Hello, would-be immigrants,
I was a selectee for DV2012, so it was about 10 years ago that I found out I’d be moving to the United States. I thought I’d come back to this forum because so many people back then were helpful to me when I had questions about the process. Perhaps there’s already enough information out there about what to expect, but I would be happy to answer any questions as a former Oceania “winner”.
My advice is that you needn’t worry about what your case number is. The authorities don’t generally fill the allotted 50,000 quota (have they ever since the DV’s inception?) so you’ll get the visa if you meet the criteria, just expect to contend with rudeness, obfuscation, inexplicable delays and the general sense that you’ve done something wrong or even illegal. For whatever reason, this is the demeanour of the USCIS. The visa bulletin is helpful in order to predict when you’ll get an interview.
I’ve lived in NYC, Portland OR, and rural Colorado. I can’t help but feel that the US is so bizarre that I’ll never really feel at home here and I kind of wish I’d gone to Canada. The botched spelling conventions, imperial measurements, gun violence, for-profit medicine, racial tension and the other well-known unsavoury characteristics of the US still bother me, as does the general parochial character of this country, in which hardly anyone has ever lived abroad other than to study or because they’ve fled from difficult circumstances. On the other hand, I’ve found Americans to be curious, polite, and very keen to do business without unduly hassling you, and living here as a foreigner makes you feel like you’re living in a movie set. Anyway, you’ve undoubtedly heard it all before: you shouldn’t move here, but you will anyway, such is the allure of this vast and extraordinary country.
Make sure you sign up for a credit card as soon as you can in order to build up a credit score. That was a hard lesson to learn.
Also, the border agents always hassled me about what I’m doing here until I got citizenship. So don’t expect to feel totally welcome at the airport. I got my citizenship in just before the 2020 election so I could say my say about T****.
Enjoy the wild journey of life in America. At least it won’t be boring.