Diversity Visa Protection and Modernization Act

Key Points

• This bill aims to keep the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program running even if the executive branch wants to stop it. This program, often called the visa lottery, gives green cards to people from countries that do not send many immigrants to the United States.
• The government would be banned from shutting down the entire program at once. While officials could still pause visas for specific countries or regions due to security threats, they would have to tell Congress exactly why they are doing it and how long it will last.
• If the government does a general pause on all visas in this program, it can only last for 60 days. After that time, the program must start up again automatically unless Congress says otherwise.
• The bill protects people who have already been selected for a visa. It ensures they do not lose their chance to move to the U.S. just because the government decided to pause the program for a short time.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.