Please watch this video to understand why the case numbers being assigned to UK selectees are so dramatically high.
Heath Insurance for immigrants
Please watch this video to understand why the case numbers being assigned to UK selectees are so dramatically high.
© 2026 BritSimonSays.com — Powered by WordPress
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
October 4, 2025 at 09:13
I just got selected but at 46k. I do wonder if anybody who is not UK has higher numbers than that? Is it the case that the UK people are essentially all the last ones in the draw?
Seems ridiculous if so.
October 4, 2025 at 09:34
Hi Joe, welcome! We conducted an online poll of winners (link below) which suggests that the highest EU numbers (before UK was added) were about 47/48K – call it 50k for round numbers. There are UK cases from zero to 189K at least, so the government didn’t just start from the end of the normal draw – the numbers that have been given to UK winners were already assigned during the original draw process.
Now – the real question is how many selectees (which includes derivatives) are there in EU in that first 50K. We don’t know that yet, because the government have not published the selectee numbers as they usually do (probably because of my lawsuit). However, because they have basically now conceded my allegations in the lawsuit they will probably show us the selectee numbers in the next visa bulletin.
DV2023, 24 and 25 selectees for the EU region were 40k, 50k and 43k respectively. All those are “too many” since there are only about 19k visas available for EU from the global quota. That means it is LIKELY that we will have a final VB number limit below the 50K at some point. But how close that number will get to your 46K number is the million dollar question. There are many factors that will go into that, including how over selected they are, the travel ban, the governments’ diligence and desire to issue all the visas and so on. We will know more later, but for now I would guess your case number is “risky” – so you should consider delaying filing the DS260 for a while since filing is a sign of “immigrant intent”.
Here is the poll I mentioned
https://dv26poll.xarthisius.xyz/
October 4, 2025 at 10:07
Thanks for this. I assume you mean “EU numbers (before UK was added)”.
I imagine it will be very risky, quite unlikely to actually get through.
Are the numbers not sequential?
October 4, 2025 at 10:20
Yes I meant EU numbers – good catch.
The numbers are “sequential” in that they are logically ordered, but not all numbers are winning cases. This is because of the draw process creates “holes” between the numbers. This is explained in the video below.
https://youtu.be/Hez198BF1kU?si=x-hd0T1cLG3z5xAU
October 4, 2025 at 11:13
Thanks for your help. What makes you say that “the numbers that have been given to UK winners were already assigned during the original draw process”? Were UK applicants drawn and then disqualified afterwards? Or is it possible that they were simply not drawn and the numbers that have been assigned were preexisting “holes”?
Thanks again for your hard work Simon, it’s a very noble cause and the USDOS sure doesn’t make it easy…
October 4, 2025 at 13:03
My video does explain that. They were in the original draw, but the numbers were “hidden” – made into holes. So this draw wasn’t a new draw – it was the same random assignment process that every case went through.
October 4, 2025 at 05:05
Hi Simon, I’m from the UK and got an email yesterday about my entry saying
“ In reviewing our entry selection system for the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, the U.S. Department of State has determined that your selection result may have been previously incorrectly reported on the Entrant Status Check. ”
After checking I can see that I was selected with a case number of 97,xxx. From what I understand this basically means my chances are extremely unlikely? Appreciate the video as I was very confused about others reporting highest number they’d seen being at 50xxx.
October 4, 2025 at 08:12
Yes your understanding is correct. In most years the government over select the number of winners in order to have backups. We don’t know the number of EU selectees for DV2026 yet, but it is likely to be “too many”. If it is too many, then there will be no reason to make the region “current” by the end of the year, and therefore there would be a final number restriction in place. In that scenario, most of the UK “winners” won’t get a chance.
October 2, 2025 at 21:54
Did your daughter get her interview in the end Simon?
October 2, 2025 at 22:30
No, she wasn’t selected.
October 2, 2025 at 06:45
Hi Simon, do you have an email address that I can contact you on? I want to discuss an issue i’ve been having with the system. Thanks
October 2, 2025 at 09:38
I answer questions publicly here so that others may benefit from the answers.
October 2, 2025 at 06:03
Thanks again for all the work you’re doing Simon.
My thoughts on this are basically that, for those of us with high case numbers, we should never have been picked. We should have seen a “not selected” notice and forgotten about it until maybe DV-27 and beyond.
So, I think that’s probably the best approach for us to take. I suppose looking on the bright side, this potential glitch has given those of us who wouldn’t have been selected a real, albeit small, chance, if Europe does go current. Or – on the off chance that this is indeed intentional and it isn’t just a State Department mistake.
I’ll keep an eye out on your blog for more info as time goes on. Curiously, I still can’t get into my DS-260. Not sure if this is a clean up operation or if it’s just a general CEAC glitch.
Thanks again!
Joe
October 2, 2025 at 09:40
I think you are correct in your thinking.
The system has a glitch at the moment for everyone.
October 2, 2025 at 04:57
Hello Mr. Simon, you mentioned that in 2024 the EU region cut-off number was 50,000. At the same time, you explained that within the range of 30,000 to 50,000 only a relatively small number of people were actually selected, and those selectees could have case numbers anywhere in that span, for example 31,000 or 48,000. Could you kindly clarify how this process works? On what basis are applicants within such a large range chosen? Is the assignment of these case numbers entirely random, since it does not seem to follow a strict sequential order?
October 2, 2025 at 09:44
The video above explained the draw process being entirely random. Yes there is a resuction of case density in the three big regions, that is because some countries are “limited” during the draw because they have a very high number of entries. I have explained that in detail in other videos if you are interested. However, what I said was that the number of interviews in DV2025 between 30 and 50k was very low – far lower than the selectees in that range. This is because not every embassy could accommodate these interviews in the final month. In other words the jump in numbers was unjustified.
October 4, 2025 at 09:11
Do you have numbers on which embassies ran out of slots?
October 4, 2025 at 09:21
Well yeah – pretty much all of them. For example – there were 2405 real cases between 40000 and 50000. All of those were “current”, but only 47 of those cases got interviews.
All the data is available here:
https://dvcharts.xarthisius.xyz/ceacFY24.html#
October 7, 2025 at 15:39
I’m trying to decide which embassy to use for the best chance to get an interview. I’m eligible for a few as I have multiple passports and live abroad. Is there a particular way I should interpret this data? Are there any that are better known for being efficient? Thank you!
October 7, 2025 at 16:01
1st choice is to interview where you live. You only start looking for alternatives if that choice is bad.