The US State Department has resumed issuing Diversity Visas (DV-2026) following a federal court order, ending an eight-month suspension that had left thousands of lottery winners worldwide including nearly 3,933 Nepalis unable to complete their green card applications with a hard deadline now bearing down.
The State Department confirmed that visa issuance resumed as of August 28, 2026, in line with a court order in Medani et al. v. Trump et al., a case filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of 664 Diversity Visa selectee families. The ruling followed the government's December 23, 2025 announcement that it was pausing all diversity visa issuances to review the programme's screening and vetting procedures. In a separate case, Ivanov v. Trump, filed in the District of Columbia by 1,622 selectees from 72 countries including Nepal, a federal judge ruled on August 25 that the pause along with a related US Citizenship and Immigration Services processing hold was unlawful, though the relief in that case was limited to the named plaintiffs and their immediate family members.
