Copyright dailymail
The US will now require every person registering for the green card lottery to pay a $1 fee, the Department of State announced. The fee goes into effect on October 16, around when the 2027 diversity immigrant visa lottery registration period is set to open. The State Department's statement said that the new $1 cost for applicants was a 'fairer way' of running the lottery program. The fee is estimated to bring in an estimated $25million to help the US government cover the costs of the annual green card lottery. The green card lottery change would also ward off fraudulent registrations from 'actors seeking to exploit unsuspecting potential entrants', the statement added. The Trump administration's change has been received positively by immigration attorneys. Michelle Abeckjerr, an immigration attorney who founded Abeckjerr Immigration Law, told the Daily Mail: 'Almost all immigration processes require a fee, so why should this one be any different? 'From my perspective even a $1 registration fee could help reduce fraud by discouraging multiple entries, which is not permitted, or fake profiles.' Her concern was not about the fee but about how and which payment methods the US government would accept. Abeckjerr added: 'I anticipate that applicants will run into problems making the payment, for example, if their local payment methods won't work within the US system. 'Countries with low financial inclusion will be disproportionately affected. This includes poorer, conflict-ridden, rural or less developed countries, especially those with minimal formal banking penetration.' Up to 55,000 diversity visas are granted each year. The program is meant to make immigrant visas available to people from countries with low immigration rates. In 2025, nearly 20 million people registered over 35 days in order to be available for an eventual immigrant visa application. Only about 131,060 applicants were successful - and that is only for the application, not for the green card. The countries with the most registrations in 2025 were Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Russia and Uzbekistan. Each had more than 5,000 registrations, according to data published by the State Department. Until now, registering for the green card lottery was free. Loren Locke, an immigration attorney and former State Department consular officer, said the new change was 'crucial' to help the government trace where green card lottery applications were coming from. She told the Daily Mail: 'While the fee itself is minimal and unlikely to deter sophisticated fraud networks, it establishes a financial footprint that can be cross-referenced with application data to flag suspicious patterns indicative of exploitation or trafficking. 'This fee-based tracking fits into a larger US immigration strategy that increasingly focuses on the source of immigrant funding, requiring more robust financial documentation and payment verification across visa types to combat fraud and abuse.' Locke added that the new payment would help 'close loopholes that (human) traffickers or unscrupulous agents might exploit.' 'Though direct links between the DV lottery and human trafficking are less documented than with other visa categories, the enhanced payment tracking helps close loopholes that traffickers or unscrupulous agents might exploit, supporting broader anti-trafficking efforts.' The State Department's statement said that separating the lottery process from the application process 'more fairly' placed the cost of the lottery registration on everyone seeking to benefit from the lottery. Before, it only charged the 'small percentage of successful registrants'. Those operational costs include the annual review and update of the systems that collect the lottery form submissions, data storage and the automated randomized selection of lottery winners. Those selected from the green card lottery to apply for a diversity visa will still have to pay a $330 application fee. Since 2007, about 1 million immigrants have received a green card every year besides during the coronavirus pandemic, the Pew Research Center said. Most green cards are given through family relationships. The new $1 fee for the green card lottery comes as Donald Trump signed an executive order adding a $100,000 one-time fee for H-1B visa program applicants. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later added that the new cost for H-1Bs would apply only to new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders.
