RegionAll DV Chargeability Areas Except
Those Listed Separately
 
AFRICACURRENT 
ASIACURRENT 
EUROPECURRENT 
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) CURRENT 
OCEANIACURRENT 
SOUTH AMERICA,
and the CARIBBEAN
CURRENT

Just to be clear – this Visa Bulletin is about DV2020, NOT DV2021.

Now as you can see, every case number has been made current (with the removing of the exceptions for Egypt and Nepal). That means ANY case number can be interviewed, but of course this will be affected by the status of the embassies in each country. As I have explained, there is not enough time to conduct all the interviews needed, so by making every region current they have at least given cases the best chance possible. Actual cases interviewed will depend on whether people had submitted the required documents, and then embassy capacity. I was concerned that they would retrogress the numbers (reduce them) but I am relieved they have not decided to do that.

This is also very good news for cases wanting to adjust status in the USA as those people can now submit their I-485 packages.

The Executive order that caused a ban for immigration for 60 days is over in a few days and there is no sign of it being extended at the moment, although that is not to see it cannot be extended.

To those new to looking at VBs, let me explain what the “except” XXX country means – and you can also read this post on how to read the visa bulletin.

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 shown as under the new number can be interviewed but for cases from Egypt, that number is lower. 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.

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