India will continue to be excluded from the U.S. Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery, commonly called the “green card lottery” for at least the next several years, likely through 2029. The country remains ineligible because the number of Indian nationals immigrating to the United States each year far exceeds the program’s limits.
Meanwhile, ongoing backlogs in H-1B and employment-based (EB) green card categories have made the path to permanent residency even more challenging for skilled Indian professionals already living and working in the U.S.
The U.S. Diversity Visa (DV) program or the green card lottery is designed to encourage immigration from countries with low migration rates to the United States, specifically those that have sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants over the previous five years.
India far surpasses that threshold, sending more than 60,000 immigrants to the U.S. each year. As a result, it remains automatically ineligible for the program, a status that is unlikely to change before 2029.
In 2022, more than 127,000 people from India immigrated to the United States, surpassing the total number of newcomers from entire continents such as South America, Africa, and Europe.
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According to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), this high volume of migration means India will continue to be excluded from the Diversity Visa lottery for at least the next three cycles — 2027, 2028, and 2029.
Along with India, countries such as China, South Korea, Canada, and Pakistan will also remain ineligible for the upcoming DV-2026 lottery because they exceed the annual immigration threshold. For nations that do qualify, the U.S. government released the latest visa allocation details on Wednesday.
With the lottery option off the table, Indian nationals seeking permanent residency in the U.S. have only a few alternatives. Most pursue a green card by transitioning from an H-1B work visa, applying through family sponsorship, investing under immigration programs, or seeking asylum. However, each of these routes has become increasingly competitive and restricted in recent years.
“The government itself seems unsure about future H-1B rules,” said Rajeshwar Rao, who runs an immigration consultancy in Hyderabad, India. “Officials claim the final policy will be out in February 2026, but there’s no clarity. This confusion has left both applicants and employers anxious.”
For Indian professionals, the employment-based (EB) visa route remains the main pathway to a U.S. green card, but it is also the most severely backlogged. These visas are divided into categories such as EB-1 for individuals with extraordinary ability, EB-2 for those with advanced degrees, EB-3 for skilled workers, EB-4 for certain religious or government employees, and EB-5 for investors.
Currently, Indian applicants under the EB-2 and EB-3 categories face wait times stretching over a decade, with priority dates stuck at December 2013 and August 2014. This delay means many skilled Indian workers in the U.S. face years, sometimes even decades before their green card applications can move forward, affecting families and long-term career stability.
The asylum pathway offers little hope for Indian applicants as well. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data, nearly 1.45 million asylum cases were still pending as of December 2024, creating a massive backlog that leaves applicants waiting years for their cases to be heard.
With most immigration routes slowing down and the Diversity Visa lottery out of reach for several more years, millions of Indian professionals and students in the U.S. are now caught in uncertainty. Many continue to build their lives and careers on temporary visas, unsure when or if they will be able to secure permanent residency in the country, they now call home.