Does the initial no. of winners include dependents too? Quote form the FAM.

[darkhorse]

Foreign Affairs Manual 42.33 PN3.1
Registration and Retention of Original Entries(CT:VISA-754; 07-27-2005)
"The Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) registers approximately 90,000 applicants (both principals and dependents) each year. The KCC will notify posts of the number of applicants from their DV-processing area who were selected, broken down by country of residence. The KCC will maintain a computer-generated master list of registered applicants."


Does this mean that the initial number of winners, at around 90,000 include dependents too?

 

[TheAtheist]

The KCC selects approx. 90,000 winners since many of them do not further pursue the visas to ensure that all 50,000 available visas can be issued. It does not matter how many dependents a registered winner has, but obviously this information still needs to be made available to the consulates/embassies.

 

[dematra]

The KCC selects approx. 90,000 winners since many of them do not further pursue the visas to ensure that all 50,000 available visas can be issued. It does not matter how many dependents a registered winner has, but obviously this information still needs to be made available to the consulates/embassies.

50,000 = principles + dependents

 

[holys]

According to this (official) manual the answer of your (darkhorse) question
is a clear YES.

i.e.,

(around) 90,000 = principles + dependents
is the first number (in mid to late April) each year.

50,000 = principles + dependents is the last number on September 30th of each year.

We always knew that more than 50,000 people were being selected in the past
or will be selected next year (by March or April) but the above point was not clear
(even misleading) in the past or present instructions. I didn't know that this number
(around 90,000 each year) included the dependents too. I thought around 90,000
PRINCIPAL APPLICANTS were being notified.

Even though this fact alone is not enough to conclude that the number
of the principal applicants who were/will be selected is less than 50,000,
I'm sure many applicants have more than 2, 3, 4, 5, or even
more dependents. Here we should also take into consideration the fact that
some of these dependents also applied as a principal applicant.
So, to find the exact number of principal applicants in a given
90,000 one should substract the number of dependents (in this 90,000)
who were principal applicants meanwhile.

It also depends on your region. If you live in EU for example, the number of
dependents might be low (making your chance higher to be selected
as a principal applicant). But if you live in a region where people
have 6 or more kids, then it eventually reduces the chances I believe.

But who knows? Random means random, luck means luck

So, good luck

Thanks for the official datum.