DV Lottery 2027 registration is about to open — and most photo mistakes are made in the first hour

The DV Lottery (Diversity Visa) program has been paused since December 2025. Under a US court order, the government is now expected to announce the DV-2027 entry dates by October 29, with registration opening around November 1 for at least 30 days. The official dates will be published on dvprogram.state.gov — that is the only place to enter, and nobody else can enter for you.

We run a free photo checker for DV entries, so we see the same pattern every season: people rush in on day one, upload a photo that "looks fine", and get disqualified months later without ever knowing why. The entry itself takes ten minutes. The photo rules are where entries quietly die.

The photo rules that actually matter

• 600 × 600 pixels, JPEG, under 240 KB. Not "about square" — exactly square.
• Plain white or off-white background. No shadows on the wall, no patterned curtains, no outdoor shots.
• Head sized between 50% and 69% of the photo height, eyes looking straight at the camera.
• No glasses. This changed years ago and people still get caught by it.
• Taken within the last 6 months. An old visa photo from two years ago is a disqualification risk.
• No editing or filters. No beautify mode, no background erasers, no AI enhancement. A slightly imperfect natural photo is safer than a polished one.
• Babies and children follow the same rules — eyes open where possible, nobody else visible in the frame, no pacifier covering the face.

Three things to sort out before the window opens

1. Your passport. Reporting around this year's program points to a passport requirement and a small $1 entry fee paid to the US government on the official site. If anyone asks you to pay them the entry fee, walk away — the government collects it itself, on its own site, or not at all.
2. One entry per person. Duplicate entries disqualify everything. A husband and wife can each enter once, with the other as spouse — that is legal and doubles a family's chances the right way.
3. Your confirmation number. After you submit, you get one number. It is the only way to check your result in May. No email ever arrives. Screenshot it, write it down, send it to yourself.

Check the photo before you rely on it

We built a free DV lottery photo checker that measures the things above — exact size, file weight, format — and fixes the fixable ones in your browser. Your photo is not uploaded to a server; the check happens on your own device. There is also a registration guide with the expected dates and countdown that we will update the moment the official announcement lands.

Rushing is normal. Everyone does it on day one. Just rush with a photo that passes.