Short answer: the DV-2028 requirements rest on two things. You must be a native of a country the government treats as low-admission, and you must have at least a high school education or qualifying work experience instead. Both tests live in the regulation and do not change from year to year.
What does change is the calendar. As of October 5, 2026, the State Department has announced no entry period for DV-2028. Registration for DV-2027 has not even opened yet. We looked at when registration might open in a separate article. This one covers who qualifies and which documents actually matter.
What you will find in this article
- The two eligibility tests in the regulation
- How the government defines a high school education
- The two-year work experience route and O*NET
- How the government decides country eligibility
- Claiming a spouse’s or a parent’s country
- Why eligibility dies with the fiscal year
Quick overview
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| How many core tests are there? | Two: where you were born, and education or work experience. |
| What is the education test? | Completion of a twelve-year course of primary and secondary school. |
| No high school diploma? | Two years in an occupation that itself needs two years of training. |
| Who judges work experience? | A consular officer, using the Labor Department’s O*NET database. |
| Is my country eligible? | No current list exists. No DV-2027 or DV-2028 instructions have appeared. |
| When does eligibility end? | Midnight on the last day of that fiscal year, September 30. |
DV-2028 requirements: what we know and what we do not
The diversity visa regulation, 22 CFR 42.33, is in force and ties eligibility to two tests. That text does not move with the program year. Each program year does get its own instructions document, which carries the entry dates, the entry website and the list of ineligible countries. The State Department’s instructions page still describes the DV-2026 program.
On timing, one official notice exists. In a November 5, 2025 update the Department said it would announce the start of DV-2027 registration as soon as practicable. The same notice confirmed that the DV-2027 visa application period stays October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. For DV-2028 there is nothing. We know the tests. The dates remain open.
The two DV-2028 requirements in the regulation
The rule packs eligibility into a single sentence. An applicant has to clear both a birth test and an education or experience test:
- Birth in a low-admission foreign state. The Secretary of Homeland Security makes that determination under INA 203(c)(1)(E), for the specific fiscal year.
- At least a high school education or its equivalent. The alternative is two years of work experience, gained within the five years before the visa application, in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience.
Both tests apply together. Strong work history cannot cure birth in a high-admission country. Education and experience, on the other hand, are alternatives. You need one of them, not both.
The regulation also treats Northern Ireland as a separate foreign state. Deciding which country a birthplace belongs to is a legal question, not a map-reading exercise.
What counts as a high school education?
The regulation defines its own term. The test is successful completion of a twelve-year course of elementary and secondary education in the United States, or successful completion abroad of a formal course of study comparable to those twelve years. A standard national secondary school diploma usually fits that description.
Two words in the definition carry the weight. “Formal” rules out short courses, vocational certificates and training that sits outside the school system. “Completion” rules out a program you started and left, whatever its length.
You do not upload a diploma when you enter. The regulation lists what the entry form collects, and that list covers a photograph and a passport scan, not a transcript. A consular officer tests your education claim later, against documents. So the deadline that matters is your interview date, not the entry date.
No diploma? The two-year work experience route
The second route runs through your work history, and it sets two separate bars. The occupation itself must require at least two years of training or experience, and you must have worked in that occupation for two years.
Applicants regularly misread where the clock starts. The regulation measures the five-year window back from the date of the visa application, not from the date of entry. A year or more can pass between the drawing and the interview, so the distinction matters.
How a consular officer reads O*NET
The regulation names the tool. Consular officers determine qualifying work experience through the Labor Department’s O*NET Online database. The officer matches the work you describe to an occupation in that database, then looks at the preparation it calls for.
Notice whose standard that is. It belongs to the occupation, not to you. Two years on the job will not help unless the occupation itself calls for two years of preparation. So describe your actual duties rather than your job title, and keep payroll records and an employer letter.
How the government decides country eligibility
The list comes out of arithmetic. The statute counts, over the most recent five fiscal years, how many immigrants each country sent to the United States in the measured categories. Any country above 50,000 counts as high-admission, and natives of those countries receive zero percent of the diversity visas.
Because the count rolls forward five years at a time, the answer changes with every program year. A country that qualified last year carries no guarantee for the next one. The Secretary of Homeland Security makes the call, and the State Department publishes the resulting list of ineligible countries in that year’s instructions.
So we will not label any country eligible or ineligible for DV-2028. No DV-2027 or DV-2028 instructions document is in force, which means no current list exists. Read the list when the instructions appear.
Not born in an eligible country? Spouse and parent options
A second door sometimes opens. The entry form asks separately for the country you claim as your country of nativity if it differs from your country of birth. That question rests on the statutory chargeability rules.
The statute allows three departures from country of birth:
- Through a spouse. If you immigrate with your spouse and the change keeps you together, you may claim your spouse’s country. The spouse must have qualified, or be able to qualify, for a visa.
- Through a parent. If you were born in a country where neither parent was born and where neither parent was a resident at the time of your birth, you may claim either parent’s country.
- Birth in the United States. A person born in the United States counts as a native of their country of citizenship.
Two cautions follow. A spousal claim depends on both people immigrating together, so a solo plan cannot use it. A parental claim needs more than the absence of a parent’s birth there; neither parent may have resided in that country when you were born. You make the claim on the entry form, and an officer examines it at the interview.
Eligibility ends with the fiscal year
Diversity visas run on a hard clock. Under the regulation, eligibility ceases at the end of the fiscal year in question, and a consular officer may under no circumstances issue a visa after that date. A selected entry expires at the same moment. The federal fiscal year closes on September 30.
In practice, a selectee’s clock does not run to the interview slot. It runs to midnight on September 30. We wrote about how that closing date turns into a hard wall during the final two weeks of DV-2026. The DV-2027 application period ends the same way, on September 30, 2027.
One more obstacle sits on top of that. In guidance dated August 31, 2026, the State Department said it had paused all visa issuance to diversity immigrant visa applicants as of August 28, 2026. Applicants may still file and still attend interviews, and the Department has not canceled appointments. It prints no diversity visa, though, and allows no exceptions.
Common mistakes
- Sending a second entry for the same fiscal year, which voids every entry and ends that year’s chance
- Treating country eligibility as settled based on an earlier year’s instructions
- Counting the five-year work window back from the entry date
- Offering a vocational certificate in place of a school diploma
- Claiming a spouse’s country and then immigrating alone
- Assuming a visa can issue after the fiscal year closes
Short checklist
- Which country does your birthplace charge to?
- Do you hold a diploma for twelve completed years of formal schooling?
- Without one, does your occupation need two years of preparation on O*NET?
- Can you document your last five years of employment?
- For a spousal or parental claim, do the statutory conditions truly fit?
- If selected, can you reach an interview inside the same fiscal year?
Frequently asked questions
Has the government published the DV-2028 requirements?
The eligibility tests already sit in the regulation in force. No instructions document for that program year has appeared yet, and that is where the entry dates and the country list live.
Do the DV-2028 requirements set an age limit?
The regulation sets no age threshold. It measures education or work experience instead. In practice the twelve-year schooling test limits very young applicants.
What documents do the DV-2028 requirements call for?
At entry, you upload only a photograph and a scan of your passport’s biographic page. Education and employment evidence comes later, at the visa stage.
Does an adult high school diploma meet the DV-2028 education rule?
The regulation looks at content, not the name of the program. It asks for successful completion of a formal course comparable to twelve years of elementary and secondary school. A consular officer makes that call, so keep the diploma and the transcript together.
Where will the list of eligible countries appear?
In the diversity visa instructions the State Department publishes for that program year. Its instructions page currently covers DV-2026, so no current list sits there either.
Conclusion: the DV-2028 requirements have not changed
The tests have not moved: birth in a low-admission country, plus either a high school education or two years of qualifying work. The open questions are the entry dates and the country list. That makes the wait a good time to gather paper. With a diploma, a transcript and clean employment records in hand, a sudden entry period costs you nothing. It is also a sensible moment to weigh the other routes to a green card that do not depend on a drawing.
To review your eligibility, a chargeability claim or a work experience file, contact Clinch Law Firm.
Legal information notice
This content is general information only. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney-client relationship, and does not guarantee any outcome. Eligibility turns on place of birth, schooling and employment records. Entry dates, country lists and visa issuance practices can change quickly. Legal information checked on: October 5, 2026.
