No. A hearing on December 11, 2026 does not let you enter the DV lottery. The court set that time so lawyers can talk about a request to open DV-2027 registration. The State Department has not posted a start date, and the entry form is still closed.
A hearing is a meeting on a calendar. It is the conversation. You still cannot submit a DV-2027 entry.
What the lawsuit asked for, before this date was set, is in Does the new lawsuit open the DV lottery?. The older pause is in A court paused the order to open the DV lottery 2027. A photo you can prepare while you wait is in How to make a DV lottery photo while you wait.
What does the December 11 hearing mean for me?
You wait for a State Department notice with a start time, an end time, and a website. That notice is not up.
Think of a locked shop. A customer has asked a judge to order the owner to unlock the door. The judge wrote a meeting time: December 11, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. The meeting is the conversation. A later court order, and then a public notice, would be the key. You do not have either one.
Do not pay anyone who says December 11 lets them enter you early or put your name on a court list. A hearing is not a signup sheet. When an entry period exists, you use the site named in the official notice. In recent years that site was dvprogram.state.gov.
What did the court change on November 3?
On November 1, 2026, Ivan Ivannikov sued the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in federal court in Los Angeles. The case number is 2:26-cv-12783. The court is the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
On November 2, he filed a motion for a preliminary injunction: a request to open and conduct FY-2027 registration. FY-2027 means fiscal year 2027, the DV-2027 visa year. The public case list set that hearing for November 30, 2026, at 1:30 p.m., before Judge Dale S. Fischer. Later that day the court moved the case at random to Judge André Birotte Jr., and the case number became 2:26-cv-12783-AB-Ex. A random move changes the judge. It does not decide who wins.
On November 3, Judge Birotte reset the hearing to December 11, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. His procedures page says he hears civil matters on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. December 11 is a Friday. The note does not name a time zone. The courthouse is in Los Angeles, and there is no separate PDF of the note. The note does not grant the request.
| Date | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| November 2, 2026 | A request to open FY-2027 registration is set for November 30, at 1:30 p.m. That time was later moved. |
| November 2, 2026 | The case moves to Judge André Birotte Jr. The move is an assignment change. |
| November 3, 2026 | The hearing moves to December 11, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. You still cannot enter. |
| December 11, 2026 | The lawyers’ hearing. You cannot enter that day unless dates are posted before then. They are not. |
| September 30, 2027 | The end of the visa period named for people selected for DV-2027. It is not an entry day. |
What is a hearing?
A hearing is a set time when the lawyers speak to the judge about one request. It is like a doctor’s appointment. The time on the card is when you talk. The card is not the medicine.
The person who sued can ask for a fast, temporary order to open registration. The government can argue against it. The judge can agree, refuse, or decide later. The November 3 note only sets the time. If the date moves, the new time will be another court note, and it will still be a meeting for lawyers.
What is a preliminary injunction?
A preliminary injunction is a fast, temporary court order, asked for before the full case is finished. Picture a referee asked to restart a game while the replay is still being checked. The paper filed on November 2 asks for that kind of order. The court has not signed an order that grants it.
“Preliminary” means early. Even a yes at the hearing would be temporary, and you would still need a public notice that names the website, the exact start, and the exact end. The court record sets a conversation. It does not set an entry hour.
Does this hearing lift the October 29 pause?
This hearing is a different case. It does not, by itself, lift the pause from October 29.
On October 29, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit paused an order that would have required DV-2027 registration to open. That pause is called a stay pending appeal. A stay means the earlier order does not have to be followed while the appeal goes on. The lower court’s schedule is frozen.
The published order says, “We do not endorse the Department’s failure to open the lottery registration period.” The court still granted the pause. It said the law firm that brought that case was likely outside the group the diversity visa law protects. That law is meant to give visas to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The firm’s interest was its business.
The December 11 hearing is the case a person filed on November 1. Whether a person, rather than a law firm, changes the result is not decided. The hearing date does not post an entry date.
Has the State Department posted dates?
The notice last updated November 5, 2025 says the Department will announce the DV-2027 start date “as soon as practicable,” and when results may appear in Entrant Status Check. “As soon as practicable” means “as soon as the Department can do it.” It is not a calendar day.
That notice says people selected for DV-2027 have from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, to apply for the visa. There are still no selectees, because there was no entry period. Being inside that year does not unlock the form.
A rule effective April 10, 2026 says the Department sets an entry period of at least 30 days and gives notice of the website and the exact dates in the Federal Register. The Federal Register is the government’s public journal. The March 11, 2026 rule sets passport and photo details. It does not name a start date.
The November 2026 Visa Bulletin has no Diversity Visa chart, because no one has a DV-2027 case number yet. A hearing does not create those numbers.
What should you do now?
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Leave December 11 on the court calendar. You cannot submit a DV-2027 entry that day unless a posted period includes it. No period is posted.
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Do not pay for an early entry. A private site taking entries before dates are posted is not the government form.
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Ignore a message that says you won. There is no DV-2027 selection, because there has been no entry. The DV-2026 instructions say the U.S. government has never emailed people to say they were selected. A real result appears later in Entrant Status Check, and only with the confirmation number from your own entry. Write that number down and keep it.
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Plan for one entry, after the notice is posted. The 2026 rule says more than one petition for the same person in the same year makes all of them void. DV-2027 instructions with dates are not published. The last full set was for DV-2026. Read the new notice before you file.
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Pay the government only, on the official site, after it opens. The 2024 instructions said the online entry had no fee. A rule effective September 16, 2025 adds a $1 registration fee, taken when you register, in addition to the $330 Diversity Visa application fee. The $330 is the later application fee. It is not money you send to a stranger to “release” a win.
What photo can I prepare?
You can make the file now. You cannot upload it until the form opens. A dated DV-2027 instruction set, with the entry dates, is not published.
The rule effective April 10, 2026 says each photo is a color JPEG, taken no more than six months before you submit. You face the camera. The background is a neutral, light color. You do not wear eyeglasses. The head covers about 50 percent of the area of the photo, and the face is in focus. You need a photo of yourself, of a spouse you must list, and of each unmarried child under 21 you must list.
The DV-2026 instructions say failure to list an eligible spouse makes you ineligible. List every living unmarried child under 21, including a stepchild or an adopted child, even if that child will not immigrate with you. You do not have to list a spouse or child who is already a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident.
Those 2024 instructions also say the file is exactly 600 by 600 pixels and 240 KB or smaller, with the head at 50 to 69 percent of the image height from the chin to the top of the head. Use that file size until a DV-2027 notice says otherwise. If six months pass, take a new photo. The same photo from an earlier year can make you ineligible.
The size, file size, and examples pages follow the written rules. The tool on this site exports a 600 by 600 JPEG. dvlotteryphoto.com makes one such JPEG per order, with the background corrected and the file size checked, made to those DV-2026 measurements. Order one file per person who must be listed. That is not State Department approval. It does not submit an entry. It is not the $1 fee. A finished photo does not guarantee selection or a visa.
This is general information from public notices, a regulation, and court records. It is not legal advice. How this site labels records is on the editorial policy.
Questions
Does the December 11 hearing open the DV lottery?
No. On November 3, 2026, a federal judge in Los Angeles set a hearing for December 11, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. The hearing is about a request to open DV-2027 registration. The court has not granted that request. The State Department has not posted an entry date.
What time is the December 11 hearing?
The court note sets it for December 11, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. December 11, 2026 is a Friday. The note does not name a time zone. The courthouse is in Los Angeles, and the judge’s procedures say civil matters are heard on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. The time is for the lawyers. It is not an entry deadline.
What is a preliminary injunction?
It is a fast, temporary court order, asked for before the full case is finished. A paper asking for one was filed on November 2, 2026. The court has not issued an order granting it. Registration is not open.
Did the judge already order the DV lottery to open?
No. The November 3 note only moved the hearing from November 30, 2026, to December 11, 2026. It does not tell the State Department to take entries. An earlier order that would have required an opening was paused by an appeals court on October 29, 2026.
Will the government email me if I am selected?
There is no DV-2027 selection, because there has been no entry period. The DV-2026 instructions say the U.S. government has never emailed people to say they were selected, and that it had no plans to use email for that purpose for DV-2026. A message that says you won and asks for money is not a government result.
Does a finished photo let me enter before the hearing?
No. A photo made to the written DV measurements is a file for a later entry. It is not approved by the State Department. It does not submit an entry, it is not the $1 fee, and it does not guarantee selection or a visa.
Sources
- PACER Monitor, public case list for Ivan Ivannikov v. Marco Rubio, No. 2:26-cv-12783 (C.D. Cal.): complaint filed November 1, 2026; motion for a preliminary injunction and reassignment order on November 2, 2026; text-only scheduling notice on November 3, 2026, resetting the hearing to December 11, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/67681130/Ivan_Ivannikov_v_Marco_Rubio
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, procedures of Judge André Birotte Jr.: civil matters are heard on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. https://apps.cacd.uscourts.gov/Jps/honorable-andr%C3%A9-birotte-jr
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, order granting a stay pending appeal, No. 26-6943, October 29, 2026. https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/10/29/26-6943.pdf
- U.S. Department of State, “Changes to Entry Period for 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) Program,” last updated November 5, 2025. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/changes-to-2027-dv-program-entry-period.html
- Visas: Enhancing Vetting and Combatting Fraud in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, Federal Register, March 11, 2026, effective April 10, 2026. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/03/11/2026-04737/visas-enhancing-vetting-and-combatting-fraud-in-the-diversity-immigrant-visa-program
- Diversity Visa instructions for DV-2026, Federal Register, October 1, 2024. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/10/01/2024-22482/diversity-visa-instructions-for-dv-2026
- Schedule of fees for consular services, final rule effective September 16, 2025. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/09/16/2025-17851/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and
DV Lottery Guide is an independent, unofficial guide and is not affiliated with the U.S. government. A photo made to the written DV requirements is not approved by the State Department. Entering the lottery does not guarantee selection or a visa.