Hank1

You can check on the same website that you checked originally to see if you were selected

https://www.dvlottery.state.gov/ESC/(S(sbjk4iarljypiopmp2b5hld3))/Secure/StatusCheck.aspx

It will only change to new notification once your number is current. You can check if your number is current either on this Forum (there is usually an update) or on the official site

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/bulletin.html

I'm afraid your daughter won't be able to apply as a derivative this time. It is not within the gift of the visa officer to give her a green card. There are limited number available. However, all hope is not lost. Your daughter can be petitioned for at a later time-under the Family Sponsored Category. Once you get your green card, you can apply for your daughter to join you as long as she remains single.You also must be physically in the United States when she goes for her interview. You are after all applying for her to "join" you, and if you are in Canada, that won't work. It can take 2-3 years for the family based petition to be heard.

You need to fill out I-130 form.

• Second Preference (2B): Unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents

Here is some info

http://www.uscis.gov/family/family-us-citizens

Sorry I can't give you better news.

Hello,

I really appreciate if anyone can answer my questions.

My case number is AS83XX and I submitted my DS260 in June 2014.

I am from IRAN.

When should I expect to receive my interview notification?

How do I receive it? by email or should I check my status in a website?

How much Money should I show during my interview for each person? Is showing a home ownership in Toronto would be accepted?

Many thanks

You should get your interview in June, (give or take a month). Which means you get your second letter in April ( if the rate of progress is the same as 2014).

You should get an email, but it can go astray at times so do check the website when your number has become current.

How much money you need depends on your family size and where in US you intend to settle, what qualification/job experience/ prospects etc. if you have.

Convertible assets such as stocks and shares are also good. There are further details on the US Gov website

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86988.pdf

I think 10K CAD is not going to be sufficient. You need a little bit more. However cash in the bank is not the only criteria.

Read this

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86988.pdf

There is also guide for the poverty

http://aspe.hhs.gov/POVERTY/14poverty.cfm

If you are on your own, you probably need 11,000 USD at the minimum.

Thanks for your answer! How old were your bank statements at the time of the interview?

What about stocks statement?

Your best bet is to ask the Embassy where you are having your interview. They are pretty good at replying to these kind of questions. The stock statement is a good indication of level of wealth, but should be in your name and usually not more than a month old. If the bank doesn't issue statements more frequently than annual, they can surely be asked for a one off confirmation letter. But as I said, your best option is to ask the embassy directly and take the reply email with you so there is no dispute. Don't rely on guesswork.

Here are some quotes from the various rules:

If you are abroad for 6 months or more per year, you risk “abandoning” your green card. This is especially true after multiple prolonged absences or after a prior warning by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer at the airport.The officer may ask questions such as:

• Where have you been outside the U.S.?
• For how long?
• What were you doing there?
• Why are you coming to the U.S. now?
• What ties did you keep to the U.S. during your absence?

If it appears you have abandoned your LPR status and you’re not willing to voluntarily give it up, the CBP officer may refer you to Immigration Court for a judge to determine whether you have lost your LPR status.

The most conservative strategy to avoid abandonment (and to qualify for naturalization, if you wish) is to keep the U.S. as your main home, reducing your absences accordingly–in other words, sleeping more nights in the U.S. than elsewhere. But this may not be practical for everybody.

Here’s the most concise definition of temporary, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit:

There is a 6-month rule of a sort: It says that an LPR returning from abroad doesn’t even count as applying to CBP for “admission” (i.e., CBP won’t question his or her qualifications to enter) if he or she meets the following requirements, among others:

• he or she has been abroad for under 180 days; and
• he or she has not abandoned LPR status by making a trip abroad that isn’t “temporary.”

My point here is that being abroad for under 6 months (actually 180 days) is one of the requirements but is not enough–the trips abroad must still fall within the judicial definition of “temporary.” The clearest example is the “touchdown” situation: somebody who lives abroad but who briefly “touches down” in the U.S. once every 5 months for vacation. This person has abandoned LPR status so should not be readmitted as an LPR, despite keeping every trip abroad under 6 months.

Since the judicial definition of “temporary” is nebulous, here are some guidelines for avoiding abandonment of LPR status:

• Being abroad for over 180 days is one (but not the only) way to invite the CBP officer’s scrutiny as to whether you’ve abandoned LPR status.
• The safest way to avoid abandonment is to ensure that each year you are in the U.S. more than any single other country. For example, if you are in the U.S. 6 months a year, in France 4 months a year, and in Singapore 2 months a year, it is clear that your main home is in the U.S. (Your time in the U.S. doesn’t have to be continuous). This is the basic rule. It comes from the Immigration and Nationality Act’s definition of “residence,” which means one’s “place of general abode” or, in other words, one’s “principal, actual dwelling place in fact.”
• If you can’t do that, then you should document with clear evidence that your stays abroad are for a clear, temporary purpose and that you have retained ties to the U.S. that–in comparison to your ties abroad–evidence your intent to return to live here once your temporary stay abroad is over.
• If an LPR has been outside the U.S. more than one year straight, his or her green card (Form I-551, Permanent Resident Card) is not valid to reenter the U.S. In this situation, three options include: (a) present a valid reentry permit (discussed below); (b) apply at a U.S. Consulate abroad for an SB-1 Returning Resident Visa by convincing the consular officer that the stay abroad was temporary and its extension past one year was beyond your control; and © apply to a CBP officer at the port of entry for a “waiver” of the green card requirement by proving that the stay abroad was temporary and that there was “good cause” for not returning within one year.

A few key points:

• The I-131 must be submitted and received by USCIS while you are still in the U.S.
• You must remain in the U.S. until your Biometric appointment in connection with the I-131, or you must return to the U.S. for that appointment.
• In some but not all cases it can be helpful to submit with the I-131 evidence that your stay abroad will be temporary and that you will maintain ties to the U.S. during that stay abroad.
• To reenter the U.S. with the reentry permit, be prepared to show evidence that the purpose of your stay abroad was consistent with the temporary purpose stated in the I-131, and be prepared to back that up with evidence of the comparative strength of your U.S. ties compared to your ties abroad.

Hope this helps.

Hi,

I think you worry unnecessarily. Looking at the two spelling you have shown, the only difference I see is the use of letter C instead of Ç. And since the letter Ç is not in the lattin alphabet, it is natural for Italian documents to substitute it with C. I don't see a problem.

Hank1 what about my CN is it safe 13,6xx, its only a few hundred above 13,350 what percentage is it safe

I'm not from nepal or iran

I'm no expert. I am only going by the pattern of previous years which as I have said may or may not be the pattern this year. Judging from 2014 results you are in the danger zone, but fingers crossed you should make it. Look, as I have said to Mustafa above, the CN number is what it is. We all fret about it, but not much we can do. It is in the lap of the gods. I myself was asking others when my number would come up before I learned how to interpret the visa stats. Best thing to do is get your documents ready without spending too much money on it, and look up the visa bulletin at http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/bulletin.html

which is the official site and gets updated every month (around 10th or 12th day of the month, you can subscribe to be notified by email) and see how far it has gone. Currently it is up to February 2015 so 2 months ahead. By June or July you would be able to see if your number has come up or is likely to come up. That means you get about 6 weeks or more notice to get things that don't take much time sorted e.g. translation of documents, police check vaccination etc. How long they take to do would very much depend on the country at which you are residing (some take only a few days to do a police check like in UK, some take a month or two like Russia) so time it well so that you have all the documents you need ready before the interview. Given your relatively high number, you won't have time to go through a long Administrative Process if your documents are deficient. Each embassy has a slightly different requirement so make sure you read the embassy specific page but they all essentially want the same things. All in all I would say that you have a pretty good chance of making it.

Good luck

Mustafa my friend, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Nothing you can do if you get selected for AP and no one can predict it one way or another. No one here is a visa officer, and even those who have gone through the process just only done it once and in different embassies with different back grounds and were seen by different visa officers than everyone else. So I wouldn't fret too much. We all are just guessing, no one has an insight anymore than knowing the few facts that are available, such as the stats from previous years and what documents and qualifications are needed which are available from the official web sites anyway. No one can know for a fact if you get selected for AP or not, but I would have thought your chances are as good as anyone, so don't get put off. As you yourself have pointed out, Iran gets special treatment if anything and they have one of the highest DV migration rates maxing out their allocation every year, so I don't believe they would make it any harder for you than is necessary.

There is no way of predicting this year's numbers other than judging by previous years. However each year is unique, and sometimes new things happen. For example in previous years up to 2013, they used to only select about 110,000 people and so everyone would become current towards August, but in 2014 they picked a lot more (140,000 or so) and therefore the allocation only went up to certain numbers in each region (Asia was around 13,000). This year they have a new form (DS-260) and have picked around 125000 selectees so it is different from previous years and may not follow the same pattern. Having said that, it won't be massively different from 2014 judging by the numbers so far, all be it a bit faster. There are also countries like Iran and Nepal that have very high applicants and success rates so the numbers can jump if they hit the country limit, but jumping to 177xx from 3250 isn't on the cards I suspect. Moe likely to be in September if at all would be my guess. Good luck.

Here are some stats that may be useful. Not saying you get it or not, just that these are facts, draw your own conclusions.

This year (2015) there are 125,514 selectees compared with 2014 140,660. That should in theory mean more chance of getting an interview. Also there are 4,992 from Iran compared with 6,027 for 2014. So over a 1000 less selectees than last year for Iran. This should translate to a higher chance of getting an interview than last year, but not necessarily getting through. Can others who are more familiar with the process and statistical chances see a flaw in my logic?

Well I am talking about a badly designed form. If you notice the topic of this thread is the design of the form, not a general discussion about the ease or difficulty of migration. You were defending the design that there was a valid reason why they needed the information and all I did was point out the flaw in that logic. I'm not saying it should be easier or harder for people to migrate. Its just THIS FORM is not well designed.

That would make sense Susie, if the form let you leave gaps in the history, but it doesn't!. So they can't see any gaps. Unless it is correct and one address follows another and goes back to when you were 16, you get a red warning and can't save the form. These forms are designed badly and there is no excusing it. Just because other countries are just as bad or worse, only goes to show that Civil Service is bad around the world. Too much form and not enough substance.They could have achieved the same level of scrutiny by going back 10 years and then asking which countries you lived in. And if someone lied, there is no way of catching them. In most European countries other than some of the old Communist block,, people don't register with the government, so there is no data source to search. So if I were to say I lived at 23 High Street from 1980 to 1990, it would be nearly impossible for anyone including myself to check.

All,

Just thought I put this letter up for people to see. I think it is self explanatory.

Hank

AILA.pdf

And yet they keep asking for pointless information! What difference does it make what day I moved in to a student flat in 1986? And if someone wanted to lie, how could they possibly check?

It's clearly not a very well put together form. There is an objection letter from the American Law Society to the way a lot of questions seem to leave no room for ambiguity, such as what if you are on a trip to US when you are filling in the form?

And it seems to work in one way for some, and crash for others. Not much of guidance notes or much of anything really. And this idea of addresses back to when you were 16 is bonkers. All other countries that I know of or criminal check records usually ask for last 10 year. I don't see what they get out of it that they couldn't get by asking which countries you were resident in? Not many people would remember where there were 30 years ago and the day they moved in or out.

Yes Correct. Had me going for a while and couldn't see anyone else having had the same issue.

I just wanted to share some thing I just managed to figure out on the DS-260 Submission form. I managed to submit my form easy enough, but for my wife and son the submit button was grayed out and I initially thought it was because I was the main applicant and they didn't have to submit, but I was wrong. They each couldn't submit for different reasons

In my son's case, he couldn't submit until he opened the pdf file about "selective Service" registration. You MUST have Adobe installed for it to work and it is only a requirement to read for boys under 26, which is why it didn't come up on my application. It is basically a warning that you need to register for draft (national service) if you are between 18 and 26. Until you at least open this document the submit button won't work.

In the case of my wife's application it was more tricky.

Since she is not the primary applicant on a DV application, she doesn't technically have to fill in her education and work experience. We did fill it any way, but if we saved and came back to it, the system wouldn't hold the information and reset the page. The only way around it was to fill in the page and go all the way to submission in one go. If you stop and save and come back, they information was gone, and so the system thought the form was incomplete. I suppose if we had said No to the work experience and education, it might have worked, but then that wouldn't be true.

Anyway just thought I share this. All 3 of us now have confirmations for submission.

Hi,

I've just submitted my DS-260 form, and printed off the acknowledgement. Now on the front page it shows my application as complete, but my wife and son are showing as incomplete, but I can't submit them!!. Is that normal? May be I'm being stupid and there is only one application as I am the principal, but thought I ask.

Thanks and sorry if this has already been asked. Couldn't find it.

Thanks Susie,

where I got the "may be" from is the London Embassy Website which says " Divorce Decree or Death Certificate: Applicants who have previously been married should be prepared to submit evidence of the termination of the marriage (i.e. divorce decree or death certificate). Original documents or certified copies are acceptable. "

http://london.usembassy.gov/application_documents.html

​I would interpret "should be prepared" as they don't always ask for it, only if they think necessary. If it was "must be prepared", then it is unequivocal. Again as you rightly say, not clear if it is me who is the primary applicant that should have this or anyone, or if this is for applicants other than DV?

Happy to call them, but should I call the London office or the KCC? Would they reply to email queries? Because I rather have it in writing.

Best

Hank.

My wife was married in the 19807 for about a year to another chap in Russia. They got divorced, no kids, and she moved to UK in 1992. I met her and we got married in UK in 1997. She had all the correct divorce papers and so on, so no problems in the Registry office at the time. Since I won the DV2015, we are putting our papers together for the interview, but can't find her original Russian divorce papers. Does that matter? The help section says that "You may be asked to provide proof of dissolution of marriage" Not that you will. Also surely the fact that we are legally married in UK, must be enough to show she was divorced from the last one. Getting the divorce papers from Russia isn't going to be easy or cheap, so my question is would it be asked for? or should we chance it?

Thanks

Hank

Thanks Susie.Very helpful as always.

Cheers.

Thanks Susie. The trouble is I've read that from this year, you can not arrange an interview date, unless you have done your medical, and you have to take your criminal certificate with you to the medical examination and show it to the DR!!. Seems an odd way of doing it, but then there is this catch 22, that one can't arrange the interview time until one has done the medical exam, but then it expires if you do it too early. This is what it says on the embassy website

So if they will not schedule an interview, when does one get the certificate? I appreciate this is a new requirement from this year and no one had any experince of this, but I thought I ask.

Hi,

My case number is 2015AS00008xxx

and my interview will be at the London Embassy. Any ideas as to when that would be? Because of course I need to get the police certificate first, then arrange for the medical and if I'm too early it will expire.

Thanks

Hank

Thanks Susie. I hope you are right. I feel these things are always on the luck of the draw. You get a good guy, he will let it slide, you get one who doesn't like the cut of your jip, and he will nail you to the cross for the fun of it. If these things were so unimportant and trivial, then why ask them in the first place? Most people are lucky if they remember their current wife's date of birth, let alone one from 30 years ago.

In my opinion, these things are there because that's how civil service around the world works. Not unique to US, or visa process, you just have to dance the tune, and hope for the best.My wife is Russian and their Civil service is in a league of its own, but still all these guys and gals, British, Russia, American or Martian, are all cut off the same cloth. Petty minded bureaucrats who would refuse their own mother a visa because she had a bad hair day on the day.

I can understand dates of divorce to see if the marriage is correctly terminated etc., but not some of these trivial data. I can also understand if they ask for the countries where one resided, but why ask for precise address?. It's not as if they are doing the criminal checks! That is done separate.

Anyway, I shouldn't perhaps be too cynical and I think I will get it as I meet all the big criteria stuff and as you say, these trivial facts are not the deciding factors, but I still think I'm going to pay for an hour of an immigration lawyer just to check my submission.

Just estimate the dates. When you go for interview explain it. COs are human and know that applicants are too!!

Does the marriage certificate not have the dates of birth of each spouse?? Or the divorce certificate?

Thanks for the advice, but not sure about explaining it!. They may be human, but I've seen enough job's worth civil servants in my time not to trust any of them. They have issued 125000 winners for 50000 green cards. The only way to whittle it down is by sticking to absolute black and white. So No I'm not going to explain anything, and take my chances. Worst nightmare would be is refusal because of self admitted "incorrect data". And the form only says "To the best of your knowledge". and this is the best, can't do any more.

The British marriage certificates don't show dates of birth, only age at the time of marriage, and the divorce papers only show the dates of marriage and divorce, not the applicant's dates of birth. Also as these days the date of birth is one of security items and a particular target for identity thief, it's not so easy to get it, say from on-line searches etc.