November 2025 Visa Bulletin

[Xarthisius]

C. THE DIVERSITY IMMIGRANT (DV) CATEGORY RANK CUT-OFFS WHICH WILL APPLY IN DECEMBER
For December, immigrant numbers in the DV category are available to qualified DV-2026 applicants chargeable to all regions/eligible countries as follows. When an allocation cut-off number is shown, visas are available only for applicants with DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number:

Region	All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately
AFRICA	17,500	Except: Algeria 17,250 Egypt 16,000
ASIA	10,000	Except: Nepal 6,000
EUROPE	7,750
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS)	20
OCEANIA	1,100
SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN	1,850

No changes, except for Algeria. Other notable things:
1. E. DIVERSITY VISA LOTTERY 2026 (DV-2026) RESULTS \o/
2. "Dates for the DV-2027 program registration period will be widely publicized in the coming months. Those interested in entering the DV-2027 program should check the Department of State’s Diversity Visa web page in the coming months."

 

[Britsimon]

Note a couple more points.

CUBAN selectees reportedly had no selectees.
UK selectees 1303.

Both of this are corrected because of my lawsuit, and this was clearly why they delayed the announcement of the dv2026 results.

The 1303 selectee number is ridiculous, and is around 4 times what it should be, which is also evidenced by the UK case numbers up to nearly 200k.

 

[query_111]

Hello,
November visa bulletin announced that the annual visas allocated for dv 2026 has been reduced to 51,850 instead of 55,000. Does anyone have an understanding on how regions are affected ? I'm 21k from europe presently in the US

 

[Britsimon]

Hello,
November visa bulletin announced that the annual visas allocated for dv 2026 has been reduced to 51,850 instead of 55,000. Does anyone have an understanding on how regions are affected ? I'm 21k from europe presently in the US

The quota for each region is calculated as a percentage of the available visas, so each region has slightly less visas available because of the reduction to 51850. However, there is a part of the law that allows unused visas from a region being distributed to other regions, and the travel bans affect a large number of the selectees, mainly in AS and AF regions.

However, your number is probably a good low number, and you won't have a problem in going current anyway.

 

[SusieQQQ]

The quota for each region is calculated as a percentage of the available visas, so each region has slightly less visas available because of the reduction to 51850. However, there is a part of the law that allows unused visas from a region being distributed to other regions, and the travel bans affect a large number of the selectees, mainly in AS and AF regions.

However, your number is probably a good low number, and you won't have a problem in going current anyway.

@Britsimon , in the past we have sometimes seen DV issuance go above the “stated” number when that number is below 55k. Do you think that’s possible this year? I’m not too clear on the specifics of the defense program they are setting aside the extra visas for.

 

[query_111]

The quota for each region is calculated as a percentage of the available visas, so each region has slightly less visas available because of the reduction to 51850. However, there is a part of the law that allows unused visas from a region being distributed to other regions, and the travel bans affect a large number of the selectees, mainly in AS and AF regions.

However, your number is probably a good low number, and you won't have a problem in going current anyway.

Thank you @Britsimon for the insight !

 

[Britsimon]

@Britsimon , in the past we have sometimes seen DV issuance go above the “stated” number when that number is below 55k. Do you think that’s possible this year? I’m not too clear on the specifics of the defense program they are setting aside the extra visas for.

Well yes - if they can exceed the 55K with apparent impunity, then they can certainly do the same above the reduced number.

However, I don't tghink that is likely. If the travel ban were to stay in place until July, that would mean we would be unlikely to see the over issuance problem, because that would require setting up far more interviews than they would want to arrange. That would leave them in a mess if the administration suddenly removed the travel ban with lots of people then showing up for interviews and no visas to give them.

Ideally we would want the government to use the capacity early, getting EU, SA and OC near to their quotas by July, so that August and September could become redistribution months. BUT, that is super optimistic to think they will do something as smart as that, and most likely we will see visas going to waste again...