Dependent with J1 visa

[mvmkr 1]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been selected for the DV lottery 2018! So happy! My wife currently has a J-1 visa with a 2-year homestay requirement. She's almost done with the first year and has one more to go. Do you know if she's eligible as my dependent? 

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

 Yes she can come.  Depending on how low your number is it may be a year before you interview.   Remember they pull more numbers than visas available so some people don't get an interview for a long time.  If she hasn't completed it at interview time she may have to stay until she does. When is the 2 years up ? 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

 

Hi everyone,

 

I've been selected for the DV lottery 2018! So happy! My wife currently has a J-1 visa with a 2-year homestay requirement. She's almost done with the first year and has one more to go. Do you know if she's eligible as my dependent? 

 

As above, yes she can come. What is your case number? If it's low, you may want to delay submitting your DS260 for a while to get a later interview that will work nicely with that...you don't want an early interview with a visa that expires before she can move.

[mvmkr 1]

Thank you for your answers. They are really helpful! The J1 requirement expires next summer. How do you identify if the case number is low or high? Also, is there a deadline by when a candidate has to submit the DS-260 form? Meaning, if I submit my DS in half a year won't that be too late?

 

It would be great if I could delay DS. We had a baby a few weeks ago and we're now in the process of getting her birth certificate and passport. This might take half a year. 

Edited May 5, 2017 by mvmkr

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Can you share your partial case number, XXXing out the last 3 digits: for example EU12xxx

then we can figure out high or low  

there's no real deadline  for DS submission, but generally you'd want to do it by 4 months before your interview month (it takes them on average 2 months to process the form, which they need to complete before they schedule your interview, and then they schedule interviews around 2 months in advance.) So for example if you submit your forms at the end of January, you'd probably be scheduled for a May interview assuming your number was already current by May. Nothing's exact so would always leave a bit of wiggle room of course,

 

if if you have a high case number you probably wouldn't interview before next June-august anyway, but there's a lot of murkiness in figuring out exactly what high is.