dv lottery F1 Student - DV Lottery - Expiring Visa and Passport

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, Coco8 said:

 

No, it says this everywhere (here from AllLaw.com):

 

Another reason to hurry is that the U.S. government selects twice as many winners as there are green cards available. It assumes some of these will either not qualify or will decide not to immigrate after all. If all the winners do, in fact, mail in applications, the green cards will be given on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s possible that even though you win the lottery, if that year’s green card allotment is used up before your own interview is scheduled, you will not receive a green card.

This is wrong. Look at the visa bulletin, there is the equivalent of priority dates for DV selectees. Please don’t post unofficial information and spread it as gospel. All official info is on state.gov 

 

...all this extract shows is that many lawyers are clueless about how the DV lottery actually works.

Edited April 9, 2018 by SusieQQQ

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, EmilyW said:

 

This is completely incorrect and should not be repeated.  You are allocated a case number and, each month, the Visa Bulletin will state which case numbers are current and ready for interview.  I know because I'm a Diversity Lottery Winner.  I submitted my paperwork rather quickly but had to wait until my case number was ready before I was called for an interview.

Ditto. In the old days when it was actually still mailed in, we couriered our then DS230 forms to KCC within a week of notification. We only however interviewed about a year later - when our case number was current.

[NJI751 12]

23 hours ago, CheeseMonstah said:

Kudos on the confidence! 

Sometimes you need to believe it to win it. At least that's what happened to me.

[NJI751 12]

@kzielu   @EmilyW  @SusieQQQ

 

Guys, you are definitely right. It seems like some, if not all lawyers are completely useless when it comes to giving the right advice on Immigration issues. I feel like we in VJ can give better advice. Lawyers have a vested interest in saying you need to apply ASAP hoping that the nervous applicant hires an attorney in panic mode.

 

DV Green Cards are granted on the basis of Case Numbers, and definitely not on a first come, first serve basis. There is, however, one situation where applying (i.e sending your packet to the KCC ASAP) might mean the different between getting a Green Card or not.

 

Let's say your DV eligibility is from a country that hits the per-country quota for DV (Egypt, Ethiopia and Nepal as per the current VB) and your CN is very high and your interview is going to happen in Sept  and there is a chance that visas might hit the 7% limit (Remember that, by law, the visa has to be issued by Sept 30 and can not cross the 7% per country limit).

 

What I realized going through the process myself in the month of Sept is that for a given range of Case numbers in a month, they do interview on a first come, first serve basis. Let's say the Current Range for Africa in Sept is 55000 - 60000 and CN58000 applied earlier than CN56000, CN58000 will have their interview in September before CN56000.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, NJI751 said:

@kzielu   @EmilyW  @SusieQQQ

 

 

 

 

 

What I realized going through the process myself in the month of Sept is that for a given range of Case numbers in a month, they do interview on a first come, first serve basis. Let's say the Current Range for Africa in Sept is 55000 - 60000 and CN58000 applied earlier than CN56000, CN58000 will have their interview in September before CN56000.

This does not depend on when you submitted, it depends on the individual embassy workload. KCC schedules all the cases about 2 months in advance for all those DSs submitted. There are embassies that publish the schedules and they are usually in clear case number order. This wouldn’t happen if it was first come first served. The scenario you mention above is only likely to happen in a last minute submission and schedule situation, and if it is at the same embassy as others already scheduled. Once you are talking about comparing interviews between embassies, this entire scenario falls apart because each embassy schedules according to its own workload, so comparing across embassies is useless. Even if your scenario is factual, which I don't believe is the case, at least not always, someone at a busy embassy who submitted earlier could still have their interview later than someone at a quiet embassy where they can see all their caseload one day a week (as is the case at the consulate I interviewed at).

 

incidentally it is extremely rare for countries to hit the 7% limit. In the 5 or 6 years  I’ve been watching DV i believe it’s only happened twice, once to Bangladesh (when still eligible) and once to Iran. There have however been cases where not all case numbers got current as they expected to reach quota, and cases like last year when they ran out of visas and all those not on a normal KCC schedule (such as AOS and rescheduled interviews) didn’t have visa numbers allotted and therefore couldn’t get visas.

Edited April 9, 2018 by SusieQQQ