery?

As you may know, the USA dishes out thousands of green cards at random every year as part of the Diversity Visa program. Its purpose is to diversify the population of the U.S. To that end, every year, 55,000 United States green cards are offered out via a lottery.

People born in the UK (with the exception of those born in Northern Ireland) were historically excluded from the DV program. But that changed in 2023, when the Department of State announced that natives from the whole of the UK were eligible to enter the lottery for Fiscal Year 2025.

After this exciting announcement, we know from anecdotal experience that plenty of Brits entered the lottery for FY 2025 (in October and November 2023). But we never heard of anyone who actually won. And when we say never, we mean never—not one. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

Why did no British entrants get selected?

In a remarkable development, prompted by a federal lawsuit filed thanks to the tireless Brit Simon, the Department of State has effectively admitted that it cocked up the selection process for British entrants. Here is the DOS’ update from Friday, August 8th:

2025 Diversity Visa (DV) program Entrant Status Check results for certain entrants from Great Britain (United Kingdom) and its dependent areas. 

In reviewing the entry selection system for the DV – 2025 Program, The U.S. Department of State determined that for a small number of entrants from Great Britain (United Kingdom) and its dependent areas*, the selection status results may have been previously incorrectly reported.  The Department of State asks that DV-2025 entrants from Great Britain (United Kingdom) and its dependent areas go to the Entrant Status Check and use the unique confirmation number saved from their DV-2025 online entry registration to confirm whether their entry has been selected in the DV program.  

Selectees are reminded that, under U.S. law, eligibility to apply for a Diversity Immigrant Visa extends through the end of the fiscal year (September 30), and that visas may become unavailable before that date if the Department issues all visa numbers authorized by Congress for that fiscal year.  In order to be scheduled for an interview, selectees who wish to immigrate must first submit a complete DS-260 application. If scheduled, selectees should be prepared to provide all required documentation at the time of interview, including a medical exam. 

The full announcement can be found here.

How did this happen?

As Brit Simon has explained in his videos on the topic, to cut a long story short, the government appears to have messed up the selection process and used the country list from DV-2024 to select winners, which left Britain (the only country added to the list in DV-2025) out:

Check your DV-2025 Entry Again!

If you’re a Brit who was disappointed to miss out last year when the Diversity Visa results were announced, go check your entry again at the official website—https://dvprogram.state.gov/.

You never know—your luck may have changed!