US Green Card Lottery Could Face Delays Despite Court Order, Lawyer Says

The US government cannot ignore a court ruling on the green card lottery, but it does have ways to slow the process down.

Court Orders Lottery to Proceed

The US administration has no legal right to brush aside a court decision on the green card lottery. But it can still stretch out the timeline, American lawyer Elizaveta Kryukova explained.

A federal court ruled last week that US authorities must carry out the draw for 55,000 green cards. The State Department was ordered to publish full program details by October 29. Registration for applicants is set to open on November 1. The government had earlier paused the lottery following a shooting involving a Portuguese national who had entered the country through the same program.

What The Lawyer

“The administration has no legal right to simply ignore an active court order. However, it can appeal it, ask for enforcement to be paused, or request a change in deadlines,” Kryukova said.

According to the lawyer, a more realistic outcome is that the program gets launched on paper. Meanwhile, the actual visa process could grind to a near standstill. She pointed to several tools that could cause this slowdown, including internal agency instructions, limits on interview slots, extra background checks, and pauses for staff retraining.

A Familiar Pattern From Earlier This Year

Kryukova noted that a similar situation played out in August 2026. A court had ordered the removal of procedural obstacles blocking the review of immigration petitions, including those filed by lottery winners.

“After the court’s ruling, the State Department delayed sending instructions to consulates, saying it needed time to prepare clarifications. Then the slow handling of cases was blamed on mandatory staff training on public charge rules, which assess how likely an applicant is to depend on government assistance,” Kryukova said.

The court later acknowledged that these delays created serious obstacles to enforcing its own ruling, the lawyer added. Still, she stressed that nothing really changed on a broader level.

Why The Lottery Was Paused In The First Place

The US administration froze the green card lottery after a shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island. The attacker was a Portuguese native who had moved to America through this very program. Officials cited national security concerns and the need for a full review of selection procedures as the formal reasons for the freeze.

Winning the lottery does not guarantee a green card automatically. Selected applicants only gain the chance to apply for an immigrant visa. That opportunity falls within an annual quota of roughly 55,000 visas.