DV-2019 Dual citizenship clarification

[Flavios]

Hi, I just need some clarification on the issue of eligibility in the DV-2019.
I have dual citizenship.
I was born in Albania but i moved to Greece when i was 2 years old.
Now i am a 26 year old Greek citizen as well and have a Greek passport.
Can i put in the field 6. Country of eligibility for the DV program the country of Greece or should only put ALBANIA because i was born there? Both countries are eligible.
I am asking this because i have no Albania passport for now at least and my name is spelled differently in each country and i want to be sure i put the correct one in whichever country i select.

Thank you.

 

[OnTheGo]

Hi, I just need some clarification on the issue of eligibility in the DV-2019.
I have dual citizenship.
I was born in Albania but i moved to Greece when i was 2 years old.
Now i am a 26 year old Greek citizen as well and have a Greek passport.
Can i put in the field 6. Country of eligibility for the DV program the country of Greece or should only put ALBANIA because i was born there? Both countries are eligible.
I am asking this because i have no Albania passport for now at least and my name is spelled differently in each country and i want to be sure i put the correct one in whichever country i select.

Thank you.

This is clearly explained in the instructions, see the following points:
4. City where you were born.
5. Country where you were born – Use the name of the country currently used for the place where you were born.
6. Country of eligibility for the DV program – Your country of eligibility will normally be the same as your country of birth. Your country of eligibility is not related to where you live or your nationality, if it is different from your country of birth.

So I'd say you need to select Albania and your name needs to reflect what is (going to be) printed in your Albanian passport. You don't actually need the passport for entering the lottery, but just like you said, you need to know the exact spelling of your name/s if you think it will be different from your Greek passport.

 

[Flavios]

This is clearly explained in the instructions, see the following points:
4. City where you were born.
5. Country where you were born – Use the name of the country currently used for the place where you were born.
6. Country of eligibility for the DV program – Your country of eligibility will normally be the same as your country of birth. Your country of eligibility is not related to where you live or your nationality, if it is different from your country of birth.

So I'd say you need to select Albania and your name needs to reflect what is (going to be) printed in your Albanian passport. You don't actually need the passport for entering the lottery, but just like you said, you need to know the exact spelling of your name/s if you think it will be different from your Greek passport.

Thank you for your response. I was swarmed with info from all over the place and i coudn't clearly see the answer. I thought that would be the case.
The reason i am asking is that beacuse i cannot leave Greece (i'm in the army until August 2018) i wanted to avoid going to Albania and get a new one.
Does that also mean that if i am lucky enough to get selected i should go to Albania for all the interviews afterwards or i can decide where the closest American embassy is?

Thanks again

 

[Britsimon]

Thank you for your response. I was swarmed with info from all over the place and i coudn't clearly see the answer. I thought that would be the case.
The reason i am asking is that beacuse i cannot leave Greece (i'm in the army until August 2018) i wanted to avoid going to Albania and get a new one.
Does that also mean that if i am lucky enough to get selected i should go to Albania for all the interviews afterwards or i can decide where the closest American embassy is?

Thanks again

You interview where you live.

 

[SusieQQQ]

You don’t need an Albanian passport. You need to put the correct country of eligibility (birth, Albania) and you need to present a valid passport, which can be from any country you have nationality of. There have been DV winners before who have never held nationality or a passport from their country of birth.

 

[Flavios]

Can anyone else confirm what SusieQQQ is suggesting?
That's where my confusion first started from all the other threads and now i'm confused more.

 

[SusieQQQ]

Can anyone else confirm what SusieQQQ is suggesting?
That's where my confusion first started from all the other threads and now i'm confused more.

Show me ANYTHING in the DV instructions that says your passport has to match your country of eligibility. People are born in countries that don’t confer nationality just because of being born there, people use their spouse’s birth country without ever having resided there, people use a second passport because they already have a second nationality and come from a country they have to relinquish citizenship from if they do that, etc.
If you browse the forums properly you’ll find people who have used other passports perfectly successfully.

 

[Britsimon]

Can anyone else confirm what SusieQQQ is suggesting?
That's where my confusion first started from all the other threads and now i'm confused more.

Anyone who knows what they are talking about will agree with Susie. I don't know why you are confused at all.

 

[OnTheGo]

Show me ANYTHING in the DV instructions that says your passport has to match your country of eligibility. People are born in countries that don’t confer nationality just because of being born there, people use their spouse’s birth country without ever having resided there, people use a second passport because they already have a second nationality and come from a country they have to relinquish citizenship from if they do that, etc.
If you browse the forums properly you’ll find people who have used other passports perfectly successfully.

The way you put it, I have to agree that it actually makes perfect sense! Thank you.

Can anyone else confirm what SusieQQQ is suggesting?
That's where my confusion first started from all the other threads and now i'm confused more.

Flavios, apologies that I wasn't helpful in clearing but probably adding to the confusion more than anything. I am a dual citizen, too but actually hold passports for both countries and I was always under the impression that I would have to present my EU passport (birth) to the US embassy here in Australia, if and when we will have our interview. Didn't think of the two (now obvious) examples that Susie has illustrated.

So that makes it easy for you, after all. Good luck in DV2019.

 

[Britsimon]

The way you put it, I have to agree that it actually makes perfect sense! Thank you.



Flavios, apologies that I wasn't helpful in clearing but probably adding to the confusion more than anything. I am a dual citizen, too but actually hold passports for both countries and I was always under the impression that I would have to present my EU passport (birth) to the US embassy here in Australia, if and when we will have our interview. Didn't think of the two (now obvious) examples that Susie has illustrated.

So that makes it easy for you, after all. Good luck in DV2019.

I can't see anywhere in your response that suggested anything incorrect or contradictory to what Susie posted. Am I missing something?

 

[Flavios]

Thanks for all the responses. To clarify one last thing and then sum it up.
My name in the Greek passport is Flavios. But my name in the Albanian one will be Flavio without the s. My last name also has the same issue.
So to sum it up:
1. I will put Albania as my eligibility country and the place of birth.
2. I will put Flavios in the entry form and when they ask me for a passport i will give my Greek one and continue from there even though i got selected as an Albanian.

My confusion lies in the name spelling more than anything else and that gets defined from the passport. I never knew what goes after you get selected (the instructions don't go further than that).
I understand the pov of Susie and Britsimon but that always worried me that's why i turned to this forum.

 

[SusieQQQ]

Thanks for all the responses. To clarify one last thing and then sum it up.
My name in the Greek passport is Flavios. But my name in the Albanian one will be Flavio without the s. My last name also has the same issue.
So to sum it up:
1. I will put Albania as my eligibility country and the place of birth.
2. I will put Flavios in the entry form and when they ask me for a passport i will give my Greek one and continue from there even though i got selected as an Albanian.

My confusion lies in the name spelling more than anything else and that gets defined from the passport. I never knew what goes after you get selected (the instructions don't go further than that).
I understand the pov of Susie and Britsimon but that always worried me that's why i turned to this forum.

1. Yes
2. IF you get selected- yes

Beyond selected is https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/diversity-visa/if-you-are-selected.html You’ll see mention of passports is only in terms of validity, not which country they are from.

 

[OnTheGo]

I can't see anywhere in your response that suggested anything incorrect or contradictory to what Susie posted. Am I missing something?

Well, I quoted the official instructions regarding the rules for entering the place of birth and country of eligibility, but then incorrectly suggested that Flavios would use the passport of his country of birth (Albania), while Sue was correct in saying this was unnecessary as he could in fact use his Greek passport, hence enter the lottery using the Greek spelling of his name/s - which is a much easier outcome for him.

 

[Britsimon]

Well, I quoted the official instructions regarding the rules for entering the place of birth and country of eligibility, but then incorrectly suggested that Flavios would use the passport of his country of birth (Albania), while Sue was correct in saying this was unnecessary as he could in fact use his Greek passport, hence enter the lottery using the Greek spelling of his name/s - which is a much easier outcome for him.

But you didn't say he could ONLY use the Albanian passport. Oh well... a storm in a teacup.