New decision on Green Card: registration restart temporarily suspended
The registration deadline for the visa program remains unknown for now.
The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily stayed the execution of a lower court ruling that had required the restart of the 2027 Green Card lottery. As a result, registration for the lottery will not begin for now. This was reported by Bloomberg Law.
On October 14, the federal court for the Southern District of California had ordered the US Department of State to announce the registration dates for the 2027 Diversity Visa program by October 29, and to begin accepting applications by November 1.
However, the Trump administration filed an appeal against this decision. On October 29, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the government's request and temporarily stayed the lower court's ruling.
The court ruling noted that the Red Eagle Law firm does not have the right to file a lawsuit on this matter. The firm had filed a lawsuit in August accusing the US Department of State of failing to start registration for the 2027 Green Card lottery on time.
In a separate opinion, Judge N. Randy Smith emphasized that the firm also lacks the right to go to court on this matter under the US Constitution.
We recall that the Trump administration suspended the Diversity Visa program in December 2025. This was prompted by the suspicion that a Portuguese citizen who came to the US through the program killed several people in two separate shootings in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The suspect was later found to have taken his own life.
