The United States has moved to suspend one of the world’s most popular immigration programs - the Diversity Visa lottery, better known as the Green Card lottery. The decision follows a shooting at Brown University and has reignited a long-running political debate over the security and relevance of the program, DKNews.kz reports.
Why the US suspended the Green Card lottery
The suspension was announced by US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who said the move was taken on the direct instruction of President Donald Trump.
“At the direction of President Trump, I am immediately ordering USCIS to suspend the DV program so that no more Americans are harmed by this catastrophic program,” Noem wrote on X.
The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) December 19, 2025
In 2017, President Trump…
The decision came after investigators confirmed that the suspect in the Brown University shooting had entered the United States in 2017 after winning a Green Card through the annual Diversity Visa lottery.
For the Trump administration, the case has become another data point in its longstanding argument that the program poses national security risks.
A program under political fire for years
The Green Card lottery is one of the few US immigration pathways where selection is based primarily on chance rather than education, professional background or investment. Each year, it grants permanent residency to around 55,000 people from countries with historically low levels of immigration to the US.
Critics, however, argue that the randomness of the program makes it vulnerable to abuse. Noem recalled that Trump first pushed to eliminate the DV program back in 2017 following a deadly terrorist attack in New York, when an ISIS-linked attacker who had entered the country through the lottery killed eight people by driving a truck into pedestrians.
Since then, calls to end the program have resurfaced periodically, but this marks the first time it has been formally suspended.
What a “suspension” actually means
Importantly, the move does not amount to a permanent cancellation of the program. At this stage, it is a temporary suspension, which could have several practical consequences:
- new lottery stages may be delayed or frozen;
- application processing could be paused;
- timelines for drawings and visa issuance may be revised.
US authorities have not yet clarified what will happen to applications already submitted or to winners from ongoing lottery cycles.
The lottery was already changing
Even before the suspension, the Diversity Visa program had begun to evolve. As of September 16, 2025, registration for the Green Card lottery is no longer free. The US Department of State introduced a one-dollar registration fee for applicants.
While largely symbolic, the fee was widely interpreted as a signal that Washington intended to reduce mass and speculative applications and tighten oversight of the program.
What about DV-2027?
Despite increasingly tough rhetoric, the White House previously stated that the DV-2027 lottery would go ahead. That position was reported by US and international media in late 2025.
The current suspension, however, underscores how politically exposed the program remains. Its future now appears closely tied to broader debates over security, immigration control and US domestic politics.
What this means for applicants worldwide
For millions of people around the world, including applicants from Central Asia and other emerging regions, the Green Card lottery has long represented one of the few realistic pathways to legal permanent residency in the US without employer sponsorship or major financial investment.
That pathway has now become far less predictable:
- timelines may shift;
- eligibility rules could change;
- the program itself may be scaled back or redesigned.
Immigration experts note that the US is increasingly favoring a more managed immigration system, prioritizing employment-based visas, investment routes and highly skilled migrants over random selection mechanisms.
The suspension of the Green Card lottery is not simply a reaction to a single tragic incident. It reflects a broader shift in US immigration policy, where security concerns and tighter control are increasingly taking precedence over openness and accessibility.
Whether the Diversity Visa program survives in its current form remains uncertain. What is clear is that the era of the Green Card lottery as an easy and predictable entry point into the United States is gradually coming to an end.
