Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the named defendant in a new lawsuit seeking to open DV-2027 and DV-2028 diversity visa registration. Official U.S. Department of State portrait (public domain).
A Los Angeles immigration lawyer suing as a would-be entrant, not as a law firm, has asked a federal court to force open the DV-2027 and DV-2028 green card lotteries. His case is built around the gap the Ninth Circuit left open last week.
A new diversity visa lottery lawsuit asks a federal court in Los Angeles to order the State Department to open registration for both the DV-2027 and DV-2028 green card lotteries. Ivan Ivannikov, a Russian national living in Los Angeles in O-1A status, sued Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Nov. 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Newsweek reported Monday, citing court documents. The filing came three days after the Ninth Circuit froze a lower-court order that would have opened DV-2027 registration that same day.
For would-be entrants, nothing changes yet: no DV-2027 or DV-2028 registration is open, and no court has ordered one. What the new case changes is the legal question.
A plaintiff chosen for the question the appeals court raised
The Ninth Circuit’s Oct. 29 stay in Red Eagle Law v. Rubio did not defend the State Department’s decision. It turned on who had sued. The only plaintiff was a San Diego County immigration firm, and the panel held that a law firm’s interest in future clients falls outside the “zone of interests” the diversity visa statute protects, so it likely could not sue under the Administrative Procedure Act. Judge N. Randy Smith added that the firm also lacked constitutional standing. That ruling on who brought the case left open what would happen if an actual prospective entrant sued.
Ivannikov is that plaintiff. According to Newsweek, he runs his own immigration practice but sues as someone who says he qualifies for the lottery and intends to enter both programs. The complaint, as Newsweek describes it, alleges that the department is unlawfully withholding or unreasonably delaying action, acting arbitrarily and capriciously and exceeding its statutory authority, and it also invokes the Mandamus Act. He wants registration periods of at least 30 days for each program and processing of anyone later selected, and plans to seek a preliminary injunction.
“The Diversity Visa lottery has added immeasurable value to the United States,” Curtis Lee Morrison, an attorney for Ivannikov, told Newsweek. Newsweek’s report did not include a response from the State Department.
The diversity program, created by Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, makes up to 55,000 immigrant visas available each fiscal year to nationals of countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. A would-be entrant is the program’s intended beneficiary, which makes the argument that sank the law firm at the stay stage much harder for the government to repeat.
That does not make the case easy. The government is likely to argue that an individual’s injury is too speculative because selection is random. The counterargument is that the injury is the lost chance to compete at all, which does not depend on winning. The Los Angeles court may also be asked to wait for the Red Eagle appeal. On the merits, though, the plaintiff starts from favorable ground: U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta found the open-ended suspension likely arbitrary and capricious, and the Ninth Circuit panel wrote that it did “not endorse the Department’s failure to open the lottery registration period.”
Why the DV-2028 request may matter more
Time works against any DV-2027 remedy. By statute, a diversity selectee remains eligible for a visa only through the end of the fiscal year for which he or she was selected, so no DV-2027 visa can be issued after Sept. 30, 2027. Judge Ohta’s schedule had already cut the processing window to under 10 months, and every week of litigation shortens it further.
DV-2028 is different. In a normal cycle, its registration would run around now, nearly a year before that fiscal year begins. Folding it into the suit means that even if DV-2027 runs out of time, the court could still decide whether the State Department may skip a second year. Only Congress can end the program, and a House repeal bill filed in October has not moved; the question in court is whether the department can stop running it while the statute stands.
When registration opens, it will be only on the official E-DV site, dvprogram.state.gov, and entry is free; offers of early access or guaranteed selection during the freeze are not real. Selectees already in the United States in a status such as O-1 or H-1B would generally seek a green card through adjustment of status, under the same Sept. 30 deadline.
The next markers are the preliminary injunction motion and the government’s response, and the Ninth Circuit’s briefing schedule in Red Eagle. For background, see how the district court set the Nov. 1 deadline and what the Ninth Circuit stay paused.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- Newsweek, “Green Card Update: New Lawsuit Revives Diversity Visa Lottery Fight” (Nov. 2, 2026)
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Red Eagle Law, L.C. v. Rubio, No. 26-6943, order granting stay pending appeal (Oct. 29, 2026)
- 8 U.S.C. 1153(c), diversity immigrants
- 8 U.S.C. 1154(a)(1)(I), diversity visa petitions and fiscal-year eligibility
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