We will have many new selectees with very basic questions. Let me try and address the most frequent ones here in the hope that people will read this. If you ask a question and I give you a link to this page, it is to indicate that your question can be answered by reading this page and using some common sense. Please use the links in the title at the top of this page for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and the DV lottery guide. There is LOTS of information available on my site – so a look through the FAQ and guide will take care of most questions.

Please read the ground rules at the bottom of this page.

Here are two links to help those still not able to check their entry:
https://britsimonsays.com/faq/checking-esc-page-check-without-mistakes/

And here is a video to explain how to check your entry result.

This one with tips about submitting the DS260.

And for those that cannot submit their DS260.
https://britsimonsays.com/faq/ds260-case-number-doesnt-match-case-number/

Now – some questions.


Where can I read the instructions

It is important that you read the instructions. This opportunity is AVOIDABLY lost by many people each year who simply didn’t want to spend time on reading the instructions. I find that VERY annoying – so if I tell you to read the instructions – make sure you do!

So – what instructions are a must read?

  1. The main instructions are linked here.
  2. After that you might read the reciprocity page for any country for which you might need documents. The reciprocity page is linked here.
  3. Lastly the embassy where you interview will also have some specific instructions – linked here.

Is there a deadline to submit my DS260?

There is no official deadline to submit your DS260. People will continue to submit DS260s cases well into next year. Submissions as late as April, May or perhaps (but more riskily) even June of next year will still get processed in time. Now – submitting as early as you can without rushing and making mistakes is always the “normal” advice, unless you want to delay your interview date for some reason (which does apply to some people).

How long does it take to process the DS260?

The actual processing time of the DS260 is quite short – probably 3 to 4 weeks, but since KCC are flooded with DS260s in May and June, there is a backlog that builds up meaning you will wait for them to even start processing your DS260. That backlog should be mostly removed by January or February at the latest.

Does every DS260 take the same time to process?

No. There is some background checks required on each case that vary according to the situation of the selectees. The precise details of the checks are not published, but we can guess they are mainly about ensuring security of the USA. That means they communicate with agencies and foreign governments about the details you provide on the DS260. Some countries co-operate with the USA, some don’t. In countries that don’t co-operate you can expect DS260 will take longer.  So, some cases are very simple, and some not so simple. If a selectee was raised in Western Europe, works in an office and has never travelled to certain high risk countries we can expect the DS260 processing (once the case is ACTUALLY processed, not queued) to be quick.  If on the other hand someone has travel history around certain countries in the Middle East or lists their work as “Nuclear weapons specialist”, well they can expect the US government to take longer over those checks.

So – never assume that all DS260s submitted on the same day will complete processing on the same day. There will be variations.

When will I be interviewed?

Interview timing is mainly based on your case number, and where that number is ranked within each region. If you submitted your DS260 early, but have a high case number within your region, you will wait until that case number is ready to be interviewed. So – if you are case number 10000 in AS region for example you can expect a long wait before being interviewed. However regions have their own numbering, SO  that same number in AF region (where the highest case number could be a lot higher) that 10000 number would be very low. So “low or high” number is relative within the region.

When will interviews start and how will I be told of my interview date?

No interviews will happen before October 1 each year. Interviews will continue until September 30th the following year. So stop packing your bags. It’s a long process. Interview scheduled are notified in monthly batches about 6 weeks before the interview month. The notification for an interview is called the 2NL (which is simply an email telling you to check the ESC page).

When will KCC send the first 2NLs?

The first 2NLs (the interview notification) for the new year will go out in mid/late August. That will be for cases that have been processed AND are current for October (which will be very low case numbers). Then 2NLs will come in a monthly schedule, also late in each month. So – late in September for November interviews and so on.

When are the visa bulletins published? 

The visa bulletins are published around the 8th to the 15th of each month. It can be a little earlier or later, so don’t get worked up if it hasn’t arrived on the 15th.

“My case number is XXXX when will I be scheduled?”

Oh man. These questions are tiring. I really expect people to use some thought process about this, and if you can’t do that, then asking me to think for you is not going to be warmly welcomed by me. I have made available more than enough information to get an idea of how scheduling works, but remember, cases are scheduled according to ALL the following three things.

  1. The case number. No case will EVER be scheduled until the case number is ready.
  2. DS260 submission. Until the DS260 is submitted AND PROCESSED, you will not be scheduled.
  3. Embassy capacity – the embassy must be open and have enough capacity to schedule all the cases that are current and processed. In fact the embassy capacity is currently the largest hindrance for many cases. We have seen some embassies that have built up backlogs hundreds of fully processed cases, and yet they still only accept a handful of cases each month. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any way to force them to do the correct amount of work, so people assigned to those underperforming embassies have a large risk.

How do KCC schedule the cases?

Roughly speaking all interviews are spread out over the year, starting in October and ending the following September. KCC release numbers via the visa bulletin to say which case numbers can be interviewed. Check out this article to understand how to read the visa bulletin.

KCC will increase the number made current on each region at a pace that ensures they have enough interviews to match the embassy capacity during each month.

The method means that lower case numbers have a better chance of getting an interview. That is deliberate, and is how the law is written.

So – to take an example. If OC had a highest case number of 1000, we could roughly expect to see that number increase by 100 each month. It might be 75 one month and 125 the next, but you get the general idea – it is a slow progression over the year.

Additionally it is important to understand that sometimes higher case numbers will be scheduled before lower case numbers. This is because of the timing of when the cases become current and are processed. Each embassy has an AV queue, which is an ordered list of cases waiting for scheduling. The way that queue is managed is described in this video:
https://youtu.be/8D5QzxAiXBI

Should I unlock my DS260 or will that cause a delay?

Unlocking generally causes no delay to cases. It is far more important to have an accurate DS260 than be worried about a delay, but unfortunately some inexperienced lawyers have misunderstood the process and comments made by government officials to give an impression that unlocking should be avoided. They are quite clearly incorrect. We have many people that have unlocked cases and have been fully processed. So – if you need to unlock, do so – but the best advice is to be careful in filling the DS260 in the first place.

More information about the bad advice to not unlock is here.

Will there be a second draw?

In some years it is possible that there would be a small second draw around September/October. We don’t know how likely that is for this year yet. It really only happens in years where the initial draw is a small number of selectees, and the last time it happened was DV2018.

Selectees, cases and case numbers

OK – so there is some confusion about this – so let me cover it here.

When the selectee numbers are published (in the July or August visa bulletin there is a number shown for each country within each region. That number is the number of *selectees – INCLUDING derivatives*. So – if a winner was single, that is one selectee on one case number. If the winner was married and had one child, that would count as three selectees. The global quota of visas is ~55,000, so if the three person family were to be approved, that is 3 out of 55,000.

Each winner gets a case number. The derivatives are on that same case number. Each region has it’s on set of case numbers – so there can be an AF1, AF2, AS1, AS2, EU1 and EU2 ands so on. So when you tell me your case number is case number 12345 – it is meaningless. I need the year and region.

As I explain in this post about holes theory – the case numbers assigned have “holes” (or gaps between them). So – case number 20000 does NOT have 19999 cases in front of them. The number will be less. However, there may be less case numbers – but each case has the selectee and derivatives.

To understand your “place in the line”, you have to understand the density of cases, number of derivatives on each case, how many cases will respond, how many will be approved and so on. There is a lot to understand. I wrote a series of articles a couple of years ago – and all can be understood by reading those – start with density analysis, and use the links at the bottom of that article to get to the others.  The analysis was specific to DV2016 – but the principles are the same.

In the first few months of the new program year we don’t have much data. In January we get access to the CEAC data and then we will understand a lot more. The CEAC data is all the case status info for every case – but again we will not have CEAC data until January. In the meantime, you can see excellent visualizations of the previous years data at the site maintained by a smart guy call Xarthisius. The site illustrates well the density, response rate and so on, which are things you will hear me explain (and can read about on my site).

How many visas can be issued each year? How about XXX country?

According to the published information, there are almost 55,000 visas available globally. However, the visas are allocated through a quota system to each region. They are NOT allocated by country. However, no one country can receive more than 7% of the global allocation. – so regions have an allocation of the 55,000 global quota. This is explained in more detail here.

Can the lottery be stopped by Trump/Republicans/Aliens?

This was fully detailed in this post from August 2017.  Since then, Trump and the Republicans have continued to achieve almost nothing, and there has been no credible progress toward immigration law changes. Please read that article, and don’t ask me the same questions again until an actual real law is passed.

Terminology

1NL – First Notification Letter (Selection letter)
221g – AP Refusal after interview, not final
2NL – Second notification letter (Interview letter)
AV – Visa numbers have been allocated, and the case is ready to be scheduled for appointment
CEAC – Consular Electronic Application Center
CN – Case Number
DOS – Department of State
DS260 – Immigrant Visa Application Form
DV – Diversity Visa
INTS – Case has been scheduled for an appointment
KCC – Kentucky Consular Center
NVC – National Visa Centre (who don’t have anything to do with DV cases)
PCC – Police Clearance Certificate
POE – Point of Entry
RV – Case processing is complete, and the case has been reported for the allocation of visa numbers
USCIS – United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
VB – Visa Bulletin

GROUND RULES for BritSimonSays.com

I don’t work for the government, I don’t get paid for this. I work for a living and I sleep sometimes. So – I expect people to respect my time. That means the following “rules” exist on my site.

  1. Read the DV lottery guide. It includes a link to my guide on how to complete the DS260, an overall rough idea of the process and so on.
  2. READ the FAQ (frequently asked questions). If you ask me a question that is covered in the FAQ, you are wasting my time. Please help me help you and others that need help
  3. Learn how to use the search feature and translation features of this site.
  4. Post your questions in English. Like many of you, I am multilingual but English is a common language – and most Americans ONLY speak English, and mostly, not very well (hehehe).
  5. If asking multiple questions, number your questions and consider how I can answer the question. Consider how I can answer with a simple yes or no or short answer – you will find I ALWAYS answer questions like that, because you considered how to make the answer easy for me to give. Give me enough detail to answer the question without making me read about your life history for 10 minutes. I do ignore some rambling questions that send me to sleep…
  6. Do NOT post “are you sure” type questions – I simply HATE that. It is a huge waste of my time to have to deal with that type of follow up. Read my answer 10 times if you need, but unless you are CONVINCED I misunderstood or answered incorrectly, don’t ask me the same thing I just answered.
  7. Post your question once and wait for a reply. Sometimes your post won’t show up on the public page until I approve it. That doesn’t mean you should post the same question 5 more times. Just wait.
  8. If following up to a question you already asked – use “REPLY” to keep the questions in context. I see an administrators view of the questions – I don’t always see that one question is close to your previous question, but I am able to jump to the thread if you use reply.
  9. Don’t expect me to know everything about life in all the countries around the world. You may not have left country A – but you should consider that the world does not all work the same way as country A.
  10. Tell the truth. Don’t lie to me. I hate it – and it is pointless. This process requires honesty. So do I.
  11. Keep your data private. Your case number should be quoted with region and year, but you don’t need to give me, or anyone else, a precise number. Give a range by “X-ing out” the last few digits. So – if your number is 2023AF000012345, you can quote your number as 2023AF12XXX. That tells me you are about the 12000 to 13000 range in AF region in 2023.
  12. Every year I get a few characters that drive me nuts. There is the person that asks every single question that pops into their head. If someone is making use of the info here, that should not be necessary. Take some responsibility for your own case. Second I get some smartasses that get uppity with me over one thing or another. I could argue for England, I enjoy a good argument, but this isn’t the place for that and I am too busy. I will not hesitate to delete messages I find annoying or damaging to other people’s chances. Some people are amazed when I do that – but this is my blog. If you want to argue because you think you know better, just find somewhere else to do that. I’m not interested in feeding your ego, and I don’t care if you think I am arrogant, mean, a tyrant or whatever. Really – I don’t care, so those “accusations” don’t hurt me.
  13. This space reserved for any other rules I think of, whenever I think of them.