Heres a little background info if you are new to this lottery cancellation news!
US Govt is made up of Senate and House of Representatives. These 2 branches collectively is known as Congress.
For anything to become law, the bill (proposed law) needs to be passed in Senate and passed in House of Representatives in identical forms. Then it goes for President for signing and then becomes law with the actual enactment date of the new law being mentioned in the bill itself.
House of Representatives late last year passed immigration bill which among other major things
(e.g illegal immigrants to be convicted of felony) proposed to cancell DV lottery effective from 1st Oct 2006 (which is when the new fiscal year begins).
Senate ealier this year in May passed immigration which among other major things (e.g illegal immigrants to be given amnesty) proposed to changed DV lottery so 2/3rds of the visas go to Phd/Master Degree holders and 1/3rd to go to normal high school qualified applicants.
Just because the 2 bills from Senate and House are different, it needs to be reconciled in a conference committee (made up of Senators and House Representatives) and then sent back to each house for voting and if passed by both, then goes to President for signing and then becomes law.
Currently congress is in recess (not working ) and House Representatives are holding field hearings on senate bill meaning talking to general public about the pros and cons of Senate bill.
When congress gets back from recess on Sept 5th, thats the earliest they can form conference committee let alone go thru the whole compromise process and then voting by each house on final bill and then president signature.
There will be 18 legislative days left from 5th Sept till end of Sept within which the immigration bill must be passed as law for it to affect DV2007. And when congress gets back from recess, immigration bill is not the only issue that will be worked on during that time. There are so many other issues/bills waiting to be deliberated and passed to be made law before congress goes for adjournment from Oct 6th 2006 for Nov elections.
At this stage it looks unlikely that it may happen before Sept end as both are fiercely defending their own and not wanting to make compromises on major parts of the bill. DV lottery is a small issue embedded in the bill
Some even speculate the final bill may not even pass as law this year and if that were to happen then both bills would be killed as this is last session of congress and everything would have to start fresh from next session/year. A more likely scenario is that bill being passed after Nov 2006 elections in which case DV2007 will be safe but changes may affect DV2008
But if a final compormised bill were passed by conference committee and both houses ,and signed by president in Sept 2006 then by law it will be effective for DV2007 and future lotterys,whatever the proposal (cancellation or visa reducation)for lottery is adopted.
In theory and by law DV2007 winners even after getting appointment letter for interview in Oct 2006 maybe be refused visa just because congress passed the law in Sept 06 effective from 1st Oct 2006 which is when the DV2007 fiscal year starts for visa issuance.
The question is if JUST BEFORE the bill were to be passed in Sept then will they (conference committee) consider the significant progress being made in the DV2007 lottery and amend the effective date to be from 1st oct 2007 or will State Dept have enough power regardless of effective date to see DV2007 thru as per normal and let the laws apply to consequent lotterys.
and one of them say that the KCC had been announced internally that DV2006 will be cancelled .