The “September” visa bulletin has been published – so this is the first bulletin for DV2017. It concerns the case numbers eligible for October interviews.

 

For those that are current, and have forms processed early enough, they can expect their 2NL in about 2 (maybe 3) weeks from now. I know I am going to get a lot of people who will ask me this exact question – so let me say that again. 2NLs for October interviews will be sent in about two or three weeks time.

It is possible that some people will be current for October interviews, but will not be scheduled in October because they submitted late, or there is a processing backlog that causes a delay. This has happened in the last 2 years, and although I am guessing the effect will be reduced this year (because of lower selectee numbers), it does mean that cases submitted in June onwards may not get their 2NLs. I will only know for sure what the backlog effect is once I start hearing from those that get scheduled, so – I will post when 2NLs start going out and survey those cases to estimate the backlog. Given these numbers are slightly lower than previous years, that re-enforces my assumption that backlog is there, but not quite as bad as previous years.

To those new to looking at VBs, let me explain what the “except” XXX country means (for Nepal, Egypt and Ethiopia).

Processing is spread out over the full year. You can see the progress of the two previous years in this post about basic questions.  However, some countries have a high number of selectees and those selectees are concentrated in the lower case numbers. For various reasons, mainly to do with embassy capacity, KCC slow down certain countries as compared to the region. So – in Africa, any case with a case number of 8000 can be interviewed but for cases from Egypt or Ethiopia, that number is low (6000). That isn’t a big problem, it just “slows down” those countries a little more than the rest of the region. Since selectees from those countries all have lower case numbers, this slowing down does not present any risk. It does not (at this point) mean they won’t allow all selectees an interview from those countries. In fact, in DV2017, I think all regions and countries will go current (assuming no further draw).

To understand why some countries get lower case numbers, read this article about the lottery draw process.

Read this link if you are unsure how to read the visa bulletin.

 

AFRICA  – 8000

Except:

Egypt – 6000

Ethiopia – 6000

 

ASIA – 2100

Except:

Nepal – 1900

 

EUROPE – 8500

OCEANIA – 300

SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN – 400