Citizens from 19 countries were excluded from the latest published Diversity Visa programme because of historically high levels of immigration to the United States.
Enugu Media Village (EMV), the Most Updated Online News Platform | September 8, 2026.
The United States Diversity Visa (DV) Programme, popularly known as the Green Card Lottery, provides a pathway to permanent residence for eligible applicants from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
However, not every country is eligible to participate. Under the latest published DV-2026 rules, nationals of countries that recorded more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the previous five years were excluded from the lottery.
Full List of Excluded Countries
The countries whose natives were not eligible for DV-2026 were:
- Bangladesh
- Brazil
- Canada
- China, including Hong Kong SAR
- Colombia
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Haiti
- Honduras
- India
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- South Korea
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
The U.S. Department of State confirmed this list in its DV-2026 programme information.
Why Are These Countries Excluded?
The Diversity Visa system is designed to increase immigration diversity by giving preference to countries with comparatively low levels of immigration to the United States.
As a result, countries that have sent large numbers of immigrants to the U.S. during the relevant five-year period are generally excluded from the lottery for that programme year.
What About Nigerians?
Nigeria is on the exclusion list. This means a person born in Nigeria was not eligible to enter the DV-2026 lottery based solely on Nigerian birth.
However, U.S. Diversity Visa eligibility is generally based on country of birth (chargeability) rather than simply citizenship. Therefore, a Nigerian citizen who was born in an eligible country may, depending on the circumstances and applicable rules, potentially qualify under that country’s chargeability.
The Department of State also states that the DV programme has separate education or qualifying-work-experience requirements for the principal applicant.
DV-2027 Update
The U.S. Department of State has announced that changes are being made to the DV-2027 entry process and said the registration opening date would be announced separately. The visa application period for people selected for DV-2027 remains scheduled for October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027.
Therefore, applicants should rely on the official U.S. Department of State announcement for DV-2027 rather than assuming that the DV-2026 country list will remain unchanged.
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