US green card lottery crackdown: Passport scan may soon be required to curb fraud

In a renewed bid to fight fraud and identity manipulation, the US Department of State has proposed a rule that would require applicants to the Diversity Visa (DV) Program to upload a scan of the biographic and signature page of a valid, unexpired passport at the time of application.

The move, published in the Federal Register, comes in response to persistent abuse and third-party scams in the DV system, which annually grants up to 55,000 immigrant visas to individuals from countries with historically low US immigration rates.

Under the proposed rule, applicants must enter their passport number, issuing country, expiration date, and upload the corresponding pages. Exceptions will be made only for stateless individuals, citizens of communist-controlled countries who cannot obtain a passport, or those with approved waivers.

“Requiring passport information on the DV petition would make it much more difficult for unauthorised third parties to enter someone with partial information,” the Department said.

The Department cited past fraud cases, including a scam in Ukraine where a travel agency-linked ring demanded up to $15,000 from DV applicants or coerced them into sham marriages. Similar fraud rings have been detected in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Moldova, using fake entries to extort or deceive legitimate candidates.

New provision from an existing provision

The proposed requirement mirrors a 2019 passport rule, which was vacated in 2022 on procedural grounds. During the period of enforcement, fraud dropped significantly; duplicate disqualifications fell from 2.5 million in FY25 to just 760,079 in FY22.

The Department said the scanned passport will also support early verification of an applicant’s place of birth, which determines country chargeability under DV rules. The requirement will help catch false claims and screen for passport anomalies, signature mismatches, and forged names.

To align with Executive Order 14161, which mandates stronger federal identity verification, and Executive Order 14168 on gender terminology, the Department will also revise its language in consular regulations—replacing “gender” with “sex” and simplifying various legal definitions.

While the added requirement may affect accessibility, the Department noted that the process is mobile-friendly. “Most entrants will be able to quickly scan the passport with a single photo taken by a mobile phone,” the rule said.

Applicants who falsely claim exemption or submit incorrect passport data risk immediate disqualification.

The Department estimates the global compliance cost at $38 million, based on 25 million anticipated entries and a $1.52 average time burden per applicant. Passport costs in DV-eligible countries average $74.43.

Although the passport requirement previously caused a dip in total entries, the Department said regional visa quotas were still met. After the rule was lifted in FY24, participation rebounded to 23.8 million entries, but fraud surged again—prompting the renewed regulatory push.

The State Department is now accepting public comments on the proposal, seeking input on issues such as passport affordability, access to scanning devices, mobile phone usage, and passport ownership rates in eligible countries.