US District Judge Edward Davila on Wednesday, 1 October 2026 ordered the State Department to continue processing specified diversity-visa applications for 10 days beyond the fiscal-year deadline, finding that the department had failed to substantially comply with an earlier court order. The ruling, issued from California, grants part of an emergency request filed by affected applicants.

What the Order Requires

The court directed the State Department to make reasonable, good-faith efforts to reconsider applications refused solely under two suspended visa policies — identified in earlier proceedings as the department's diversity-visa pause and its 75-country pause — and to resume ordinary processing of pending applications. Critically, the order does not guarantee any applicant a visa. Judge Davila also rejected a broader request to reserve approximately 40,000 unused diversity visas for issuance beyond the fiscal year.

The Court's Finding on Non-Compliance

Judge Davila was pointed in his criticism of the department's conduct. 'The Court finds DOS's compliance with the PI has been less than substantial, and its lack of diligence from the time it received the Court's order to the time it implemented the order is of exceptional significance,' he wrote in Wednesday's ruling. The preliminary injunction at issue had originally been issued on 28 August, directing the department to reconsider affected applications and resume processing during the remaining weeks of the fiscal year.

According to the ruling, the department attributed its initial delay to preparing guidance for diplomatic and consular posts. Judge Davila found this explanation insufficient, saying the department should have sought a temporary stay, requested other relief, or at minimum informed the court of the delay. Instead, it waited until applicants raised the issue of noncompliance before sending instructions to overseas posts.

Processing Numbers Tell the Story

The pace of adjudications underscored the compliance gap. Between 10 September and 21 September, the department processed approximately 83 diversity visas per day worldwide — compared with roughly 230 per day during the same period in 2025. The department attributed the slower pace to mandatory training on public-charge inadmissibility rules; posts that had not completed the training were generally barred from resuming immigrant-visa processing, subject to limited exceptions. Judge Davila noted that the department had again failed to promptly inform the court how this training requirement was affecting compliance.

Processing did accelerate after a 21 September hearing. By 28 September, the department had processed 3,814 visas in total, averaging approximately 272 per day over the period covered by the court's calculation — a marked improvement, though still below its own historical baseline.

Background and Broader Impact

The diversity-visa programme, which allocates up to 55,000 immigrant visas annually through a lottery open to nationals from countries with historically low immigration rates to the United States, operates on a strict fiscal-year timetable. Unused visas lapse at year-end and cannot be carried over. The two paused policies — the diversity-visa pause and the 75-country pause — had effectively blocked applications from a wide range of nationalities, triggering the original legal challenge. This is the latest in a series of court interventions over immigration policy enforcement in the current US political climate, with federal judges increasingly scrutinising agency compliance with their own orders.

The 10-day extension provides a narrow window for eligible applicants to have their cases reconsidered, but with the court declining to reserve the 40,000 unused visas, the practical ceiling on relief remains tight. How swiftly the department acts in this final window will likely determine whether further legal action follows.