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DV 2021 Oceania Selectees

SusieQQQ said:
You think they are unaware you exist? In past years Sydney has been far more flexible and accommodating than just about any other consulate out there for DV. And telling them how many people you know of as if they don’t know how many postponements they have! How patronizing. I’d consider these constant emails quite harassing personally.
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I think you've misread the room here, 'reminding we exist', was a figure of speech. My 3 emails have been polite and my specific questions were not answered. I went through many pages of this forum where multiple people had suggested sending follow-up emails so I'm not sure why I'm being attacked because I've been neither been patronising, nor have I harassed. I just simply followed advice and again, was passing on intel in response to a question. I also took the time to work out how many people were in this unique situation of having a DV21 appt scheduled and then cancelled with the impending deadline, that's why I mentioned the number, certainly not to undermine the knowledge that the consulate would have. Thank you for your advice nevertheless.

@jessk21 I'm not on either lawsuit either, but there's always a chance there will be a general extension of the Sep 30 deadline!

@Green&Gold Thank you! I do know of an E and an O visa holder both luckily enough to get an emergency appt (the O Visa holder specifically also encouraged sending multiple emails) in Sydney, so there's still hope!! *Even though yes, they're both NIVs, not IVs :(

@Knitwear_Blue Thank you for having my back! And thank you for that wonderful advice. Haha yes, I also feel it is an emergency, even with last year's situation, there really hasn't been a situation like this before with scheduled appointments postponed right before an imminent deadline, it's all a bit heartbreaking. I really appreciate the MP idea.

*Is there anybody else here that would like to add their name to a letter to Tanya Plibersek?
(Or does someone know a better option to contact??)

Thanks legends :)
 
JD21 said:
I think you've misread the room here, 'reminding we exist', was a figure of speech. My 3 emails have been polite and my specific questions were not answered. I went through many pages of this forum where multiple people had suggested sending follow-up emails so I'm not sure why I'm being attacked because I've been neither been patronising, nor have I harassed. I just simply followed advice and again, was passing on intel in response to a question. I also took the time to work out how many people were in this unique situation of having a DV21 appt scheduled and then cancelled with the impending deadline, that's why I mentioned the number, certainly not to undermine the knowledge that the consulate would have. Thank you for your advice nevertheless.

@jessk21 I'm not on either lawsuit either, but there's always a chance there will be a general extension of the Sep 30 deadline!

@Green&Gold Thank you! I do know of an E and an O visa holder both luckily enough to get an emergency appt (the O Visa holder specifically also encouraged sending multiple emails) in Sydney, so there's still hope!! *Even though yes, they're both NIVs, not IVs :(

@Knitwear_Blue Thank you for having my back! And thank you for that wonderful advice. Haha yes, I also feel it is an emergency, even with last year's situation, there really hasn't been a situation like this before with scheduled appointments postponed right before an imminent deadline, it's all a bit heartbreaking. I really appreciate the MP idea.

*Is there anybody else here that would like to add their name to a letter to Tanya Plibersek?
(Or does someone know a better option to contact??)

Thanks legends :)
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Most countries and consulates have specific rules.

For example most emergency services are normally the following
- International Child Abduction
- Arrest of a Citizen
- Death of a Citizen
- Victims of a Crime
- Emergency Financial Assistance

Immigration is normally a routine service, but the fact that E and O are able to get an appointment (normally Routine services)
I beleive it is possible that Sydney is using the Visa prioritisation schedule then.

As per the "Emergency Contact Information" Page for the United States consulate Australia
"Emergencies do not include inquiries about U.S. visas (including green cards and naturalization), or routine passport, citizenship, notary, taxation or federal benefits questions."
 
Green&Gold said:
Most countries and consulates have specific rules.

For example most emergency services are normally the following
- International Child Abduction
- Arrest of a Citizen
- Death of a Citizen
- Victims of a Crime
- Emergency Financial Assistance

Immigration is normally a routine service, but the fact that E and O are able to get an appointment (normally Routine services)
I beleive it is possible that Sydney is using the Visa prioritisation schedule then.

As per the "Emergency Contact Information" Page for the United States consulate Australia
"Emergencies do not include inquiries about U.S. visas (including green cards and naturalization), or routine passport, citizenship, notary, taxation or federal benefits questions."
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THANK YOU!! I appreciate that understanding, as their responses to me have all been about being 'unable to resume routine visa services', yet understanding these, I know they are. I know they provided evidence of impending work, which technically I can also provide. Thanks again :)
 
Green&Gold said:
Emergency services generally only exist for Residents and Citizens. Immigration processing generally doesn't apply.
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Emergency processing does apply to visas, across a range of visas but with particular specifications. These will usually be: life or death situations, urgent humanitarian reasons and urgent business reasons for visit visas; work visas where the job is either time critical or critical to a US employer (also including medical related jobs to help deal with covid), and student visas where the program start date is imminent. Emergency immigrant visas tend to be those where they can demonstrate hardship to a USC or LPR if the visa is delayed (these are almost always family based visas, though I would note we have had a couple of DV selectees with US spouses) or, over the past year or so, EB visas in a medical/Covid related field. If any DV selectees fall into these types of circumstances, they should certainly be making their particular situation known to the consulate in terms of requesting an emergency appointment.



JD21 said:
I think you've misread the room here, '
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I already said that you weren’t going to like it, it’s not going to make a difference to what the consulate does whether or not people here get annoyed with straight talk. I’d also be careful of drawing conclusions from what people say - multiple mailings to the consulates before a visa gets issued does not mean it happened because of that, it likely simply means your friend kept emailing while they were going through the processing time for visas they were able to. Anyway, go ahead and email all you like, but don’t be surprised when you get more form answers.

I’d love to think that they will consider an imminent end of the fiscal year as reason enough to issue the visas, but I wouldn’t hold my breath, and if they do that it’s not going to be because everyone emails them; it will almost certainly be because they get a directive from DoS allowing them (and other consulates) to treat the expiring deadline as an emergency case. So maybe you should start focusing your energy on DoS.



JD21 said:
there's always a chance there will be a general extension of the Sep 30 deadline!
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No, there’s not. The deadline is set in law. The only chance to get visas issued beyond 30 September is for there to be a set-aside of visas in the lawsuit. (Even this is not a sure thing; pre-covid set-asides have not yet resulted in any visa issuance beyond FY end, partly due to the conflict with the law. People are still waiting to see what happens to the visas set aside from last year.)
 
Just hoping anyone in NZ.
Who physically dropped off documents can confirm a similar experience to myself.

Last Friday, security said no one was present (11:45am) and took the documents from me, Level 3.
He asked if they were for an interview, and said he would put them somewhere safe.
Auckland embassy are yet to respond to my email saying they have them.

Wondering if anyone else had a similar experience? I am trying not to overthink this
 
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SusieQQQ said:
No, there’s not. The deadline is set in law. The only chance to get visas issued beyond 30 September is for there to be a set-aside of visas in the lawsuit. (Even this is not a sure thing; pre-covid set-asides have not yet resulted in any visa issuance beyond FY end, partly due to the conflict with the law. People are still waiting to see what happens to the visas set aside from last year.)
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Yep, I was referring to the lawsuit being the 'chance'.
SusieQQQ said:
If any DV selectees fall into these types of circumstances, they should certainly be making their particular situation known to the consulate in terms of requesting an emergency appointment.
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Is there a particular email address you'd recommend for this?
 
JD21 said:
Yep, I was referring to the lawsuit being the 'chance'.
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A positive lawsuit outcome won’t be a general extension of the deadline, it will be setting aside a certain number of visas.

JD21 said:
Is there a particular email address you'd recommend for this?
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There should be a specific email address listed for emergency appointment requests on each consulate website. You may have to dig a little as each consulate website is set up a little differently. If you can’t find one I’d suggest emailing the IV address with the subject line clearly stating “emergency appointment request”.Make sure to very clearly list the reasons you believe you qualify for an emergency appointment, and remember it has to (mostly) be an emergency from a US perspective, not yours.
 
Green&Gold said:
Just hoping anyone in NZ.
Who physically dropped off documents can confirm a similar experience to myself.

Last Friday, security said no one was present (11:45am) and took the documents from me, Level 3.
He asked if they were for an interview, and said he would put them somewhere safe.
Auckland embassy are yet to respond to my email saying they have them.

Wondering if anyone else had a similar experience? I am trying not to overthink this
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I did the same, documents were received by security also. No issues - I had to email a couple times before they replied to confirm they'd received everything
 
RWNZ said:
I did the same, documents were received by security also. No issues - I had to email a couple times before they replied to confirm they'd received everything
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Thanks for responding RWNZ, how long would you say it took to get a response. From delivery to receiving an email (a week?)
Its such a nerve racking process, made me feel like documents could get lost.
 
Green&Gold said:
Thanks for responding RWNZ, how long would you say it took to get a response. From delivery to receiving an email (a week?)
Its such a nerve racking process, made me feel like documents could get lost.
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Maybe 2-3 weeks? They only responded a week before my interview when I followed up to confirm they had everything they needed from me.
 
We sent an email query this morning and got this back.... just keeping you in the loop

Thank you for your email.

As of June 28, 2021 the United States Consulate General in Sydney is unable to resume routine visa services, including DV visa applications. Sydney will resume routine visa services as soon as possible, but we are currently unable to provide a specific date. The Consulates General aim to process cases as soon as practicable, but there will likely be increased wait times when we resume services.

The U.S. Embassy in Canberra and the U.S. Consulates General in Perth and Melbourne do not process Immigrant/fiancée Visa applications. These applications are processed at the U.S. Consulate General in Sydney only. There are no exemptions for this, nor are there options for Skype, Zoom etc.

Regards,
 
kimpolley said:
We sent an email query this morning and got this back.... just keeping you in the loop

Thank you for your email.

As of June 28, 2021 the United States Consulate General in Sydney is unable to resume routine visa services, including DV visa applications. Sydney will resume routine visa services as soon as possible, but we are currently unable to provide a specific date. The Consulates General aim to process cases as soon as practicable, but there will likely be increased wait times when we resume services.

The U.S. Embassy in Canberra and the U.S. Consulates General in Perth and Melbourne do not process Immigrant/fiancée Visa applications. These applications are processed at the U.S. Consulate General in Sydney only. There are no exemptions for this, nor are there options for Skype, Zoom etc.

Regards,
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Haha they've answered all the questions I asked in my email! That's a nice, courteous response. Was it the sydneyiv email address that you contacted?
Thanks for sharing :)
 
Hey guys just wanted to share a handy piece of information, since a lot of y’all are moving over soon! We need proof of address for a lot of stuff here, often 2 pieces of recent post marked mail. First piece can be your SSN when you receive it. An easy way of getting a second piece is by opening a bank account with Capital One. Unlike other banks they don’t require proof of address, just your SSN, and can be done totally online and free (no fees banking too). They’ll post you a debit card and you can use that mail as second proof of address :)
Another option is auto insurance policy! I was able to get reasonable insurance through progressive under my kiwi license, they credited me for my kiwi driving history too. Just make sure you select the option to have your policy posted to you in the mail instead of being emailed. Hope this is helpful for someone!!

PS: Unrelated note! All hail Judge Mehta! Saviour of the diversity visa winners!
 
kimpolley said:
It looks like there could be hope for preserving our visas past Sept 30… I honestly don’t understand half of it, a lot of legalize, but here is a link to the latest ruling made for DV2020 winners via @Britsimon …

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Thanks for sharing the link! I listened to this last night and it is great news for DV2020!

@Britsimon Is there a way to get my hands on a copy of the order?

My interpretation, for how this would benefit DV2021, is that the No Visa Policy being ruled as 'not in accordance with law' will benefit DV2021 and this policy is the reason the KCC did not schedule interviews during the time this policy was in place, and if they had taken the judge's original advice in September last year they would have processed more and in a quicker time frame. Also the ruling that the DV visas should not have been placed at Tier 4 in the Prioritisation Scheme, therefore if DV Visas were higher in priority they would have processed more and in a quicker time frame.

I hope i'm interpreting this correctly, but once the judge releases a more detailed order setting out the guidelines for DV2020 visas, we should have a better idea if it will in fact benefit DV2021...
 
@Britsimon News just in.. Sydney lockdown extended until end of September :( Heart is broken right now as you can imagine.

I am praying that there is some success through the lawsuit and we get an extension on it but i guess now im going to just drink my sorrows away!
 
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