How to read the Visa Bulletin for DV selectees
This question comes up surprisingly often – people get confused with how to read the visa bulletin. Once you know, it seems very obvious, but let’s just run through it.
If you prefer, you can watch a video explaining this topic – shown at the bottom of this page.
Each month (around the early to middle of the month) the visa bulletin is released. The bulletin covers more than just the DV lottery information, but the numbers we care about are in there. The link for the main visa bulletin index is here.
You will see a page as shown below – the current and the upcoming visa bulletin. The upcoming VB is the one we are interested in. It provides information on what cases will be interviewed in the upcoming months. For example, as I write this it is late November. The VB that was released a couple of weeks ago is the December visa bulletin and it gives numbers on January interviews. So – click the Upcoming visa bulletin link.
In the VB itself there is some information on other types of immigration. However, if you scroll down the page you will see there are two sections of numbers regarding the DV lottery. We want to look at the second set of numbers, lower down the page as I am showing below.
You can see I highlighted the fact that the second section (section C) covers the following month (6/7 weeks after the release of the VB). If you look at the section where I have highlighted Africa you can see there are numbers by each region. Africa shows 21000. That means that if your case number is 2015AF20999 of lower you are eligible to be interviewed in January (assuming your DS260 has completed processing when KCC need to schedule the interviews). The number will increase a little each month so every month a few more cases “become current”. So let us assume that a month later this number says 27000. In that case any African case number under 27000 (i.e. 26999 and below) is now current and may be scheduled for interview. It does NOT mean the 21000 and the 27000 are somehow added together. It also does not mean that numbers under 21000 have missed their chance. It simply means your CN must be less than the number shown for your region.
You can see I also highlighted two countries (Egypt and Ethiopia). This means that selectees chargeable to those two countries (regardless of where they will interview) are subject to a lower limit. This is done to slow down processing for countries with a high number of selectees to spread out the workload over a longer time. Typically these countries have been limited during the draw as I explain in my post about the draw process.
In previous years we have seen various regions going “CURRENT”. This means that KCC have calculated remaining likely demand and believe they have enough visas remaining to satisfy all remaining demand. Between 2009 and 2013, that was “normal”. However, the over selection of winners in DV2014 meant that the big 5 regions did not go current, and I expect the same thing to happen in DV2015. That means the final VB of the year (the August VB, released in July) will have a region cutoff that is lower than the highest case numbers and that will mean that some selectees will never be invited for interview. That was the case for many thousands of people in DV2014, in all regions. You can check previous years VB numbers for the 5 main regions in this post about historical VB data.
I hope that helps explain things….
Here is a video explaining this same topic.
November 30, 2020 at 4:26 pm
Thank you and may God bless you.dear Simon now i understood. VB for January is 10499. before i add all from bignning up to January it become 25,000.
Thanks very much thanks.
April 21, 2021 at 5:23 am
Hello, I wish to know if at this point it is advisable to join a lowsuit, am case number AF40k
April 21, 2021 at 4:56 pm
The lawsuits will probably help some people.
May 26, 2021 at 6:39 am
Hi BritSimon, thanks for all of this, it is great!
One question, I got selected for 2022 DV and am currently in the US. I have all of my documentation ready including the medical report which expires in 60 days. Can I send my application even though the Bulletin is still on 2020? I just don’t want for my medical report to expire which means I would have to get a new one which is pricey.
I would assume they will reach out to me in a few months once my number is within Bulletin??
Thank you!
Ana
May 27, 2021 at 5:17 am
You got the medical far too early, so you will have to do it again once you receive the 2NL. Not now.
September 18, 2021 at 9:22 pm
Hello sir hope you are well.
I am 2018 dv lottery winner i did my interview in US embassy Kabul on 2018 5th august now is there a way to process my case?
Best regard Samiullah Atal.
Please answer my question ASAP.
Thanks.
September 18, 2021 at 9:51 pm
No.
November 11, 2021 at 4:10 pm
I got a question regrding visa bullatin
my case number is 2022AS13XXX
acoording to histroy of VB in 2021 (http://britsimonsays.com/historical-visa-bulletin-numbers/)
only upto 13000 case numbers had become current by 2021 may.
2021
Oct 1600
Nov 2800
Dec 3500
Jan 4300
Feb 5000
Mar 6200
Apr 9000
May 13000
Jun Current
Jul Current
Aug Current
Sep Current
As far as I know case numbers up to 26000 has been interviewed 0f 2021 dv
My qustion is why has the visa bullatin been up to 13000 mentioned in VB histroy of 2021?
November 13, 2021 at 5:15 pm
Current means all case numbers.
November 20, 2021 at 7:09 pm
Hi Sir, thanks for the good work you do, looking at January 2022 VB, can you predict March 2022 VB for DV 2022 winer’s?
November 21, 2021 at 7:03 pm
No