in effect
This is a final rule issued by the U.S. Department of State, effective September 16, 2025, that adds a $1 registration fee to the annual Diversity Visa (DV) lottery program. It also updates two sections of federal regulations to reflect that this fee is collected electronically at the time a person submits their lottery entry.
Previously, there was no fee to enter the DV lottery; the only fee was a $330 application fee charged later, and only to those selected as lottery winners. Now, every person who submits a DV lottery registration must pay $1 at the time of entry, before their registration is accepted. The $330 application fee for selectees remains unchanged. The regulation at 22 CFR 42.33 is amended to remove the prior statement that no fee is collected at submission, replacing it with language requiring payment through an authorized U.S. Government payment portal at registration. The Department projects approximately 25 million lottery registrations per year, which would generate roughly $25 million annually from the new fee.
Any foreign national who enters the Diversity Visa lottery — estimated at around 25 million people per year — must now pay $1 to submit a registration, where before entry was free. The small share of registrants who are selected as lottery winners continue to owe the existing $330 application fee and are otherwise unaffected by this change.