therealme

An embassy employee will verify that all your docs are complete, and then you will pay, and then you will have interviewed. You can pay in EGP or USD.

In California, Medi-Cal is available for low-income, so if one is immigrating on DV with no prior work or residency in the U.S., what "income" does one have? Is it $0, or the foreign income is used!? Same for Planned Parenthood, what income would be looked into!? And if it's the foreign one, how does one prove it?

>>> DV2015 selectees can also apply for DV2016 with no worries, right?

Yup.

I know others do apply, but is there any official confirmation / writing that's ok to do so?

I think that is because Bangladesh was still eligible till DV2012. It had a very high rejection rate of visas, so they would have had higher cut offs for a given amount of expected visa issuances.

Edit: it's also a bit confusing that you have an AS number but list Egypt as your country. Were you born elsewhere and currently resident in Egypt?

Yeah, born in Emirates.

My case number is AS 5xxx, my guess is that it would be around May 2015. However, in DV 2010-2012, around 8K were processed in first month. Why was that and would 2015 be like 2013 and 2014?

You can travel on it as long as the purpose for which you are travelling on it is consistent with the visa, that is, short trips for tourism or business, and you do not intend entering on that to stay and adjust status. So you can use it to visit, but then go back to your home country afterwards - and then eventually do the visa interview there. (You would never have been allowed to work on that visa - but I presume you knew that.)

Bear in mind also that the process for returning forms etc is different for AOS vs consular processing so if you are outside the US you can't tell them you want to adjust a status you don't have. In the absence of existing legal status in the US you will be scheduled an interview at the consulate you indicate when you send in the form.

So basically until I "enter" the US on a DV visa, I cannot even think about pursuing a full-time or internship position there, because these would require dual-intent?

Also someone correct me if necessary but as far as I understand H1 is the only dual intent visa (ie non-immigrant but recognised as path to immigrant) - with any other job or student visa you cannot come over with the purpose of adjusting status to permanent resident while here. (It's different if you are already in the US on one of those and then you win, as your intent was still non-immigrant when you entered the US on it.)

So I already have a B1/B2 Visa, does this mean I can no longer travel to the U.S. till I get a DV visa because B1/B2 is not dual intent?

I'm a bit confused by your questions. You can't adjust status unless you are already legally in the US BUT you cannot go to the US on a non-immigrant visa for the purpose of adjusting status.

Your interview is the same month that your number is current for.

Can I ask under what visa you were planning to "move to the US regardless"?

I've already planned on soon applying for jobs, and not to sound too cocky, but given the experience it's likely that I could get offers within the next few months. I don't want to do that however if I know DV will be a problem.

If the interview is in the same month, so when should I do the medical examination? Should I do it like when I know that in the next month my number will be called for?

And do you know if there anything that we need to do or documents we have to prepare before May 19?

I have a few questions on DV2015 that I hope you guys could help with.

1. Can we adjust status anytime? We're now in our home country, but we were considering moving to the states anyway regardless of DV. Let's say our interview is in March, can we move there any time or there's a point where we can no longer move? And if we can't Adjust Status at any time, can we move any come back to do the interview at its date?

2. Let's say that based on previous years I know that my number would likely be in December or January, when they set my interview date, how long after that is it? Like 1 month, 2 months, or what? I am asking because some documents can't be pre-preppared beforehand like the Medical Examination and Police Records.

3. How long does it usually take after the interview to get the landing visa?

4. Is there anything that we need to do or documents we have to prepare before May 19?

Thanks. :-)