• Hello Members, This forums is for DV lottery visas only. For other immigration related questions, please go to our forums home page, find the related forum and post it there.

Foreign state changeability issue

Semosem

New Member
I am a Finnish citizen who is born in Ethiopia. My Father moved here when I was four years old and we have been living in Finland since then. I am now 26 years old and I just Won a DV-visa lottery. After getting an entry visa to go to united states for processing my green card I am faced with a problem which I first thought was simple. In the entry visa I was issued it says that I am a citizen of Ethiopia instead of Finland and have to notify the US embassy here because I thought it was a typo mistake but the problem now went further and they are saying that my visa can not be issued because I am not eligible for some changeability problem. I need advise on how to deal with this the best way cause I have no understanding on what they are asking me to do even if I presented them my passport that prove the fact that I am a Finnish citizen.
 
Do you have an EU number or an AF number? If you were born in Ethiopia you must be charged to that country and have an AF number. Citizenship does not matter for DV, only place of birth.
 
Please also explain this - it sounds like you have already had your interview. YOu mention getting an entry visa - what was that?
 
Please also explain this - it sounds like you have already had your interview. YOu mention getting an entry visa - what was that?

Almost sounds like they issued the visa and only afterwards realised a chargeability error?
Not the first time we have heard of a similar situation though I think they caught it before actual visa issuance the one time.
 
Almost sounds like they issued the visa and only afterwards realised a chargeability error?
Not the first time we have heard of a similar situation though I think they caught it before actual visa issuance the one time.

Yes it does sound like that....
 
Well hopefully the OP will come back and tell us whether s/he has an AF or EU number so we can figure it out...
 
Thank you for your replies people! Yes I had the interview, passed it and I was given the entry visa for further processing and I was also getting ready to leave for US in the next two weeks with the envelope they gave me. But once I realized that there was an error on the visa regarding my nationality which says Ethiopian , instead of Finnish(because I am a Finnish citizen) ,then I let them know they should take the visa for correction because I did not have an Ethiopian nationality for the past 23 years. In-turn they raised this chargeability question. For your other question, I have an EU number. Am I disqualified now? Was it a good idea for me to just leave from here with the first visa they issued? It am in the most predicament I have ever been. please share your thoughts, ideas and whatever helpful tips that would help me turn this around because I am feeling hopeless and disappointed regarding the matter. If I am not clear enough this all happened after they gave me a six month Visa to go to US and request my green card.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for your replies people! Yes I had the interview, passed it and I was given the entry visa for further processing and I was also getting ready to leave for US in the next two weeks with the envelope they gave me. But once I realized that there was an error on the visa regarding my nationality which says Ethiopian , instead of Finnish(because I am a Finnish citizen) ,then I let them know they should take the visa for correction because I did not have an Ethiopian nationality for the past 23 years. In-turn they raised the changeability question. For your other question, I have an EU number. Am I disqualified now? Was it a good idea for me to just leave from here with the first visa they issued? It is the most predicament situation I have ever been. please share your thoughts, ideas and whatever helpful tips that would help me turn this around because I am feeling hopeless and disappointed regarding the matter. If I am not clear enough this all happened after they gave me a six month Visa to go to US and request my green card.


Yes it does sound like you have made a mistake with the chargeability - and since the embassy has started looking at that - they should disqualify you. As Susie mentioned earlier, the chargeability is based on place of birth except in a few circumstances. You probably should have applied charging to Ethiopia and as a result you have been charged to the wrong country and region. If they follow the rules, they will disqualify you (in fact it sounds like they have already made that decision).

I'm sorry - that is a terrible blow. However, the instructions are absolutely clear on that point so the original mistake was yours. The cruel part was that they overlooked that mistake by accident in the first interview and if you had not raised it with them for correction they may not have noticed at all.

There have been other cases of mistakes in the the selectees favor, but once they recognize the mistake it is hard to imagine they will let it pass. Let us know how it ends.
 
Unfortunately, yes you are disqualified (unless you have a Finnish wife who you could charge to). It's a pity you didn't read the entry instructions properly, as they are very clear that in almost all instances chargeability is dependent on country of birth. It has absolutely nothing to do with current or past nationality, passports etc, but where you were born. This means you were assigned to the wrong region, so your selection is in invalidated.
If it's any consolation, if you had entered on the original visa, someone at USCIS would have figured out the error and that woukd have meant revocation of your green card (as it would have been issued on an invalid application), which would be a much worse situation than finding out now... So sorry for this, but all you can do now is enter again with the right country of chargeability.
 
hello .. i have a questions that nobody could give me a clear answer till now !.. i would like to know your opinions about that ..
I selected for DV -2020 and i was born in Kuwait and moved to Iran when i was 3 years old and I'm living in Iran now and i have Iranian Passport and citizen .. and when my winning letter came ,in the country of chargeability they wrote : Kuwait . and my interwie place is : Turkey ..
as you know Trump Banned 6 countries .. and Iran is One of them in the Ban List .. and Kuwait ( my place of Birth ) is Okey and not Banned ..
so now
when i go to Interview the Officer Look at my country of chargeability that is Kuwait or My passport and nationality that is Iran ??? which one is important for trump ban ? chargeability or nationality ? if they disqualify people when they wrote wrong chargeability , is that mean chargeability is based for DV Visa ?
thanks for help
 
Last edited:
hello .. i have a questions that nobody could give me a clear answer till now !.. i would like to know your opinions about that ..
I selected for DV -2020 and i was born in Kuwait and moved to Iran when i was 3 years old and I'm living in Iran now and i have Iranian Passport and citizen .. and when my winning letter came ,in the country of chargeability they wrote : Kuwait . and my interwie place is : Turkey ..
as you know Trump Banned 6 countries .. and Iran is One of them in the Ban List .. and Kuwait ( my place of Birth ) is Okey and not Banned ..
so now
when i go to Interview the Officer Look at my country of chargeability that is Kuwait or My passport and nationality that is Iran ??? which one is important for trump ban ? chargeability or nationality ? if they disqualify people when they wrote wrong chargeability , is that mean chargeability is based for DV Visa ?
thanks for help

Is Iran your only country of citizenship?
 
well i have a Birth certificate booklet form Central register Of Kuwait only ..and when my parents moved back to Iran they changed it to Iranian Birth certificate .. and yeah i have Iranian citizenship now .but born in Kuwait ..and its has wroten in my Iranian birth certificate ( place of Birth : Kuwait )
 
well i have a Birth certificate booklet form Central register Of Kuwait only ..and when my parents moved back to Iran they changed it to Iranian Birth certificate .. and yeah i have Iranian citizenship now .but born in Kuwait ..and its has wroten in my Iranian birth certificate ( place of Birth : Kuwait )

ok, you’re not answering the question. Chargeability for DV is an entirely separate issue than the travel ban. Do you have the citizenship/passport of any country other than Iran? place of birth is irrelevant to this question (unless it is somewhere that grants birthright citizenship and you therefore have a passport from there)
 
no . I have Iranian citizenship only .. and as i said i only have Iranian passport .. but i was born in Kuwait .. and in my passport place of Birth is : Kuwait
also in the winning letter my Foreign State of Chargibility is : Kuwait .
 
So for you Kuwait is irrelevant for the travel ban aspect, even though it is correctly specified as your country of chargeability for DV.
 
iF yes ..so what is country of chargeability For ?!! and what is differences between a person that born in Iran and his/her country of changeability in winning letter is (Iran) with a person that born in Kuwait and his/her country of chargeability is (Kuwait) in winning letter ?
and why when we want to register for DV Lottery they ask us to choose the country of we born Not that country we have citizenship or passport ?
 
Last edited:
iF yes ..so what is country of chargeability For ?!! and what is differences between a person that born in Iran and his/her country of changeability in winning letter is (Iran) with a person that born in Kuwait and his/her country of chargeability is (Kuwait) in winning letter ?
and why when we want to register for DV Lottery they ask us to choose the country of we born Not that country we have citizenship or passport ?
For DV, country of chargeability (country of birth) determines whether you are eligible, because people chargeable to certain countries are not eligible for DV. (For some other immigration categories, country of chargeability determines wait times for visa number to become available, due to the 7% per country cap, which is based on country of chargeability.)

You are eligible for DV. Actually, you would be eligible for DV no matter if you were chargeable to Iran or Kuwait, as neither of them have high rates of immigration to the US. BUT, being eligible for DV doesn't mean you can get the actual immigrant visa. The travel ban prevents people on certain passports from getting visas to the US. In this case, Iranian nationals are not eligible for an immigrant visa, unless you have a passport from a non-banned country, or you fall into one of the other exceptions (e.g. if you were already in the US when the ban took effect).
 
iF yes ..so what is country of chargeability For ?!! and what is differences between a person that born in Iran and his/her country of changeability in winning letter is (Iran) with a person that born in Kuwait and his/her country of chargeability is (Kuwait) in winning letter ?
and why when we want to register for DV Lottery they ask us to choose the country of we born Not that country we have citizenship or passport ?

Susie already explained all that in her posts to you, but you seem unwilling to accept the fact.
 
Top