Ninth Circuit Stays the DV-2027 Opening Order

Facts checked at 7:27 p.m. UTC on October 30, 2026, which was 3:27 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. This is a developing story. The editorial policy explains how this site labels official records.

No. DV lottery 2027 registration is not open in the records checked this afternoon, and November 1 is not an announced opening date. The Ninth Circuit stayed the injunction that had required an announcement by October 29 and a 30-day entry period by November 1.

Yesterday’s check is in DV lottery 2027 dates not posted on deadline day. How to prepare is in When does the DV lottery 2027 open?. The earlier case history is in DV-2027 reopened by court order.

Did the Ninth Circuit stay the DV-2027 order?

Yes. A published order filed October 29, 2026 grants the stay.

The case is Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Rubio, Ninth Circuit No. 26-6943, from Southern District of California No. 3:26-cv-04738-JO-VET. Judges M. Margaret McKeown, N. Randy Smith, and Holly A. Thomas decided it. The opinion is per curiam, with a concurrence by Judge Smith. The file stamp reads “FILED OCT 29 2026.” It ends: “The emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is GRANTED. The clerk shall in due course issue a briefing schedule for the appeal of the preliminary injunction.”

The court wrote that the government “has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits” because Red Eagle is not “arguably within the zone of interests” of the Diversity Visa statute, citing 5 U.S.C. § 702. It also wrote: “We do not endorse the Department’s failure to open the lottery registration period.” The per curiam holding is that Red Eagle does not have a cause of action. Judge Smith’s concurrence adds that Red Eagle “also lacks Article III standing.” A concurrence is that judge’s separate opinion.

CourtListener’s docket, retrieved in this check, showed a header of “Oct. 30, 2026, 7:34 a.m.” The page does not label that clock’s time zone. The last known filing is October 29. Entry 17, entered at 4:18 p.m. on a line that does not label the time zone, is the published stay order. Entry 18, at 4:25 p.m., says a reconsideration motion is due within 14 days under Ninth Circuit Rule 27-10(a)(2) unless the court changes that time. No later entry was on the page. The opinions list loaded today places this case on OCT-29-2026, not among the October 30 opinions.

Did the State Department announce DV-2027 dates?

Not in the records this check could read.

A web search on October 30, 2026 still returned Changes to Entry Period for 2027 Diversity Visa (DV) Program, indexed as “Last Updated: November 5, 2025.” That text still says the start date, and the date results may appear in Entry Status Check, will be announced “as soon as practicable.” It also says selected DV-2027 applicants keep a visa period of October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027.

Direct requests to that page, the visas-news page, dvprogram.state.gov, and uscis.gov each returned HTTP 403 at 7:27 p.m. UTC. This check cannot see a page those sites refused to serve. If a notice is live and the index lags, use the visas-news URL written in the district court order.

The Federal Register API, queried then for “Diversity Visa” documents published on or after October 20, 2026, returned a count of zero. A public-inspection search for “diversity visa” also returned zero. Both queries are in the sources.

What does the stay do to the November 1 deadline?

It pauses the injunction that set November 1. It does not open registration, and it does not post dates.

Dkt. 31, filed October 21, 2026, supersedes the October 14 orders. It required a visas-news announcement by midnight EST on October 29, naming the opening date, the closing date, the entry website, and the requirements, including a Federal Register notice. Registration had to open by midnight EST on November 1 for thirty days. Selectees had to be notified by midnight EST on December 3, unless the Department asked by October 30 for more time. Processing was to continue until the allocation was exhausted or September 30, 2027. The October 29 stay pauses those duties while the appeal is pending.

What	Status in the October 30 records
Stay in No. 26-6943	Granted October 29, 2026
DV-2027 dates	Not in the records this check could read
Federal Register notice since October 20	Count zero
November 1, 2026	Deadline in the stayed order, not an announced opening
Entry form	Not open in these records

On October 21 the district court denied a stay. Dkt. 32 says “granting a stay would effectively cancel the congressionally mandated 2027 Diversity Visa Program.” The Ninth Circuit granted the stay anyway and said it does not endorse the failure to open registration. Neither document announces that the form is open, or that the program is permanently closed. The appeals court, citing 8 U.S.C. §§ 1151(e) and 1153(c), described up to 55,000 visas and a lottery choosing roughly 100,000 people to apply. That 100,000 figure cites 22 C.F.R. § 42.33(c) and a Congressional Research Service report. It is not a DV-2027 entry count, and it is not a visa.

What happens next in the appeal?

The appeal continues. Entry 2, entered October 20, sets the opening brief for November 17, 2026, the answering brief for December 15, 2026, and corporate disclosure statements for November 3. The October 29 order says a briefing schedule will issue “in due course.” This check found no later entry replacing those dates. A brief date is not an entry period. No reconsideration motion was on the retrieved docket. This article does not convert the 14-day rule into a calendar day.

PACER Monitor, retrieved at 7:27 p.m. UTC, said “Docket last updated: 12 hours ago.” The newest date listed was October 27: a minute order denying more time to answer as moot, and an “ORDER of USCA.” No contempt or compliance motion was on that page. A filing after the refresh could be missing. Dkt. 31 allowed a request by October 30 for more time to notify selectees. That request was not on the page this check read.

What should you do while registration is closed?

Wait for the government’s notice. Prepare only what does not depend on an unannounced date.

1. Do not treat November 1 as opening day. The stay pauses the order that set it. A site taking DV-2027 entries before dates are posted is not the government form.

2. Use the site the notice names. Dkt. 31 names the visas-news page. A rule effective April 10, 2026 says the Department will publish the website and the dates in the Federal Register. The DV-2026 instructions used the DS-5501 at dvprogram.state.gov. That site returned HTTP 403 today.

3. Submit one entry. Those instructions allow only one entry per person in a registration period. More than one disqualifies the entries for that person. Each eligible spouse may submit one. Read the DV-2027 notice before you file. Keep your own confirmation number. Those instructions say the Department will not email you that you were selected.

4. List every required relative, with a photo. They require a spouse, unless a court order establishes a legal separation, and every living unmarried child under 21, including adopted children and stepchildren. Do not list a spouse who is already a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Omitting an eligible spouse may make the entry ineligible. The April 10, 2026 rule still requires those photographs.

5. Pay only the government. A rule effective September 16, 2025 adds a $1 registration fee on top of the $330 Diversity Visa application fee. The October 1, 2024 instructions say there is no fee to submit an entry. The $1 rule is later. See the fee guide. Pay only on the official portal after it opens.

6. Selection would be permission to apply. Dkt. 32 says notifying winners “does not itself result in the issuance of Diversity Visas.” The indexed 2025 notice gives selected DV-2027 applicants until September 30, 2027. No selectee list was in the records checked today.

What photo file should you have ready?

DV-2027 photo instructions are unpublished. Two official texts already disagree on the head, so make a file to the last full instruction set and remeasure if the new notice chooses the other.

The October 1, 2024 instructions require a color, in-focus JPEG, 600 by 600 pixels, 240 KB or smaller, taken within six months, on a plain white or off-white background, full face, both eyes open. Chin to crown must be 50 to 69 percent of the height (1 inch to 1 3/8 inches, or 22 mm to 35 mm). No eyeglasses or headphones. A daily religious head covering is allowed only with the full face visible and no shadow. A manipulated photo, a missed specification, a photo reused from an earlier entry, or a driver’s-license copy may make the person ineligible. No other person may appear in a baby’s or toddler’s photo.

The rule effective April 10, 2026 says the head “must cover about 50% of the area of the photograph.” That is area, not 50 to 69 percent of height. It also requires a recent color JPEG on a neutral light background, facing the camera, with nothing obstructing the face. It does not restate 600 by 600 pixels or 240 KB. Scanner resolution “will be further specified in the public notice.”

The size, file size, and examples pages track the written rules. The tool on this site exports a 600 by 600 JPEG. dvlotteryphoto.com makes one such JPEG per order, background corrected and file size checked, made to those DV-2026 measurements. That is not State Department approval. It does not submit an entry. It is not the $1 fee. A finished file does not guarantee selection or a visa. If the DV-2027 notice uses the area sentence, measure again before you upload.

Which messages should you ignore?

The DV-2026 instructions say money sent to a non-government site for DV services will likely not come back, and that personal information sent there may be used for identity fraud. They say the Department will not email you that you were selected, and will not ask you to send money by mail or by Western Union for that program. They point fraud reports to econsumer.gov and the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.

A message that registration opened on November 1 because a court ordered it does not match this record. The order that set November 1 is stayed, and no opening notice was in the records checked today. A message that the program is permanently cancelled, and that you must pay to hold a place, is not the stay order either. A payment for a photograph is a payment for a photograph. It is not an entry, and it is not selection.

This is general information from public records.

What this check could not confirm

The live HTML of travel.state.gov, dvprogram.state.gov, and uscis.gov, each of which returned HTTP 403. Any district filing after PACER Monitor’s “12 hours ago” refresh. Any reconsideration motion filed after the CourtListener page header. The calendar day that falls 14 days after the October 29 entry. Which head measurement a future DV-2027 notice will use.

Questions

Did the Ninth Circuit stay the DV-2027 order?

Yes. On October 29, 2026, in No. 26-6943, the court granted the government’s emergency motion for a stay pending appeal. The published order says the stay is granted and that the clerk shall issue a briefing schedule in due course.

Is DV lottery 2027 registration open?

Not in the records checked at 7:27 p.m. UTC on October 30, 2026. The Federal Register API returned no Diversity Visa document published on or after October 20, 2026. A direct request to travel.state.gov returned HTTP 403. A web search still showed the November 5, 2025 notice, which has no entry dates.

Does the stay cancel the Diversity Visa program?

The published order does not say that. It pauses the preliminary injunction while the appeal goes on, and it says the court does not endorse the Department’s failure to open registration. It is not a final judgment, and it does not post entry dates.

When are the next dates on the appeal?

An October 20 schedule notice sets the opening brief for November 17, 2026, and the answering brief for December 15, 2026. The October 29 order says the clerk shall issue a briefing schedule in due course. A text-only notice says a reconsideration motion is due within 14 days after entry of the stay order. This check found no later schedule that changes those dates.

What DV photo should I prepare?

DV-2027 photo instructions are unpublished. The October 1, 2024 DV-2026 instructions require a color JPEG of 600 by 600 pixels, 240 KB or smaller, taken within six months, with the head at 50 to 69 percent of the height and no eyeglasses. A rule effective April 10, 2026 says the head must cover about 50 percent of the area of the photograph. Use the DV-2027 notice if it chooses one set of numbers.

What does DV registration cost?

A rule effective September 16, 2025 adds a $1 Diversity Visa lottery registration fee, in addition to the $330 Diversity Visa application fee. The October 1, 2024 DV-2026 instructions say there is no fee charged to submit an electronic entry. The $1 rule is later. Pay only on the official site after it opens.

Sources

Checked October 30, 2026, at 7:27 p.m. UTC, unless the line gives a different time.

1. Ninth Circuit order, No. 26-6943, filed October 29, 2026. https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2026/10/29/26-6943.pdf
2. Ninth Circuit opinions list, loaded October 30, 2026, showing No. 26-6943 on OCT-29-2026. https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/decisions/opinions/
3. CourtListener docket No. 26-6943. Page header “Oct. 30, 2026, 7:34 a.m.” Last known filing October 29, 2026. Entries 2, 17, and 18. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74994271/red-eagle-law-lc-v-rubio/
4. Amended injunction, Dkt. 31, filed October 21, 2026. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.casd.867598/gov.uscourts.casd.867598.31.0.pdf
5. Order denying a stay, Dkt. 32, filed October 21, 2026. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.casd.867598/gov.uscourts.casd.867598.32.0.pdf
6. PACER Monitor public docket for No. 3:26-cv-04738, retrieved at 7:27 p.m. UTC. “Docket last updated: 12 hours ago.” Newest listed date October 27, 2026. https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/66332735/Red_Eagle_Law,_LC_v_Rubio
7. Indexed State Department notice, last updated November 5, 2025, as a web search returned it on October 30, 2026. Direct request: HTTP 403 at 7:27 p.m. UTC. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/changes-to-2027-dv-program-entry-period.html
8. Federal Register API, “Diversity Visa” published on or after October 20, 2026, count zero, queried at 7:27 p.m. UTC. https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json?conditions%5Bterm%5D=%22Diversity%20Visa%22&conditions%5Bpublication_date%5D%5Bgte%5D=2026-10-20
9. Federal Register public-inspection API, “diversity visa,” count zero, same time. https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/public-inspection-documents.json?conditions%5Bterm%5D=%22diversity%20visa%22
10. Fee rule, effective September 16, 2025, document 2025-17851. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/09/16/2025-17851/schedule-of-fees-for-consular-services-department-of-state-and-overseas-embassies-and
11. DV-2026 instructions, Federal Register, October 1, 2024, document 2024-22482. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/10/01/2024-22482/diversity-visa-instructions-for-dv-2026
12. DV photograph and passport rule, effective April 10, 2026, document 2026-04737. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/03/11/2026-04737/visas-enhancing-vetting-and-combatting-fraud-in-the-diversity-immigrant-visa-program

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.