• 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.

DV 2023 Oceania Winners

Oh awesome! It’s such a fun city and the weather is great although a little too hot in summer but better than rainy Auckland!
This is the response I received upon follow up :
As advised in our email correspondence of July 20, 2023, Diversity Visa cases have been scheduled to capacity in September with limited time for applicants to obtain any pending documents and to help DV applicants, we rescheduled your DV interview to Wednesday August 9, 2023 at 8:30 a.m.

If you and your family are found eligible, the visas will be issued in early September.

While it is September 1, 2023 here in Fiji, the U.S is one day behind and we are unable to process your case to conclusion until next Tuesday.
Once your visa packets and passports are ready for collection, we will contact you accordingly.
 
This is the response I received upon follow up :
As advised in our email correspondence of July 20, 2023, Diversity Visa cases have been scheduled to capacity in September with limited time for applicants to obtain any pending documents and to help DV applicants, we rescheduled your DV interview to Wednesday August 9, 2023 at 8:30 a.m.

If you and your family are found eligible, the visas will be issued in early September.

While it is September 1, 2023 here in Fiji, the U.S is one day behind and we are unable to process your case to conclusion until next Tuesday.
Once your visa packets and passports are ready for collection, we will contact you accordingly.
same i have received
 
This is the response I received upon follow up :
As advised in our email correspondence of July 20, 2023, Diversity Visa cases have been scheduled to capacity in September with limited time for applicants to obtain any pending documents and to help DV applicants, we rescheduled your DV interview to Wednesday August 9, 2023 at 8:30 a.m.

If you and your family are found eligible, the visas will be issued in early September.

While it is September 1, 2023 here in Fiji, the U.S is one day behind and we are unable to process your case to conclusion until next Tuesday.
Once your visa packets and passports are ready for collection, we will contact you accordingly.
Wow, congratulations on getting your interview date moved forward!
 
This is the response I received upon follow up :
As advised in our email correspondence of July 20, 2023, Diversity Visa cases have been scheduled to capacity in September with limited time for applicants to obtain any pending documents and to help DV applicants, we rescheduled your DV interview to Wednesday August 9, 2023 at 8:30 a.m.

If you and your family are found eligible, the visas will be issued in early September.

While it is September 1, 2023 here in Fiji, the U.S is one day behind and we are unable to process your case to conclusion until next Tuesday.
Once your visa packets and passports are ready for collection, we will contact you accordingly.
Frickin love Suva embassy. They are doing all they can for their applicants.

They are right to push hard. We are very close to hitting the cap. I'm pretty much assuming they will exceed the cap at this point but of course I could be wrong about that, and the government could shut down issuing at any moment after 55K is reached. As it stands, I will not be surprised if we hit the cap on Tuesday, and from that point on, its anyone's guess how many more we see issued.
 
Frickin love Suva embassy. They are doing all they can for their applicants.

They are right to push hard. We are very close to hitting the cap. I'm pretty much assuming they will exceed the cap at this point but of course I could be wrong about that, and the government could shut down issuing at any moment after 55K is reached. As it stands, I will not be surprised if we hit the cap on Tuesday, and from that point on, it’s anyone's guess how many more we see issued.
Should those with appointments scheduled for Sydney next week & onwards be worried??
 
Hey guys,

We just did our interview here in Rio, Brazil and everything went really well. At the embassy here we saw two officers. The first one went through document verifications and asking questions pertaining to the docs, but nothing more than asking if we had copies of this or that. Then we paid our fees and went back for a final interview. My husband and I both had some travels through the US before so the questions were mostly about that, if we had been there before and under what circumstances? how long? what year? That’s it really, she just clicked and typed away for a while and then said the visas were issued.

We’re so happy and thankful for this opportunity

Wishing you all the best and we will continue keeping you guys in our prayers as well.

Best of luck and God bless
 
Should those with appointments scheduled for Sydney next week & onwards be worried??
I didn't even know if I should respond to this because I feel like i'm the bearer of bad news and I don't want to be the cause of anyone's worry. But yes, I would personally be worried. There is a telegram group where the CEAC data is being provided every 2 days or so and based on my review of it, they have currently issued 52,623 visas and potentially another 1000 via adjustment of status (could be more). Over the past week they have been issuing 450ish per day. So I agree with Britsimon that the 55,000 cap will likely be hit on Tuesday. Whether or not they issue more than the cap is anyone's guess.

My advice here is do whatever the hell you can to bring your interview forward. I know some people get lucky and win the lottery on their first or second try but it took me 12 years to win. Some people will never win. It's the opportunity of a lifetime so do whatever you can to bring your interview forward as soon as possible. That's all you can do really. Any correspondence to the consulate/embassy needs to be worded very politely and not pushy. Try to make them sympathetic to your case and let them know you are grateful for their time and hard work.

Best of luck.
 
Should those with appointments scheduled for Sydney next week & onwards be worried??

Honestly, I don't know. I'm 100% certain the cap will be hit, and 99% that would happen on Tuesday or possibly before. Monday is labor day, so actually people down under will have a slightly better chance than others. The OC Tuesday could be ahead of other people's Tuesday.

Now, having said all that. The nightmare scenario is that they enforce the cap. I won't admit it publicly outside of this OC forum ;) but that is actually NOT my expectation. They should enforce the cap, but they should have enforced it last year too, and they went over by 882 visas. It wasn't like it was hard to have seen that coming - I was pretty much publishing a countdown to the point where I knew they were blowing the cap. The AOS cases are a bit of an unknown since they are not accounted for in CEAC. So - I pretty much "expect" them to bust the cap and keep on going for a while - although to get through all the scheduled visas in September and issue some more 221g cases, that would put us at around 60K - and that just sounds too many. So my guess is we get something between 55 and 60. Now just understand I could be totally wrong and they could slam the brakes on hard (hence why I don't want to publicly give false hope).

So - for a couple of reasons I would not be too worried for OC appointments this Tuesday. After that, every day will be a gift and be more at risk. That is why I recommended people try and move to earlier interviews if possible.
 
I didn't even know if I should respond to this because I feel like i'm the bearer of bad news and I don't want to be the cause of anyone's worry. But yes, I would personally be worried. There is a telegram group where the CEAC data is being provided every 2 days or so and based on my review of it, they have currently issued 52,623 visas and potentially another 1000 via adjustment of status (could be more). Over the past week they have been issuing 450ish per day. So I agree with Britsimon that the 55,000 cap will likely be hit on Tuesday. Whether or not they issue more than the cap is anyone's guess.

My advice here is do whatever the hell you can to bring your interview forward. I know some people get lucky and win the lottery on their first or second try but it took me 12 years to win. Some people will never win. It's the opportunity of a lifetime so do whatever you can to bring your interview forward as soon as possible. That's all you can do really. Any correspondence to the consulate/embassy needs to be worded very politely and not pushy. Try to make them sympathetic to your case and let them know you are grateful for their time and hard work.

Best of luck.

It's worse than the 52623. That number was from a couple of days ago and there were an additional 303 visas in AP (meaning visa being printed). So as of two days ago we were 52926, plus AOS (which I'm assuming is 700 to 800 at this point). Then there were a lot of 221g clearances yesterday (Thursday) and some people promised visas on the 1st September. We will have a new file in about 2 or 3 hours, but I expect that to leave us with a few hundred visas prior to the cap. I'll report back the number when I get it.
 
It's worse than the 52623. That number was from a couple of days ago and there were an additional 303 visas in AP (meaning visa being printed). So as of two days ago we were 52926, plus AOS (which I'm assuming is 700 to 800 at this point). Then there were a lot of 221g clearances yesterday (Thursday) and some people promised visas on the 1st September. We will have a new file in about 2 or 3 hours, but I expect that to leave us with a few hundred visas prior to the cap. I'll report back the number when I get it.
Thanks so much all. @Britsimon when you say “I expect them to keep going for a while” is that a matter of days/till end of the week? A couple of weeks? I understand it’s hard to predict I’m just extremely concerned Such a long & emotional process then to be right at the finish line and miss out would be so awful. Also, can you still interview if your medical isn’t ready yet? Or it would still hold up the processing of the visa anyway, correct?
 
It's worse than the 52623. That number was from a couple of days ago and there were an additional 303 visas in AP (meaning visa being printed). So as of two days ago we were 52926, plus AOS (which I'm assuming is 700 to 800 at this point). Then there were a lot of 221g clearances yesterday (Thursday) and some people promised visas on the 1st September. We will have a new file in about 2 or 3 hours, but I expect that to leave us with a few hundred visas prior to the cap. I'll report back the number when I get it.

Tonights number is 53397 which we know to be overstated by about 75 (because the embassies misuse CEAC).

Already issued AOS cases are on top of that - 700/800 for sure. So we have 800 to 900 left at most. Monday is a holiday, but I expect Tuesday to be when 55K is reached, or breached.
 
Thanks so much all. @Britsimon when you say “I expect them to keep going for a while” is that a matter of days/till end of the week? A couple of weeks? I understand it’s hard to predict I’m just extremely concerned Such a long & emotional process then to be right at the finish line and miss out would be so awful. Also, can you still interview if your medical isn’t ready yet? Or it would still hold up the processing of the visa anyway, correct?

The law says 55K. So it's impossible for me to say how far into the dark they are prepared to go. If at all.
 
Thanks so much all. @Britsimon when you say “I expect them to keep going for a while” is that a matter of days/till end of the week? A couple of weeks? I understand it’s hard to predict I’m just extremely concerned Such a long & emotional process then to be right at the finish line and miss out would be so awful. Also, can you still interview if your medical isn’t ready yet? Or it would still hold up the processing of the visa anyway, correct?
Why the question about the medical? You can't be issued without the medical. If you can't get the medical and interview within a few days, you might well miss out.
 
Why the question about the medical? You can't be issued without the medical. If you can't get the medical and interview within a few days, you might well miss out.
Medical is completed just waiting on results & physical pack. Interview isn’t until late in the week
 
Guys anyone has any idea how long they take to print the visa for pick up? I know with it delivered to your home is "up to 10 days" is what I read at the consulate but if we are going to pick them up at the consulate, it should be less I imagine.... and are we free to leave as soon as we have the passports and packets picked up?
 
Guys anyone has any idea how long they take to print the visa for pick up? I know with it delivered to your home is "up to 10 days" is what I read at the consulate but if we are going to pick them up at the consulate, it should be less I imagine.... and are we free to leave as soon as we have the passports and packets picked up?
Hello @PatiTea, How was the interview? Did the officer comment/ask regarding the high school certificate? Appreciate your response.
 
Hello @PatiTea, How was the interview? Did the officer comment/ask regarding the high school certificate? Appreciate your response.
Hey, none at all and we didn't have the original with us. Just the letter from the department of education in Samoa. But my husband also had his original maritime certificate from the University of Samoa as a supporting document, they didn't say this but I feel like having that may have been enough to quell any questions/doubts they MAY have had about the letter. So no questions asked. They actually focused on me during the interview even though he was the main applicant because I was taken to the US as a baby and lived there for 21 years, so I had a 10 yr ban, which was completed, so they needed to verify everything I was saying. Nerve wrecking moment really.

but overall everything went well.
 
Top