The U.S. government has effectively shut down; however, this event is not expected to affect registration for the 2015 green card lottery which begins on October 1, 2013.
Governmental Shut Down
Because the U.S. Congress was not able to come to an agreement about approving a budget and did not extend funding for government programs, the government will shut down all non-essential services on October 1, 2013.
Services that will remain available will be emergency services, the post office and other absolutely necessary government programs.
The Federal Communications Commission, which is responsible for the regulation of media in the United States will be shut down for the duration.
The justice department will also be mostly closed.
Some services of the Federal Aviation Administration are considered essential and will therefore remain open.
The National Park Services will be shut down entirely and no one will be allowed to enter a national park for the duration of the shut-down. This includes national monuments as well.
State and local governments will be in various states of openness depending on how much funding they receive from the federal government. Subsidiary governments with high dependence on government funding will likely be shut down.
It is unknown at this time when the shut-down will end, but the longest it has ever shut down before was for less than a month. Once Congress comes to a decision about the federal budget, the shut-down will end.
The Green Card Lottery
Currently, the U.S. State Department, the agency responsible for the green card lottery, has enough money to continue to function.
This means that all interviews are still scheduled and the green card lottery registration period will continue as planned.
The USCIS’ E-Verify system will be offline for the duration of the government shut-down.