Hi guys goodmorning. I spent the whole of last night reading through the 2010 forum; great interview experiences. I want to ask this though, how long are the following documents valid : police report and the tax transcripts for the AOS?? I've got all the other docs but for those and the medicals; am considering starting them now since my CN might be current in October as you said. Thanks
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DV-2011 Lottery Winners From Ghana Meet Here
- Thread starter ammeck09
- Start date
Hi guys goodmorning. I spent the whole of last night reading through the 2010 forum; great interview experiences. I want to ask this though, how long are the following documents valid : police report and the tax transcripts for the AOS?? I've got all the other docs but for those and the medicals; am considering starting them now since my CN might be current in October as you said. Thanks
The tax transcript/tax returns/W2 comes out once a year so it can be sent now. The affidavit of support also can be sent now, let your sponsor backdate it to August 2010. Police report takes only about two weeks to arrive so you can apply for it next month. You need your 2nd letter to go for the medicals, so you can relax now and wait for your case number to become current.
The tax transcript/tax returns/W2 comes out once a year so it can be sent now. The affidavit of support also can be sent now, let your sponsor backdate it to August 2010. Police report takes only about two weeks to arrive so you can apply for it next month. You need your 2nd letter to go for the medicals, so you can relax now and wait for your case number to become current.
Khevin,
Ammeck couldn't have said it better than this. Relax and wait for your case number to be current. We all went through what you are going through.
Khevin,
Ammeck couldn't have said it better than this. Relax and wait for your case number to be current. We all went through what you are going through.
Thanks guys, I'm gonna start with the I-134 for now. KCC tells me my stuff could take 2 to 4 weeks to reflect in their systems!! so am just holding on.
Popescandy1
Registered Users (C)
Thanks guys, I'm gonna start with the I-134 for now. KCC tells me my stuff could take 2 to 4 weeks to reflect in their systems!! so am just holding on.
khevin,
all i can say is just be patient and leave the worrying in the Hands of Our Lord Almighty and very soon you will be so glad you did. All the Best
Popescandy1
Registered Users (C)
Guys,
i just read from DV 2010 forum dated 9th march on an advice one member gave on occupation, that a certain man was disqualified based on the fact that, he was a Vocational teacher.
i want to know if the disqualification was base on him been a teacher or was it that the "vocational teacher" didn't just qualify him to be granted the visa. the reason behind this question is because am a Student Teacher.
i just read from DV 2010 forum dated 9th march on an advice one member gave on occupation, that a certain man was disqualified based on the fact that, he was a Vocational teacher.
i want to know if the disqualification was base on him been a teacher or was it that the "vocational teacher" didn't just qualify him to be granted the visa. the reason behind this question is because am a Student Teacher.
Guys,
i just read from DV 2010 forum dated 9th march on an advice one member gave on occupation, that a certain man was disqualified based on the fact that, he was a Vocational teacher.
i want to know if the disqualification was base on him been a teacher or was it that the "vocational teacher" didn't just qualify him to be granted the visa. the reason behind this question is because am a Student Teacher.
It's not that the applicant was disqualified based on the fact that he was a teacher. There are two ways of qualifying for the DV lottery - by education or work experience. If you are using education, then the minimum qualification in Ghana is SSSCE or GCE O/L with passes in English and Maths. If you don't have the minimum qualification, then you need to use work experience. It's not every work that qualifies, you need to have 2 years work experience within the past 5 years in an occupation that requires at least two years' training or experience in an occupation that is designated as Job Zone 4 or 5, classified in a Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP) range of 7.0 or higher. http://online.onetcenter.org/
The visa applicant, who is a vocational teacher didn't have the minimum educational qualification and was therefore using the work experience route, but the problem is that vocational teacher/teaching is not classify as Job Zone 4 or 5.
A am also a teacher by profession, so being a teacher is not a problem. Once you have an SSSCE or O/L you don't have a problem.
hello people.. im new here and it seems like i dont even know where to click in order to post my concerns. any help? also, my CN is 2011AF0007***. when is my likely inerview date? thanks
Hi kyerewaa, your username suggests you are from Ghana. If that is correct, then you are likely to have your interview in October or November 2010. You need to start preparation now by getting your documents in order. Go through the DV-2010 Ghana thread and you will find some useful information there.
If you want to make a contribution here, under every post you will see reply or reply with quote. By clicking on 'reply' lets you reply to that person, 'reply with quote' means replying to that person including a quotation of that person contribution/remarks.
You can also put your signature beneath every post you make by clicking on 'settings' on top of this window/page and also clicking on edit signature on the left to put your signature.
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Popescandy1
Registered Users (C)
ammeck09,
thanx very much for you've really made me a relieved person.
thanx very much for you've really made me a relieved person.
Popescandy1
Registered Users (C)
hello people.. im new here and it seems like i dont even know where to click in order to post my concerns. any help? also, my CN is 2011AF0007***. when is my likely inerview date? thanks
let me take the delight of welcoming you to the forum on behalf of all members( new and old).
hope you will find this forum very helpful and supportive and also enjoy yourself.
All the best.
My friend has just got his letter but he only has Junior High School Certificate and Job experience. Thus it meet the requirement, pls help me
Your answer is both Yes and No. No in the sense that Junior High School Certificate is below the minimum educational qualification require for the DV lottery program. Yes if the winner can prove that within the past five years, two years of his work experience was in an occupation that is designated as Job Zone 4 or 5, classified in a Specific Vocational Preparation (SVP) range of 7.0 or higher. Refer to http://online.onetcenter.org/
ABOUT AMMECK09
I am a Ghanaian resident in the UK and currently on a work permit visa. I was a student when I won the DV lottery in 2009. I moved to the UK in 2005 after spending about 2 and half years in Sweden also as a student. I am currently married to a Ghanaian lady and presently have three lovely daughters.
BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE WITH THE DV LOTTERY
I started playing the DV lottery as far back as in 1989 – with the exceptions of 2001 and 2003 and have never won until May 2009 when I received the 1st notification letter from KCC. My brother-in-law was a DV 2009 winner and I assisted him in the processing of his visa. This serves as a motivation and really helped me to know more about the DV lottery process, and as if by coincidence I won the following year. In all I was always optimistic I will win one day and until I fortunately got the big envelope pushed through my door.
THE DAY I RECEIVED THE 1ST NL
On that memorable day I was having a rest after closing from work when the envelope was pushed through my door. While resting I decided to go and have a pee (urinate) and lo and behold this white envelope. My initial thought about this particular envelope was the school certificate that I have applied for and waiting for it for the past six weeks. Normally this certificate takes about two weeks to be issued but this application took an unusual six weeks - so I said to myself "oh finally these people have sent the certificate to me". When I picked up the envelope and turned the front side I saw the words 'Kentucky Consular Center'. Initially I didn’t believe what I was seeing so I quickly went to the bathroom to wash my face. I came back, picked up the white envelope and check the sender's address again. Then it dawned on me that the years of waiting has finally come to the end. I quickly phoned my wife from her workplace and broke the good news to her because I couldn't have waited for her to come home after closing from work.
INTERNET FORUMS
From the day I received the winning notification letter I started researching on the Internet about what I have to do to make the visa application and interview preparation smooth and error-free and that is where I found out about this awesome forum http://forums.immigration.com/forumdisplay.php?38-Lottery-Visas-DV and since then I have become addicted and cannot miss this forum for even a day. I started contributing to the DV 2009 winners from Ghana thread and later opened a new thread for DV 2010 winners from Ghana. Although I checked other forums none of them could give me instant answers and constant updates and discussions that could warrant my participation than this one.
COMPLETING THE FORMS
On opening the envelope, I found the 1st notification letter (1stNL) and other forms, these were:
- DSP-122 (supplementary registration for the diversity immigration visa program),
- DS-230 (application for immigrant visa and alien registration, Part I & Part II),
- Supplement 1 to of -169,
- Attachment 1 (general photo requirements),
- Attachment 2 (adjusting status in the U.S.),
- Attachment 3 (DV-2010 processing stages)
I was required to complete forms DSP-122, DS-230 Part I & II and the form for myself and Supplement 1 to of-169 if applicable. For my accompanying family members, they were to complete form DS-230 Part I & II.
I made copies of the forms and completed in black ink and later checked on the Internet to see if I could get fillable copies of these forms. When I found one, I took my time to complete the forms to the best of my knowledge and scanned over the forms several times to make sure that the information being sent to KCC are valid and accurate. I cross-checked all the information I have provided with my documents several times before printing two copies each (one for my records).
It took me about three weeks to complete gathering all the information and the photographs needed to accompany the forms. The reason for the delay was that two of my family members were not with me at that time and I have to get their photographs before submitting the forms to KCC.
Children are not capable of signing their forms so I sent my children forms to KCC without any signature. Later I had a second thought about the unsigned forms and sent KCC email enquiring about this issue. I got a reply that “each applicant must personally sign his/her own forms. However, if a child is not capable of signing the forms themselves due to age limitations, either parent may sign the form on their behalf.” I, therefore, sent updated forms, this time signing it on their behalf.
After one week of sending the forms to KCC I used the code given to me by the courier service to check if the forms has been delivered and realised my package has been received. I contacted KCC by email to enquire about the receipt of the forms. In the email I provided only my name and case number but forgot to include my date of birth and got this reply “when inquiring about the status of your case, you are required to provide your full name, complete case number, and date of birth. For security purposes, KCC cannot reveal any information regarding your case if you cannot provide all the required information.” I resend the email this time including all these details, i.e. full name, date of birth and case number and received another reply that due to the large volume of mail processed at KCC on a daily basis, confirmation of receiving of my correspondence may not be feasible at that time. I waited for three weeks and sent another email to KCC and had a reply within three days indicating that my forms have been received and are currently being processed. After that I thought about the options available to me. Since I don’t live in the US, the only option for me is to pursue the consular processing route. Therefore, at this stage I started researching about the documents needed for my interview.
CASE NUMBER AND CUT-OFFS
Since I am from the Africa region and my case number being 2010AF00037XXX, I had to constantly check the visa bulleting for 2010 until the cut-offs for the Africa region exceeds my case number. I waited for ten months after submitting my forms to KCC before being current in May 2010 (announced in March 2010 visa bulletin). I emailed KCC and within 3 days got to know of my interview date and two days later received my 2nd letter. More information about cut-offs number can be obtained from the department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
2ND LETTER
The 2nd letter was received two days after receiving a reply from KCC about my interview date. The 2nd letter contains information about date, time and the consulate where the interview will be held, documents to submit as well as the names of my family members who will accompany me to the US. The letter also requested that:
o original or certified copies of all docs must be brought to the visa interview
o medical examinations must be completed before the interview
o the correct size and number of photographs for all applicants must be brought to the visa interview
o failure to present all of the necessary docs could result in denial of the visa
The 2nd letter also contains a list of documents to submit for the visa interview. These are: passports, birth cert, adoption cert, marriage cert, divorce decree or death cert, military service record, police cert, court records, photographs (two photographs, only one photograph is required if you have already submitted a photograph to KCC with your forms), high school diploma, evidence of support (they mention I-134), translations, and medical exams certificate. All documents should be original.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR THE INTERVIEW
Based on the information gathered from the 2nd letter, I was required to get the following documents ready for my visa interview:
• Passports
• Birth Certificates
• Photographs
• Adoption Certificates
• Marriage Certificates
• Termination of Prior Marriages
• Police Certificates
• Court and Prison Records
• Military Records
• Deportation Papers
• Translations
• Evidence of Required Education or Work Experience
PHOTOGRAPHS
It took me almost two weeks to get the passport photographs from my two family members who were in Ghana. They had to take five different photos because none of them were up to the required quality and specification needed for the DV lottery process. I went to the interview with two passport-size photographs of myself and my accompanying family members. Photograph requirements can be found at page 2 of the website given below: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf or
http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/passports/photo.html
POLICE CERTIFICATES
I had lived in more than one country for more than 6 months since I attained the age of 16, therefore, I needed to get police certificates from all those countries. I realised the processes of getting the police certificates from some of the countries may be difficult and as such I decided to start the process early. Sweden, UK and Ghana are the countries that I needed police certificates from them.
Ghana Police Certificate
Getting the Ghana police certificate seems the hardest of all the police certificates I applied for. As a non-resident, I have to contact my younger brother who lives in Ghana to send the application on my behalf. My brother has to complete an application form and submit a photocopy of my passport, a set of fingerprints and three passport-sized photographs as well as a processing fee of US $200 each for two of us.
The information he provided includes:
• Full name, sex, date and place of birth;
• Names of my parents (even if deceased);
• Last school I attended with dates of entry and completion; and
• My current address
Below is the official Ghana police service website about the procedure to obtain the police clearance certificate from Ghana. There was no mention of finger-print but non-resident must make sure they have it to avoid any delays during their interviews. http://www.ghanapolice.info/cid/clearance_cert.htm The US department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_4881.html?cid=3568#docs did mention the fingerprint from your current place of residence.
Swedish Police Certificate
For the Swedish police certificate, I had a friend who lives in Sweden and helped me in obtaining the certificate. I downloaded the forms from the Swedish police board website, completed and faxed it to them. I let my friend pay the required amount in Swedish Kronor and the certificate was delivered within ten (10) days. The form was obtained from the Swedish police board website shown below:
http://www.polisen.se/en/English/Service/Forms/Hallare/Request-for-an-extract-from-the-criminal-/
The UK Police Certificate
The UK police certificate took about three weeks to arrive after sending the application. It normally takes two weeks (10 working days) to arrive but you must also cater for posting time, weekends and bank holidays. The UK police certificate application was not easy as I envisage because I needed to provide a prove of identity (photocopy of passport or driving licence), two photocopies of proofs of address (not more than three months old), one photograph (UK requirements http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/Applicationinformation/DG_174152 ), and the back of my photograph must be signed by a person listed on the police website such as an accountant, barrister, qualified engineer, and etc. The application form must also be endorsed by the same person. The form and instruction can be found from the website below: http://www.acpo.police.uk/certificates.asp
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
My medical exams were conducted at Knightsbridge Doctors in London. It’s about 20 minutes walk from the US embassy in London. I attended the medical exams with my family three weeks before our visa interview. I could not complete the medicals on the same day since according to the panel doctor who examined me on that day, my BP was high and she also heard an unusual sound when examining my heartbeat (usually referred to as heart murmur). I had to have a 24-hour BP monitor fixed to my waist to record my BP and cost me several quid (pounds) to have private scans (electrocardiogram and echocardiogram) which later proved to be innocent murmur (my heart murmurs was quite normal and was due to anxiety which do not represent any danger to the heart) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-heart-murmurs.htm To complete the medical exams means having the visa interview and the CO holding on to it pending the outcome of these tests. The medical report was sent to the US embassy two weeks after my visa interview.
Cost for basic medical examination at Knightsbridge Doctors was £190 for an adult (increased to £200 from June 2010) and children below the age of 15 £95. I paid £190 by 2 and £95 by 3 (£665) for the basic medical examination. All the vaccinations was done at a private hospital at a higher cost than what prevails at the Knightsbridge Doctors. I spent about £450 on vaccinations and £500 on additional consultations and heart scans. All information about the medicals at Knightsbridge Doctors including location and telephone number, what to bring to the examination, pricing information, and vaccination schedule is available at this website
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164203/cons-visa/iv_medical_letter.pdf
VISA INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
Outside the Embassy
We got to the entrance of the US embassy in London at about 06:30am. There were no queues except two security guys present at the entrance. I asked one of them when they will open the embassy to visa applicant and he replied 07:30am. I went on by asking him where we could keep our cell phones and he directed us a nearby pharmacy shop. In fact, the pharmacy shop also opens at 07:30am so we have to walk about for almost an hour before coming back to the pharmacy shop to deposit our phones.
We then proceeded to the US embassy and joined the queue formed outside of the embassy. From my own counting, we were in about 20th position in the queue.
Inside the Embassy
At about 08:00am, the security guys started ushering us into the embassy compound by subjecting us to an airport style security check. After managing our way pass the security checks we passed through an entrance where met a lady sitting behind a desk. She asked for our mission and I showed her the 2nd letter. After checking from a computer in front of her, she gave us a ticket and directed us to go and have a seat at the waiting area. At the waiting area we met other visa applicants and later others also came to join us - both immigrants and non-immigrants. The interview officers started calling visa applicants at about 08:30, with non-immigrant visa applicants being called to the interview counters at a faster rate. Later they started calling the immigrant visa applicants and it got to our turn at about 09:30am. We were called to counter 14 where we met a matured white lady. She greeted us and started asking for our documents in an order listed in front of her. The first thing she asks for is our passports, where she checked if we have a valid UK resident permit. She continued by asking for our birth certificates, marriage certificate, police certificates, educational certificates, and evidence of support.
We went to the interview with all these documents. About the evidence of financial support, we went with our own bank statements (comprising 12 monthly statements) and I-134 (with supporting documents) but I handed in only our bank statements since the money we have saved for one year is enough to meet the poverty guidelines for a family of five (5). On education, I did not provide any O&A Level certificates but rather my Bachelor degree and two Master's degrees.
Later the lady gave us a yellow sheet and directed us to counter 12 to make payment and told us to come back to her counter once payment has been made. We paid $3,875 ($775 x 5) to the embassy. After getting the receipt we went back to the lady again where she then gave us a pink sheet to complete and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait for our number to be called again.
We were called to counter 16 at about 10:20am and met another matured person but this time a male. He asked to swear an oath, where we then proceeded by signing the form DS-230 Part II.
Consular Interview
This is how the interview went on:
Consular Officer (CO), and
AM (Ammeck)
CO: You are here because you were selected for further consideration for diversity visa.
AM: Yes
CO: Could you swear an oath that all the information………
AM: Yes
CO: Please place your right thumb on this machine
Right thumb, follow by all the four fingers at the same time, and the same for the left hand.
The CO gave me the DS-230 forms to append my signatures
The same process was done for my wife
CO: I understand you medical report has not been sent to us
AM: Yes
CO: Do you have any family or friends in the US?
AM: Yes, I have a friend (the one I provided his name and address on the I-134 form).
CO: Where do you want to live or stay in the US?
AM: Answer
CO: What program did you do during your undergraduate studies?
AM: Answer
CO: What about your masters?
AM: Answer
CO: This is all your original copies of your documents. I have gone through your documents and they are in order. You qualify for the program and in order for the visa to be issued we have to receive your medical report first. I will like to retain your passports so that once your medical report is sent to us we can issue you with the visas. If I give it back to you we have to contact you to bring the passport back to us before your visas can be issued. Take this sheet with your to the counter (courier service) and make payment of your choice of service of delivery. Your five passports will come in this envelope (he showed us a tick dark coffee rubber bag) and there will be 5 other envelopes, do not open them but rather hand it over to the immigration officials at the US border. They will open them and process your documents over there. In the meantime, don't make any travel plans until you receive your passport back with the visas stamped in them.
AM: Thank you
That is all about our interview, nothing worth to say again. The actual interview lasted less than 2 minutes. In fact I did ask the IO if that was the end of it and he said yes. My wife was a bit baffled because of the way I described the interview to her days before we set off. We went with a big photo album and other documents just to prove anything that they might have a reservation. We were also given an invoice by the courier service to track our parcel. We left the embassy at about 10:55.
OTHER ITEM TAKEN WITH ME TO THE INTERVIEW
--1st Notification Letter
--Affidavit of Support
--Family Photo Album
--Communications with Sponsor
--All my School (educational) Certificates
--Current Employment Letter
--Recent Payslips
--Old Passport (Important)
Note: None of these documents or items was requested at the interview.
ISSUE OF VISA
We attended the visa interview on 12 May 2010 but got our visas on 12 July 2010. The delay was due to the problems with the medical examination. In fact, the issue of our visas should not have delayed to that extent because under normal circumstances once the medical report is sent to the embassy, it takes not more than 2 weeks to get a call for visa collection. I waited for 6 weeks after our interview to contact the embassy by phone. I was given a certain code to use to contact the immigrant section. I got a reply in less than a week with the explanation that our application is in the final stages of processing. Fortunately, the following week our visas were issued. I think the CO who was in charge of our file went on annual leave or sick leave or did forgot about our application until the email was sent to the embassy.
I am a Ghanaian resident in the UK and currently on a work permit visa. I was a student when I won the DV lottery in 2009. I moved to the UK in 2005 after spending about 2 and half years in Sweden also as a student. I am currently married to a Ghanaian lady and presently have three lovely daughters.
BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE WITH THE DV LOTTERY
I started playing the DV lottery as far back as in 1989 – with the exceptions of 2001 and 2003 and have never won until May 2009 when I received the 1st notification letter from KCC. My brother-in-law was a DV 2009 winner and I assisted him in the processing of his visa. This serves as a motivation and really helped me to know more about the DV lottery process, and as if by coincidence I won the following year. In all I was always optimistic I will win one day and until I fortunately got the big envelope pushed through my door.
THE DAY I RECEIVED THE 1ST NL
On that memorable day I was having a rest after closing from work when the envelope was pushed through my door. While resting I decided to go and have a pee (urinate) and lo and behold this white envelope. My initial thought about this particular envelope was the school certificate that I have applied for and waiting for it for the past six weeks. Normally this certificate takes about two weeks to be issued but this application took an unusual six weeks - so I said to myself "oh finally these people have sent the certificate to me". When I picked up the envelope and turned the front side I saw the words 'Kentucky Consular Center'. Initially I didn’t believe what I was seeing so I quickly went to the bathroom to wash my face. I came back, picked up the white envelope and check the sender's address again. Then it dawned on me that the years of waiting has finally come to the end. I quickly phoned my wife from her workplace and broke the good news to her because I couldn't have waited for her to come home after closing from work.
INTERNET FORUMS
From the day I received the winning notification letter I started researching on the Internet about what I have to do to make the visa application and interview preparation smooth and error-free and that is where I found out about this awesome forum http://forums.immigration.com/forumdisplay.php?38-Lottery-Visas-DV and since then I have become addicted and cannot miss this forum for even a day. I started contributing to the DV 2009 winners from Ghana thread and later opened a new thread for DV 2010 winners from Ghana. Although I checked other forums none of them could give me instant answers and constant updates and discussions that could warrant my participation than this one.
COMPLETING THE FORMS
On opening the envelope, I found the 1st notification letter (1stNL) and other forms, these were:
- DSP-122 (supplementary registration for the diversity immigration visa program),
- DS-230 (application for immigrant visa and alien registration, Part I & Part II),
- Supplement 1 to of -169,
- Attachment 1 (general photo requirements),
- Attachment 2 (adjusting status in the U.S.),
- Attachment 3 (DV-2010 processing stages)
I was required to complete forms DSP-122, DS-230 Part I & II and the form for myself and Supplement 1 to of-169 if applicable. For my accompanying family members, they were to complete form DS-230 Part I & II.
I made copies of the forms and completed in black ink and later checked on the Internet to see if I could get fillable copies of these forms. When I found one, I took my time to complete the forms to the best of my knowledge and scanned over the forms several times to make sure that the information being sent to KCC are valid and accurate. I cross-checked all the information I have provided with my documents several times before printing two copies each (one for my records).
It took me about three weeks to complete gathering all the information and the photographs needed to accompany the forms. The reason for the delay was that two of my family members were not with me at that time and I have to get their photographs before submitting the forms to KCC.
Children are not capable of signing their forms so I sent my children forms to KCC without any signature. Later I had a second thought about the unsigned forms and sent KCC email enquiring about this issue. I got a reply that “each applicant must personally sign his/her own forms. However, if a child is not capable of signing the forms themselves due to age limitations, either parent may sign the form on their behalf.” I, therefore, sent updated forms, this time signing it on their behalf.
After one week of sending the forms to KCC I used the code given to me by the courier service to check if the forms has been delivered and realised my package has been received. I contacted KCC by email to enquire about the receipt of the forms. In the email I provided only my name and case number but forgot to include my date of birth and got this reply “when inquiring about the status of your case, you are required to provide your full name, complete case number, and date of birth. For security purposes, KCC cannot reveal any information regarding your case if you cannot provide all the required information.” I resend the email this time including all these details, i.e. full name, date of birth and case number and received another reply that due to the large volume of mail processed at KCC on a daily basis, confirmation of receiving of my correspondence may not be feasible at that time. I waited for three weeks and sent another email to KCC and had a reply within three days indicating that my forms have been received and are currently being processed. After that I thought about the options available to me. Since I don’t live in the US, the only option for me is to pursue the consular processing route. Therefore, at this stage I started researching about the documents needed for my interview.
CASE NUMBER AND CUT-OFFS
Since I am from the Africa region and my case number being 2010AF00037XXX, I had to constantly check the visa bulleting for 2010 until the cut-offs for the Africa region exceeds my case number. I waited for ten months after submitting my forms to KCC before being current in May 2010 (announced in March 2010 visa bulletin). I emailed KCC and within 3 days got to know of my interview date and two days later received my 2nd letter. More information about cut-offs number can be obtained from the department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
2ND LETTER
The 2nd letter was received two days after receiving a reply from KCC about my interview date. The 2nd letter contains information about date, time and the consulate where the interview will be held, documents to submit as well as the names of my family members who will accompany me to the US. The letter also requested that:
o original or certified copies of all docs must be brought to the visa interview
o medical examinations must be completed before the interview
o the correct size and number of photographs for all applicants must be brought to the visa interview
o failure to present all of the necessary docs could result in denial of the visa
The 2nd letter also contains a list of documents to submit for the visa interview. These are: passports, birth cert, adoption cert, marriage cert, divorce decree or death cert, military service record, police cert, court records, photographs (two photographs, only one photograph is required if you have already submitted a photograph to KCC with your forms), high school diploma, evidence of support (they mention I-134), translations, and medical exams certificate. All documents should be original.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR THE INTERVIEW
Based on the information gathered from the 2nd letter, I was required to get the following documents ready for my visa interview:
• Passports
• Birth Certificates
• Photographs
• Adoption Certificates
• Marriage Certificates
• Termination of Prior Marriages
• Police Certificates
• Court and Prison Records
• Military Records
• Deportation Papers
• Translations
• Evidence of Required Education or Work Experience
PHOTOGRAPHS
It took me almost two weeks to get the passport photographs from my two family members who were in Ghana. They had to take five different photos because none of them were up to the required quality and specification needed for the DV lottery process. I went to the interview with two passport-size photographs of myself and my accompanying family members. Photograph requirements can be found at page 2 of the website given below: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf or
http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/passports/photo.html
POLICE CERTIFICATES
I had lived in more than one country for more than 6 months since I attained the age of 16, therefore, I needed to get police certificates from all those countries. I realised the processes of getting the police certificates from some of the countries may be difficult and as such I decided to start the process early. Sweden, UK and Ghana are the countries that I needed police certificates from them.
Ghana Police Certificate
Getting the Ghana police certificate seems the hardest of all the police certificates I applied for. As a non-resident, I have to contact my younger brother who lives in Ghana to send the application on my behalf. My brother has to complete an application form and submit a photocopy of my passport, a set of fingerprints and three passport-sized photographs as well as a processing fee of US $200 each for two of us.
The information he provided includes:
• Full name, sex, date and place of birth;
• Names of my parents (even if deceased);
• Last school I attended with dates of entry and completion; and
• My current address
Below is the official Ghana police service website about the procedure to obtain the police clearance certificate from Ghana. There was no mention of finger-print but non-resident must make sure they have it to avoid any delays during their interviews. http://www.ghanapolice.info/cid/clearance_cert.htm The US department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_4881.html?cid=3568#docs did mention the fingerprint from your current place of residence.
Swedish Police Certificate
For the Swedish police certificate, I had a friend who lives in Sweden and helped me in obtaining the certificate. I downloaded the forms from the Swedish police board website, completed and faxed it to them. I let my friend pay the required amount in Swedish Kronor and the certificate was delivered within ten (10) days. The form was obtained from the Swedish police board website shown below:
http://www.polisen.se/en/English/Service/Forms/Hallare/Request-for-an-extract-from-the-criminal-/
The UK Police Certificate
The UK police certificate took about three weeks to arrive after sending the application. It normally takes two weeks (10 working days) to arrive but you must also cater for posting time, weekends and bank holidays. The UK police certificate application was not easy as I envisage because I needed to provide a prove of identity (photocopy of passport or driving licence), two photocopies of proofs of address (not more than three months old), one photograph (UK requirements http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/Applicationinformation/DG_174152 ), and the back of my photograph must be signed by a person listed on the police website such as an accountant, barrister, qualified engineer, and etc. The application form must also be endorsed by the same person. The form and instruction can be found from the website below: http://www.acpo.police.uk/certificates.asp
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
My medical exams were conducted at Knightsbridge Doctors in London. It’s about 20 minutes walk from the US embassy in London. I attended the medical exams with my family three weeks before our visa interview. I could not complete the medicals on the same day since according to the panel doctor who examined me on that day, my BP was high and she also heard an unusual sound when examining my heartbeat (usually referred to as heart murmur). I had to have a 24-hour BP monitor fixed to my waist to record my BP and cost me several quid (pounds) to have private scans (electrocardiogram and echocardiogram) which later proved to be innocent murmur (my heart murmurs was quite normal and was due to anxiety which do not represent any danger to the heart) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-heart-murmurs.htm To complete the medical exams means having the visa interview and the CO holding on to it pending the outcome of these tests. The medical report was sent to the US embassy two weeks after my visa interview.
Cost for basic medical examination at Knightsbridge Doctors was £190 for an adult (increased to £200 from June 2010) and children below the age of 15 £95. I paid £190 by 2 and £95 by 3 (£665) for the basic medical examination. All the vaccinations was done at a private hospital at a higher cost than what prevails at the Knightsbridge Doctors. I spent about £450 on vaccinations and £500 on additional consultations and heart scans. All information about the medicals at Knightsbridge Doctors including location and telephone number, what to bring to the examination, pricing information, and vaccination schedule is available at this website
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164203/cons-visa/iv_medical_letter.pdf
VISA INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
Outside the Embassy
We got to the entrance of the US embassy in London at about 06:30am. There were no queues except two security guys present at the entrance. I asked one of them when they will open the embassy to visa applicant and he replied 07:30am. I went on by asking him where we could keep our cell phones and he directed us a nearby pharmacy shop. In fact, the pharmacy shop also opens at 07:30am so we have to walk about for almost an hour before coming back to the pharmacy shop to deposit our phones.
We then proceeded to the US embassy and joined the queue formed outside of the embassy. From my own counting, we were in about 20th position in the queue.
Inside the Embassy
At about 08:00am, the security guys started ushering us into the embassy compound by subjecting us to an airport style security check. After managing our way pass the security checks we passed through an entrance where met a lady sitting behind a desk. She asked for our mission and I showed her the 2nd letter. After checking from a computer in front of her, she gave us a ticket and directed us to go and have a seat at the waiting area. At the waiting area we met other visa applicants and later others also came to join us - both immigrants and non-immigrants. The interview officers started calling visa applicants at about 08:30, with non-immigrant visa applicants being called to the interview counters at a faster rate. Later they started calling the immigrant visa applicants and it got to our turn at about 09:30am. We were called to counter 14 where we met a matured white lady. She greeted us and started asking for our documents in an order listed in front of her. The first thing she asks for is our passports, where she checked if we have a valid UK resident permit. She continued by asking for our birth certificates, marriage certificate, police certificates, educational certificates, and evidence of support.
We went to the interview with all these documents. About the evidence of financial support, we went with our own bank statements (comprising 12 monthly statements) and I-134 (with supporting documents) but I handed in only our bank statements since the money we have saved for one year is enough to meet the poverty guidelines for a family of five (5). On education, I did not provide any O&A Level certificates but rather my Bachelor degree and two Master's degrees.
Later the lady gave us a yellow sheet and directed us to counter 12 to make payment and told us to come back to her counter once payment has been made. We paid $3,875 ($775 x 5) to the embassy. After getting the receipt we went back to the lady again where she then gave us a pink sheet to complete and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait for our number to be called again.
We were called to counter 16 at about 10:20am and met another matured person but this time a male. He asked to swear an oath, where we then proceeded by signing the form DS-230 Part II.
Consular Interview
This is how the interview went on:
Consular Officer (CO), and
AM (Ammeck)
CO: You are here because you were selected for further consideration for diversity visa.
AM: Yes
CO: Could you swear an oath that all the information………
AM: Yes
CO: Please place your right thumb on this machine
Right thumb, follow by all the four fingers at the same time, and the same for the left hand.
The CO gave me the DS-230 forms to append my signatures
The same process was done for my wife
CO: I understand you medical report has not been sent to us
AM: Yes
CO: Do you have any family or friends in the US?
AM: Yes, I have a friend (the one I provided his name and address on the I-134 form).
CO: Where do you want to live or stay in the US?
AM: Answer
CO: What program did you do during your undergraduate studies?
AM: Answer
CO: What about your masters?
AM: Answer
CO: This is all your original copies of your documents. I have gone through your documents and they are in order. You qualify for the program and in order for the visa to be issued we have to receive your medical report first. I will like to retain your passports so that once your medical report is sent to us we can issue you with the visas. If I give it back to you we have to contact you to bring the passport back to us before your visas can be issued. Take this sheet with your to the counter (courier service) and make payment of your choice of service of delivery. Your five passports will come in this envelope (he showed us a tick dark coffee rubber bag) and there will be 5 other envelopes, do not open them but rather hand it over to the immigration officials at the US border. They will open them and process your documents over there. In the meantime, don't make any travel plans until you receive your passport back with the visas stamped in them.
AM: Thank you
That is all about our interview, nothing worth to say again. The actual interview lasted less than 2 minutes. In fact I did ask the IO if that was the end of it and he said yes. My wife was a bit baffled because of the way I described the interview to her days before we set off. We went with a big photo album and other documents just to prove anything that they might have a reservation. We were also given an invoice by the courier service to track our parcel. We left the embassy at about 10:55.
OTHER ITEM TAKEN WITH ME TO THE INTERVIEW
--1st Notification Letter
--Affidavit of Support
--Family Photo Album
--Communications with Sponsor
--All my School (educational) Certificates
--Current Employment Letter
--Recent Payslips
--Old Passport (Important)
Note: None of these documents or items was requested at the interview.
ISSUE OF VISA
We attended the visa interview on 12 May 2010 but got our visas on 12 July 2010. The delay was due to the problems with the medical examination. In fact, the issue of our visas should not have delayed to that extent because under normal circumstances once the medical report is sent to the embassy, it takes not more than 2 weeks to get a call for visa collection. I waited for 6 weeks after our interview to contact the embassy by phone. I was given a certain code to use to contact the immigrant section. I got a reply in less than a week with the explanation that our application is in the final stages of processing. Fortunately, the following week our visas were issued. I think the CO who was in charge of our file went on annual leave or sick leave or did forgot about our application until the email was sent to the embassy.
ABOUT AMMECK09
I am a Ghanaian resident in the UK and currently on a work permit visa. I was a student when I won the DV lottery in 2009. I moved to the UK in 2005 after spending about 2 and half years in Sweden also as a student. I am currently married to a Ghanaian lady and presently have three lovely daughters.
BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE WITH THE DV LOTTERY
I started playing the DV lottery as far back as in 1989 – with the exceptions of 2001 and 2003 and have never won until May 2009 when I received the 1st notification letter from KCC. My brother-in-law was a DV 2009 winner and I assisted him in the processing of his visa. This serves as a motivation and really helped me to know more about the DV lottery process, and as if by coincidence I won the following year. In all I was always optimistic I will win one day and until I fortunately got the big envelope pushed through my door.
THE DAY I RECEIVED THE 1ST NL
On that memorable day I was having a rest after closing from work when the envelope was pushed through my door. While resting I decided to go and have a pee (urinate) and lo and behold this white envelope. My initial thought about this particular envelope was the school certificate that I have applied for and waiting for it for the past six weeks. Normally this certificate takes about two weeks to be issued but this application took an unusual six weeks - so I said to myself "oh finally these people have sent the certificate to me". When I picked up the envelope and turned the front side I saw the words 'Kentucky Consular Center'. Initially I didn’t believe what I was seeing so I quickly went to the bathroom to wash my face. I came back, picked up the white envelope and check the sender's address again. Then it dawned on me that the years of waiting has finally come to the end. I quickly phoned my wife from her workplace and broke the good news to her because I couldn't have waited for her to come home after closing from work.
INTERNET FORUMS
From the day I received the winning notification letter I started researching on the Internet about what I have to do to make the visa application and interview preparation smooth and error-free and that is where I found out about this awesome forum http://forums.immigration.com/forumdisplay.php?38-Lottery-Visas-DV and since then I have become addicted and cannot miss this forum for even a day. I started contributing to the DV 2009 winners from Ghana thread and later opened a new thread for DV 2010 winners from Ghana. Although I checked other forums none of them could give me instant answers and constant updates and discussions that could warrant my participation than this one.
COMPLETING THE FORMS
On opening the envelope, I found the 1st notification letter (1stNL) and other forms, these were:
- DSP-122 (supplementary registration for the diversity immigration visa program),
- DS-230 (application for immigrant visa and alien registration, Part I & Part II),
- Supplement 1 to of -169,
- Attachment 1 (general photo requirements),
- Attachment 2 (adjusting status in the U.S.),
- Attachment 3 (DV-2010 processing stages)
I was required to complete forms DSP-122, DS-230 Part I & II and the form for myself and Supplement 1 to of-169 if applicable. For my accompanying family members, they were to complete form DS-230 Part I & II.
I made copies of the forms and completed in black ink and later checked on the Internet to see if I could get fillable copies of these forms. When I found one, I took my time to complete the forms to the best of my knowledge and scanned over the forms several times to make sure that the information being sent to KCC are valid and accurate. I cross-checked all the information I have provided with my documents several times before printing two copies each (one for my records).
It took me about three weeks to complete gathering all the information and the photographs needed to accompany the forms. The reason for the delay was that two of my family members were not with me at that time and I have to get their photographs before submitting the forms to KCC.
Children are not capable of signing their forms so I sent my children forms to KCC without any signature. Later I had a second thought about the unsigned forms and sent KCC email enquiring about this issue. I got a reply that “each applicant must personally sign his/her own forms. However, if a child is not capable of signing the forms themselves due to age limitations, either parent may sign the form on their behalf.” I, therefore, sent updated forms, this time signing it on their behalf.
After one week of sending the forms to KCC I used the code given to me by the courier service to check if the forms has been delivered and realised my package has been received. I contacted KCC by email to enquire about the receipt of the forms. In the email I provided only my name and case number but forgot to include my date of birth and got this reply “when inquiring about the status of your case, you are required to provide your full name, complete case number, and date of birth. For security purposes, KCC cannot reveal any information regarding your case if you cannot provide all the required information.” I resend the email this time including all these details, i.e. full name, date of birth and case number and received another reply that due to the large volume of mail processed at KCC on a daily basis, confirmation of receiving of my correspondence may not be feasible at that time. I waited for three weeks and sent another email to KCC and had a reply within three days indicating that my forms have been received and are currently being processed. After that I thought about the options available to me. Since I don’t live in the US, the only option for me is to pursue the consular processing route. Therefore, at this stage I started researching about the documents needed for my interview.
CASE NUMBER AND CUT-OFFS
Since I am from the Africa region and my case number being 2010AF00037XXX, I had to constantly check the visa bulleting for 2010 until the cut-offs for the Africa region exceeds my case number. I waited for ten months after submitting my forms to KCC before being current in May 2010 (announced in March 2010 visa bulletin). I emailed KCC and within 3 days got to know of my interview date and two days later received my 2nd letter. More information about cut-offs number can be obtained from the department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
2ND LETTER
The 2nd letter was received two days after receiving a reply from KCC about my interview date. The 2nd letter contains information about date, time and the consulate where the interview will be held, documents to submit as well as the names of my family members who will accompany me to the US. The letter also requested that:
o original or certified copies of all docs must be brought to the visa interview
o medical examinations must be completed before the interview
o the correct size and number of photographs for all applicants must be brought to the visa interview
o failure to present all of the necessary docs could result in denial of the visa
The 2nd letter also contains a list of documents to submit for the visa interview. These are: passports, birth cert, adoption cert, marriage cert, divorce decree or death cert, military service record, police cert, court records, photographs (two photographs, only one photograph is required if you have already submitted a photograph to KCC with your forms), high school diploma, evidence of support (they mention I-134), translations, and medical exams certificate. All documents should be original.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR THE INTERVIEW
Based on the information gathered from the 2nd letter, I was required to get the following documents ready for my visa interview:
• Passports
• Birth Certificates
• Photographs
• Adoption Certificates
• Marriage Certificates
• Termination of Prior Marriages
• Police Certificates
• Court and Prison Records
• Military Records
• Deportation Papers
• Translations
• Evidence of Required Education or Work Experience
PHOTOGRAPHS
It took me almost two weeks to get the passport photographs from my two family members who were in Ghana. They had to take five different photos because none of them were up to the required quality and specification needed for the DV lottery process. I went to the interview with two passport-size photographs of myself and my accompanying family members. Photograph requirements can be found at page 2 of the website given below: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf or
http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/passports/photo.html
POLICE CERTIFICATES
I had lived in more than one country for more than 6 months since I attained the age of 16, therefore, I needed to get police certificates from all those countries. I realised the processes of getting the police certificates from some of the countries may be difficult and as such I decided to start the process early. Sweden, UK and Ghana are the countries that I needed police certificates from them.
Ghana Police Certificate
Getting the Ghana police certificate seems the hardest of all the police certificates I applied for. As a non-resident, I have to contact my younger brother who lives in Ghana to send the application on my behalf. My brother has to complete an application form and submit a photocopy of my passport, a set of fingerprints and three passport-sized photographs as well as a processing fee of US $200 each for two of us.
The information he provided includes:
• Full name, sex, date and place of birth;
• Names of my parents (even if deceased);
• Last school I attended with dates of entry and completion; and
• My current address
Below is the official Ghana police service website about the procedure to obtain the police clearance certificate from Ghana. There was no mention of finger-print but non-resident must make sure they have it to avoid any delays during their interviews. http://www.ghanapolice.info/cid/clearance_cert.htm The US department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_4881.html?cid=3568#docs did mention the fingerprint from your current place of residence.
Swedish Police Certificate
For the Swedish police certificate, I had a friend who lives in Sweden and helped me in obtaining the certificate. I downloaded the forms from the Swedish police board website, completed and faxed it to them. I let my friend pay the required amount in Swedish Kronor and the certificate was delivered within ten (10) days. The form was obtained from the Swedish police board website shown below:
http://www.polisen.se/en/English/Service/Forms/Hallare/Request-for-an-extract-from-the-criminal-/
The UK Police Certificate
The UK police certificate took about three weeks to arrive after sending the application. It normally takes two weeks (10 working days) to arrive but you must also cater for posting time, weekends and bank holidays. The UK police certificate application was not easy as I envisage because I needed to provide a prove of identity (photocopy of passport or driving licence), two photocopies of proofs of address (not more than three months old), one photograph (UK requirements http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/Applicationinformation/DG_174152 ), and the back of my photograph must be signed by a person listed on the police website such as an accountant, barrister, qualified engineer, and etc. The application form must also be endorsed by the same person. The form and instruction can be found from the website below: http://www.acpo.police.uk/certificates.asp
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
My medical exams were conducted at Knightsbridge Doctors in London. It’s about 20 minutes walk from the US embassy in London. I attended the medical exams with my family three weeks before our visa interview. I could not complete the medicals on the same day since according to the panel doctor who examined me on that day, my BP was high and she also heard an unusual sound when examining my heartbeat (usually referred to as heart murmur). I had to have a 24-hour BP monitor fixed to my waist to record my BP and cost me several quid (pounds) to have private scans (electrocardiogram and echocardiogram) which later proved to be innocent murmur (my heart murmurs was quite normal and was due to anxiety which do not represent any danger to the heart) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-heart-murmurs.htm To complete the medical exams means having the visa interview and the CO holding on to it pending the outcome of these tests. The medical report was sent to the US embassy two weeks after my visa interview.
Cost for basic medical examination at Knightsbridge Doctors was £190 for an adult (increased to £200 from June 2010) and children below the age of 15 £95. I paid £190 by 2 and £95 by 3 (£665) for the basic medical examination. All the vaccinations was done at a private hospital at a higher cost than what prevails at the Knightsbridge Doctors. I spent about £450 on vaccinations and £500 on additional consultations and heart scans. All information about the medicals at Knightsbridge Doctors including location and telephone number, what to bring to the examination, pricing information, and vaccination schedule is available at this website
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164203/cons-visa/iv_medical_letter.pdf
VISA INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
Outside the Embassy
We got to the entrance of the US embassy in London at about 06:30am. There were no queues except two security guys present at the entrance. I asked one of them when they will open the embassy to visa applicant and he replied 07:30am. I went on by asking him where we could keep our cell phones and he directed us a nearby pharmacy shop. In fact, the pharmacy shop also opens at 07:30am so we have to walk about for almost an hour before coming back to the pharmacy shop to deposit our phones.
We then proceeded to the US embassy and joined the queue formed outside of the embassy. From my own counting, we were in about 20th position in the queue.
Inside the Embassy
At about 08:00am, the security guys started ushering us into the embassy compound by subjecting us to an airport style security check. After managing our way pass the security checks we passed through an entrance where met a lady sitting behind a desk. She asked for our mission and I showed her the 2nd letter. After checking from a computer in front of her, she gave us a ticket and directed us to go and have a seat at the waiting area. At the waiting area we met other visa applicants and later others also came to join us - both immigrants and non-immigrants. The interview officers started calling visa applicants at about 08:30, with non-immigrant visa applicants being called to the interview counters at a faster rate. Later they started calling the immigrant visa applicants and it got to our turn at about 09:30am. We were called to counter 14 where we met a matured white lady. She greeted us and started asking for our documents in an order listed in front of her. The first thing she asks for is our passports, where she checked if we have a valid UK resident permit. She continued by asking for our birth certificates, marriage certificate, police certificates, educational certificates, and evidence of support.
We went to the interview with all these documents. About the evidence of financial support, we went with our own bank statements (comprising 12 monthly statements) and I-134 (with supporting documents) but I handed in only our bank statements since the money we have saved for one year is enough to meet the poverty guidelines for a family of five (5). On education, I did not provide any O&A Level certificates but rather my Bachelor degree and two Master's degrees.
Later the lady gave us a yellow sheet and directed us to counter 12 to make payment and told us to come back to her counter once payment has been made. We paid $3,875 ($775 x 5) to the embassy. After getting the receipt we went back to the lady again where she then gave us a pink sheet to complete and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait for our number to be called again.
We were called to counter 16 at about 10:20am and met another matured person but this time a male. He asked to swear an oath, where we then proceeded by signing the form DS-230 Part II.
Consular Interview
This is how the interview went on:
Consular Officer (CO), and
AM (Ammeck)
CO: You are here because you were selected for further consideration for diversity visa.
AM: Yes
CO: Could you swear an oath that all the information………
AM: Yes
CO: Please place your right thumb on this machine
Right thumb, follow by all the four fingers at the same time, and the same for the left hand.
The CO gave me the DS-230 forms to append my signatures
The same process was done for my wife
CO: I understand you medical report has not been sent to us
AM: Yes
CO: Do you have any family or friends in the US?
AM: Yes, I have a friend (the one I provided his name and address on the I-134 form).
CO: Where do you want to live or stay in the US?
AM: Answer
CO: What program did you do during your undergraduate studies?
AM: Answer
CO: What about your masters?
AM: Answer
CO: This is all your original copies of your documents. I have gone through your documents and they are in order. You qualify for the program and in order for the visa to be issued we have to receive your medical report first. I will like to retain your passports so that once your medical report is sent to us we can issue you with the visas. If I give it back to you we have to contact you to bring the passport back to us before your visas can be issued. Take this sheet with your to the counter (courier service) and make payment of your choice of service of delivery. Your five passports will come in this envelope (he showed us a tick dark coffee rubber bag) and there will be 5 other envelopes, do not open them but rather hand it over to the immigration officials at the US border. They will open them and process your documents over there. In the meantime, don't make any travel plans until you receive your passport back with the visas stamped in them.
AM: Thank you
That is all about our interview, nothing worth to say again. The actual interview lasted less than 2 minutes. In fact I did ask the IO if that was the end of it and he said yes. My wife was a bit baffled because of the way I described the interview to her days before we set off. We went with a big photo album and other documents just to prove anything that they might have a reservation. We were also given an invoice by the courier service to track our parcel. We left the embassy at about 10:55.
OTHER ITEM TAKEN WITH ME TO THE INTERVIEW
--1st Notification Letter
--Affidavit of Support
--Family Photo Album
--Communications with Sponsor
--All my School (educational) Certificates
--Current Employment Letter
--Recent Payslips
--Old Passport (Important)
Note: None of these documents or items was requested at the interview.
ISSUE OF VISA
We attended the visa interview on 12 May 2010 but got our visas on 12 July 2010. The delay was due to the problems with the medical examination. In fact, the issue of our visas should not have delayed to that extent because under normal circumstances once the medical report is sent to the embassy, it takes not more than 2 weeks to get a call for visa collection. I waited for 6 weeks after our interview to contact the embassy by phone. I was given a certain code to use to contact the immigrant section. I got a reply in less than a week with the explanation that our application is in the final stages of processing. Fortunately, the following week our visas were issued. I think the CO who was in charge of our file went on annual leave or sick leave or did forgot about our application until the email was sent to the embassy.
Very helpful information. Keep it up Ammeck09. We really appreciate your effort in helping us.
God bless you
ABOUT AMMECK09
I am a Ghanaian resident in the UK and currently on a work permit visa. I was a student when I won the DV lottery in 2009. I moved to the UK in 2005 after spending about 2 and half years in Sweden also as a student. I am currently married to a Ghanaian lady and presently have three lovely daughters.
BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE WITH THE DV LOTTERY
I started playing the DV lottery as far back as in 1989 – with the exceptions of 2001 and 2003 and have never won until May 2009 when I received the 1st notification letter from KCC. My brother-in-law was a DV 2009 winner and I assisted him in the processing of his visa. This serves as a motivation and really helped me to know more about the DV lottery process, and as if by coincidence I won the following year. In all I was always optimistic I will win one day and until I fortunately got the big envelope pushed through my door.
THE DAY I RECEIVED THE 1ST NL
On that memorable day I was having a rest after closing from work when the envelope was pushed through my door. While resting I decided to go and have a pee (urinate) and lo and behold this white envelope. My initial thought about this particular envelope was the school certificate that I have applied for and waiting for it for the past six weeks. Normally this certificate takes about two weeks to be issued but this application took an unusual six weeks - so I said to myself "oh finally these people have sent the certificate to me". When I picked up the envelope and turned the front side I saw the words 'Kentucky Consular Center'. Initially I didn’t believe what I was seeing so I quickly went to the bathroom to wash my face. I came back, picked up the white envelope and check the sender's address again. Then it dawned on me that the years of waiting has finally come to the end. I quickly phoned my wife from her workplace and broke the good news to her because I couldn't have waited for her to come home after closing from work.
INTERNET FORUMS
From the day I received the winning notification letter I started researching on the Internet about what I have to do to make the visa application and interview preparation smooth and error-free and that is where I found out about this awesome forum http://forums.immigration.com/forumdisplay.php?38-Lottery-Visas-DV and since then I have become addicted and cannot miss this forum for even a day. I started contributing to the DV 2009 winners from Ghana thread and later opened a new thread for DV 2010 winners from Ghana. Although I checked other forums none of them could give me instant answers and constant updates and discussions that could warrant my participation than this one.
COMPLETING THE FORMS
On opening the envelope, I found the 1st notification letter (1stNL) and other forms, these were:
- DSP-122 (supplementary registration for the diversity immigration visa program),
- DS-230 (application for immigrant visa and alien registration, Part I & Part II),
- Supplement 1 to of -169,
- Attachment 1 (general photo requirements),
- Attachment 2 (adjusting status in the U.S.),
- Attachment 3 (DV-2010 processing stages)
I was required to complete forms DSP-122, DS-230 Part I & II and the form for myself and Supplement 1 to of-169 if applicable. For my accompanying family members, they were to complete form DS-230 Part I & II.
I made copies of the forms and completed in black ink and later checked on the Internet to see if I could get fillable copies of these forms. When I found one, I took my time to complete the forms to the best of my knowledge and scanned over the forms several times to make sure that the information being sent to KCC are valid and accurate. I cross-checked all the information I have provided with my documents several times before printing two copies each (one for my records).
It took me about three weeks to complete gathering all the information and the photographs needed to accompany the forms. The reason for the delay was that two of my family members were not with me at that time and I have to get their photographs before submitting the forms to KCC.
Children are not capable of signing their forms so I sent my children forms to KCC without any signature. Later I had a second thought about the unsigned forms and sent KCC email enquiring about this issue. I got a reply that “each applicant must personally sign his/her own forms. However, if a child is not capable of signing the forms themselves due to age limitations, either parent may sign the form on their behalf.” I, therefore, sent updated forms, this time signing it on their behalf.
After one week of sending the forms to KCC I used the code given to me by the courier service to check if the forms has been delivered and realised my package has been received. I contacted KCC by email to enquire about the receipt of the forms. In the email I provided only my name and case number but forgot to include my date of birth and got this reply “when inquiring about the status of your case, you are required to provide your full name, complete case number, and date of birth. For security purposes, KCC cannot reveal any information regarding your case if you cannot provide all the required information.” I resend the email this time including all these details, i.e. full name, date of birth and case number and received another reply that due to the large volume of mail processed at KCC on a daily basis, confirmation of receiving of my correspondence may not be feasible at that time. I waited for three weeks and sent another email to KCC and had a reply within three days indicating that my forms have been received and are currently being processed. After that I thought about the options available to me. Since I don’t live in the US, the only option for me is to pursue the consular processing route. Therefore, at this stage I started researching about the documents needed for my interview.
CASE NUMBER AND CUT-OFFS
Since I am from the Africa region and my case number being 2010AF00037XXX, I had to constantly check the visa bulleting for 2010 until the cut-offs for the Africa region exceeds my case number. I waited for ten months after submitting my forms to KCC before being current in May 2010 (announced in March 2010 visa bulletin). I emailed KCC and within 3 days got to know of my interview date and two days later received my 2nd letter. More information about cut-offs number can be obtained from the department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
2ND LETTER
The 2nd letter was received two days after receiving a reply from KCC about my interview date. The 2nd letter contains information about date, time and the consulate where the interview will be held, documents to submit as well as the names of my family members who will accompany me to the US. The letter also requested that:
o original or certified copies of all docs must be brought to the visa interview
o medical examinations must be completed before the interview
o the correct size and number of photographs for all applicants must be brought to the visa interview
o failure to present all of the necessary docs could result in denial of the visa
The 2nd letter also contains a list of documents to submit for the visa interview. These are: passports, birth cert, adoption cert, marriage cert, divorce decree or death cert, military service record, police cert, court records, photographs (two photographs, only one photograph is required if you have already submitted a photograph to KCC with your forms), high school diploma, evidence of support (they mention I-134), translations, and medical exams certificate. All documents should be original.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR THE INTERVIEW
Based on the information gathered from the 2nd letter, I was required to get the following documents ready for my visa interview:
• Passports
• Birth Certificates
• Photographs
• Adoption Certificates
• Marriage Certificates
• Termination of Prior Marriages
• Police Certificates
• Court and Prison Records
• Military Records
• Deportation Papers
• Translations
• Evidence of Required Education or Work Experience
PHOTOGRAPHS
It took me almost two weeks to get the passport photographs from my two family members who were in Ghana. They had to take five different photos because none of them were up to the required quality and specification needed for the DV lottery process. I went to the interview with two passport-size photographs of myself and my accompanying family members. Photograph requirements can be found at page 2 of the website given below: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf or
http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/passports/photo.html
POLICE CERTIFICATES
I had lived in more than one country for more than 6 months since I attained the age of 16, therefore, I needed to get police certificates from all those countries. I realised the processes of getting the police certificates from some of the countries may be difficult and as such I decided to start the process early. Sweden, UK and Ghana are the countries that I needed police certificates from them.
Ghana Police Certificate
Getting the Ghana police certificate seems the hardest of all the police certificates I applied for. As a non-resident, I have to contact my younger brother who lives in Ghana to send the application on my behalf. My brother has to complete an application form and submit a photocopy of my passport, a set of fingerprints and three passport-sized photographs as well as a processing fee of US $200 each for two of us.
The information he provided includes:
• Full name, sex, date and place of birth;
• Names of my parents (even if deceased);
• Last school I attended with dates of entry and completion; and
• My current address
Below is the official Ghana police service website about the procedure to obtain the police clearance certificate from Ghana. There was no mention of finger-print but non-resident must make sure they have it to avoid any delays during their interviews. http://www.ghanapolice.info/cid/clearance_cert.htm The US department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_4881.html?cid=3568#docs did mention the fingerprint from your current place of residence.
Swedish Police Certificate
For the Swedish police certificate, I had a friend who lives in Sweden and helped me in obtaining the certificate. I downloaded the forms from the Swedish police board website, completed and faxed it to them. I let my friend pay the required amount in Swedish Kronor and the certificate was delivered within ten (10) days. The form was obtained from the Swedish police board website shown below:
http://www.polisen.se/en/English/Service/Forms/Hallare/Request-for-an-extract-from-the-criminal-/
The UK Police Certificate
The UK police certificate took about three weeks to arrive after sending the application. It normally takes two weeks (10 working days) to arrive but you must also cater for posting time, weekends and bank holidays. The UK police certificate application was not easy as I envisage because I needed to provide a prove of identity (photocopy of passport or driving licence), two photocopies of proofs of address (not more than three months old), one photograph (UK requirements http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/Applicationinformation/DG_174152 ), and the back of my photograph must be signed by a person listed on the police website such as an accountant, barrister, qualified engineer, and etc. The application form must also be endorsed by the same person. The form and instruction can be found from the website below: http://www.acpo.police.uk/certificates.asp
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
My medical exams were conducted at Knightsbridge Doctors in London. It’s about 20 minutes walk from the US embassy in London. I attended the medical exams with my family three weeks before our visa interview. I could not complete the medicals on the same day since according to the panel doctor who examined me on that day, my BP was high and she also heard an unusual sound when examining my heartbeat (usually referred to as heart murmur). I had to have a 24-hour BP monitor fixed to my waist to record my BP and cost me several quid (pounds) to have private scans (electrocardiogram and echocardiogram) which later proved to be innocent murmur (my heart murmurs was quite normal and was due to anxiety which do not represent any danger to the heart) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-heart-murmurs.htm To complete the medical exams means having the visa interview and the CO holding on to it pending the outcome of these tests. The medical report was sent to the US embassy two weeks after my visa interview.
Cost for basic medical examination at Knightsbridge Doctors was £190 for an adult (increased to £200 from June 2010) and children below the age of 15 £95. I paid £190 by 2 and £95 by 3 (£665) for the basic medical examination. All the vaccinations was done at a private hospital at a higher cost than what prevails at the Knightsbridge Doctors. I spent about £450 on vaccinations and £500 on additional consultations and heart scans. All information about the medicals at Knightsbridge Doctors including location and telephone number, what to bring to the examination, pricing information, and vaccination schedule is available at this website
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164203/cons-visa/iv_medical_letter.pdf
VISA INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
Outside the Embassy
We got to the entrance of the US embassy in London at about 06:30am. There were no queues except two security guys present at the entrance. I asked one of them when they will open the embassy to visa applicant and he replied 07:30am. I went on by asking him where we could keep our cell phones and he directed us a nearby pharmacy shop. In fact, the pharmacy shop also opens at 07:30am so we have to walk about for almost an hour before coming back to the pharmacy shop to deposit our phones.
We then proceeded to the US embassy and joined the queue formed outside of the embassy. From my own counting, we were in about 20th position in the queue.
Inside the Embassy
At about 08:00am, the security guys started ushering us into the embassy compound by subjecting us to an airport style security check. After managing our way pass the security checks we passed through an entrance where met a lady sitting behind a desk. She asked for our mission and I showed her the 2nd letter. After checking from a computer in front of her, she gave us a ticket and directed us to go and have a seat at the waiting area. At the waiting area we met other visa applicants and later others also came to join us - both immigrants and non-immigrants. The interview officers started calling visa applicants at about 08:30, with non-immigrant visa applicants being called to the interview counters at a faster rate. Later they started calling the immigrant visa applicants and it got to our turn at about 09:30am. We were called to counter 14 where we met a matured white lady. She greeted us and started asking for our documents in an order listed in front of her. The first thing she asks for is our passports, where she checked if we have a valid UK resident permit. She continued by asking for our birth certificates, marriage certificate, police certificates, educational certificates, and evidence of support.
We went to the interview with all these documents. About the evidence of financial support, we went with our own bank statements (comprising 12 monthly statements) and I-134 (with supporting documents) but I handed in only our bank statements since the money we have saved for one year is enough to meet the poverty guidelines for a family of five (5). On education, I did not provide any O&A Level certificates but rather my Bachelor degree and two Master's degrees.
Later the lady gave us a yellow sheet and directed us to counter 12 to make payment and told us to come back to her counter once payment has been made. We paid $3,875 ($775 x 5) to the embassy. After getting the receipt we went back to the lady again where she then gave us a pink sheet to complete and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait for our number to be called again.
We were called to counter 16 at about 10:20am and met another matured person but this time a male. He asked to swear an oath, where we then proceeded by signing the form DS-230 Part II.
Consular Interview
This is how the interview went on:
Consular Officer (CO), and
AM (Ammeck)
CO: You are here because you were selected for further consideration for diversity visa.
AM: Yes
CO: Could you swear an oath that all the information………
AM: Yes
CO: Please place your right thumb on this machine
Right thumb, follow by all the four fingers at the same time, and the same for the left hand.
The CO gave me the DS-230 forms to append my signatures
The same process was done for my wife
CO: I understand you medical report has not been sent to us
AM: Yes
CO: Do you have any family or friends in the US?
AM: Yes, I have a friend (the one I provided his name and address on the I-134 form).
CO: Where do you want to live or stay in the US?
AM: Answer
CO: What program did you do during your undergraduate studies?
AM: Answer
CO: What about your masters?
AM: Answer
CO: This is all your original copies of your documents. I have gone through your documents and they are in order. You qualify for the program and in order for the visa to be issued we have to receive your medical report first. I will like to retain your passports so that once your medical report is sent to us we can issue you with the visas. If I give it back to you we have to contact you to bring the passport back to us before your visas can be issued. Take this sheet with your to the counter (courier service) and make payment of your choice of service of delivery. Your five passports will come in this envelope (he showed us a tick dark coffee rubber bag) and there will be 5 other envelopes, do not open them but rather hand it over to the immigration officials at the US border. They will open them and process your documents over there. In the meantime, don't make any travel plans until you receive your passport back with the visas stamped in them.
AM: Thank you
That is all about our interview, nothing worth to say again. The actual interview lasted less than 2 minutes. In fact I did ask the IO if that was the end of it and he said yes. My wife was a bit baffled because of the way I described the interview to her days before we set off. We went with a big photo album and other documents just to prove anything that they might have a reservation. We were also given an invoice by the courier service to track our parcel. We left the embassy at about 10:55.
OTHER ITEM TAKEN WITH ME TO THE INTERVIEW
--1st Notification Letter
--Affidavit of Support
--Family Photo Album
--Communications with Sponsor
--All my School (educational) Certificates
--Current Employment Letter
--Recent Payslips
--Old Passport (Important)
Note: None of these documents or items was requested at the interview.
ISSUE OF VISA
We attended the visa interview on 12 May 2010 but got our visas on 12 July 2010. The delay was due to the problems with the medical examination. In fact, the issue of our visas should not have delayed to that extent because under normal circumstances once the medical report is sent to the embassy, it takes not more than 2 weeks to get a call for visa collection. I waited for 6 weeks after our interview to contact the embassy by phone. I was given a certain code to use to contact the immigrant section. I got a reply in less than a week with the explanation that our application is in the final stages of processing. Fortunately, the following week our visas were issued. I think the CO who was in charge of our file went on annual leave or sick leave or did forgot about our application until the email was sent to the embassy.
Very helpful information. Keep it up Ammeck09. We really appreciate your effort in helping us.
God bless you
ABOUT AMMECK09
I am a Ghanaian resident in the UK and currently on a work permit visa. I was a student when I won the DV lottery in 2009. I moved to the UK in 2005 after spending about 2 and half years in Sweden also as a student. I am currently married to a Ghanaian lady and presently have three lovely daughters.
BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE WITH THE DV LOTTERY
I started playing the DV lottery as far back as in 1989 – with the exceptions of 2001 and 2003 and have never won until May 2009 when I received the 1st notification letter from KCC. My brother-in-law was a DV 2009 winner and I assisted him in the processing of his visa. This serves as a motivation and really helped me to know more about the DV lottery process, and as if by coincidence I won the following year. In all I was always optimistic I will win one day and until I fortunately got the big envelope pushed through my door.
THE DAY I RECEIVED THE 1ST NL
On that memorable day I was having a rest after closing from work when the envelope was pushed through my door. While resting I decided to go and have a pee (urinate) and lo and behold this white envelope. My initial thought about this particular envelope was the school certificate that I have applied for and waiting for it for the past six weeks. Normally this certificate takes about two weeks to be issued but this application took an unusual six weeks - so I said to myself "oh finally these people have sent the certificate to me". When I picked up the envelope and turned the front side I saw the words 'Kentucky Consular Center'. Initially I didn’t believe what I was seeing so I quickly went to the bathroom to wash my face. I came back, picked up the white envelope and check the sender's address again. Then it dawned on me that the years of waiting has finally come to the end. I quickly phoned my wife from her workplace and broke the good news to her because I couldn't have waited for her to come home after closing from work.
INTERNET FORUMS
From the day I received the winning notification letter I started researching on the Internet about what I have to do to make the visa application and interview preparation smooth and error-free and that is where I found out about this awesome forum http://forums.immigration.com/forumdisplay.php?38-Lottery-Visas-DV and since then I have become addicted and cannot miss this forum for even a day. I started contributing to the DV 2009 winners from Ghana thread and later opened a new thread for DV 2010 winners from Ghana. Although I checked other forums none of them could give me instant answers and constant updates and discussions that could warrant my participation than this one.
COMPLETING THE FORMS
On opening the envelope, I found the 1st notification letter (1stNL) and other forms, these were:
- DSP-122 (supplementary registration for the diversity immigration visa program),
- DS-230 (application for immigrant visa and alien registration, Part I & Part II),
- Supplement 1 to of -169,
- Attachment 1 (general photo requirements),
- Attachment 2 (adjusting status in the U.S.),
- Attachment 3 (DV-2010 processing stages)
I was required to complete forms DSP-122, DS-230 Part I & II and the form for myself and Supplement 1 to of-169 if applicable. For my accompanying family members, they were to complete form DS-230 Part I & II.
I made copies of the forms and completed in black ink and later checked on the Internet to see if I could get fillable copies of these forms. When I found one, I took my time to complete the forms to the best of my knowledge and scanned over the forms several times to make sure that the information being sent to KCC are valid and accurate. I cross-checked all the information I have provided with my documents several times before printing two copies each (one for my records).
It took me about three weeks to complete gathering all the information and the photographs needed to accompany the forms. The reason for the delay was that two of my family members were not with me at that time and I have to get their photographs before submitting the forms to KCC.
Children are not capable of signing their forms so I sent my children forms to KCC without any signature. Later I had a second thought about the unsigned forms and sent KCC email enquiring about this issue. I got a reply that “each applicant must personally sign his/her own forms. However, if a child is not capable of signing the forms themselves due to age limitations, either parent may sign the form on their behalf.” I, therefore, sent updated forms, this time signing it on their behalf.
After one week of sending the forms to KCC I used the code given to me by the courier service to check if the forms has been delivered and realised my package has been received. I contacted KCC by email to enquire about the receipt of the forms. In the email I provided only my name and case number but forgot to include my date of birth and got this reply “when inquiring about the status of your case, you are required to provide your full name, complete case number, and date of birth. For security purposes, KCC cannot reveal any information regarding your case if you cannot provide all the required information.” I resend the email this time including all these details, i.e. full name, date of birth and case number and received another reply that due to the large volume of mail processed at KCC on a daily basis, confirmation of receiving of my correspondence may not be feasible at that time. I waited for three weeks and sent another email to KCC and had a reply within three days indicating that my forms have been received and are currently being processed. After that I thought about the options available to me. Since I don’t live in the US, the only option for me is to pursue the consular processing route. Therefore, at this stage I started researching about the documents needed for my interview.
CASE NUMBER AND CUT-OFFS
Since I am from the Africa region and my case number being 2010AF00037XXX, I had to constantly check the visa bulleting for 2010 until the cut-offs for the Africa region exceeds my case number. I waited for ten months after submitting my forms to KCC before being current in May 2010 (announced in March 2010 visa bulletin). I emailed KCC and within 3 days got to know of my interview date and two days later received my 2nd letter. More information about cut-offs number can be obtained from the department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
2ND LETTER
The 2nd letter was received two days after receiving a reply from KCC about my interview date. The 2nd letter contains information about date, time and the consulate where the interview will be held, documents to submit as well as the names of my family members who will accompany me to the US. The letter also requested that:
o original or certified copies of all docs must be brought to the visa interview
o medical examinations must be completed before the interview
o the correct size and number of photographs for all applicants must be brought to the visa interview
o failure to present all of the necessary docs could result in denial of the visa
The 2nd letter also contains a list of documents to submit for the visa interview. These are: passports, birth cert, adoption cert, marriage cert, divorce decree or death cert, military service record, police cert, court records, photographs (two photographs, only one photograph is required if you have already submitted a photograph to KCC with your forms), high school diploma, evidence of support (they mention I-134), translations, and medical exams certificate. All documents should be original.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR THE INTERVIEW
Based on the information gathered from the 2nd letter, I was required to get the following documents ready for my visa interview:
• Passports
• Birth Certificates
• Photographs
• Adoption Certificates
• Marriage Certificates
• Termination of Prior Marriages
• Police Certificates
• Court and Prison Records
• Military Records
• Deportation Papers
• Translations
• Evidence of Required Education or Work Experience
PHOTOGRAPHS
It took me almost two weeks to get the passport photographs from my two family members who were in Ghana. They had to take five different photos because none of them were up to the required quality and specification needed for the DV lottery process. I went to the interview with two passport-size photographs of myself and my accompanying family members. Photograph requirements can be found at page 2 of the website given below: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf or
http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/passports/photo.html
POLICE CERTIFICATES
I had lived in more than one country for more than 6 months since I attained the age of 16, therefore, I needed to get police certificates from all those countries. I realised the processes of getting the police certificates from some of the countries may be difficult and as such I decided to start the process early. Sweden, UK and Ghana are the countries that I needed police certificates from them.
Ghana Police Certificate
Getting the Ghana police certificate seems the hardest of all the police certificates I applied for. As a non-resident, I have to contact my younger brother who lives in Ghana to send the application on my behalf. My brother has to complete an application form and submit a photocopy of my passport, a set of fingerprints and three passport-sized photographs as well as a processing fee of US $200 each for two of us.
The information he provided includes:
• Full name, sex, date and place of birth;
• Names of my parents (even if deceased);
• Last school I attended with dates of entry and completion; and
• My current address
Below is the official Ghana police service website about the procedure to obtain the police clearance certificate from Ghana. There was no mention of finger-print but non-resident must make sure they have it to avoid any delays during their interviews. http://www.ghanapolice.info/cid/clearance_cert.htm The US department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_4881.html?cid=3568#docs did mention the fingerprint from your current place of residence.
Swedish Police Certificate
For the Swedish police certificate, I had a friend who lives in Sweden and helped me in obtaining the certificate. I downloaded the forms from the Swedish police board website, completed and faxed it to them. I let my friend pay the required amount in Swedish Kronor and the certificate was delivered within ten (10) days. The form was obtained from the Swedish police board website shown below:
http://www.polisen.se/en/English/Service/Forms/Hallare/Request-for-an-extract-from-the-criminal-/
The UK Police Certificate
The UK police certificate took about three weeks to arrive after sending the application. It normally takes two weeks (10 working days) to arrive but you must also cater for posting time, weekends and bank holidays. The UK police certificate application was not easy as I envisage because I needed to provide a prove of identity (photocopy of passport or driving licence), two photocopies of proofs of address (not more than three months old), one photograph (UK requirements http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/Applicationinformation/DG_174152 ), and the back of my photograph must be signed by a person listed on the police website such as an accountant, barrister, qualified engineer, and etc. The application form must also be endorsed by the same person. The form and instruction can be found from the website below: http://www.acpo.police.uk/certificates.asp
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
My medical exams were conducted at Knightsbridge Doctors in London. It’s about 20 minutes walk from the US embassy in London. I attended the medical exams with my family three weeks before our visa interview. I could not complete the medicals on the same day since according to the panel doctor who examined me on that day, my BP was high and she also heard an unusual sound when examining my heartbeat (usually referred to as heart murmur). I had to have a 24-hour BP monitor fixed to my waist to record my BP and cost me several quid (pounds) to have private scans (electrocardiogram and echocardiogram) which later proved to be innocent murmur (my heart murmurs was quite normal and was due to anxiety which do not represent any danger to the heart) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-heart-murmurs.htm To complete the medical exams means having the visa interview and the CO holding on to it pending the outcome of these tests. The medical report was sent to the US embassy two weeks after my visa interview.
Cost for basic medical examination at Knightsbridge Doctors was £190 for an adult (increased to £200 from June 2010) and children below the age of 15 £95. I paid £190 by 2 and £95 by 3 (£665) for the basic medical examination. All the vaccinations was done at a private hospital at a higher cost than what prevails at the Knightsbridge Doctors. I spent about £450 on vaccinations and £500 on additional consultations and heart scans. All information about the medicals at Knightsbridge Doctors including location and telephone number, what to bring to the examination, pricing information, and vaccination schedule is available at this website
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164203/cons-visa/iv_medical_letter.pdf
VISA INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
Outside the Embassy
We got to the entrance of the US embassy in London at about 06:30am. There were no queues except two security guys present at the entrance. I asked one of them when they will open the embassy to visa applicant and he replied 07:30am. I went on by asking him where we could keep our cell phones and he directed us a nearby pharmacy shop. In fact, the pharmacy shop also opens at 07:30am so we have to walk about for almost an hour before coming back to the pharmacy shop to deposit our phones.
We then proceeded to the US embassy and joined the queue formed outside of the embassy. From my own counting, we were in about 20th position in the queue.
Inside the Embassy
At about 08:00am, the security guys started ushering us into the embassy compound by subjecting us to an airport style security check. After managing our way pass the security checks we passed through an entrance where met a lady sitting behind a desk. She asked for our mission and I showed her the 2nd letter. After checking from a computer in front of her, she gave us a ticket and directed us to go and have a seat at the waiting area. At the waiting area we met other visa applicants and later others also came to join us - both immigrants and non-immigrants. The interview officers started calling visa applicants at about 08:30, with non-immigrant visa applicants being called to the interview counters at a faster rate. Later they started calling the immigrant visa applicants and it got to our turn at about 09:30am. We were called to counter 14 where we met a matured white lady. She greeted us and started asking for our documents in an order listed in front of her. The first thing she asks for is our passports, where she checked if we have a valid UK resident permit. She continued by asking for our birth certificates, marriage certificate, police certificates, educational certificates, and evidence of support.
We went to the interview with all these documents. About the evidence of financial support, we went with our own bank statements (comprising 12 monthly statements) and I-134 (with supporting documents) but I handed in only our bank statements since the money we have saved for one year is enough to meet the poverty guidelines for a family of five (5). On education, I did not provide any O&A Level certificates but rather my Bachelor degree and two Master's degrees.
Later the lady gave us a yellow sheet and directed us to counter 12 to make payment and told us to come back to her counter once payment has been made. We paid $3,875 ($775 x 5) to the embassy. After getting the receipt we went back to the lady again where she then gave us a pink sheet to complete and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait for our number to be called again.
We were called to counter 16 at about 10:20am and met another matured person but this time a male. He asked to swear an oath, where we then proceeded by signing the form DS-230 Part II.
Consular Interview
This is how the interview went on:
Consular Officer (CO), and
AM (Ammeck)
CO: You are here because you were selected for further consideration for diversity visa.
AM: Yes
CO: Could you swear an oath that all the information………
AM: Yes
CO: Please place your right thumb on this machine
Right thumb, follow by all the four fingers at the same time, and the same for the left hand.
The CO gave me the DS-230 forms to append my signatures
The same process was done for my wife
CO: I understand you medical report has not been sent to us
AM: Yes
CO: Do you have any family or friends in the US?
AM: Yes, I have a friend (the one I provided his name and address on the I-134 form).
CO: Where do you want to live or stay in the US?
AM: Answer
CO: What program did you do during your undergraduate studies?
AM: Answer
CO: What about your masters?
AM: Answer
CO: This is all your original copies of your documents. I have gone through your documents and they are in order. You qualify for the program and in order for the visa to be issued we have to receive your medical report first. I will like to retain your passports so that once your medical report is sent to us we can issue you with the visas. If I give it back to you we have to contact you to bring the passport back to us before your visas can be issued. Take this sheet with your to the counter (courier service) and make payment of your choice of service of delivery. Your five passports will come in this envelope (he showed us a tick dark coffee rubber bag) and there will be 5 other envelopes, do not open them but rather hand it over to the immigration officials at the US border. They will open them and process your documents over there. In the meantime, don't make any travel plans until you receive your passport back with the visas stamped in them.
AM: Thank you
That is all about our interview, nothing worth to say again. The actual interview lasted less than 2 minutes. In fact I did ask the IO if that was the end of it and he said yes. My wife was a bit baffled because of the way I described the interview to her days before we set off. We went with a big photo album and other documents just to prove anything that they might have a reservation. We were also given an invoice by the courier service to track our parcel. We left the embassy at about 10:55.
OTHER ITEM TAKEN WITH ME TO THE INTERVIEW
--1st Notification Letter
--Affidavit of Support
--Family Photo Album
--Communications with Sponsor
--All my School (educational) Certificates
--Current Employment Letter
--Recent Payslips
--Old Passport (Important)
Note: None of these documents or items was requested at the interview.
ISSUE OF VISA
We attended the visa interview on 12 May 2010 but got our visas on 12 July 2010. The delay was due to the problems with the medical examination. In fact, the issue of our visas should not have delayed to that extent because under normal circumstances once the medical report is sent to the embassy, it takes not more than 2 weeks to get a call for visa collection. I waited for 6 weeks after our interview to contact the embassy by phone. I was given a certain code to use to contact the immigrant section. I got a reply in less than a week with the explanation that our application is in the final stages of processing. Fortunately, the following week our visas were issued. I think the CO who was in charge of our file went on annual leave or sick leave or did forgot about our application until the email was sent to the embassy.
Don't you think your level of education has impact on the interview process?
ABOUT AMMECK09
I am a Ghanaian resident in the UK and currently on a work permit visa. I was a student when I won the DV lottery in 2009. I moved to the UK in 2005 after spending about 2 and half years in Sweden also as a student. I am currently married to a Ghanaian lady and presently have three lovely daughters.
BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE WITH THE DV LOTTERY
I started playing the DV lottery as far back as in 1989 – with the exceptions of 2001 and 2003 and have never won until May 2009 when I received the 1st notification letter from KCC. My brother-in-law was a DV 2009 winner and I assisted him in the processing of his visa. This serves as a motivation and really helped me to know more about the DV lottery process, and as if by coincidence I won the following year. In all I was always optimistic I will win one day and until I fortunately got the big envelope pushed through my door.
THE DAY I RECEIVED THE 1ST NL
On that memorable day I was having a rest after closing from work when the envelope was pushed through my door. While resting I decided to go and have a pee (urinate) and lo and behold this white envelope. My initial thought about this particular envelope was the school certificate that I have applied for and waiting for it for the past six weeks. Normally this certificate takes about two weeks to be issued but this application took an unusual six weeks - so I said to myself "oh finally these people have sent the certificate to me". When I picked up the envelope and turned the front side I saw the words 'Kentucky Consular Center'. Initially I didn’t believe what I was seeing so I quickly went to the bathroom to wash my face. I came back, picked up the white envelope and check the sender's address again. Then it dawned on me that the years of waiting has finally come to the end. I quickly phoned my wife from her workplace and broke the good news to her because I couldn't have waited for her to come home after closing from work.
INTERNET FORUMS
From the day I received the winning notification letter I started researching on the Internet about what I have to do to make the visa application and interview preparation smooth and error-free and that is where I found out about this awesome forum http://forums.immigration.com/forumdisplay.php?38-Lottery-Visas-DV and since then I have become addicted and cannot miss this forum for even a day. I started contributing to the DV 2009 winners from Ghana thread and later opened a new thread for DV 2010 winners from Ghana. Although I checked other forums none of them could give me instant answers and constant updates and discussions that could warrant my participation than this one.
COMPLETING THE FORMS
On opening the envelope, I found the 1st notification letter (1stNL) and other forms, these were:
- DSP-122 (supplementary registration for the diversity immigration visa program),
- DS-230 (application for immigrant visa and alien registration, Part I & Part II),
- Supplement 1 to of -169,
- Attachment 1 (general photo requirements),
- Attachment 2 (adjusting status in the U.S.),
- Attachment 3 (DV-2010 processing stages)
I was required to complete forms DSP-122, DS-230 Part I & II and the form for myself and Supplement 1 to of-169 if applicable. For my accompanying family members, they were to complete form DS-230 Part I & II.
I made copies of the forms and completed in black ink and later checked on the Internet to see if I could get fillable copies of these forms. When I found one, I took my time to complete the forms to the best of my knowledge and scanned over the forms several times to make sure that the information being sent to KCC are valid and accurate. I cross-checked all the information I have provided with my documents several times before printing two copies each (one for my records).
It took me about three weeks to complete gathering all the information and the photographs needed to accompany the forms. The reason for the delay was that two of my family members were not with me at that time and I have to get their photographs before submitting the forms to KCC.
Children are not capable of signing their forms so I sent my children forms to KCC without any signature. Later I had a second thought about the unsigned forms and sent KCC email enquiring about this issue. I got a reply that “each applicant must personally sign his/her own forms. However, if a child is not capable of signing the forms themselves due to age limitations, either parent may sign the form on their behalf.” I, therefore, sent updated forms, this time signing it on their behalf.
After one week of sending the forms to KCC I used the code given to me by the courier service to check if the forms has been delivered and realised my package has been received. I contacted KCC by email to enquire about the receipt of the forms. In the email I provided only my name and case number but forgot to include my date of birth and got this reply “when inquiring about the status of your case, you are required to provide your full name, complete case number, and date of birth. For security purposes, KCC cannot reveal any information regarding your case if you cannot provide all the required information.” I resend the email this time including all these details, i.e. full name, date of birth and case number and received another reply that due to the large volume of mail processed at KCC on a daily basis, confirmation of receiving of my correspondence may not be feasible at that time. I waited for three weeks and sent another email to KCC and had a reply within three days indicating that my forms have been received and are currently being processed. After that I thought about the options available to me. Since I don’t live in the US, the only option for me is to pursue the consular processing route. Therefore, at this stage I started researching about the documents needed for my interview.
CASE NUMBER AND CUT-OFFS
Since I am from the Africa region and my case number being 2010AF00037XXX, I had to constantly check the visa bulleting for 2010 until the cut-offs for the Africa region exceeds my case number. I waited for ten months after submitting my forms to KCC before being current in May 2010 (announced in March 2010 visa bulletin). I emailed KCC and within 3 days got to know of my interview date and two days later received my 2nd letter. More information about cut-offs number can be obtained from the department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html
2ND LETTER
The 2nd letter was received two days after receiving a reply from KCC about my interview date. The 2nd letter contains information about date, time and the consulate where the interview will be held, documents to submit as well as the names of my family members who will accompany me to the US. The letter also requested that:
o original or certified copies of all docs must be brought to the visa interview
o medical examinations must be completed before the interview
o the correct size and number of photographs for all applicants must be brought to the visa interview
o failure to present all of the necessary docs could result in denial of the visa
The 2nd letter also contains a list of documents to submit for the visa interview. These are: passports, birth cert, adoption cert, marriage cert, divorce decree or death cert, military service record, police cert, court records, photographs (two photographs, only one photograph is required if you have already submitted a photograph to KCC with your forms), high school diploma, evidence of support (they mention I-134), translations, and medical exams certificate. All documents should be original.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS FOR THE INTERVIEW
Based on the information gathered from the 2nd letter, I was required to get the following documents ready for my visa interview:
• Passports
• Birth Certificates
• Photographs
• Adoption Certificates
• Marriage Certificates
• Termination of Prior Marriages
• Police Certificates
• Court and Prison Records
• Military Records
• Deportation Papers
• Translations
• Evidence of Required Education or Work Experience
PHOTOGRAPHS
It took me almost two weeks to get the passport photographs from my two family members who were in Ghana. They had to take five different photos because none of them were up to the required quality and specification needed for the DV lottery process. I went to the interview with two passport-size photographs of myself and my accompanying family members. Photograph requirements can be found at page 2 of the website given below: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/2009DVInstructions.pdf or
http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/acs/passports/photo.html
POLICE CERTIFICATES
I had lived in more than one country for more than 6 months since I attained the age of 16, therefore, I needed to get police certificates from all those countries. I realised the processes of getting the police certificates from some of the countries may be difficult and as such I decided to start the process early. Sweden, UK and Ghana are the countries that I needed police certificates from them.
Ghana Police Certificate
Getting the Ghana police certificate seems the hardest of all the police certificates I applied for. As a non-resident, I have to contact my younger brother who lives in Ghana to send the application on my behalf. My brother has to complete an application form and submit a photocopy of my passport, a set of fingerprints and three passport-sized photographs as well as a processing fee of US $200 each for two of us.
The information he provided includes:
• Full name, sex, date and place of birth;
• Names of my parents (even if deceased);
• Last school I attended with dates of entry and completion; and
• My current address
Below is the official Ghana police service website about the procedure to obtain the police clearance certificate from Ghana. There was no mention of finger-print but non-resident must make sure they have it to avoid any delays during their interviews. http://www.ghanapolice.info/cid/clearance_cert.htm The US department of state website http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_4881.html?cid=3568#docs did mention the fingerprint from your current place of residence.
Swedish Police Certificate
For the Swedish police certificate, I had a friend who lives in Sweden and helped me in obtaining the certificate. I downloaded the forms from the Swedish police board website, completed and faxed it to them. I let my friend pay the required amount in Swedish Kronor and the certificate was delivered within ten (10) days. The form was obtained from the Swedish police board website shown below:
http://www.polisen.se/en/English/Service/Forms/Hallare/Request-for-an-extract-from-the-criminal-/
The UK Police Certificate
The UK police certificate took about three weeks to arrive after sending the application. It normally takes two weeks (10 working days) to arrive but you must also cater for posting time, weekends and bank holidays. The UK police certificate application was not easy as I envisage because I needed to provide a prove of identity (photocopy of passport or driving licence), two photocopies of proofs of address (not more than three months old), one photograph (UK requirements http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Passports/Applicationinformation/DG_174152 ), and the back of my photograph must be signed by a person listed on the police website such as an accountant, barrister, qualified engineer, and etc. The application form must also be endorsed by the same person. The form and instruction can be found from the website below: http://www.acpo.police.uk/certificates.asp
MEDICAL EXAMINATION
My medical exams were conducted at Knightsbridge Doctors in London. It’s about 20 minutes walk from the US embassy in London. I attended the medical exams with my family three weeks before our visa interview. I could not complete the medicals on the same day since according to the panel doctor who examined me on that day, my BP was high and she also heard an unusual sound when examining my heartbeat (usually referred to as heart murmur). I had to have a 24-hour BP monitor fixed to my waist to record my BP and cost me several quid (pounds) to have private scans (electrocardiogram and echocardiogram) which later proved to be innocent murmur (my heart murmurs was quite normal and was due to anxiety which do not represent any danger to the heart) http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-heart-murmurs.htm To complete the medical exams means having the visa interview and the CO holding on to it pending the outcome of these tests. The medical report was sent to the US embassy two weeks after my visa interview.
Cost for basic medical examination at Knightsbridge Doctors was £190 for an adult (increased to £200 from June 2010) and children below the age of 15 £95. I paid £190 by 2 and £95 by 3 (£665) for the basic medical examination. All the vaccinations was done at a private hospital at a higher cost than what prevails at the Knightsbridge Doctors. I spent about £450 on vaccinations and £500 on additional consultations and heart scans. All information about the medicals at Knightsbridge Doctors including location and telephone number, what to bring to the examination, pricing information, and vaccination schedule is available at this website
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164203/cons-visa/iv_medical_letter.pdf
VISA INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE
Outside the Embassy
We got to the entrance of the US embassy in London at about 06:30am. There were no queues except two security guys present at the entrance. I asked one of them when they will open the embassy to visa applicant and he replied 07:30am. I went on by asking him where we could keep our cell phones and he directed us a nearby pharmacy shop. In fact, the pharmacy shop also opens at 07:30am so we have to walk about for almost an hour before coming back to the pharmacy shop to deposit our phones.
We then proceeded to the US embassy and joined the queue formed outside of the embassy. From my own counting, we were in about 20th position in the queue.
Inside the Embassy
At about 08:00am, the security guys started ushering us into the embassy compound by subjecting us to an airport style security check. After managing our way pass the security checks we passed through an entrance where met a lady sitting behind a desk. She asked for our mission and I showed her the 2nd letter. After checking from a computer in front of her, she gave us a ticket and directed us to go and have a seat at the waiting area. At the waiting area we met other visa applicants and later others also came to join us - both immigrants and non-immigrants. The interview officers started calling visa applicants at about 08:30, with non-immigrant visa applicants being called to the interview counters at a faster rate. Later they started calling the immigrant visa applicants and it got to our turn at about 09:30am. We were called to counter 14 where we met a matured white lady. She greeted us and started asking for our documents in an order listed in front of her. The first thing she asks for is our passports, where she checked if we have a valid UK resident permit. She continued by asking for our birth certificates, marriage certificate, police certificates, educational certificates, and evidence of support.
We went to the interview with all these documents. About the evidence of financial support, we went with our own bank statements (comprising 12 monthly statements) and I-134 (with supporting documents) but I handed in only our bank statements since the money we have saved for one year is enough to meet the poverty guidelines for a family of five (5). On education, I did not provide any O&A Level certificates but rather my Bachelor degree and two Master's degrees.
Later the lady gave us a yellow sheet and directed us to counter 12 to make payment and told us to come back to her counter once payment has been made. We paid $3,875 ($775 x 5) to the embassy. After getting the receipt we went back to the lady again where she then gave us a pink sheet to complete and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait for our number to be called again.
We were called to counter 16 at about 10:20am and met another matured person but this time a male. He asked to swear an oath, where we then proceeded by signing the form DS-230 Part II.
Consular Interview
This is how the interview went on:
Consular Officer (CO), and
AM (Ammeck)
CO: You are here because you were selected for further consideration for diversity visa.
AM: Yes
CO: Could you swear an oath that all the information………
AM: Yes
CO: Please place your right thumb on this machine
Right thumb, follow by all the four fingers at the same time, and the same for the left hand.
The CO gave me the DS-230 forms to append my signatures
The same process was done for my wife
CO: I understand you medical report has not been sent to us
AM: Yes
CO: Do you have any family or friends in the US?
AM: Yes, I have a friend (the one I provided his name and address on the I-134 form).
CO: Where do you want to live or stay in the US?
AM: Answer
CO: What program did you do during your undergraduate studies?
AM: Answer
CO: What about your masters?
AM: Answer
CO: This is all your original copies of your documents. I have gone through your documents and they are in order. You qualify for the program and in order for the visa to be issued we have to receive your medical report first. I will like to retain your passports so that once your medical report is sent to us we can issue you with the visas. If I give it back to you we have to contact you to bring the passport back to us before your visas can be issued. Take this sheet with your to the counter (courier service) and make payment of your choice of service of delivery. Your five passports will come in this envelope (he showed us a tick dark coffee rubber bag) and there will be 5 other envelopes, do not open them but rather hand it over to the immigration officials at the US border. They will open them and process your documents over there. In the meantime, don't make any travel plans until you receive your passport back with the visas stamped in them.
AM: Thank you
That is all about our interview, nothing worth to say again. The actual interview lasted less than 2 minutes. In fact I did ask the IO if that was the end of it and he said yes. My wife was a bit baffled because of the way I described the interview to her days before we set off. We went with a big photo album and other documents just to prove anything that they might have a reservation. We were also given an invoice by the courier service to track our parcel. We left the embassy at about 10:55.
OTHER ITEM TAKEN WITH ME TO THE INTERVIEW
--1st Notification Letter
--Affidavit of Support
--Family Photo Album
--Communications with Sponsor
--All my School (educational) Certificates
--Current Employment Letter
--Recent Payslips
--Old Passport (Important)
Note: None of these documents or items was requested at the interview.
ISSUE OF VISA
We attended the visa interview on 12 May 2010 but got our visas on 12 July 2010. The delay was due to the problems with the medical examination. In fact, the issue of our visas should not have delayed to that extent because under normal circumstances once the medical report is sent to the embassy, it takes not more than 2 weeks to get a call for visa collection. I waited for 6 weeks after our interview to contact the embassy by phone. I was given a certain code to use to contact the immigrant section. I got a reply in less than a week with the explanation that our application is in the final stages of processing. Fortunately, the following week our visas were issued. I think the CO who was in charge of our file went on annual leave or sick leave or did forgot about our application until the email was sent to the embassy.
Don't you think your level of education has impact on the interview process?
Don't you think your level of education has impact on the interview process?
Yes, I think so. Once you have a higher level of education, your chances of making it is very high, all things being equal. It could also lead to a short interview unless there is new addition(s) to your family members.
You will mostly get questions from the project you have done and some of the courses in the program. You will not be asked questions on your best subjects or subjects you had good grades, neither nouns, adverbs, multiplications and divisions.
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