Why are Some Latin American Countries Ineligible for the 2026 Green Card Lottery?

On Tuesday, the United States kicked off applications for the 2026 Diversity Visa (DV) Program, also known as the Green Card Lottery. In all, up to 55,000 foreign nationals have the chance to apply for permanent residency if they have a high school education or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation requiring a minimum of two years of experience or training.

However, the announcement has was one important caveat: it is designed to benefit individuals from countries with historically low immigration rates to the U.S. Specifically, countries which have had more than 50,000 immigrants move to the U.S. in the past five years are currently ineligible to take part in the process.

Several Latin American countries fall into this category, led by Mexico, hands down the top country of birth for U.S. immigrants. According to Pew Research, in 2022 alone, which is the last year were complete data is currently available, around 150 thousand people arrived from neighboring country, close to 5 thousand more than second-place India. Brazil also reached the threshold just taking into account 2022, as it had about 50,000 to 60,000 new immigrant arrivals.

Venezuela and Cuba, along with Nicaragua and Haiti, all benefited from the CHNV Humanitarian Parole Program which allows migrants from all four countries to receive work permits and a two-year authorization to live in the U.S., granted they count on a U.S. sponsor and pass biometrical and biographical vetting.

The program, according to the National Foundation for American Policy, has benefited 528,000 individuals (110,000 Cubans; 210,000 Haitians; 92,000 Nicaraguans and 116,000 Venezuelans, ruling all four out of the Green Card Lottery.

The Family Reunification Parole Processes is another program launched by the Biden administration which, besides also benefiting Haitians and Cubans, is targeted at Colombians, Ecuadorians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans. Of that list, only Ecuadorians and Guatemalans are still under the 50,000 threshold necessary for Green Card Lottery eligibility.

The only other Latin American country on the list is Dominican Republic, which composes the fourth-largest Latino immigrant group after Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Cubans. Dominican population has 46% since 2010, as compared to 16 percent for all immigrants.