2021 Diversity Green Card Lottery Winners Face Shut Out Due To Visa Deadline

In the absence of an intervention by the court or Congress, the immigration path for tens of thousands of this year’s Diversity Green Card Lottery winners will end, a Forbes report said.

According to the report, out of 55,000 Diversity Visas (DV) allotted by the Congress in Fy-2021 , the State Department has issued less than 14,000 so far . The remaining visas will expire at the end of September 2021 and the immigration path for tens of thousands of DV-2021 winners will end consequently.

In the case of Goodluck v. Biden in the California U.S. District Court, attorneys for over 22,000 plaintiffs and family members will have a final opportunity to address their key concerns about the expiry of the rights of the lottery winners this week. A video conference before U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta has been scheduled for Monday, the report said.

In a previous Goodluck court order, Judge Mehta ordered the State Department to make expeditious good faith efforts to adjudicate DV-2021 visas.

Goodluck plaintiffs lobbied Congress to pass a law making up to 55,000 Diversity Visas available each fiscal year for persons coming from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States such as African countries, Cuba,Venezuela and Afghanistan etc.