Region All DV Chargeability Areas Except
Those Listed Separately
AFRICA 2,750 Except: Egypt  1,900
ASIA 1,000 Except: Iran    800
Nepal  600
EUROPE 2,000
NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) 4
OCEANIA 100
SOUTH AMERICA,
and the CARIBBEAN		 150

 

This is for October interviews and is the first VB for the DV2019 year.

We can see the numbers have started low. No need to panic – that is somewhat normal. I suspect they are giving themselves time to handle the last minute craziness of DV2018 before spending a lot of energy and resources on DV2019 interviews. Also, remember they divide the work over the whole year – so there is a increase in these numbers each month.

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, 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. But given the low numbers that may not be necessary.

For DV2018 winners – remember this VB is NOTHING to do with your numbers – this is just DV2019. There is a repeat of the September interviews numbers, but as expected, there is no change to those numbers. There are NO further numbers being released for DV2018.

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.