Time Positioning for Interview

[Uncle33 0]

My wife is the selectee in DV2021. My son and I are derivatives. We are from Hong Kong. Case number DV2021AS5XXX.
Questions.

1. Son is currently studying in the UK. Not likely to return to Hong Kong for interview until mid May 2021 when university semester ends. Assuming normal leadtime in terms of paperwork processing and interview scheduling, etc., resumes when the visa offices reopen, what is the best time to start the ball rolling  with submitting DS260 so that the interview could be scheduled towards the end of May 2021 when he could come back to join us to go to the interview together as required?
2. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe my case number is relatively low in my region. I assume most people would start submitting DS260 around August / September 2020 or even earlier if they have such low numbers. Will putting off the submission of DS260 until March or April 2021 be a risky move? Is there a chance that I will miss out and be denied an interview for my inaction to file DS260 until that late in the event that the visa quota is already full by May 2021?
3. My wife is a housewife and does not have any income. I run my own business. But since business have been poor for the past 2 to 3 years, my recent tax returns show negative taxable income. We, as a family, do have cash and savings well in excess of the proverty guideline. Is an affidavit to support I-134 still needed to satisfy the public charge condition? BTW, we do plan to work / earn income after coming to the US. Do I need to show any business proposal  to solidify my position?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

1. No one can tell you exact times. Things change year to year. And you can never fine tune it more than sometime within a given month. Rule of thumb is that (all) May interview notifications are sent in late March. KCC takes anywhere from 1-3 months to process ds260, request civil documents and then confirm those are ok before including your case in its monthly batch of interviews to be scheduled. 
2. Visa issuance is spread throughout the year, so they won’t run out of visas by May or June. If visas run out for DV as a whole, it won’t happen before September. That means you need an interview notice by July. (There has been a rare instance of country max being hit in August, but that’s not relevant for Hong Kong.) 
3. Public charge is an individual determination. Bring as much as you can to argue your case.  They will usually ask what you plan to do once there, though I can’t imagine they will feel able to judge a business proposal.

Edited June 10, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[Uncle33 0]

A couple of follow up questions:

Son is derivative of DV2021 selectee and will turn 21 in mid September 2021.

 

1. Assuming we get visas successfully before deadline of end September 2021 but past his 21st birthday (mid September), will he be denied entry to the USA border?

2. Does the "Age-out" policy come into effect in this case?

3. What are the critical dates that we need to watch out for in this case?

 

Thank you

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

55 minutes ago, Uncle33 said:

A couple of follow up questions:

Son is derivative of DV2021 selectee and will turn 21 in mid September 2021.

 

1. Assuming we get visas successfully before deadline of end September 2021 but past his 21st birthday (mid September), will he be denied entry to the USA border?

2. Does the "Age-out" policy come into effect in this case?

3. What are the critical dates that we need to watch out for in this case?

 

Thank you

1, 2 and 3: there is CSPA protection for DV cases. It won’t be a problem for him even if you get the visas on 30 September, because he only needs a couple of weeks protection and the DV protected period is around 7 months. It doesn’t matter if he turns 21 after he gets the visa and before he enters either, the date the visa is available (= the month your case number will be current) is what counts, but as I said it’s not going to be a problem in your case anyway.

 

Edit: actually for DV2021 the CSPA protected period is around 8 months because notification was a month later than usual - correcting in case this is a significant difference for someone else reading this.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by SusieQQQ

[Uncle33 0]

A follow up question about public charge on my original Question number 3.

 

Is the public charge examined on a case basis or individual basis? That is, does each and every member of the household need to satisfy the public charge requirement individually or is the whole family evaluated as a whole or only the selectee (principal applicant) will be evaluated? And consequently, how many DS-5540 Public Charge Questionnaire do we need to prepare?

 

If only the selectee is examined, is it advisable to consolidated all our family cash savings and assets under her name so that she can meet the requirements?

 

Thank you for your help.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

14 minutes ago, Uncle33 said:

A follow up question about public charge on my original Question number 3.

 

Is the public charge examined on a case basis or individual basis? That is, does each and every member of the household need to satisfy the public charge requirement individually or is the whole family evaluated as a whole or only the selectee (principal applicant) will be evaluated? And consequently, how many DS-5540 Public Charge Questionnaire do we need to prepare?

 

If only the selectee is examined, is it advisable to consolidated all our family cash savings and assets under her name so that she can meet the requirements?

 

Thank you for your help.

The whole family. Example if the principal’s spouse is the breadwinner that will be taken into account for the family as a whole. 
 

One per family, please read the information about the form on DoS website. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/public-charge/DS-5540-instructions.pdf

[Uncle33 0]

A couple of questions about filling out the DS-260.

 

1. Does the applicant need to pay any fees before he or she can fill out the DS-260? I read on the DoS examplar pdf that the invoice ID number from the National Visa Center is required to sign in. 

2. Do I, as the derivative, need to fill out a separate DS-260 after my wife, who is the principal applicant, successfully submitted hers? If yes, do I use her case number as the login information?

 

Thank you for your help.

[Uncle33 0]

On Q2, maybe there is somewhere in the DS-260 electronic form that the principal applicant can "add" information required of a derivative? I have not ventured into the electronic form yet and I would like to have some clarification first before I do so. Nothing in the DoS examplar pdf gives any information on this issue.

 

I guess my problem is I am confused who needs to do what in the whole process:

a) Fill out DS-260 (principal applicant only or each one of the household members)

b) Obtain police certificates (principal applicant only or each one of the household members)

c) Go through a medical examination (principal applicant only or each one of the household members)

 

Sorry for asking so many questions. Situation in this region is getting worse rapidly so I am getting nervous.

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

3 hours ago, Uncle33 said:

A couple of questions about filling out the DS-260.

 

1. Does the applicant need to pay any fees before he or she can fill out the DS-260? I read on the DoS examplar pdf that the invoice ID number from the National Visa Center is required to sign in. 

2. Do I, as the derivative, need to fill out a separate DS-260 after my wife, who is the principal applicant, successfully submitted hers? If yes, do I use her case number as the login information?

 

Thank you for your help.

1. No

2. Yes

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

2 hours ago, Uncle33 said:

On Q2, maybe there is somewhere in the DS-260 electronic form that the principal applicant can "add" information required of a derivative? I have not ventured into the electronic form yet and I would like to have some clarification first before I do so. Nothing in the DoS examplar pdf gives any information on this issue.

 

I guess my problem is I am confused who needs to do what in the whole process:

a) Fill out DS-260 (principal applicant only or each one of the household members)

b) Obtain police certificates (principal applicant only or each one of the household members)

c) Go through a medical examination (principal applicant only or each one of the household members)

 

Sorry for asking so many questions. Situation in this region is getting worse rapidly so I am getting nervous.

Please read all the information linked from the selection letter, which takes you to the website for selectees. Read that thoroughly including any relevant links within those pages. All those questions are answered and probably more that you haven’t thought of yet. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here.

[Uncle33 0]

My local police says the police certificate will be sent directly to the US consulate. How do I upload it to KCC if I cannot get a copy? And I have no copy to bring to interview?

[SusieQQQ 11,587]

3 minutes ago, Uncle33 said:

My local police says the police certificate will be sent directly to the US consulate. How do I upload it to KCC if I cannot get a copy? And I have no copy to bring to interview?

KCC will be familiar with this, you will probably get some kind of receipt or proof that you requested it, send that to KCC. You don’t need to bring a copy to the interview...the consulate will have it. 

[Uncle33 0]

While filling the DS260, I noticed there was an "expiration date" at the top right corner of the "Personal 1" page showing 04/30/2022. What does it mean? I thought we could submit the DS260 anytime before the end of September 2022. Please help me to clarify.

[Uncle33 0]

4 minutes ago, Uncle33 said:

While filling the DS260, I noticed there was an "expiration date" at the top right corner of the "Personal 1" page showing 04/30/2022. What does it mean? I thought we could submit the DS260 anytime before the end of September 2022. Please help me to clarify.

Sorry my bad. I got the years mixed up.

All these form filling is freaking me out. Sorry for the confusion.

[Uncle33 0]

Question about DS260 Personal Info page. "Do you hold or have held other nationality...?" Yes / No

 

A bit of background first. In Hong Kong, before the handover to China, people used the British National (Overseas) passports. On the passport, the nationality stated is British National (Overseas) or BNO for short. I have used it to apply for a B1/B2 visa to enter the US before. For all countries, this BNO passport was, and still is, a travel document only, never an identity of nationality, ie holders of BNO passports do not enjoy any benefits as a citizen of the UK. After the handover, people now use the Hong Kong SAR passport. On the HKSAR passport, nationality stated is Chinese. I used the HKSAR passport to enter the 2021 lottery.

 

My question is should I say Yes, I have held other nationality before (BNO) or No, since the BNO passport is only a travel document? To make things more complicated, some of my previous US visas stated that my nationality is HNK, meaning Hong Kong, while some stated GRBR, meaning Great Britain.