US Green Card Lottery 2026: America Explains Why Nigeria and 18 other Countries Were Excluded
- The US Department of State excluded Nigeria and 18 other countries from the DV-2026 Green Card Lottery programme
- The US government gave a very clear reason tied to each country's immigration numbers over the past five years
- It is noteworthy that up to 55,000 diversity visas are available for DV-2026, distributed across six geographic regions worldwide
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The United States Department of State has explained why Nigeria and 18 other countries were disqualified from participating in the 2026 Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) programme, commonly known as the Green Card Lottery.
According to the department's official instructions for DV-2026, any country whose nationals sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States over the previous five years is automatically barred from the programme.
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The exclusion is built into the rules of the lottery, which was created under Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to benefit nations with historically low rates of immigration to the US.
US Green Card Lottery: List of barred countries for DV-2026
Alongside Nigeria, the other 18 countries excluded from the 2026 lottery are Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
The Department of State said the decision is not punitive. Rather, the programme was designed specifically to increase immigration diversity, meaning countries that already send large numbers of people to America do not qualify, regardless of how popular the lottery may be among their citizens.
How the DV-2026 programme works
For the 2026 fiscal year, up to 55,000 diversity visas are on offer. The department distributes these visas across six global geographic regions, and no single country can receive more than seven per cent of the total available visas in any given year.
Participation in the lottery carries no registration fee. However, applicants selected through the randomised computer drawing must pay a visa application fee before their formal interview with a consular officer, who will determine whether they meet all eligibility requirements.
The department noted that meeting the basic eligibility conditions does not guarantee a visa. Selectees must still satisfy all requirements at the interview stage before a final decision is made.
In a related story, Legit.ng reported that the US had released the full list of West African countries selected to participate in the 2026 Green Card Lottery.
US Green Card Lottery: Countries selected to participate
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the US had published the full list of countries selected to participate in the Green Card Lottery for 2026.
The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky, conducted the random selection from [20,822,624 qualified entries] submitted during the 37-day application window, which ran from October 2, 2024, to November 7, 2024.
The programme makes up to 55,000 permanent resident visas available annually, though the DV-2026 limit has been reduced to roughly 51,850 following deductions under the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) and the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2024.
Source: Legit.ng
