DV 2026 All Selectees (Consular Processing - CP)

[Happy2BeHere]

Congrats. How long have you been trying

Hi @upbeatbean,

Thank you. I have applied 3 times.

 

[dianka]

Good day, I have a delicate question. My husband and I came to the U.S. through the U4U program, got married here, and applied for political asylum a month ago. On May 3, we found out that my husband won the Green Card lottery. He entered the U.S. on October 30, 2023, and I arrived on May 31, 2024. We didn’t have any friends or acquaintances here who could guide us, so we made a few mistakes.
My husband started working by presenting his I-94, SSN, and ID to his employer. He was hired with these documents and didn’t mention or apply for a work permit (EAD). He has been working like this for a year and a half. Now that we are working on filling out the DS-260 form for the visa interview, we realized that this could be considered a violation and may lead to a denial, as we are planning to go through consular processing in Europe.
Has anyone had a similar situation, and what are the chances of visa approval?

 

[Sm1smom]

Good day, I have a delicate question. My husband and I came to the U.S. through the U4U program, got married here, and applied for political asylum a month ago. On May 3, we found out that my husband won the Green Card lottery. He entered the U.S. on October 30, 2023, and I arrived on May 31, 2024. We didn’t have any friends or acquaintances here who could guide us, so we made a few mistakes.
My husband started working by presenting his I-94, SSN, and ID to his employer. He was hired with these documents and didn’t mention or apply for a work permit (EAD). He has been working like this for a year and a half. Now that we are working on filling out the DS-260 form for the visa interview, we realized that this could be considered a violation and may lead to a denial, as we are planning to go through consular processing in Europe.
Has anyone had a similar situation, and what are the chances of visa approval?

Your husband was eligible to work for the first 90 days of being admitted as a parole without an EAD, ongoing work after that without an approved EAD is a violation.

Unfortunately, not having any friends or acquaintances who could guide you will not be an acceptable excuse IMHO, as the violation would have been a bar to process your DV selection via AOS. This probably wouldn’t have been an issue for CP in the past, but under the present administration, it is hard to say upfront how this violation would be viewed.

 

[dianka]

Your husband was eligible to work for the first 90 days of being admitted as a parole without an EAD, ongoing work after that without an approved EAD is a violation.

Unfortunately, not having any friends or acquaintances who could guide you will not be an acceptable excuse IMHO, as the violation would have been a bar to process your DV selection via AOS. This probably wouldn’t have been an issue for CP in the past, but under the present administration, it is hard to say upfront how this violation would be viewed.

Thank you for your response. We understand that the absence of friends or people who could guide us through the process does not free us from responsibility. However, we had no other violations, and this was the only issue. If we had known how serious this was, of course, my husband would have applied for work authorization immediately.
Now that we understand the requirements better, we have already submitted an EAD application to correct the situation. We hope this shows that we had no intention of breaking the law and that we are doing our best to fix our mistake.

 

[proof]

Hello brit
The information you provide are helpful, i have two questions following my winning of the DV 2026.
1. i have both education and well work experience that is i have a degree in electrical engineering before 10 years and have different related work experience which is 8 years plus, so can i use both or should i select one?
2. i have filled my birth city at eDV first time and the one on the passport are birth place not birth city, and on my birth certificate both are available the birth city and birth place, so on filling DS260 how i am gonna do it should i use the passport way or the one on my birth certificate? please note that in both cases the country are the same.
kindly looking forward dear

 

[SusieQQQ]

Hello brit
The information you provide are helpful, i have two questions following my winning of the DV 2026.
1. i have both education and well work experience that is i have a degree in electrical engineering before 10 years and have different related work experience which is 8 years plus, so can i use both or should i select one?
2. i have filled my birth city at eDV first time and the one on the passport are birth place not birth city, and on my birth certificate both are available the birth city and birth place, so on filling DS260 how i am gonna do it should i use the passport way or the one on my birth certificate? please note that in both cases the country are the same.
kindly looking forward dear

1. Just use education, it’s easier and all that is necessary
2. Doesn’t matter that they differ on detail, if DS260 asks for city put the city. Answer all the questions on the DS260 exactly as they are asked.

 

[SA22XX]

Hello,
I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for the useful information. While completing the DS260, many questions arose. I would appreciate it if someone could help me with them. I apologize for the numerous questions, but I am truly confused about them.

1. In the "Full Name" section, should I include both my first and last names, or only my first and middle name?

2. In the "School Address" section, should I list the address from my I-20, even though the building where I actually attend classes is one block away?

3. If my primary occupation is "Student" and I'm listing my school, should I answer "Yes" to the question "Does this job require at least two years of experience or training?"—considering that it is a master’s program which requires a previous degree?

4. For the question about "Other Occupations," should I include my previous profession before becoming a student, even though I’m not currently working in that field, since I am an international student?

5. For the question about "Previous Work Experience," should I include my CPT internship, which starts tomorrow, and if so, should I list the end date according to what is stated in my CPT authorization, even if it is in the future?

6. Under "Educational Institutions Attended," should I list a university I attended for only one year before transferring, even though I didn’t obtain a degree from that institution? If so, what should I enter under "Diploma or Degree"?

7. Should I include a university where I completed a short online postgraduate course that lasted only two months under "Academic Institutions"?

8. Should I include the institution I am currently attending under "Educational Institutions"? If so, what should I enter under "Degree or Diploma" if I haven’t completed the program yet?

9. For "High School," should I select "Diploma" or "Degree"?

10. If the name of my university is "Universidad XXX" (in Spanish), should I leave it as "Universidad" or translate it to "University"?

11. In the "Work History" section, should I include a part-time job I did for my mother's company, even though it was an informal (unregistered) job, considering that I have it listed on my resume and LinkedIn profile?

Thank you very much in advance for your time and help !

 

[SusieQQQ]

Hello,
I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for the useful information. While completing the DS260, many questions arose. I would appreciate it if someone could help me with them. I apologize for the numerous questions, but I am truly confused about them.

1. In the "Full Name" section, should I include both my first and last names, or only my first and middle name?

2. In the "School Address" section, should I list the address from my I-20, even though the building where I actually attend classes is one block away?

3. If my primary occupation is "Student" and I'm listing my school, should I answer "Yes" to the question "Does this job require at least two years of experience or training?"—considering that it is a master’s program which requires a previous degree?

4. For the question about "Other Occupations," should I include my previous profession before becoming a student, even though I’m not currently working in that field, since I am an international student?

5. For the question about "Previous Work Experience," should I include my CPT internship, which starts tomorrow, and if so, should I list the end date according to what is stated in my CPT authorization, even if it is in the future?

6. Under "Educational Institutions Attended," should I list a university I attended for only one year before transferring, even though I didn’t obtain a degree from that institution? If so, what should I enter under "Diploma or Degree"?

7. Should I include a university where I completed a short online postgraduate course that lasted only two months under "Academic Institutions"?

8. Should I include the institution I am currently attending under "Educational Institutions"? If so, what should I enter under "Degree or Diploma" if I haven’t completed the program yet?

9. For "High School," should I select "Diploma" or "Degree"?

10. If the name of my university is "Universidad XXX" (in Spanish), should I leave it as "Universidad" or translate it to "University"?

11. In the "Work History" section, should I include a part-time job I did for my mother's company, even though it was an informal (unregistered) job, considering that I have it listed on my resume and LinkedIn profile?

Thank you very much in advance for your time and help !

you really need to read the instructions properly (hover over the questions to bring up explanations too). For example, your question 6, does it ask only for places you got a degree or does it just ask for places you attended? Most of your questions are like this, pretty straightforward. for questions 4 and 11 for example, does it say anywhere only list them if…, no, so list them. Being a student is not a job. Youre also clearly overthinking on some of them, like school address is the address of the school, they are not fussed about your exact daily physical location.

for questio 5, put the end date either as the date you submit the application or just write “present”. You can’t enter a future date,

 

[Sm1smom]

Hello,
I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for the useful information. While completing the DS260, many questions arose. I would appreciate it if someone could help me with them. I apologize for the numerous questions, but I am truly confused about them.

1. In the "Full Name" section, should I include both my first and last names, or only my first and middle name?

2. In the "School Address" section, should I list the address from my I-20, even though the building where I actually attend classes is one block away?

3. If my primary occupation is "Student" and I'm listing my school, should I answer "Yes" to the question "Does this job require at least two years of experience or training?"—considering that it is a master’s program which requires a previous degree?

4. For the question about "Other Occupations," should I include my previous profession before becoming a student, even though I’m not currently working in that field, since I am an international student?

5. For the question about "Previous Work Experience," should I include my CPT internship, which starts tomorrow, and if so, should I list the end date according to what is stated in my CPT authorization, even if it is in the future?

6. Under "Educational Institutions Attended," should I list a university I attended for only one year before transferring, even though I didn’t obtain a degree from that institution? If so, what should I enter under "Diploma or Degree"?

7. Should I include a university where I completed a short online postgraduate course that lasted only two months under "Academic Institutions"?

8. Should I include the institution I am currently attending under "Educational Institutions"? If so, what should I enter under "Degree or Diploma" if I haven’t completed the program yet?

9. For "High School," should I select "Diploma" or "Degree"?

10. If the name of my university is "Universidad XXX" (in Spanish), should I leave it as "Universidad" or translate it to "University"?

11. In the "Work History" section, should I include a part-time job I did for my mother's company, even though it was an informal (unregistered) job, considering that I have it listed on my resume and LinkedIn profile?

Thank you very much in advance for your time and help !

Agreed with Susie’s response above about you overthinking the questions. You can answer them all by yourself if only you’ll stop over analyzing them.

Question 5 for example asks about previous work experience, with “previous” being the operative word. And you’re asking us if you should list CPT work/internship starting in the future. IMO, that is a future, or present work assuming you fill out your DS260 after resuming the internship, most definitely not something that qualifies as previous, if submitting the form while the internship is ongoing.

 

[F-16]

please help me in the following:
currently i am a master's degree student and i am self employed as a personal swimming coach

the first question is : where to mention that i am a master's degree student, in the occupation page or education page and how to correctly clarify that?

the second question is : in the occupation page, is it acceptable or is there any problem to mention that i am a self employed?

thanks in advance.

 

[Xarthisius]

1. where to mention that i am a master's degree student, in the occupation page or education page and how to correctly clarify that?
2. in the occupation page, is it acceptable or is there any problem to mention that i am a self employed?

1. In the education section. Being a student is not an occupation / job.
2. No, it's not a problem.

 

[proof]

Hello,
Thank you for your continued and helpful support.
I have two questions regarding the DS-260 form:

1. What does "Full Name in Native Alphabet" mean? In my country, we use the English alphabet to write our language. For example, "John" in our native language is written as "Joonii."
2. Should I use all capital letters when filling out the DS-260 form?

Thank you, and I look forward to your response.

 

[Dhak]

Hi Sm1smom,

Hope you're doing well!
Quick question—can I list someone on H1B who files taxes and owns a house in the U.S. as my U.S. contact on the DS-260? If that’s not okay, could you please let me know how I can update the form to update the sponsor ?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Sm1smom]

Hi Sm1smom,

Hope you're doing well!
Quick question—can I list someone on H1B who files taxes and owns a house in the U.S. as my U.S. contact on the DS-260? If that’s not okay, could you please let me know how I can update the form to update the sponsor ?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Yes, if listing the person’s home as your address. If it is for the purpose of providing you with an I-134, preference is for a LPR or a USC.

 

[SA22XX]

Hello, I would like to know approximately how long it takes to process the DS260. If I expect my number to be current in April/May, would it be fine to send it in October/November?

 

[Britsimon]

Hello, I would like to know approximately how long it takes to process the DS260. If I expect my number to be current in April/May, would it be fine to send it in October/November?

The time process varies, but mostly it is the backlog that takes the time. Your plan sounds OK though.

 

[SA22XX]

The time process varies, but mostly it is the backlog that takes the time. Your plan sounds OK though.

Thank you!!