Federal Judge Grants DV-2020 Diversity Visa Lottery Winners Temporary Relief from Presidential Proclamations

We are very happy to announce a recent federal court ruling that grants DV-2020 diversity visa lottery winners the ability to apply for and obtain their immigrant visas.

Following the issuance of Presidential Proclamation 10014 on April 22, 2020 (which suspended the entry of all immigrants into the United States for a period of two months, except for limited classes of individuals) our office received an outpouring of emails, messages, and phone calls from readers asking whether DV-2020 lottery winners qualified for an exception, allowing them to apply for and obtain a DV immigrant visa before the September 30, 2020 deadline.

Unfortunately, we did not have any good news. The April 20^th proclamation meant that DV-2020 lottery winners would have to wait for the ban to be lifted in order to apply for their visas. Then two months later, the President issued Proclamation 10052, further extending the visa ban until December 31, 2020. Rightfully so, this action caused anger among lottery winners, because it meant that DV-2020 lottery winners would not be able to apply for their visas by the deadline, and would lose out on the opportunity to receive an immigrant visa. For many this was a devastating realization.

In response, hundreds of DV-2020 lottery winners banded together and filed the lawsuit Gomez, et al. v. Trump, et al. against the government seeking an injunction to prevent the government from enforcing the Proclamations against DV lottery winners.

On September 4, 2020, their demands were answered. Federal Judge Mehta has issued a set of orders granting DV-2020 lottery winners a preliminary injunction which stops the government from applying the Proclamations against them. Unfortunately, however the judge’s order only grants relief to DV-2020 lottery winners and does not grant relief to non-DV immigrant visa applicants. We would like to remind our readers that the Judge’s orders are temporary and have been issued to prevent further injury to DV-2020 lottery winners, while the lawsuit comes to a final resolution through the court system.

What does the Judge’s Order Do?

Judge Mehta’s order specifically calls upon the government to do several things.

As a preliminary matter, the court has “stayed” (halted) the No-Visa Policy as applied to DV-2020 selectees and derivative beneficiaries,meaning that the government is prohibited from interpreting or applying the Proclamation in any way that forecloses or prohibits embassy personnel, consular officers, or any administrative processing center (such as the Kentucky Consular Center) from processing, reviewing, or adjudicating a 2020 diversity visa or derivative beneficiary application, or issuing or reissuing a 2020 diversity or beneficiary visa based on the entry restrictions contained in the Proclamations. Except as provided in 2 and 3 below, the order does not prevent any embassy personnel, consular officer, or administrative processing center from prioritizing the processing, adjudication, or issuance of visas based on resource constraints, limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic or country conditions;

The government as defendants are ordered to undertake good-faith efforts, to expeditiously process and adjudicate DV-2020 diversity visa and derivative beneficiary applications, and issue or reissue diversity and derivative beneficiary visas to eligible applicants by September 30, 2020, giving priority to the named diversity visa plaintiffs in the lawsuit and their derivative beneficiaries;
The court enjoins (stops) the government from interpreting and applying the COVID Guidance to DV-2020 selectees and derivative beneficiaries in any way that requires embassy personnel, consular officers, or administrative processing centers (such as the Kentucky Consular Center) to refuse processing, reviewing, adjudicating 2020 diversity visa applications, or issuing or reissuing diversity visas on the ground that the DV-2020 selectee or derivative beneficiary does not qualify under the “emergency” or “mission critical” exceptions to the COVID Guidance;
The court declines the requests of DV-2020 plaintiffs to order the government to reserve unprocessed DV-2020 visas past the September 30 deadline or until a final adjudication on the merits, however the court will revisit the issue closer to the deadline. The court ordered the State Department to report, no later than September 25, 2020, which of the named DV-2020 Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have received diversity visas, the status of processing of the named DV-2020 plaintiffs’ applications who have not yet received visas, and the number of unprocessed DV-2020 visa applications and unused diversity visas remaining for FY 2020;
Class recertification was denied for non-DV plaintiffs since they failed to demonstrate that they were entitled to preliminary injunctive relief; and
Finally, the court denied the request of non-DV plaintiffs to preliminary enjoin (stop) the government from implementing or enforcing Proclamations 10014 and 10052.

Next Steps

DV-2020 lottery winners should apply for their DV lottery visas as soon as possible. It is strongly recommended for applicants to seek the help of an attorney during this process, to ensure that they receive a visa appointment before the September 30^th deadline.

The parties to the lawsuit will convene on September 25^th for a Joint Status report. The lawsuit will also move through the court system until a final resolution is reached on the merits of the case.

We will keep our readers updated on all important developments as the case proceeds.

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