Due to technical issues, the registration period for DV-2019 is being restarted and all entries made prior to October 18, 2017 will need to be resubmitted for the entrant to be considered, the U.S. Embassy in Colombo said in a media release.

The technical issue was a failure to properly account for country of eligibility if the entrant was selecting a country of eligibility other than his/her place of birth, which is permitted in certain limited circumstances. This was not a result of any outside interference or hacking attempt.

We regret the inconvenience to Diversity Visa entrants. In order to ensure fairness and protect the integrity of the process for all those concerned, however, we must restart the entry process for this year (DV-2019). The new registration period for DV-2019 opens for electronic entries at 11:00 am, Wednesday, October 18, 2017 and closes at 11:00am, Wednesday, November 22, 2017.

An application entered before Wednesday, October 18, 2017 will not be considered and another entry must be submitted during the new registration period. Applicants may submit one new entry without being disqualified for submitting multiple entries. Individuals who submit more than one entry during the new registration period will be disqualified.