Two US visa processing pauses challenged in federal court have been struck down, but affected applicants are still waiting for their cases to move forward, according to an immigration lawyer who says there is a growing gap between the court rulings and what applicants are experiencing at US embassies and consulates. Jennifer Bade, an immigration attorney and owner of Bade Law Group, said in a LinkedIn post that the State Department had paused visa processing for two groups over the past year — Diversity Visa applicants and immigrant visa applicants from 75 countries.Both pauses got challenged in federal court and both got ruled out. The State Department acknowledged the ruling but there has been no movement in reality.A federal judge on August 21 struck down the 75-country immigrant visa pause, while another federal judge on August 28 ruled against the Diversity Visa pause. The State Department acknowledged the court rulings and said the two pauses were no longer in effect.“But here’s the problem: Acknowledging a court order and actually following it are two different things,” Bade said.Giving a picture of the reality, the attorney said that families with scheduled interviews found that their interviews were canceled with no explanation and no new date. Bade said when lawyers pushed back in court, the government used a loophole and said these interviews were not canceled but would be rescheduled.“Embassies weren’t telling anyone when, or if, their case would move again. It just became stale,” she said.“It took almost three more weeks for the State Department to formally instruct its embassies and consulates to resume processing. That instruction went out on September 10. Even now, most consular posts haven’t shown any real movement. A handful overseas have started processing again. For most applicants, there’s still no visa issued and no rescheduled interview,” Bade said.
Green Card lottery (Diversity visa) applicants face a particular deadline
If you’re a Diversity Visa selectee for this year, this matters even more, the attorney explained. “The law does not allow any extra time. If your visa isn’t issued by September 30, your selection expires. It cannot roll over to next year.”That means a person selected in the lottery does not simply retain the selection and carry it into the following year if the visa is not issued by the deadline.“If you or a family member has a pending immigrant visa or Diversity Visa case that was affected by either pause, now is the time to follow up directly with the consulate and document everything, every email, every response, every date,” she said.
What is Green Card lottery?
The Diversity Visa (DV) programme, commonly called the US green card lottery, is an annual US immigration programme for people from countries that have historically had relatively low levels of immigration to the US. So this program is not from people from India and China as they have higher immigration to the US.Each year, the State Department conducts a lottery among eligible applicants. Those selected can apply for immigrant visas — essentially a route to US permanent residence (green cards) — if they meet all the eligibility requirements.Congress has authorised up to 55,000 DV visas a year, although the actual number available can be lower. No single country can receive more than 7% of the available visas in a fiscal year.The State Department announced a pause in Diversity Visa issuance in December 2025. This was not a cancellation of the lottery itself. Applicants could still submit applications and attend interviews, but the State Department said no Diversity Visas would be issued during the pause. The administration said it was reviewing the programme’s screening and vetting procedures following the Brown University shooting and the killing of an MIT professor, which officials said involved an individual who had previously been admitted to the US through the DV program.
