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Earthquake in Nepal

NaraLB said:
Excuse me, sir. I'd love to better understand your opinion on this: Do you think Asia as a whole will be allowed to progress (and maybe eventually see higher AS cutoffs) since Kathmandu embassy currently has other priorities, or do you think the progress for the entire region will be held up? Thank you so much!
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You are very welcome. As I said in an earlier posting: "Either would be pure speculation at this point, as folks @ KCC have surely have not made up their minds at this stage...". However, I do think that any responsible US government employee will seek to act ethically and responsibly in this situation (and follow established internal DV regulations for dealing with humanitarian disasters in the course of a given DV year). In short: on this rare occasion I do not share the opinion of Britsimon. To your specific question: I believe that if KCC were to allow ROA to move ahead, Nepal being held backed due to cancelled/not scheduled interviews, this would only consciously happen if KCC would at the same time build in safeguards for Current folks from Nepal later on, i.e. by reserving humanitarian NACARA visa specifically for those folks in September. This, in turn, would undoubtedly affect final AF, SA and AS CN's for the year.
 
EURO2014 said:
You are very welcome. As I said in an earlier posting: "Either would be pure speculation at this point, as folks @ KCC have surely have not made up their minds at this stage...". However, I do think that any responsible US government employee will seek to act ethically and responsibly in this situation (and follow established internal DV regulations for dealing with humanitarian disasters in the course of a given DV year). In short: on this rare occasion I do not share the opinion of Britsimon. To your specific question: I believe that if KCC were to allow ROA to move ahead, Nepal being held backed due to cancelled/not scheduled interviews, this would only consciously happen if KCC would at the same time build in safeguards for Current folks from Nepal later on, i.e. by reserving humanitarian NACARA visa specifically for those folks in September. This, in turn, would undoubtedly affect final AF, SA and AS CN's for the year.
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Thank you for taking the time to explain!
Best of luck to all DV selectees , and particularly the Nepalese people affected by this crisis.
 
EURO2014 said:
You are very welcome. As I said in an earlier posting: "Either would be pure speculation at this point, as folks @ KCC have surely have not made up their minds at this stage...". However, I do think that any responsible US government employee will seek to act ethically and responsibly in this situation (and follow established internal DV regulations for dealing with humanitarian disasters in the course of a given DV year). In short: on this rare occasion I do not share the opinion of Britsimon. To your specific question: I believe that if KCC were to allow ROA to move ahead, Nepal being held backed due to cancelled/not scheduled interviews, this would only consciously happen if KCC would at the same time build in safeguards for Current folks from Nepal later on, i.e. by reserving humanitarian NACARA visa specifically for those folks in September. This, in turn, would undoubtedly affect final AF, SA and AS CN's for the year.
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The issue is whether KCC have the power to apply a humanitarian/logical decision. So - you say they could continue with number progression (to the detriment of Nepalese), but then protect the Nepalese interests by reserving NACARA visas for disadvantaged Nepalese selectees to use later.

Well I don't think they can do that. They don't have a lot of latitude in how they do things - everything is carefully laid out in laws. So - if NACARA visas are returned to the program (as they have been several times over the last few years including 2013 and 2014), they are returned to the global quota. KCC cannot allocate a block of visas to be used for one country, no matter how compelling the humanitarian argument for doing so.

The Nepal selectees are probably best "protected" by allowing numbers in AS region to continue, but let the local embassy hold up interviews for a few weeks. Doing so allows the visa slot allocated to the Nepal selectee to be "reserved", so at some point that starts to risk a shortfall in the region as a whole - but we have 5 months of visa processing left - which hopefully will be enough time for life to return to normal.
 
Britsimon said:
The issue is whether KCC have the power to apply a humanitarian/logical decision. So - you say they could continue with number progression (to the detriment of Nepalese), but then protect the Nepalese interests by reserving NACARA visas for disadvantaged Nepalese selectees to use later.

Well I don't think they can do that. They don't have a lot of latitude in how they do things - everything is carefully laid out in laws. So - if NACARA visas are returned to the program (as they have been several times over the last few years including 2013 and 2014), they are returned to the global quota. KCC cannot allocate a block of visas to be used for one country, no matter how compelling the humanitarian argument for doing so.

The Nepal selectees are probably best "protected" by allowing numbers in AS region to continue, but let the local embassy hold up interviews for a few weeks. Doing so allows the visa slot allocated to the Nepal selectee to be "reserved", so at some point that starts to risk a shortfall in the region as a whole - but we have 5 months of visa processing left - which hopefully will be enough time for life to return to normal.
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Yes, I agree, hopefully we will see a meaningful direction with the next VB, which won't sell neither Nepal, in the face of disaster, nor ROA, which has been hurting in progression already, short. I will be off to Berlin tomorrow, returning to the US May 9th, possibly we'll already know more by then. Keep up the good work and DV folks calm! Cheers
 
EURO2014 said:
You are very welcome. As I said in an earlier posting: "Either would be pure speculation at this point, as folks @ KCC have surely have not made up their minds at this stage...". However, I do think that any responsible US government employee will seek to act ethically and responsibly in this situation (and follow established internal DV regulations for dealing with humanitarian disasters in the course of a given DV year). In short: on this rare occasion I do not share the opinion of Britsimon. To your specific question: I believe that if KCC were to allow ROA to move ahead, Nepal being held backed due to cancelled/not scheduled interviews, this would only consciously happen if KCC would at the same time build in safeguards for Current folks from Nepal later on, i.e. by reserving humanitarian NACARA visa specifically for those folks in September. This, in turn, would undoubtedly affect final AF, SA and AS CN's for the year.
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1) we need a law. He is absent.
2) in Yemen, the State Department refused to evacuate their nationals from the country. The citizens of Europe, the US and many countries exported Russia, which hates Susie. http://news.yahoo.com/americans-stuck-yemen-sue-us-force-evacuations-203832628.html
 
I think nothing will change in the next VB. This situation is very close to next VB announcement and KCC is always too slow in responding to these emergency matters. Maybe even lower VB than what Simon predicted will be announced since he is an optimist :D
But for the last two VBs it is more likely that they jump higher than what Simon anticipated. It all depends on how fast US embassy and other infrastructures recover and what will happens to Iranian APs.
 
behdadk said:
I think nothing will change in the next VB. This situation is very close to next VB announcement and KCC is always too slow in responding to these emergency matters. Maybe even lower VB than what Simon predicted will be announced since he is an optimist :D
But for the last two VBs it is more likely that they jump higher than what Simon anticipated. It all depends on how fast US embassy and other infrastructures recover and what will happens to Iranian APs.
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So I am too optimistic and then too pessimistic huh??? LOL :confused:
 
Britsimon said:
So I am too optimistic and then too pessimistic huh??? LOL :confused:
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I always said you are an optimist :D
And the idea behind lower VB prediction for ASIA is that around Jan and Feb you announced that this is the final chance for submitting DS-260.Also KCC informs people who didn't submit their DS-260 by email to check the dvlottery site.
Have a little faith in yourself :D Maybe there is a little jump in DS-260 submission in Jan and Feb that resulted in lower VB in the following month. Not only from people who didn't realize they won the lottery but from the ones who wanted to delay their interviews until the last months.
 
If Susie lived in Yemen, it would first jumped into the Russian plane. I know very well these people. On the Internet, they say bad things about Russia, but if misfortune Russian help.
Britsimon said:
What did Susie do to annoy Russia???
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She speaks badly about me and about Russia. But it does not change anything. The dog barks, the caravan moves on.:) Please do not be offended Susie, it's just my criticism.:cool:
 
Sloner said:
If Susie lived in Yemen, it would first jumped into the Russian plane. I know very well these people. On the Internet, they say bad things about Russia, but if misfortune Russian help.

She speaks badly about me and about Russia. But it does not change anything. The dog barks, the caravan moves on.:) Please do not be offended Susie, it's just my criticism.:cool:
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I don't have anything against "Russia". I don't like certain of its leaders and their policies. It's disingenuous to extend that into saying I dislike an entire country and everyone in it.
 
SusieQQQ said:
I don't have anything against "Russia". I don't like certain of its leaders and their policies. It's disingenuous to extend that into saying I dislike an entire country and everyone in it.
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Yeah but its only Sloner - you can't take that seriously.....
 
We shall wait and see how many interviews will be affected by this tragedy in Nepal. They already cancelled one week of interviews. I don't know the average weekly number of interviews in Nepal (maybe Simon n others can tell), But still beleive with only 3 VBs left, KCC needs to speed up the progress for Asia starting from next bulletin. Most issued cases in Asia belong to Nepal (considering that most Iranians end up with AP) so if KCC wants to issue enough visas in upcoming months they need to raise up the cut off for next bulletins while reserving the spots for those Nepalese with cancelled or missed interviews. But I also agree with other comments that KCC does not act quickly on such emergency issues, especially this year where they've been slow in almost every aspect (announcing the bulletins, sending 2nls, etc.), so I wont't be surprised if there are no changes in the next bulletin.
 
My sincere condolences to all Nepalese affected by this tragedy.
I personally experienced an earthquake during my dv interview, I can definitely say that the us diplomatic representations, are using solid building to prevent any kind of cataclysm or terrir attack....
The us embassy in katmundu will be fully operational after a week or so...
So I dont think that the vb will that much affected.
Just an opinion of course.
 
vladek15425 said:
My sincere condolences to all Nepalese affected by this tragedy.
I personally experienced an earthquake during my dv interview, I can definitely say that the us diplomatic representations, are using solid building to prevent any kind of cataclysm or terrir attack....
The us embassy in katmundu will be fully operational after a week or so...
So I dont think that the vb will that much affected.
Just an opinion of course.
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Even if the building is unaffected, and of course at the moment it is being used as temporary shelter and staging ground, the problem is not just having somewhere to have the interview. It is the ability of people to come to the interview in the first place, having staff that have the time to do interviews and not evacuated or used to support other operations, support staff such as admin, translators, etc. who are native Nepali who are not affected in one way or another themselves, and not used in supporting the relief operation, Ability and willingness of Police issuing No Criminal Record certificates, Doctors doing medicals, reliable power and communication links so they can do checks and updates on computers, and a hundred other minor points that are usually taken for granted when any organisation functions effectively.

Good luck with Sloner!
 
Martin9 said:
Even if the building is unaffected, and of course at the moment it is being used as temporary shelter and staging ground, the problem is not just having somewhere to have the interview. It is the ability of people to come to the interview in the first place, having staff that have the time to do interviews and not evacuated or used to support other operations, support staff such as admin, translators, etc. who are native Nepali who are not affected in one way or another themselves, and not used in supporting the relief operation, Ability and willingness of Police issuing No Criminal Record certificates, Doctors doing medicals, reliable power and communication links so they can do checks and updates on computers, and a hundred other minor points that are usually taken for granted when any organisation functions effectively.

Good luck with Sloner!
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Nepal will resume interview on May 5

Here's the message:

  • Normal visa operations, which were suspended following the April 25 earthquake in Nepal, will resume on Tuesday, May 5, 2015. For questions regarding non-immigrant visas, immigrant visas (IV), or diversity visas (DV), please contact our customer service center at 1-800-0910114 (if calling from the United States, dial 703-988-3428). For IV/DV applicants who had an interview scheduled during the week of April 27-May 1, the Embassy’s IV/DV unit will contact you with an updated interview date. For inquiries regarding asylum or refugee family petitions, please write toconsktm@state.gov.


    Notice: Due to the earthquake that struck Nepal on 25 April 2015, the Embassy’s Consular Section has cancelled all non-immigrant, immigrant and diversity visa, and asylum/refugee follow-to-join interviews from Monday 27 April 2015 through Friday 1 May 2015. Please check this site frequently for updates on any additional cancellations.
 
Be interesting to see how "normal" the operation will be given the chaos around them. But good to hear they are trying.
 
Martin9 said:
Be interesting to see how "normal" the operation will be given the chaos around them. But good to hear they are trying.
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They must have send in additional consular staff.
Existing staff was handling identity verification, contacting family and emergency passport for USC.
When additional staff arrive, they can get back to visa interviews.

I agree with Martin, it's not so much the operation of interviewing applicants, the challenge will be the applicants being able to attend interviews at this point.
 
I was expecting 5-10 days of embassy closure. Martin is right, now the problem for many Nepalese is the ability to attend the interview. Remember, some have almost everything in this tragedy and may not qualify for DV visa anymore (financially). I beleive those who had their interviews cancelled last week will be reschedule for July (my opinion). With all these facts considered, I think the chance of seeing a number lower than 6500-6700 range in next VB is higher than before.
 
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