Hello All,
I found this forum about six months ago and have been using it as my life line during the visa process so feel it is only right to share my experience to hopefully help others!
I am a 27 year old Australian living in the UK who applied for the DV 2009 lottery in March 2008.
Being a musician, I had always wanted to live in the US but because of the difficulty in obtaining a visa, chose instead to utilize the relationship with the Australia and UK and move to London two years ago to pursue my career.
While on holiday in March 2008, I was told about the DV lottery visa for the first time and coincidentally returned home on the final day of the application period - just in time!
In August 2008 (I think) I received notification that I had been successful with a case number of OC000001038. Once again, immigration portal helped a lot as I had no idea that this number held any relevance until six months ago!
After completing the first lot of paperwork and returning it to KCC, I impatiently watched the monthly bulletin click closer and closer to my number until in May 2009, when all numbers became current.
For those who are lucky enough to get to the interview stage, I do recommend you prepare your documents a lot sooner than I did because two months was really cutting fine for me. The Australian fingerprint clearance was the biggest concern as that took approximately six weeks.
My interview was scheduled for 8am 1st of July in London and a few weeks before that I posted my first message on this forum which doc381 was kind enough to respond to. Thank you!
When the interview came around, once again this forum provided me with so much useful information such as not bringing mobile phones/keys etc to the embassy. So many people were running around madly, losing their place in line trying to find storage for them.
Once inside the embassy, I waited approximately one hour to see the first interviewer. He took all my documents which consisted of:
1. Birth certificate
2. High School Certificate and all other academic records listed in my original application
3. UK police clearance
4. Aus police clearance (fingerprint version)
5. UK bank statement
6. Aus bank statement
7. Copy of House Title for investment property in Australia plus proof of equity through market appraisal and home loan statement.
He gave me my chest x-ray and explained that I would need to bring this into the us with me to hand over at border control.
I paid the fee and he asked me a few questions about how I planned to support myself in the us. I was then asked to take a seat again and wait to be called for my 'interview'.
An hour later I was called up and my official interview began. The interviewer asked me:
1. Why I wanted to move to the US (answer: career. I focused on my day job which has been franchised retail operations management for the past eight years rather than my pursuit of a career in music)
2. Did I have any friends or family there (answer: no, but as I mentioned, I didn't have any friends or family in the UK when i moved here!)
3. Where did I intend to live (answer: I said california but I honestly have not decided as yet)
4. Did I intend to move to the US within 6 months (answer: yes!)
He then told me I had been successful and asked me to go to the couriers desk to organise my passport to be returned with temp visa enclosed.
So that takes us to now, where I am sitting at my computer typing this and awaiting my passport return tomorrow! Very very exciting and feel quite strongly that this was 'meant to be'.
I hope that my story has helped a few of you out there and hope to steal a little bit more advice from those on this forum who have been successful.
As I mentioned, I am a singer/songwriter (search Belinda Oakley on myspace) but also hold down a professional career as a retail operations manager. Having never been to the US I am totally green to the difference in the states short of reading Lonely Planet guides over the past year and taking advice from every American I meet.
The two cities that I am most interested in living in, particularly for the density of the music industry but also for the number of retail businesses are New York and Los Angeles. I am however not closed to other alternatives - just more ignorant to them! I would love to hear people's opinions on where they think might be more suitable given the information above....
Also, for those who have already entered the US on their temporary visa, can i ask one more question. I am going to New York in August for a wedding but will be returning to London for three months afterwards. Will my GC be activated simply by going through customs or do I need to do something else? Would you recommend that I get my temp visa stamped then, or make sure it doesn't get stamped until I enter permanently in December?
Thank you once again to all of the people who post on this forum - Tazmania, I found most of your posts my best resource.
Good luck to all!
I found this forum about six months ago and have been using it as my life line during the visa process so feel it is only right to share my experience to hopefully help others!
I am a 27 year old Australian living in the UK who applied for the DV 2009 lottery in March 2008.
Being a musician, I had always wanted to live in the US but because of the difficulty in obtaining a visa, chose instead to utilize the relationship with the Australia and UK and move to London two years ago to pursue my career.
While on holiday in March 2008, I was told about the DV lottery visa for the first time and coincidentally returned home on the final day of the application period - just in time!
In August 2008 (I think) I received notification that I had been successful with a case number of OC000001038. Once again, immigration portal helped a lot as I had no idea that this number held any relevance until six months ago!
After completing the first lot of paperwork and returning it to KCC, I impatiently watched the monthly bulletin click closer and closer to my number until in May 2009, when all numbers became current.
For those who are lucky enough to get to the interview stage, I do recommend you prepare your documents a lot sooner than I did because two months was really cutting fine for me. The Australian fingerprint clearance was the biggest concern as that took approximately six weeks.
My interview was scheduled for 8am 1st of July in London and a few weeks before that I posted my first message on this forum which doc381 was kind enough to respond to. Thank you!
When the interview came around, once again this forum provided me with so much useful information such as not bringing mobile phones/keys etc to the embassy. So many people were running around madly, losing their place in line trying to find storage for them.
Once inside the embassy, I waited approximately one hour to see the first interviewer. He took all my documents which consisted of:
1. Birth certificate
2. High School Certificate and all other academic records listed in my original application
3. UK police clearance
4. Aus police clearance (fingerprint version)
5. UK bank statement
6. Aus bank statement
7. Copy of House Title for investment property in Australia plus proof of equity through market appraisal and home loan statement.
He gave me my chest x-ray and explained that I would need to bring this into the us with me to hand over at border control.
I paid the fee and he asked me a few questions about how I planned to support myself in the us. I was then asked to take a seat again and wait to be called for my 'interview'.
An hour later I was called up and my official interview began. The interviewer asked me:
1. Why I wanted to move to the US (answer: career. I focused on my day job which has been franchised retail operations management for the past eight years rather than my pursuit of a career in music)
2. Did I have any friends or family there (answer: no, but as I mentioned, I didn't have any friends or family in the UK when i moved here!)
3. Where did I intend to live (answer: I said california but I honestly have not decided as yet)
4. Did I intend to move to the US within 6 months (answer: yes!)
He then told me I had been successful and asked me to go to the couriers desk to organise my passport to be returned with temp visa enclosed.
So that takes us to now, where I am sitting at my computer typing this and awaiting my passport return tomorrow! Very very exciting and feel quite strongly that this was 'meant to be'.
I hope that my story has helped a few of you out there and hope to steal a little bit more advice from those on this forum who have been successful.
As I mentioned, I am a singer/songwriter (search Belinda Oakley on myspace) but also hold down a professional career as a retail operations manager. Having never been to the US I am totally green to the difference in the states short of reading Lonely Planet guides over the past year and taking advice from every American I meet.
The two cities that I am most interested in living in, particularly for the density of the music industry but also for the number of retail businesses are New York and Los Angeles. I am however not closed to other alternatives - just more ignorant to them! I would love to hear people's opinions on where they think might be more suitable given the information above....
Also, for those who have already entered the US on their temporary visa, can i ask one more question. I am going to New York in August for a wedding but will be returning to London for three months afterwards. Will my GC be activated simply by going through customs or do I need to do something else? Would you recommend that I get my temp visa stamped then, or make sure it doesn't get stamped until I enter permanently in December?
Thank you once again to all of the people who post on this forum - Tazmania, I found most of your posts my best resource.
Good luck to all!
