Guide

How the Diversity Visa program is counted

The Diversity Immigrant Visa program makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas a year available by random selection to nationals of countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The Department of State runs the selection and publishes three kinds of number about it. They are often confused.

Three numbers

1. Entries. The number of qualified entries received during the registration period, worldwide. The Department states this on each program year's results page (20,822,624 for DV-2026).
2. Selectees. The number of entrants selected, by country of chargeability. The Department deliberately selects more entrants than there are visas, because not every selectee applies or qualifies. This is the number on this site's nationality pages; the Department states that approximately 129,516 prospective applicants (selectees and their spouses and children) were registered for DV-2026.
3. Visas issued. The DV visas actually issued, which appear month by month in the monthly immigrant issuance tables under the symbol DV, and for the full year in the annual Report of the Visa Office. The DV class page shows the monthly reports.

Chargeability and the seven-percent rule

Selectees are counted by the country to which they are "chargeable", normally the country of birth, not of citizenship or residence. No single country may receive more than seven percent of the visas available in a year. Countries whose nationals sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years are excluded from entering; the list is set each year by the Department and explains why some large nationalities show no selectees at all.

Timing

Selection results for a program year are published in May of the preceding fiscal year (DV-2026 results in May 2025). Visas for that program year may only be issued during its fiscal year, October to September, and the Visa Bulletin publishes the rank cut-offs by region each month. Selectees who have not received a visa or adjusted status by 30 September of the program year derive no further benefit from selection.

What this site holds

Only the Department's published counts by country, for DV-2016 to DV-2026. The Department does not publish selectee names, and none are held here. Nationality pages show the count for each year beside the year's total and the country's share. Nothing on this site says whether any person will be selected or will receive a visa.

The Department's Diversity Visa pages carry the instructions, the eligible-country list and the results pages this site reads.