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DV 2019 Oceania Selectees

Britsimon said:
San Luis Obispo ? To live? Why there?
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Why San Luis Obispo, well, my wife was an exchange student there in the 80’s and has remained in close contact with her friends there! Also, we actually had Green Cards in the 90’s through the H1B visa program, so we have a lot of friends in CA, but I’m not sure I want to go back to the Silicon Valley lifestyle. My son is now a freshman at Stanford, so we’ll be close, but not too close!
 
JimInOz said:
Why San Luis Obispo, well, my wife was an exchange student there in the 80’s and has remained in close contact with her friends there! Also, we actually had Green Cards in the 90’s through the H1B visa program, so we have a lot of friends in CA, but I’m not sure I want to go back to the Silicon Valley lifestyle. My son is now a freshman at Stanford, so we’ll be close, but not too close!
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Nice. It's a lovely area - just not much work there - but if you can telecommute or something - nice place to be.
 
DougNNNN said:
So rescheduling the interview takes some time. Emailed consulate last week. Still no reply. Rang them this morning and they advised my email had been received, and I had to wait for a reply.

Sigh...

Mijoro - If you're married to a US citizen, why did you go through the DV lottery pathway? I would have thought it would be faster/easier to go through the marriage sponsorship pathway?
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Hopefully you will hear something from them sooner rather than later.

The wait time for a spouse visa is about 18 months to 2 years. We had been trying to decide if we were going to live here or there. Then I got selected for the diversity visa and that pretty much sealed it. It’s also cheaper than the spouse way of doing it as well.
 
JimInOz said:
We waited two hours. The interview was very straight forward and took about one minute. We had worked hard on our paperwork and made sure it was all in order over the last months with the help of this forum. We plan on heading to California early next month.San Luis Obispo, in fact! Thanks to everybody!
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What kind of questions did they ask you Jim?
 
DougNNNN said:
Mijoro - If you're married to a US citizen, why did you go through the DV lottery pathway? I would have thought it would be faster/easier to go through the marriage sponsorship pathway?
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Spousal sponsorship is longer, more expensive, more requirements than DV lottery. If married for less than two years as at the time of becoming a LPR, there’s the additional process of removing conditions involved which is more money and time again. DV is the cheapest and fastest method of getting a US GC.
 
Sm1smom said:
Spousal sponsorship is longer, more expensive, more requirements than DV lottery. If married for less than two years as at the time of becoming a LPR, there’s the additional process of removing conditions involved which is more money and time again. DV is the cheapest and fastest method of getting a US GC.
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This^^^^
 
Well - Just as well we were selected for DV2019 - because we just checked the DV2020 status and we missed out :).. But I have a question (that has probably been covered a million times before). We plan on flying to the states in June and entering by SFO - do I need an ESTA to enter?

Jim..
 
JimInOz said:
Well - Just as well we were selected for DV2019 - because we just checked the DV2020 status and we missed out :).. But I have a question (that has probably been covered a million times before). We plan on flying to the states in June and entering by SFO - do I need an ESTA to enter?

Jim..
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You can’t use ESTA to enter the US if you already have an IV.
 
JimInOz said:
Why San Luis Obispo, well, my wife was an exchange student there in the 80’s and has remained in close contact with her friends there! Also, we actually had Green Cards in the 90’s through the H1B visa program, so we have a lot of friends in CA, but I’m not sure I want to go back to the Silicon Valley lifestyle. My son is now a freshman at Stanford, so we’ll be close, but not too close!
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Just out of interest, you seem to be in a similar boat to me as I had a GC previously. Were you filing tax returns even after the GC "expired" or out of country for two years, as the IRS apparently consider you a resident regardless of what USCIS say. Pretty devious of them, but that's tax departments for you.
 
Bob22 said:
Just out of interest, you seem to be in a similar boat to me as I had a GC previously. Were you filing tax returns even after the GC "expired" or out of country for two years, as the IRS apparently consider you a resident regardless of what USCIS say. Pretty devious of them, but that's tax departments for you.
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No I didn't continue to file - because I didn't think I had to. This was of course incorrect and I then got a very large bill from the IRS. This resulted in me having to hire a tax attorney to sort the matter out - this was expensive too :). We didn't tell USCIS that we weren't coming back - another mistake. In our DS260's we put in our original 'alien' numbers - so it was obvious that we'd already been in the states for years at one point - but the CO interviewing didn't even mention it.
 
Same boat as me. I am booked to see a lawyer in July. What type of damage are we talking about?
 
Mickwford said:
Quick question - is everyone supplying Sydney with an express post envelope or the 3kg platinum satchel when they go for their interviews?
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Just went to the Post Office and got myself an Express Post Platinum 3kg Satchel. God knows why it needs to be so big :p they don’t send you back that much stuff do they?
 
Having a weird issue with the ESC website after presumably they've updated for the 2020 lottery. At the end of June I received the notification to proceed with an appointment in Sydney however checking now it's reverted back to the previous letter from May stating that I'd been selected. Fortunately we've saved a copy of the letter however I'm just curious if anyone else is experiencing the same thing?
 
AussieGCHopeful said:
Having a weird issue with the ESC website after presumably they've updated for the 2020 lottery. At the end of June I received the notification to proceed with an appointment in Sydney however checking now it's reverted back to the previous letter from May stating that I'd been selected. Fortunately we've saved a copy of the letter however I'm just curious if anyone else is experiencing the same thing?
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Yes many other people. One person reported the issue is fixed now in the last hour or so.
 
Hi everyone

So I’m an Ozzie and applied for my DV entry in Aus and managed to get selected. However, I am currently in Canada on a work visa for the next year and won’t be able to return home for an interview. When I’m on the DS form that I need to fill out, there isn’t an option for me to select a place in Canada to do my interview. What should I do? I’ve reached out to KCC but they gave me a generic response that wasn’t helpful.
 
Dolphintail said:
Hi everyone

So I’m an Ozzie and applied for my DV entry in Aus and managed to get selected. However, I am currently in Canada on a work visa for the next year and won’t be able to return home for an interview. When I’m on the DS form that I need to fill out, there isn’t an option for me to select a place in Canada to do my interview. What should I do? I’ve reached out to KCC but they gave me a generic response that wasn’t helpful.
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Your interview is scheduled based on your address location, so if your current address is in Canada then it should default to the embassy closest to you - at least thats how I understand it to work. I'm sure Simon, Susie and Mom will correct me if I am wrong :)
 
Aidyn said:
Your interview is scheduled based on your address location, so if your current address is in Canada then it should default to the embassy closest to you - at least thats how I understand it to work. I'm sure Simon, Susie and Mom will correct me if I am wrong :)
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Great thanks! I’m sure this has been asked many times but could you please let me know how to update my address location or point me in the right direction? (Even if it’s temporary as I’m only residing in Canada for the next year).
 
Dolphintail said:
Great thanks! I’m sure this has been asked many times but could you please let me know how to update my address location or point me in the right direction? (Even if it’s temporary as I’m only residing in Canada for the next year).
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When you fill in your DS-260 it will ask you for your current address. That said, no need to rush and fill it in as you will no doubt need to unlock it in the future to change/update things.

I'd suggest taking time to read everything you can - in particular BritSimon's blog
http://britsimonsays.com/
 
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