First let me address people checking their results and later on this page I have some comments for winners. Please read the whole page carefully and note the embedded links. Click the links. Read. Please.

Britsimon

As I write this it is almost midnight on the East Coast America and 9pm in California on the evening of May 8, 2019. The DV lottery results were published 36 hours ago. It is early morning in Asia, and people in Africa and Europe are still mostly asleep but waking up. I explain that for some context for what I am about to explain.

I received HUNDREDS of messages yesterday from people frustrated because the DV lottery Entrant Stats Check page has been crashing and was unavailable for much of the past 36 hours. Some people have managed to check their results, but traffic to the site is still high and the site will most likely continue to be difficult to check for another day at least. It did come back online for a few hours this evening – but traffic has once again caused outages.

So – as I mentioned in my earlier post, to avoid frustration just don’t bother trying to check every five minutes. Learn some patience and leave it for a few hours or even days and then check. This is a long process, there is NO ADVANTAGE in checking early, and there is no race to start the process. EVERY winner will wait at least 6 months after today before ANY interviews. Some cases will wait almost 18 months. So what is the hurry????

Now I am, predictably, getting many messages from people that cannot enter their details correctly. They swear they are following directions on the site but the site rejects their entry. As of this time I do NOT believe their is any system problem stopping checking other than availability of the system. So – people that do get through are most likely just not following instructions. I created a post to help people check their results and that post is here. Please click this link and read how to accurately check your entry.

I am also getting questions from people that lost their confirmation code. On the ESC page there is a link that reads “Forgot Confirmation Code” or similar. Click that and follow directions to retrieve your code.

For winners

First – congratulations on your selection! Please read the letter you saw, it points out that among other things, selection for further processing does NOT guarantee a Green Card. There are minimum requirements that must be met and there are a limited number of visas. It is not first come first served, there is an order to the process (Case number order in each region).

Please understand this is a long slow process. Very few of the winners will be interviewed this year. Most winners will be interviewed in 2020. So slow down and take some time to read about the process. I have produced a lottery guide, a guide on completing the DS260 and literally hundred of articles and a FAQ to help you avoid mistakes. Please go through those things. The lottery guide link is at the top of each page as is the FAQ. Most questions are answered if you read that information. I am one person, I have a really busy full time job and spend much of my free time helping DV lottery selectees like you, but you can make my task easier with a little effort on your side. Please respect my time and take your opportunity seriously.

About the DS260. I recommend that NO ONE completes that form until they know what they are doing. The form is a formal application for immigrant visa. Completing it has implications and completing it badly can cause disqualification. So STOP and learn before you jump into completing that form. There is no advantage to completing it fast, and most of you will have to wait months or even a year before ANYTHING happens on your case.

Now a word about the selectee numbers and the implications of the case numbers. Of the case numbers I am hearing of selected winners I am hearing some very high case numbers, MUCH higher than the past couple of years. Each year, KCC select more winners than there are visas available, knowing that some will not continue the process, some will not meet requirements and so on. However, they vary how many selectees are drawn. Ideally they should select less than 100,000 people including family members. In some years they have selected around 80k people and that means almost everyone can get an interview, and in other years they have selected 125k or even 140k people. That is far too many and inevitably some people never get invited to interview – there are numeric cutoffs imposed (varying numbers by region) and case numbers above those numbers will not get an interview. No interview means no Green Card. It’s a tough realization, but that could happen in any year.

So – as of today we do not know how many selectees have been selected. We will find that out in a month or two, but until then all we know is case numbers. However a couple of important points about case numbers.

  • Each case number represents a winner AND whatever eligible family members (spouse and children under 21) they have. Each one will take a visa slot for one of the 50,000 visas available. So a family of 5 takes 5 of the 50k.
  • Next, you need to understand that cases are not consecutive. There are “holes” between the numbers. So the numbers might go 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 and so on. 3, 4 and 7 in that example are “holes”. We don’t know how many holes there are yet and we don’t know how many selectees there are overall. So if you have case number 10001, there are not 10000 cases in front of you. There are less than that. Now – although the numbers I am hearing sound very high, it is possible that there are more holes than usual. No one knows. To understand why the holes are there at all, please read this “holes theory” article. Just note that the word theory is in the scientific sense. We KNOW this theory is a fact, and have proven it in many different ways.

Once we know how many selectees have been chosen, we will know more. Until then you can review the historical bulletin numbers (link above) to see what happened in previous years.

Within a day or two I will post again and will guide you through the process. This process demands honesty and respect, and so do I. I am not here to help liars, I am not here to be taken advantage of. I do this because I want to, and I am someone who has benefited from the DV lottery process.

Lastly let me start your journey with a word you will need to learn over the coming months. Patience. Patience is key in this process. Please remember that.