Ninth Circuit pauses Green Card lottery restart pending appeal

The Diversity Visa lottery, which grants permanent residence to applicants from countries with low historical immigration to the United States, remains suspended as of late October 2026.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling that stops the government from immediately reopening registration for the 2027 fiscal year. This decision allows the State Department to keep the program paused while a legal appeal proceeds.

The legal conflict began in August when Red Eagle Law, an immigration firm, sued Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The lawsuit argued that the administration failed to open the registration period for the 2027 visa lottery.

On October 14, a federal judge granted a preliminary order. That order required the government to announce registration dates by October 29 and open the registration portal by November 1. The Trump administration appealed this ruling and asked the Ninth Circuit to suspend the instruction.

The appellate judges granted the government's request to pause the order. They did not rule that the State Department was right to keep the lottery closed. Instead, they concluded that Red Eagle Law had not yet demonstrated sufficient standing to continue the litigation in its current form.

The visa lottery offers up to 55,000 Green Cards each year. The program was originally suspended in December after a Portuguese citizen who obtained a visa through the lottery became a suspect in shooting incidents in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. That man was later found dead by suicide.

Curtis Morrison, the owner of Red Eagle Law, stated that his firm will seek other legal avenues to challenge the suspension. The current ruling keeps the program in limbo rather than ending it permanently. The government continues to implement other immigration measures, including stricter controls for some permanent residence applicants and changes to migration fees.