Court orders USCIS to resume diversity visa decisions it had put on hold
A federal judge in California has temporarily vacated the policy behind the DV Hold, and USCIS says it will comply while disagreeing — a change that matters to FY-2026 diversity visa selectees running out of fiscal year.
By Eyob Hadgu · 5 September 2026
The Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse in San Francisco, home of the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Photo: Sam Wheeler / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
US Citizenship and Immigration Services has been ordered by a federal court to resume ordinary processing of diversity visa adjustment-of-status applications it had been holding under a policy memorandum, according to an alert the agency published on 4 September.
The order was issued on 28 August 2026 by the US District Court for the Northern District of California in Medani, et al., v. Trump, et al., case number 26-cv-6332. It temporarily vacates Policy Memorandum PM-602-0193 pending further litigation.
What the policy did
USCIS describes PM-602-0193 as a measure to "ensure that all aliens applying for adjustment of status under the DV Program in the United States do not pose a threat to national security or public safety." In practice it produced what the agency and the court both call the DV Hold — a pause on adjudicating affected applications.
The court certified a subclass covering "all selectees and derivative beneficiaries under the FY-2026 Diversity Visa Program who are subject to the USCIS DV Hold imposed by Policy Memorandum PM-602-0193."
What USCIS has been told to do
Under the order, USCIS is required "to the extent practicable and in good faith, to take all reasonable steps during the remainder of the Diversity Visa fiscal year to resume ordinary adjudication of plaintiffs' pending adjustment of status applications without applying" the memorandum.
USCIS said it "strongly disagrees with the Court's order but will follow its terms pending possible further judicial review."
The deadline built into the order is the end of the FY-2026 diversity visa fiscal year. That is the hard edge of this story: diversity visa numbers do not carry over between fiscal years, so a selectee whose case is not decided in time can lose the selection outright regardless of the merits.
Why this matters for Eritreans
Eritrea is among the countries whose nationals are eligible for the diversity visa lottery, and the programme has long been one of the few routes to permanent US residence that does not require a family or employment sponsor. Anyone selected in the FY-2026 draw whose adjustment application has been sitting without a decision is potentially inside the class the court described.
This report draws on the alert published by USCIS. Readers with a pending case should check their own status with USCIS or an accredited immigration lawyer rather than relying on a news summary — this piece is not legal advice.
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