2014 DV Australian winners

[MattWatt]

Yeah I did ask her and the outcome was because there has been a high number of processes for OC and see also mentioned to me that it's high likely chance that they will increase the CN .
Didn't make sence but she sounded like she just woke up. Then again I have no idea how it all works because I qualified as a Fijian citizen . I live in Australaia now . I am guessing there is not stand of order which country in Oceania get selected first or last . The CN is randomly generated . Would you have a clue or any idea lets say of during the registration , for example, I registered for DV2014 on the last day . Maybe if I registered earlier I would have had a better CN ??

Makes no difference when you register.

I registered for the draw on the first day it opened and still got 21xx. A friend of mine registered about half-way through October, got drawn out with a 3xx CN and is now happily living the US dream with his family of 5.

 

[guestgulkan]

EB = Employment Based.

If you're lucky enough, you can convince a US employer to either:

1. Sponsor you for a work-based non-immigrant visa (such as E3 or H1B);
2. Sponsor you for an Employment Based immigrant visa (http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/types/employment.html); or
3. Both - Non-immigrant visa is generally easier and quicker to obtain, and allows you to work for that company whilst your EB immigrant visa is being processed.

One downside to H1B is your spouse can't work.

 

[Britsimon]

One downside to H1B is your spouse can't work.

True that... and the upside of the H1B could be considered the dual intent aspect of the H1B as someone on E3 needs to get the timing right on when to adjust....

 

[Joshdeltm8]

Ah ok

Makes no difference when you register.

I registered for the draw on the first day it opened and still got 21xx. A friend of mine registered about half-way through October, got drawn out with a 3xx CN and is now happily living the US dream with his family of 5.

 

[GreatestNameofAll]

Curious - has anyone called KCC yet to see if there's any update for OC September?

Chatter when the Aug VB was released was to wait for the 15th and check again.

Hi All,

My details are: Australia (Oceania) 2014 winner - 2014OC000015XX

Needless to say I'm devastated with what is happening & I need closure on this as I'm sure all of you in the same boat do too.

I've called about 3 times (KCC) - Most recently yesterday. They sound just as in the dark as everybody else. All three people I spoke to said pretty much the same thing. 'They don't know why the numbers didn't increase & they are asking people to call back on August 15th to double check if anything has changed.

I asked if they had ever seen the state release numbers after saying that it is the last they will release - Both terminals said no which was not very positive.

Ladies at the KCC have repeatedly told me that they have no control over the numbers being released & just get told which ones are released. This is all up to the Dept. of State. I asked for their phone number & now I keep getting an answering service which says this is the "non-active" number. Can't find their other number so I will keep trying.


Just thought I'd share what I've heard - It's not over until Sept 30th as far as I'm concerned & power to the people - the more calls the State received the more pressing it will become for them to give an answer as to what is going on.

ALSO: Can someone please clarify for me what numbers becoming CURRENT means - If Oceania became current - would that mean every person who was selected for further processing would be eligible for an interview??

Thanks guys!

 

[guestgulkan]

Hopefully they'll update again this week and you'll get through. Are you < 1550 or >= 1550?

Everyone loves CURRENT. It means they'll try and schedule everyone for an interview because there are enough visas remaining, but there is no chance of that this year.

 

[GreatestNameofAll]

>1550

Are the only year to not become current?

 

[guestgulkan]

>1550

Are the only year to not become current?

Yes. They selected twice as many people so there is no chance.

However the top CN we know of in DV2013 was 1630 so I would have been confident your number would be successful.

 

[GreatestNameofAll]

Interesting.
My friend is OC14xx. About 40 numbers away from the cutoff so she is equally devastated.

Hopefully something changes - I'll do whatever I can to get an answer on why this is happening.

 

[Britsimon]

Interesting.
My friend is OC14xx. About 40 numbers away from the cutoff so she is equally devastated.

Hopefully something changes - I'll do whatever I can to get an answer on why this is happening.

I am hopeful that they will adjust the numbers somehow for OC - even a small amount. However, I think you need to accept that there isn't something going wrong - this may well be a successful year from their point of view. We have speculated that the quota for OC was increased, and based on that we assumed the numbers should be higher. However, perhaps the quota has not increased at all. And perhaps the reduced number is due to increased interest in people moving to the USA because the economy is improving (the same thing demonstrated in the H1 process). If those things are correct then a) KCC and DOS have done exactly what they needed to do and are on target and b) the reduction in CN from last year was understandable given increased interest.

I hope that is not true, but you seem determined to "get answers" about what has gone wrong and the answer may simply be - nothing went wrong at all - at least from their perspective...

 

[SusieQQQ]

>1550

Are the only year to not become current?

Just about. There were one or two years in the early 2000s where OC was not current. It has happened much more often for other regions.

 

[SKYSTAR]

I am hopeful that they will adjust the numbers somehow for OC - even a small amount. However, I think you need to accept that there isn't something going wrong - this may well be a successful year from their point of view. We have speculated that the quota for OC was increased, and based on that we assumed the numbers should be higher. However, perhaps the quota has not increased at all. And perhaps the reduced number is due to increased interest in people moving to the USA because the economy is improving (the same thing demonstrated in the H1 process). If those things are correct then a) KCC and DOS have done exactly what they needed to do and are on target and b) the reduction in CN from last year was understandable given increased interest.

I hope that is not true, but you seem determined to "get answers" about what has gone wrong and the answer may simply be - nothing went wrong at all - at least from their perspective...

The qoute in my opinion is the number of selectee from particular region to the total numbers of selectee.Based on that,I think OC quota is about 1450 visas,Eu 16350,As8400,AF21900 and SA 1500

 

[connectedspace]

EB = Employment Based.

If you're lucky enough, you can convince a US employer to either:

1. Sponsor you for a work-based non-immigrant visa (such as E3 or H1B);
2. Sponsor you for an Employment Based immigrant visa (http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/types/employment.html); or
3. Both - Non-immigrant visa is generally easier and quicker to obtain, and allows you to work for that company whilst your EB immigrant visa is being processed.

Ah! I see.

That second point is new to me -- I thought it was impossible to attain while holding an E3!

 

[connectedspace]

I hope that is not true, but you seem determined to "get answers" about what has gone wrong and the answer may simply be - nothing went wrong at all - at least from their perspective...

I get the feeling you're right. And it seems cruel, even for a heartless bureaucracy like the DoS, to over-fill the selection pool just to ensure all the numbers are filled.

There must be someone in there who stops to think 'hang on, we're going to seriously disrupt people's lives and stress relationships by doing this.'

 

[SusieQQQ]

I get the feeling you're right. And it seems cruel, even for a heartless bureaucracy like the DoS, to over-fill the selection pool just to ensure all the numbers are filled.

There must be someone in there who stops to think 'hang on, we're going to seriously disrupt people's lives and stress relationships by doing this.'

They have ALWAYS overfilled the selection pool, because a whole bunch of people fall out of their own accord along the process. The issue here is that for the first time in years, along with choosing too many people' they have had a higher than expected response rate (reported by a few different people from conversations with KCC). Pre 2008 cutoffs at year end were very common. This is why there is a stock warning that being selected does not guarantee a visa because they choose more people than there are visas available .

 

[connectedspace]

They have ALWAYS overfilled the selection pool, because a whole bunch of people fall out of their own accord along the process. The issue here is that for the first time in years, along with choosing too many people' they have had a higher than expected response rate (reported by a few different people from conversations with KCC). Pre 2008 cutoffs at year end were very common. This is why there is a stock warning that being selected does not guarantee a visa because they choose more people than there are visas available .

By 'overfilling', I was referring to the doubling of OC selectees when that clearly wasn't necessary. The number of selectees in past years was, of course, more than the number of visas, but not excessive. 2014 is excessive.

The proportion of disappointed OC selectees in 2014 is greater than for any region in any year I've seen. The thought process behind drawing so many people in the region is mind-boggling.

 

[c1984]

I'm sorry for the shattered dreams, but I believe this is "the culprit":

the reduced number is due to increased interest in people moving to the USA because the economy is improving

At the same time I believe that putting pressure on the DOS may increase the likelihood of them increasing the cut-off in September to ensure not a single visa goes to waste.

 

[c1984]

There must be someone in there who stops to think 'hang on, we're going to seriously disrupt people's lives and stress relationships by doing this.'

Of course there is someone thinking like that, and that's why they don't select, say, a million people. This is a fine line to walk, and they have shown that they are not doing it as best as possible. But they sure do care.

 

[Britsimon]

I'm sorry for the shattered dreams, but I believe this is "the culprit":



At the same time I believe that putting pressure on the DOS may increase the likelihood of them increasing the cut-off in September to ensure not a single visa goes to waste.

Their target is 50k. It is only us that wants them to exceed the target but they are already on course to hit 50k...

 

[c1984]

Their target is 50k. It is only us that wants them to exceed the target but they are already on course to hit 50k...

I was getting at let's say if they end up using only 49,900 visas (for administrative reasons or last minute withdrawals, even if scheduling interviews for the whole 50,000 visas) that would be embarrassing. Then again, it depends on what is OK with their boss. They may be OK with 100 or 500 visas going to waste.