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DV2012 Country of nativity question

S

Sympli Dusty

Registered Users (C)
Newbie here and to all DV lottery process.
I have a potential issue with my DV Visa application and would like to see if anyone had or heard about any positive/negative experiences regarding my situation.

So here is a short story. I was born in Estonia, never lived there though and moved to Ukraine soon after I was born. My parents were born in Ukraine, my spouse was born in Ukraine as well. When I was filling out DV Lottery online application I chose Estonia as my country of birth and Ukraine as my country of eligibility. Now I realize that I should have chosen Estonia instead of Ukraine. Do you think this can be used as reason for denial at consular interview? I saw somebody posting that one can use country of spouse's birth in case his/hers country is ineligible to participate in lottery, byt what if that country is eligible as well (both Estonia and Ukraine are eligible). I appreciate any experiences or advise.

P.S. I called two lawyers, but seems like they were not very familiar with procedures of DV visas. One of them told me that this should not be a problem in his opinion, but he was not sure.
 
You should have no problms. Except cut off for Ukraine could be lower, it could be under you rank number
 
Ok, thanks for your reply. It is good to know. I wonder if anyone else could share their experience, especially if consular officer questioned them on interview why they chose different country and what was their answer.
 
You will be under the discretion of the CO, obviously.
However, the instructions to COs in pp3-4 in the following link would be to your benefit.
Keep a p/o of this for your intvw. I am not sure when you are suppose to select the new and correct country.
My guess is you do it now itself and inform kcc.
'cos if Ukrain CNs progress differently from EU (has happened in the past I think), then you may not get a cp /aos intvw at all!

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/87838.pdf

Best!
 
Yes, I know Ukraine always gets a lot of winners. So looks like it is not a strict rule to select your country of birth all the time, even Question 5 in DS-122 states that even most of the time the country of nativity is your country of birth you can claim the country of birth of your spouse or country of birth of either parent if they were not residents of that country. I wonder how many cases like mine are processed each year and if anyone got a hard time during an interview. Overall I think it should not be a big deal, but anyway still looking for real life examples.
 
Sympli Dusty said:
Yes, I know Ukraine always gets a lot of winners. So looks like it is not a strict rule to select your country of birth all the time, [WRONG: It IS v STRICT !!] even Question 5 in DS-122 states that even most of the time the country of nativity is your country of birth you can claim the country of birth of your spouse or country of birth of either parent if they were not residents of that country. I wonder how many cases like mine are processed each year and if anyone got a hard time during an interview. Overall I think it should not be a big deal, but anyway still looking for real life examples.
Click to expand...

Other secondary options for nativity/chg.bility comes into play IF & ONLY IF the first option is a non elig. country.
You cannot claim an option just for the sake of selecting a country.
For eg. If you were born in an eligible AF country but say spouse or parents were born in a EU, just for convenience or better odds you cannot select EU. You will be disqualified.
But you will be 'hopefully' given a second chance for the reasons given in that DoS document meant for CO guidance.

Most likely you will be safe. Find out how you change it now. I am not sure just giving the new country in the DSP 122 is sufficient.
Dbl chk.!

Best!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
NuvF, thanks for your reply

OK, it is strict, but I could not find anywhere where it explicitly states that "you only can select different country of nativity if your country is ineligible''. Yes, I realize I should have selected Estonia, but I had solid reasons to claim Ukraine as my native country as well, since: 1. My parents were born there 2. My spouse was born there 3. I have nothing to do with Estonia and probably will not even be able to point to it on the map without looking for it first. Having said that I sure hope that what you said is true and I will not have any problems, and I will probably call KCC to clarify if I need to change the country of nativity or leave it as it is.

Also Ukraine and Estonia belong to the same region (EU), so I do not tap into other regions visas. So really I gained no benefit from selecting Ukraine, and probably I put myself into disadvantageous position because number of winning cases for Ukraine always pushing the limits.

Any other opinions please?
 
For eg. If you were born in an eligible AF country but say spouse or parents were born in a EU, just for convenience or better odds you cannot select EU. You will be disqualified
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That is wrong. You can do that, no problems. For whatever reason you want.
 
Good! This is what I believe. I wonder if CO knows the law, I am afraid that some of them may not be familiar with such cases and they will give me a hard time over this.
 
raevsky said:
That is wrong. You can do that, no problems. For whatever reason you want.
Click to expand...

Ok, it may be the case, but sure not 'for whatever reason'!, but to the extent as allowed by law for cross-chargeability in INA 202 (b) #1-4.
(OP better take a copy of that with you to the intvw)
OP has the options of correct the eDV mistake or claim 202(b) 2 or 4.
#4 may be cumbersome as I remember few ppl during last cpl years faced.
#2 is straight forward. Then both will be considered as 'principle apps.' (but only the main winner for DV basic reqmts), and both need to enter to US together.
Also restrictions like say spouse fail medicals, or sec. chks then no benefits for the DV winner. etc.

Best!
 
raevsky said:
That is wrong. You can do that, no problems. For whatever reason you want.
Click to expand...

So I guess i just need to keep things consistent with my E-DV application and put Ukraine as a country of eligibility on DS-122 form, and then present an evidence why I selected this country (my spouse's Ukrainian birth certificate) on interview. And if CO decides to change the country of chargebility to MY country of birth he will do that on interview, correct?
 
I do not think he has the authority to change the country of chargeability versus your original entry except for very special situations. In you particular situation that very special case would be if quota for Ukraine is exhausted and there is room for you and your wife, but not for your kids under Ukraine or under their country of birth. Then he could change chargeability for everyone to Estonia.
 
raevsky said:
I do not think he has the authority to change the country of chargeability versus your original entry except for very special situations. In you particular situation that very special case would be if quota for Ukraine is exhausted and there is room for you and your wife, but not for your kids under Ukraine or under their country of birth. Then he could change chargeability for everyone to Estonia.
Click to expand...

Understood. So the main thing is to fill out DS-122 with Ukraine as country of eligibility and have my spouses birth certificate showing Ukraine as her place of birth on the interview?
 
Sympli Dusty said:
Understood. So the main thing is to fill out DS-122 with Ukraine as country of eligibility and have my spouses birth certificate showing Ukraine as her place of birth on the interview?
Click to expand...


Sympli Dusty...My question to you is,...do you have a Ukrainian International Passport (or some other proof of Ukrainian Nationality). If you do, then my advice, is that you stick with the info given on your EDV Form, so as not to complicate your case! If on the othr hand, you only have an Estonian Passport, then you might still keep Ukraine as your eligibility country, base it all upon your wife and parents' Ukrainian citizenship, and if the question arises during your Immigrant Visa Interview, tell the interviewing CO that you were confused by the DV 2012 Instructions pertaining to nationality, since you are eligible for Ukrainian citizenship via your parents, eligible for Ukrainian Chargeability via your wife, and eligible for Estonian citizenship via your birth in Estonia. So long as the CO does not feel you lied on your EDV application (but was merely confused by both of your citizenship/state-chargeability options), you should be fine. I hope this helps...good luck!
 
I only have Ukrainian passport. I never had Estonian passport, I was only born there and moved to Ukraine probably within two months after my birth. Estonia used to be the part of Soviet Union, so my birth certificate is in Russian, because this was an official language of soviet republics. My birth certificate says that my place of birth is Estonian Soviet Republic :)
 
So no another question. If someone using his/hers spouses country as country of chargeability, can they still submit two E-DV applications?

For example: me-Estonia country of birth
my spouse - Ukraine country of birth

I submit one application based on my spouses country of birth, and y spouse submits based on her country of birth, so two applications from Ukraine. Possible?
 
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