K-1 & Diversity Visa Lottery

[Asackerm 0]

Just now, SusieQQQ said:

Haven’t read all the posts but yes he can. I was just this past year helping on another forum, a K1 beneficiary who got selected for DV. There are huge advantages to both partners IF you get selected - regardless  timeline - most notably no i864 for USC spouse and immediate unconditional green card for foreign citizen. Yes of course chances of being selected are small, but they are above the zero chance you have if you don’t even enter. You gotta be in it to win it. 
 

fun fact : both my current boss and I are dv visa winners. People do get selected!

Thank you!  I know the chances are slim (wish I knew about this last year so he could have applied then as well, but this whole immigration this is totally new to me and my family) but if no one applied because their chances were slim, no one would win. 🙂  worth a shot as long as it doesn’t hurt anything. 

[Rocio0010 5,573]

He can and should apply. It's a small chance, but you never know. As @SusieQQQ has said, people do win. 

I just wanted to bring some reassurance as to why it's not going to hurt. Both the K1 and the DV are immigrant visa, meaning, the applicant is open about their immigrant intent to the US. Same as a K1 and a H1b visa, which is a dual intent.

The problem lies in cases where the beneficiary wants to a apply for a tourist visa when they are also planning or have applied for a K1. Usually those tourist visas are denied because USCIS assumes that the applicant just wants to skip the line. Additionally, coming on a tourist visa with the intent to marry is fraud. A tourist visa is a non- immigrant one, while a K1 or a CR1 is an immigrant visa. Still, if you were in that scenario, a denial of a tourist visa is not necessarily going to hurt the other application.

Hope that makes sense. To summarize, he can and should apply and have both applications active at the same time.

[Asackerm 0]

2 minutes ago, Rocio0010 said:

Hope that makes sense. To summarize, he can and should apply and have both applications active at the same time.

Thank you! We will do so!

[centric23 95]

As a former DV lottery winner, go for it!

[Kanja 201]

If I understand correctly, with DV you are more so competing with applicants in your country because they select a percentage based on the population and how many people applied from your fiancés country . It’s not a lottery where you are going against all the applicants . Hence why because my country is so small I suppose, I personally know of at least twenty people who have won the lottery which is pretty unheard of. 

[Asackerm 0]

5 minutes ago, Kanja said:

If I understand correctly, with DV you are more so competing with applicants in your country because they select a percentage based on the population and how many people applied from your fiancés country . It’s not a lottery where you are going against all the applicants . Hence why because my country is so small I suppose, I personally know of at least twenty people who have won the lottery which is pretty unheard of. 

That’s really fascinating! This is all brand new to me. He’s from Argentina so I’m assuming the pool will be pretty large. 

[Kanja 201]

Just now, Asackerm said:

That’s really fascinating! This is all brand new to me. He’s from Argentina so I’m assuming the pool will be pretty large. 

Yes- but worth a try. Two close relatives won, one of them migrated with it and the other didn’t pursue it because someone else had petitioned for her. 

[Cathi 5,624]

7 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Haven’t read all the posts but yes he can. I was just this past year helping on another forum, a K1 beneficiary who got selected for DV. There are huge advantages to both partners IF you get selected - regardless  timeline - most notably no i864 for USC spouse and immediate unconditional green card for foreign citizen. Yes of course chances of being selected are small, but they are above the zero chance you have if you don’t even enter. You gotta be in it to win it. 
 

fun fact : both my current boss and I are dv visa winners. People do get selected!

My husband's sister and his best friend both applied for DV lottery and won, His sister in 2019, his best friend in 2020. Both from Jordan. You will never win if you don't try and it's free, so you literally have nothing to lose.

[SusieQQQ 11,585]

1 hour ago, Kanja said:

If I understand correctly, with DV you are more so competing with applicants in your country because they select a percentage based on the population and how many people applied from your fiancés country . It’s not a lottery where you are going against all the applicants . Hence why because my country is so small I suppose, I personally know of at least twenty people who have won the lottery which is pretty unheard of. 

The quotas are based regionally not by country,  so your chances of being selected roughly equal the # of people from your country who enter as % of # of people in the region who enter, then that as a proportion of the region’s total quota within the 55k selectees.  
 

Edit : Sierra Leone only has 552 selectees in the latest year , so maybe it’s just you know a lot of people  

Edited October 21, 2022 by SusieQQQ

[SusieQQQ 11,585]

39 minutes ago, Cathi said:

My husband's sister and his best friend both applied for DV lottery and won, His sister in 2019, his best friend in 2020. Both from Jordan. You will never win if you don't try and it's free, so you literally have nothing to lose.

Not just that, but if he gets selected, even if the interview would be a bit later than a k1, the advantages of immigrating via DV so far outweigh that of K1 or even CR1 that I’d recommend the short extra wait anyway. But let hin first get selected before we start strategizing  

[Kanja 201]

7 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

The quotas are based regionally not by country,  so your chances of being selected roughly equal the # of people from your country who enter as % of # of people in the region who enter, then that as a proportion of the region’s total quota within the 55k selectees.  
 

Edit : Sierra Leone only has 552 selectees in the latest year , so maybe it’s just you know a lot of people  

Thanks so much for that clarification! 
 

it  wasn’t in the last year they were all selected, it’s over the past five -seven years, but I know folks from other countries that no absolutely nobody who was selected.

 

[Rocio0010 5,573]

1 hour ago, Asackerm said:

That’s really fascinating! This is all brand new to me. He’s from Argentina so I’m assuming the pool will be pretty large. 

Oh cool!! Buenos Aires? Im from Cordoba. We do have a WhatsApp group for Argentinian filers, if he wants added send me a DM. No spam, I promise 

[SusieQQQ 11,585]

24 minutes ago, Kanja said:

Thanks so much for that clarification! 
 

it  wasn’t in the last year they were all selected, it’s over the past five -seven years, but I know folks from other countries that no absolutely nobody who was selected.

 

Well, the selectee numbers and entry numbers are published so actual rather than anecdotal data is easily sourced,

[SusieQQQ 11,585]

1 hour ago, Asackerm said:

That’s really fascinating! This is all brand new to me. He’s from Argentina so I’m assuming the pool will be pretty large. 

Well - not really, a lot of Latin America/South America isn’t eligible for DV (it’s only for countries with lower rates of immigration to the US) so the regional quota is not that big, around 3500 of the total 55k. Argentina only had 133 selectees last year. But here’s the interesting thing, Cuba had about 10 x the selectees of Argentina despite it has about a quarter of Argentina’s population. But a lot more people enter from there. Again … it’s about being in it. 

[Asackerm 0]

43 minutes ago, Rocio0010 said:

Oh cool!! Buenos Aires? Im from Cordoba. We do have a WhatsApp group for Argentinian filers, if he wants added send me a DM. No spam, I promise 

Oh how cool! He’s from BA but working in Cordoba.