The DV-2028 Lottery for Pakistanis: New Passport Rule, New Fee, No Opening Date Yet

Every autumn, the same forwards start circulating: "DV lottery open, contact urgently." Autumn 2026 broke the pattern in a way every Pakistani applicant needs to understand before paying anyone anything. The DV-2027 entry period was deferred in November 2025 and has not opened. The rules that will govern the next window have already changed — a passport is now mandatory, and entry now costs money. And the agents selling "guaranteed entries" are exactly as fraudulent as they have always been. Here is the verified file.

What Has Actually Changed

A final rule published in the Federal Register on 11 March 2026 (91 FR 11891, effective 10 April 2026) rewrote the entry requirements:

• A valid, unexpired passport is now required. You must provide its details and upload a scan of the biographic and signature page with your entry
• Narrow exemptions only: stateless entrants; nationals of communist-controlled countries who cannot obtain a passport; and entrants covered by an individually approved waiver
• A $1 fee per entry, no waivers — the State Department's own older pages still describe registration as free, but the rule is the newer, governing text
• The department said the deferral was partly meant to give applicants time to obtain passports

If your passport is expired or missing, the passport validity and renewal guide is now the prerequisite file.

The Deferral, Plainly

In November 2025 the State Department deferred the DV-2027 entry period, and as of mid-October 2026 no opening date has been announced — no DV-2027 or DV-2028 instructions have been published in the Federal Register. When a window does open, the regulation (22 CFR 42.33) requires it to run at least 30 days, and there is no advantage to being first: selection is a randomized drawing, not a queue. Pakistan has long been on the eligible list, but the definitive country list ships with each year's instructions — check it when the window is actually announced, never before.

If You Were Already Selected

A separate thread matters to DV-2027 selectees. In December 2025 the department paused diversity-visa issuance after the shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor, suspected to have been committed by someone admitted through the program. That pause no longer has force as of 28 August 2026, per the court's order in Medani et al. v. Trump et al.. Selectees' visa application year runs 1 October 2026 through 30 September 2027. The wider immigrant-visa picture for Pakistanis — including the 75-country review pause from January 2026 — is covered in our US immigrant visa guide.

The Fraud File

This section will save someone 15,000 dollars. The March 2026 rule describes a fraud ring that entered victims' names without their knowledge, then demanded up to $15,000 for the confirmation number — which only ever exists on the official site. The standing rules have not changed:

• Entry is only at dvprogram.state.gov — every other "DV registration site" is a copycat
• Entrant Status Check on that site is the sole status source — the US government will not email or call selected entrants
• One entry per person. Duplicate entries disqualify
• No service on earth can improve your odds. Any agent selling "guaranteed selection" or "priority entry" is committing fraud, openly

The general red-flags file is in our fake travel agency guide — DV season is its harvest festival.

The Photo Rules That Disqualify Thousands

The digital photo is where legitimate entries die: 600×600 pixels, square JPEG, 240 kB or less, the head at 50–69 percent of image height, eyes at 56–69 percent from the bottom, plain white or off-white background, no glasses. The photo must be taken within six months of entry, must never be reused from a prior year, and any manipulation — smoothing, cropping tricks, AI touch-ups — means disqualification. Studios that know the DV specification exist in every major city; a smartphone snap against a wall does not qualify.

What a Desk Can Honestly Do

HTG Travel (htg.com.pk) will tell you what a lottery desk can and cannot be: it cannot improve your odds, file before the window opens, or guarantee selection — anyone claiming otherwise is selling you air. What it can do is keep the supporting file real: passport validity handled before it becomes the reason an entry is rejected, photo specifications checked against the rule rather than eyeballed, every "agent offer" stress-tested against the fraud patterns above, and — if selection comes — the DS-260 stage sequenced with the same care. Honesty that costs us a sale is still the house standard; reach the desk at +92 317 5054959 and you will get the boring, correct answer.

Quick Takeaway

• The next DV entry window has no announced date; the last one was deferred in November 2025
• From April 2026: valid passport required and a $1 entry fee — the free-entry era is over
• The December 2025 issuance pause was lifted 28 August 2026 by court order; DV-2027 selectees file through 30 September 2027
• Enter only at dvprogram.state.gov, once, with a compliant photo — and pay no one who promises odds
• Treat every "guaranteed DV entry" message as the scam it is

Before You Go

America runs a lottery that hands a few thousand lucky files a new beginning while Israel bombs Palestinian streets daily on a calculation no lottery governs — every family a loser, every draw rigged by firepower. Ya Allah, let Palestine's people win back their mornings, their harvests and their dead's dignity. And Sudan's young men gamble their lives on escape routes where the RSF has priced every exit in hunger and fear. Ya Rabb, make Sudan's next turning a safe one — home, whole, and free of checkpoints.

Want your passport and photo files checked before the next window? Message +92 317 5054959 on WhatsApp or visit htg.com.pk.

Written by Huzi — travel blogger at huzi.pk. Naseeb apni jagah — lekin file har hafte check karna zaroori hai. More guides await you at huzi.pk.

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Related Guides on Huzi

• US Immigrant Visa Pause: The Pakistan File
• Fake Travel Agencies in Pakistan: The Red Flags
• Passport Validity, Renewal and the Six-Month Rule

Planning next? HTG Travel answers at +92 317 5054959 or htg.com.pk — with local support while you travel, email [email protected].