The VB was late again, so this is continuing the new pattern. This exact pattern has been the case for four months running – so we should now expect the same timing – VB around the 17th/18th of the month .

Nice big jumps in the regions, especially EU which is as I expected – so that should calm a few people down.

RegionAll DV Chargeability Areas Except
Those Listed Separately		 
AFRICA31,500Except:  Egypt  22,000
ASIA12,500Except:  Iran     7,600
               Nepal  8,800
EUROPE21,000 
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) 9 
OCEANIA1,625 
SOUTH AMERICA,
and the CARIBBEAN		1,300 

Those that are current, and have forms processed early enough, they can expect their 2NL in about 1 to 2  weeks from now. This is the same every month. VB from the 8th to the 15th of each month (although more recently it has been published a few days later – around the 17th/18th), and 2NLs in the second half of the month. For the last few months there have been 2NLs sent in two main batches, some early (around the 15th to 20th) and then some in the later part of the month. I would expect the 2NLs to have all been sent by the end of this month. The end of the month really means THE END OF THE MONTH. Please don’t waste my time later this month asking about 2NLs. Please. They can be sent right up until the last day of the month.

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.