DV 2023 First Cut-Offs Published

The September Visa Bulletin has been published, and as usual it contains the first cut-off numbers that will apply in the DV 2023 Program. The cut-offs in question will apply in October 2022 which will be the first month of the DV 2023 Program. These cut-offs concern the lowest case numbers in each region and are intended to indicate the earliest interviews in the 2023 Program. It is by way of these cut-offs that applicants with the lowest case numbers will know if they should expect their interview to be held in October or not.

Who’s concerned?

All case numbers that fall below the cut-off established for their region are said to be current. And once applicants with those case numbers had submitted their DS 260 at least a few weeks earlier, they can expect to receive their interview notice anytime from now to the end of August. Their interviews will be scheduled some time in October 2022.

Those whose case numbers are equal to or higher than the cut-off that will apply to their region in October are not current for interview in that month. Such applicants should continue to follow the Visa Bulletin as it is published during subsequent months to determine in which month of the 2023 Fiscal Year their case numbers will fall below their regional cut-off. Said month will be their interview month once they had submitted their DS 260 some time earlier.

Some High Cut-Offs

The just-released Visa Bulletin contains a number of unusual cut-offs including those of the Africa and Europe regions; as well as Russia and Uzbekistan, both exception countries in the Europe region.

We are used to seeing the first cut-offs for the two regions below 3,000. However, this time around, they have both been set above 5,500.

Justified?

This unexpected increase in the initial cut-offs in the regions concerned doesn’t seem justified, given the high volume of interviews that are expected owing to the fact that applicants were only required to submit their DS 260 to be considered for interview – which many have already done.

The November cut-off may be extensive as well. But what’s expected later is that the cut-off progression in the Visa Bulletins return to their usual slow progression after the expected high volume of interviews are experienced during the first two months of the Program.

New Exceptions

Another notable occurrence are the new exception countries that have been introduced. Egypt which – before now – was the only exception in the Africa region has been joined by Algeria and Morocco. In addition, the Europe region has welcomed Russia and Uzbekistan. The two exceptions that have existed for the past few years in Asia however remain the only ones.

It can be seen that it is countries with the highest numbers of selectees – those topping 5,000 – that have been made exceptions. This move is obviously to ensure that the interviews of applicants chargeable to such countries are controlled and conducted apart from other countries in their respective regions.

The Cut-Offs

The regional cut-offs to apply in the month of October 2022 as presented in the recently-released Visa Bulletin for the month of September are as follows:

Wishing the very best to whom they may concern!