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All Ethiopian 2015 DV Winners Meet Here!

Hi friends. Are you facing similar situation as I am facing on CEAC status?
It still bounces between "administrative processing" and "ready". It has been fluctuating for about 14 days.
I feel the term "administrative processing" is not the AP we have known commonly here. I think I should wait till the status is changed to "issued".
Any similar experience?
 
Oh. That is not promising. We are having minimum of
6.17% refusal rate (assuming all AP and ready cases will be approved).
We also have
2.88% on AP (again assuming all ready cases won't fall on AP)
If we don't take in to account the ready (not interviewed) cases, the refusal rate is 12.3% and 5.8% on AP. Is there any other country that has as such high refusal rate?
 
Hi Everyone!

Congra to all you got the VISA!!!

I have a question. How can you check the medical date to arrange your flight date? is it the yellow fever vaccination or the whole medical screening?
and why on earth is there an expiration date for medical?
 
hello dear members

reporting step 1 after the 2nd Nl

I went to IOM today !

what a compound ! what a reception ! they are simply lovable

I got a very early appointment for Monday Feb 1 2015 and the results will be ready by Feb 10th

step 2 coming soon
 
hello dear members

reporting step 1 after the 2nd Nl

I went to IOM today !

what a compound ! what a reception ! they are simply lovable

I got a very early appointment for Monday Feb 1 2015 and the results will be ready by Feb 10th

step 2 coming soon
Good job ZEGREAT! I have collected my medical confirmation from IOM yesterday. Just waiting for my BIG DAY.
 
So, are you going to embassy this week?
The other thing, as I've learnt from this forum, the six month limit starts to count from the date of medical examination. I don't have any official page to link here about such case except previous posts by senior members. Others may help me with this.
But I advice you to ask the CO when you get your approval. You may need to tell the CO the intended date of entry and medical examination date. You may get the answer right there.
May be they request you to make another medical which won't expire till you enter US.
Hi God-is-Love, I'm back again on this issue. We just came out from the embassy submitting our passport for the visa. We arrived at 12:45 PM for 1:00 PM. We waited for about 30 minutes in the queue. We were then directed to window number 8. The CO checked our finger print against the one taken before for 4 of us (my small daughter doesn't need that). He warned us about the fact that once visa is printed, we can not change the date again. We agreed and we informed him that we already purchased the ticket for July. It was short and simple. Finally, we are told to go and ask DHL Office after one week (a small coupon attached to coy of our passports). We are also given the yellow page with handwritten unique number for each of us to pay the green card fee (by the way it was not the same CO that interviewed us).
In conclusion, everything is progressing as planned and we are now waiting for a visa that will allow us stay in Ethiopia until July. We are grateful to the Almighty.
 
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Dear all
does anybody has any idea what major change will cause to delay further process during ds-260 unlock? I see on previous post like passport change would probably delay further processing but why ? because I made mine new passport update on Oct 17 right after the unlock during my few profile update.
thanks in advance
 
Dear all
does anybody has any idea what major change will cause to delay further process during ds-260 unlock? I see on previous post like passport change would probably delay further processing but why ? because I made mine new passport update on Oct 17 right after the unlock during my few profile update.
thanks in advance


If you think about what the processing actually is achieving - it isn't so hard to make a guess.

  • Let's say you change the address where you will live in the USA. No impact at all because there is no further background checking required.
  • Let's say you add a spouse. That spouse will need a background check - and that will require some time (experiences seem to suggest adding a spouse takes about 1 month for Western EU countries - probably more for other countries.
  • Let's say you add some detail about the elementary school you attended. Very unlikely to cause any reprocessing - right?
  • Let's say you correct your name or signicant identifying details such as your DOB. Because searches have already been performed with the old data the new information will be used to rerun some searches. You really WANT that to happen.
  • Let's say you add a new passport. The passport details you provided would have been used to conduct searches on your travel history and as a good identifier to facilitate background checks with your own country and any other country you have mentioned that you lived in. If you provide a new passport they will probably re-run those checks on the new passport details.
I'm just throwing out some examples - hopefully you can see my thought process.

In the cases where the background checks need to be reprocessed, it is in the selectees interest to update the DS260 and have that done before the interview. Better have that done before the interview than risk denial or AP because of not updating the forms. However, there are PLENTY of examples where the change is not material and can be updated at the interview with no issue.
 
Hi Everyone!

Congra to all you got the VISA!!!

I have a question. How can you check the medical date to arrange your flight date? is it the yellow fever vaccination or the whole medical screening?
and why on earth is there an expiration date for medical?
you need to count from the date you made your medical examination.
 
Hi God-is-Love, I'm back again on this issue. We just came out from the embassy submitting our passport for the visa. We arrived at 12:45 PM for 1:00 PM. We waited for about 30 minutes in the queue. We were then directed to window number 8. The CO checked our finger print against the one taken before for 4 of us (my small daughter doesn't need that). He warned us about the fact that once visa is printed, we can not change the date again. We agreed and we informed him that we already purchased the ticket for July. It was short and simple. Finally, we are told to go and ask DHL Office after one week (a small coupon attached to coy of our passports). We are also given the yellow page with handwritten unique number for each of us to pay the green card fee (by the way it was not the same CO that interviewed us).
In conclusion, everything is progressing as planned and we are now waiting for a visa that will allow us stay in Ethiopia until July. We are grateful to the Almighty.
Oh. Thank God. That is great news to hear.
One thing i need to remind again and one question...
I don't know if I'm over concerned. I was reading the following page.
Www.travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/interview/after.html
It says
When You Should Travel - You must arrive and apply for admission in the United States
no later than the visa expiration date printed on your visa. An immigrant visa is usually valid for up to six months from the
date of issuance unless your medical examination expires sooner , which may make your visa valid for less than six months.
Please check on this page one more time.
The second question is, what is the small coupon attached to copies of your passports?
 
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Oh. Thank God. That is great news to hear.
One thing i need to remind again and one question...
I don't know if I'm over concerned. I was reading the following page.
Www.travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/interview/after.html
It says
When You Should Travel - You must arrive and apply for admission in the United States
no later than the visa expiration date printed on your visa. An immigrant visa is usually valid for up to six months from the
date of issuance unless your medical examination expires sooner , which may make your visa valid for less than six months.
Please check on this page one more time.
The second question is, what is the small coupon attached to copies of your passports?

If the medical expired sooner then the visa expiry would be sooner.
Many people think the medicals are only valid for 6 months but that is not always true.
Our visa was issued nearly 2 months after our medical, visa was valid for 6 months exactly, we entered 5 days before the visa expired, no problems. If medical expiry is going to be a problem they will make the visa expiry date earlier. And that is exactly what that extract you quoted says - that the visa will be valid less than 6 months if it needs to match the medical expiring sooner.
 
Hi God-is-Love, I'm back again on this issue. We just came out from the embassy submitting our passport for the visa. We arrived at 12:45 PM for 1:00 PM. We waited for about 30 minutes in the queue. We were then directed to window number 8. The CO checked our finger print against the one taken before for 4 of us (my small daughter doesn't need that). He warned us about the fact that once visa is printed, we can not change the date again. We agreed and we informed him that we already purchased the ticket for July. It was short and simple. Finally, we are told to go and ask DHL Office after one week (a small coupon attached to coy of our passports). We are also given the yellow page with handwritten unique number for each of us to pay the green card fee (by the way it was not the same CO that interviewed us).
In conclusion, everything is progressing as planned and we are now waiting for a visa that will allow us stay in Ethiopia until July. We are grateful to the Almighty.
Oh. Thank God. That is great news to hear.
One thing i need to remind again and one question...
I don't know if I'm over concerned. I was reading the following page.
Www.travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/interview/after.html
It says
When You Should Travel - You must arrive and apply for admission in the United States
no later than the visa expiration date printed on your visa. An immigrant visa is usually valid for up to six months from the
date of issuance unless your medical examination expires sooner , which may make your visa valid for less than six months.
Please check on this page one more time.
The second question is, what is the small coupon attached to copies of your passports?
If the medical expired sooner then the visa expiry would be sooner.
Many people think the medicals are only valid for 6 months but that is not always true.
Our visa was issued nearly 2 months after our medical, visa was valid for 6 months exactly, we entered 5 days before the visa expired, no problems. If medical expiry is going to be a problem they will make the visa expiry date earlier. And that is exactly what that extract you quoted says - that the visa will be valid less than 6 months if it needs to match the medical expiring sooner.


I'm pretty sure we have gone over this before. Susie's response is exactly right. IN some countries the medical expiry date is 6 months (whilst other countries consider the medical to be valid longer, as was the case for Susie herself) . I assume MB1 had considered this when he asked for the visas to be issued later, but if his medical was dated in November and has a 6 month validity then his visa expiry will be shorter than the 6 months.
 
hi guys, i will try to contact IOM ethiopia regional office about the duration of validity of the medical exam and update u. In the mean time i have a question. when filling ds260 on may, i responded "other travel document" to the question that asks travel document b/c i didnt have passport at that time. Will this create a problem
 
Oh. Thank God. That is great news to hear.
One thing i need to remind again and one question...
I don't know if I'm over concerned. I was reading the following page.
Www.travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/interview/after.html
It says
When You Should Travel - You must arrive and apply for admission in the United States
no later than the visa expiration date printed on your visa. An immigrant visa is usually valid for up to six months from the
date of issuance unless your medical examination expires sooner , which may make your visa valid for less than six months.
Please check on this page one more time.
The second question is, what is the small coupon attached to copies of your passports?

If the medical expired sooner then the visa expiry would be sooner.
Many people think the medicals are only valid for 6 months but that is not always true.
Our visa was issued nearly 2 months after our medical, visa was valid for 6 months exactly, we entered 5 days before the visa expired, no problems. If medical expiry is going to be a problem they will make the visa expiry date earlier. And that is exactly what that extract you quoted says - that the visa will be valid less than 6 months if it needs to match the medical expiring sooner.
I'm pretty sure we have gone over this before. Susie's response is exactly right. IN some countries the medical expiry date is 6 months (whilst other countries consider the medical to be valid longer, as was the case for Susie herself) . I assume MB1 had considered this when he asked for the visas to be issued later, but if his medical was dated in November and has a 6 month validity then his visa expiry will be shorter than the 6 months.
Yes exactly! What is practically happening now in our case (not 100% sure until I see the duration on the visa) is that the validity of the medical examination is more than the six month limit. We finished our medical in the first week of November and made our interview on the 17th of November. This means our medical document is by now already 3 months old (one week less to be exact). I promise to confirm on the duration of our visa once we get back our passport.
God-is-Love, the small coupon I was mentioning (in fact when I check now they are two) is nothing but an instruction and declaration about how to collect back our passport.
 
Yes exactly! What is practically happening now in our case (not 100% sure until I see the duration on the visa) is that the validity of the medical examination is more than the six month limit. We finished our medical in the first week of November and made our interview on the 17th of November. This means our medical document is by now already 3 months old (one week less to be exact). I promise to confirm on the duration of our visa once we get back our passport.
God-is-Love, the small coupon I was mentioning (in fact when I check now they are two) is nothing but an instruction and declaration about how to collect back our passport.

Great, so you understand the issue precisely and I am sure you will pay attention to the visa expiry date. Fingers crossed.
 
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