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DV 2022 OC Selectees

2022OC23## -Just some vital info for people who have entered the US and returned to their homeland once activating the GC. We flew to the US (LAX) activated our GC on June 9th. Flew back home to NZ a few days later and just yesterday I have received an appointment for biometrics for July 22nd. I am currently trying to change this. Had no idea this was the case as I thought you could just activate GC and return home as I'm not ready to immigrate to the US. So, just a heads up you may want to think about waiting for this appointment before leaving or try and change the appointment date.
 
DazFoss2022DV said:
2022OC23## -Just some vital info for people who have entered the US and returned to their homeland once activating the GC. We flew to the US (LAX) activated our GC on June 9th. Flew back home to NZ a few days later and just yesterday I have received an appointment for biometrics for July 22nd. I am currently trying to change this. Had no idea this was the case as I thought you could just activate GC and return home as I'm not ready to immigrate to the US. So, just a heads up you may want to think about waiting for this appointment before leaving or try and change the appointment date.
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This is not a standard request or a regular practice, it is not necessarily something people activating and departing shortly after need to be aware of or wait for. Did you apply for a re-entry permit during your activation trip?
 
DazFoss2022DV said:
2022OC23## -Just some vital info for people who have entered the US and returned to their homeland once activating the GC. We flew to the US (LAX) activated our GC on June 9th. Flew back home to NZ a few days later and just yesterday I have received an appointment for biometrics for July 22nd. I am currently trying to change this. Had no idea this was the case as I thought you could just activate GC and return home as I'm not ready to immigrate to the US. So, just a heads up you may want to think about waiting for this appointment before leaving or try and change the appointment date.
Click to expand...
Sm1smom said:
This is not a standard request or a regular practice, it is not necessarily something people activating and departing shortly after need to be aware of or wait for. Did you apply for a re-entry permit during your activation trip?
Click to expand...
Yes, this is very odd. You don’t normally need biometrics after entering on an immigrant visa. If you didn’t apply for a re-entry permit, was there any issue with capturing your bio on admission?
 
I'm approved! My passport won't be ready until next week, and I'm flying back to Sydney this Sat the 16th, so I'll be fedexxing it back to Suva. A bunch of other aussies will be doing the same.

HOLY SHIT, this has been such a long time coming. Thankyou to everyone in this forum for all the helpful info, absolute bloody god send.
And @Britsimon , THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU
 
aussiechris said:
I'm approved! My passport won't be ready until next week, and I'm flying back to Sydney this Sat the 16th, so I'll be fedexxing it back to Suva. A bunch of other aussies will be doing the same.

HOLY SHIT, this has been such a long time coming. Thankyou to everyone in this forum for all the helpful info, absolute bloody god send.
And @Britsimon , THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU
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Mine too was approved but need to send passport after returning to Australia. Thanks for Brittsimon, Mom and all the other great people who have been guiding in this complex process.

Just a question regarding passport return process. Sending is ok but what service we have to choose with DHL to arrange for the return or do we have to buy a return envelop in which they can put the passport and send us back in Australia? Can someone who has done this comment please.
 
DV2022OC said:
Mine too was approved but need to send passport after returning to Australia. Thanks for Brittsimon, Mom and all the other great people who have been guiding in this complex process.

Just a question regarding passport return process. Sending is ok but what service we have to choose with DHL to arrange for the return or do we have to buy a return envelop in which they can put the passport and send us back in Australia? Can someone who has done this comment please.
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I'm still not sure. I was going to go into a Fed ex and ask.
 
Getmeouttahere said:
Hmmm, wonder if this is due to all the recent expedited requests.
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Basically, one of the recent Aussies was told "Australians arent leaving enough time to get their passport back". So sounds like they did it as a favour for the first group of us but once they realised it wasn't a one off and there is another 1-2 months worth of us going... probably didn't want any more overtime/rushing to expedite them. Sorry we ruined it for the rest, but happy I got mine fast :p
 
DazFoss2022DV said:
2022OC23## -Just some vital info for people who have entered the US and returned to their homeland once activating the GC. We flew to the US (LAX) activated our GC on June 9th. Flew back home to NZ a few days later and just yesterday I have received an appointment for biometrics for July 22nd. I am currently trying to change this. Had no idea this was the case as I thought you could just activate GC and return home as I'm not ready to immigrate to the US. So, just a heads up you may want to think about waiting for this appointment before leaving or try and change the appointment date.
Click to expand...
Did you not have your biometrics before hand? Why do we need another afterwards. Confused...
 
All approved! ~ and I can confirm that Suva doesn't seem to be expediting passports for Sydney CP transfers anymore, or at least for our group of interviews. Despite the Wednesday interview, we were to told tentatively that they might be ready for Monday next week onboards. They just instructed all of us to mail our passports in.

And of course, a big thanks to all the contributors of this forum, the mods, and of course Britsimon for helping the uninitiated nagivate this process.
 
Well, I was just approved in Suva! The whole process was very short with minimal questions asked. Nothing about my work, finances, or university. I was only asked if I had any trouble with the law, if I had lived outside of Australia, and if I had complete high school. Nothing about finances, university or my job.

I’ll also add my confirmation about the passports as well, everyone there including me was told to post our passports back due to the 3 day turnaround time.

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone here for your advice and info, especially Britsimon, SusieQQQ, and Sm1smom for your tireless work on these forums and Simon for his website. Thanks so much!
 
HOLY SMOKES APPROVED! Congrats to the three Aussies who were also in this morning with me!

The interview process at Suva went as follows:
- Arrived at the embassy at 9 am for the 9:30am scheduled appointment
- Went through security checks to enter into the consulate
- The room where they interview you was surprisingly small, just perfect to make you even more anxious. Luckily there were other DV winners from Australia I could chat with to make the wait time more bareable
- Got called to give in my documents (no bank statements asked - just the list of documents requested in the email they give you prior) and paid for the fee ($726 FJD)
- Anxiously waited until my interview which ended up being anti-climatic as Simon has mentioned in his YouTube video
- The interviewer was really friendly and she literally just asked me four questions after my pledge:
1. Am I married?
2. Do I have kids?
3. Have I lived anywhere else apart from Sydney and Fiji
4. Do I plan on returning back to Sydney
- That’s it! With a smile she approved it and gave my original documents and a slip of instructions of what to expect next.
- Left the embassy around 11:30am so expect a long wait
- Holy shit my life has completely changed for the better, my mom ended up crying with tears of joy!


I’d like to thank everyone in this forum during this wild 2 years. I’ve been reading every single post during the whole 2 years and it feels surreal finally getting the approval!

Massive thank you to Simon and the moderators for assisting us through this journey.

All the best to everyone who has an interview soon! :) :) :) !!!!!!!!!
 
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Does anyone know the process of what we need to do when we hand over our passport to Fedex/DHL? Will they recommend what packing we need etc?
 
Sm1smom said:
This is not a standard request or a regular practice, it is not necessarily something people activating and departing shortly after need to be aware of or wait for. Did you apply for a re-entry permit during your activation trip?
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Hi. I'm confused... No I didn't apply for re-entry permission, should I have done? After many posts I've seen here and elsewhere, I thought I could just activate the GC and then leave and get back within the year....
 
SusieQQQ said:
Yes, this is very odd. You don’t normally need biometrics after entering on an immigrant visa. If you didn’t apply for a re-entry permit, was there any issue with capturing your bio on admission?
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Hi. Was there any issue with capturing my bio on admission? Arrived through LAX and handed over my envelope and the CO said you will be mailed your GC within 3 months but may take up to a year.... That was it..
 
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