The title says it all really – the entry period for this years lottery has been extended by 2 days. It is now 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) on November 7, 2024 – which is 2 days later than originally planned.

So that’s it – the entry period is a little later, and this will hopefully spread out the last minute rush of entries we see each year.

Now, there is a little confusion about why the entry period is extended.


On the one hand they seem to be saying it was a mistake in the announcement and it was always supposed to be ending on November 7th – as shown at this notice.


https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/correction-of-diversity-visa-2026-federal-register-notice.html

Whilst on X they announce it as an extension of the entry period, without referring to the Federal Register error.


So – was it extended (perhaps because of the outages we have experienced), or was the original announcement wrong – I don’t know for sure, but it looks like the dates were simply announced wrong to me.

You have to love the US government. They have a way of making the simple things look hard.