Spousal visa vs Diversity Lottery winners

[kareelina 42]

It is true and that makes me very angry and hate that a lot . I've been married for 4 years now and we still living apart , I tried to get a visiting visa but I got denied and the VO justified that by saying my ties to America are much stronger than my ties to my home land because my US husband has a house there in America. while a friend of mine applied for the Green Card lottery , she has no body in America neither a house nor a family to support her , she won the lottery and traveled to America with her husband and two girls , so we applied for IR-1 but my husband could not take us there because he is retired and his social security is not enough.

Now the question is that , how come the American government accept about 5000 immigrant via Green card lottery while they have nobody there, neither a job nor a house . and refused my husband petition because his income is not enough although he owns a house and I can work there I am very well highly educated .

There is no justice at all , it is totally insane.

[EmilyW 1,226]

For your information, diversity lottery winners have to have to meet minimum education requirements and prove they won't be a public charge. I have three degrees, a six figure salary and six figures in savings. I've been continuously employed for nearly twenty years and have never received a cent of welfare.

Please don't lump all diversity lottery winners into one awful and inaccurate stereotype. Most of the Australian winners are highly educated and competent and represent no risk to the US, which is why we are issued visas.

Edited September 12, 2015 by EmilyW

[mallafri76 1,012]

I find it funny that you think the DV wait time is reasonable but the wait time you have to endure for a spousal visa is not reasonable.

I find it funny that you think a year is a reasonable time frame for a spousal visa. If you have no ties to the US, yes a year to process sounds reasonable. With immediate family in the US, it should NOT take a year before you can be together. And yes, obviously someone married to a USC or LPR should have a faster timeframe than someone immigrating based on winning a green card. But that's not the lottery winners fault, that's the US immigration system that's messed up.

It's not our fault that the immigration process for the diversity lottery is structured the way it is.

I'm not saying the process for spousal visas is fair. My brother is doing AOS after marrying his American wife and it's taking forever. But to compare apples and oranges (which is the case when comparing spousal visas (which are for the purposes of reunion) and diversity lottery visas (which are for an entirely different purpose of introducing diversity to the American community) is a problematic one.

I wasn't saying it's your fault how the diversity lottery is structured. You've won it fair and square and you're going through the process as decided by the US government. I'm just using the process of green card lottery winners as a mean to show how the spousal visa process is in dire need of change.

[EmilyW 1,226]

I wasn't saying it's your fault how the diversity lottery is structured. You've won it fair and square and you're going through the process as decided by the US government. I'm just using the process of green card lottery winners as a mean to show how the spousal visa process is in dire need of change.

On this, I agree with you 100%. My brother's AOS took almost as long as our visa process, which is insanity, given they had been living together before getting married for nearly five years, had a mortgage together, shared all bank accounts etc.

I think there is a case to be made that spousal visas should operate with the same efficiency as the diversity lottery visas. Because ours operate on a fiscal year basis, there is a sense of urgency about making sure things are processed so as to meet the 50,000 quota by 30 September). Without the fiscal year sense of urgency, spousal visas can and will drag.

We ought to run the USCIS, Mallafri76!

Edited September 12, 2015 by EmilyW

[mallafri76 1,012]

I think there is a case to be made that spousal visas should operate with the same efficiency as the diversity lottery visas. Because ours operate on a fiscal year basis, there is a sense of urgency about making sure things are processed so as to meet the 50,000 quota by 30 September). Without the fiscal year sense of urgency, spousal visas can and will drag.

We ought to run the USCIS, Mallafri76!

Now that's a good idea, running the spousal visa on the fiscal year as well.

EmilyW, if we ran the USCIS and NVC, I'm sure we could cut the process time in half and make it much more efficient.

[Adil & Jeanne 296]

Talk about unfair:

visa lottery winner was able to go back and marry and bring wife here even though she didn't speak any English. i had to prove where Adil studied English.and how i learned Arabic.

He lived in rooming house with 4 other men and i had to prove i owned a house.

I was even told i had to put his name on the deed to show co-mingling funds and this is suppose to be a step for citzenship later on

Is this person sure they won the lottery? The application you do for visa lottery is done this year starting October and in open only a month and now the applications are for 2017 visa. sounds actually like she got a scam notice and she will be asked for money and is not real as the applicaiton process is now closed and doesn't open till October.

It is not really a fast process. She could not have applied this spring or summer

Edited September 12, 2015 by Adil & Jeanne

[aaron2020 11,651]

Talk about unfair:

visa lottery winner was able to go back and marry and bring wife here even though she didn't speak any English. i had to prove where Adil studied English.and how i learned Arabic.

He lived in rooming house with 4 other men and i had to prove i owned a house.

I was even told i had to put his name on the deed to show co-mingling funds and this is suppose to be a step for citzenship later on

You are working with missing information. It's not about English. It's about how husband and wife communicate with each other.

If the DV winner and his bride both speak the same language, then why does she need to know English to have a relationship with him?

The reason you were asked how Adil spoke English and how you learned Arabic is to see how you two communicate with each other. Presumably a couple should be able to communicate with each other,no?

Owning a house is not a requirement. It's income. Lacking income, it's a Joint Sponsor.

Nothing unfair about asking how a husband and wife communicate with each other. The DV winner going back to marry has to meet the same I-864 requirement that you did, so how is that unfair?

Edited September 12, 2015 by aaron2020

[mallafri76 1,012]

refused my husband petition because his income is not enough although he owns a house and I can work there I am very well highly educated .

There is no justice at all , it is totally insane.

This is another thing I find very wrong with the spousal visa. The financial requirements are outdated and unfair. Why shouldn't the foreign spouse's ability to find a job or even a current job offer be taken into consideration when filing the i-864?!?! I find this view completely outdated, that somehow the foreign spouse needs to be taken care of. In many instances, the foreign spouse is the main provider in the family, like for you and me, so why shouldn't that factor into the equation?!

Not to mention the asset part of the i-864, when you can't meet the federal poverty guidelines through a salary and where the assets are in the foreign spouse's name. Luckily, I'm from a country where the US embassy accept assets in the foreign spouse's name, so we'll be able to meet the financial requirements through assets in my Swedish bank but in other countries, that's not allowed. How unfair is that for others from the "wrong" country?