DV Lottery Interviews London

[Wilberwhistle 0]

Hi All,

I am an Australian and was lucky enough to win the DV Lottery for 2018. I am extremely excited but just trying to wrap my head around interview timing.

I am currently living in London and will do my interview here in London. However, my UK visa expires at the end of April 2018 and I am concerned this is going to be close to when my Interview is Scheduled.

My case number is roughly 700 (of about 1400 visas for Oceania Region).

 

Does anyone have experience Interviewing in London or had to change their interview Location in an emergency?

I would really appreciate any insights.

Thanks very much

 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

It’s a hassle changing interview locations after they have been scheduled by KCC. “Emergency” changes don’t happen.

 

basically it works like this:

 

you submit your DS260. Assuming it’s in enough time to be processed (usually a couple of months), KCC will schedule your interview with the applicable embassy approximately 2 months before the interview (you’ll get the notification usually around 6 weeks before). If you change your location AFTER this has happened, it becomes a real pain. Once KCC has scheduled your interview, it sends your file to the applicable embassy and no longer has anything to do with the case. This means that the case now has to be transferred between embassies - in your case presumably from London to Sydney. London needs to get your file to Sydney , easy enough these days supposedly as it’s all electronic. Sydney then needs to find a slot to fit you in for an interview. Remember they will already have many slots filled up with DV and other visa interviews that have been scheduled for a couple of months, so a last minute request for an interview any time soon because you’ve changed embassies is highly unlikely to be possible. Sydney is not that busy from what I understand, so you’d probably get something within a month or two. There are some embassies that are really busy and people trying to do this (or even just to reschedule an original date at the same embassy) have ended up losing out by not getting a slot at all. So if you are looking at an embassy other than Sydney to relocate to i’d  be especially careful. But the bottom line really is that if at all possible, you don’t want to be changing locations. So a thought: It may be worth filling in your DS260 with your home address in Australia and plan to go back there for your interview even if it happens before your visa expires, just so you take this big potential complication out of the picture.

 

 

[Wilberwhistle 0]

Ok thanks for the advice Suzie.

I have just checked the britsimon historical data and mu number has typically come up in the Feburary Visa Bulletin. With this in mind do you think that would be very risky given my April 25 Visa expiration in London?

I think perhaps you're right and that a return to Australia may be the safest option? Is it a matter of just unlocking my DS-260 to change my preferred interview location to make that change?

Thanks again for your help!

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

 You’d have to make that decision yourself, bear in mind that speculation about interview timing is exactly that - there’s no guarantee of anything. Strange things happen in some years.

 

If you want to change it, unlock your DS and change the address, and I’d suggest send an email to KCC after that to ensure that they have the new interview location noted. 

Edited October 9, 2017 by SusieQQQ

[Wilberwhistle 0]

I think it sounds like the safest option given the unknowns involved. I will do that and then email KCC to ensure they received the change.  IS there a cutoff date to adjust the DS260 or is it able to be changed until the interview is scheduled?

 

 

 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

2 minutes ago, Wilberwhistle said:

I think it sounds like the safest option given the unknowns involved. I will do that and then email KCC to ensure they received the change.  IS there a cutoff date to adjust the DS260 or is it able to be changed until the interview is scheduled?

 

 

 

The latter, but seeing as you don’t know in advance when the interview is scheduled it’s better not to wait. (By the time the visa bulletin showing your number has been published, it will already have been scheduled for interview - then it takes another week or two for the letters to go out.) 

[Wilberwhistle 0]

Ok Great I will unlock it tonight and update it then email KCC. Thanks so much for your help I really appreciate it!

[Tahmina 0]

Is there dv lottery in london

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, Tahmina said:

Is there dv lottery in london

? What do you mean? You can enter anywhere, and interview at any US consulate that conducts immigrant visa interviews,  as long as you are eligible. Many people get their visas through the London embassy.

Edited October 29, 2019 by SusieQQQ