Final Month For DV 2019 Interviews

A month from now, DV-2019 will be history. Not only will interviews for the Program be completed by then, all DV-2019 applicants would have known their fate, as well.

Interviews for DV 2019 began in October 2018, continued into 2019, and will finally come to an end on September 30, 2019. The September interviews concern those who were notified (who received their NL2) two months ago, in July, after the September interview range for all regions was made known in the Visa Bulletin. My last article explains the year-long DV interview process in detail.

This month’s interviews therefore do not come as a surprise. The “setup” was done a couple of months ago. Applicants are simply following what was established ever since.

Inherent Consequences

The September 30 deadline will certainly deal a blow to two main groups of applicants:

Firstly, cases which are not interviewed on or before that deadline.

As indicated in the DV regulations, such cases would have no legal claim to the DV-2019 Program. Reason being, interviews of any given DV program coincide with that program’s fiscal year. Interviews of one fiscal year are not carried forward to the next fiscal year. As a result, DV-2019 cases whose interviews are not concluded by September 30, 2019, should know that they have lost their “immigration rights” as far as this fiscal year’s DV Program is concerned. In other words, if they ever have to emigrate to the United States, it will be by another means, and not on the basis of their DV-2019 application.

Secondly, applicants who were fortunate to have had early interview and who have already emigrated to the States (but without their derivatives). Such applicants also have up to the end of this month to ensure that their derivatives take possession of their DV 2019 Immigrant Visas.

If for one reason or the other they fail to secure interview spots up to the end of this month, such derivatives would miss the opportunity to join their principle applicant (parent / spouse) on the basis of their DV – 2019 application. In the event that happens, the principal applicant – already residing in the United States – will have to file a petition to enable his/her derivative(s) join him/her.

It’s not always easy

It could be a matter of years before the filed petition materializes. I personally know someone who emigrated to the States on the basis of DV 2008. Till date, he has not been able to get his only child to join him, although they jointly entered the DV program that year. That is why it is quite important to “speed up” one’s DV process as long as it depends on oneself. Not doing so may lead to diverse consequences.

Another Reason

Apart from the date-related strictness applied when it comes to the DV program, another reason why applicants who do not have their interview by September 30 forfeit immigration on the basis of a specific DV program is because of the exhaustion of Diversity Immigrant Visas. Remember that there are a total of 50,000 diversity visas available annually, whereas those who vie for those visas by far outnumber the visas. Selectees could be as many as 80,000 i.e. 30,000 more than the DVs available.

With interviews being conducted in all regions throughout the fiscal year, there may be a number of countries or regions which may have already exhausted their quota of DVs by this time of the year (September). Remember also that no one country is allowed to receive more than 7% of the total DVs available in a given year.

Remaining applicants from such region / country will therefore not be lucky to be interviewed. This scenario occurs every year and is usually a shock to the applicants concerned. But that’s how it is.

The Sooner, the Better

DV-2019 applicants expecting to be interviewed this month, and whose interviews are not conducted by the 30th should simply come to terms with the reality. They will not be interviewed, and nothing can be done about that. October 2019 has already been “booked” to accommodate / begin DV-2020 interviews. This brings us back to the points always stressed: Check your result early, and do not delay your application process.

Don’t be like a guy who walked into our offices some time back in July to request our intervention. He’s a DV-2019 selectee with a relatively low case number. His case number meant – all things being constant – that he would have had his interview conducted toward the end of the first half of this fiscal year.

He however did not check his result and was not aware of the opportunity until June, about a month to the final sending out of NL2s for DV-2019. Time was no longer on his side. One month was not sufficient for him to wrap up his entire application process. After listening to his pitiful story, I was straight to the point with him: “Sorry, but it’s too late.”