The September 30 deadline did not end the 2026 Diversity Visa lottery after all. Late on the last day of the fiscal year, U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila of the Northern District of California ordered the State Department to keep adjudicating DV-2026 cases for ten additional days past the end of FY2026. The order came in Medani v. Trump (No. 5:26-cv-06332-EJD, Dkt. 137). The next day, October 1, the court granted the government’s emergency request to pause that window for up to ten days so the Department can rebuild its systems and write guidance for consulates (Dkt. 141). Selectees who were still waiting in September now have a narrow second chance, but it has not opened yet.
The judge tied the extension to the State Department’s own conduct. His August 28 preliminary injunction set aside the Department’s DV issuance pause and its separate 75-country immigrant-visa pause. According to the order, the Department then went ten days without scheduling a single interview, and in some cases it cancelled interviews that were already booked. Even after a September 10 cable told posts to comply, the pace stayed slow. From September 10 to 21 the Department adjudicated about 83 visas a day worldwide, against roughly 230 a day in September 2025, and it blamed a new public-charge “training initiative” for posts. After a second hearing on September 21 the pace jumped. Between September 21 and 28 consulates issued 1,942 visas and refused 1,036. Davila found compliance “less than substantial” and matched the extension to the ten days of delay.
The order is deliberately narrow. Plaintiffs had asked the court to reserve all unused DV-2026 numbers, which the court put at roughly 40,000 of the 55,000 Congress allots, for issuance after September 30. Davila refused, citing the D.C. Circuit’s 2024 Goodluck v. Biden decision. Goodluck held that courts cannot order diversity visas issued after the fiscal year as an ordinary remedy. Instead, Davila relied on a court’s inherent power to enforce its own orders. Goodluck expressly left that question open for cases of bad faith or undue delay. Allowing an agency to run out the clock on a court order, he wrote, would leave the judiciary disarmed.
In its October 1 stay motion, the government explained what reopening involves. Its systems block DV adjudication once the fiscal year closes, so it must manually upload assigned case numbers and allocate October DV-2026 visa numbers post by post across 111 consulates. No DV re-interviews were scheduled after September 30, so posts must start booking them again. Some applicants may need new medical exams or documents. Posts can begin scheduling as soon as they receive instructions, but they cannot issue visas until the system changes are finished. The court granted the stay and ordered the Department to issue guidance within ten days and then carry out the order. The Department must keep filing status reports every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A remote status conference is set for October 15.
What DV-2026 selectees should do now: watch for an email from your consulate or the Kentucky Consular Center about rescheduling. Make sure your medical exam, police certificates and civil documents are current, so you can travel on short notice. If you were refused solely under the DV pause or the 75-country pause, your case is the kind the order covers. The relief is limited to State Department consular cases. Plaintiffs told the court that USCIS complied with the separate order on adjustment-of-status applications. The government could still appeal, and the window will likely be short once it opens.
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Source: CourtListener - Medani v. Trump, N.D. Cal. 5:26-cv-06332 (orchestrator primary-source sweep)