DV 2022: Required Documents Procedure Overturned!
It has been announced on the State Department’s website that DV-2022 selectees will no longer submit required supporting documents to KCC. Instead, their supporting documents will now be submitted – and evaluated – at the embassy or consulate concerned at the time of their interview.
With the introduction of this new procedure (it’s actually not a new procedure; that’s how things were done prior to three years ago), DV-2022 selectees only need to submit relevant DS-260 form(s) to KCC to be eligible for scheduling for a visa interview.
This announcement which takes immediate effect overturns the document submission procedure which was introduced three years ago and has been in place since then.
Effects of the Change
With this ‘new’ reality, case number order will take preeminence in the processing of cases. Meaning lower case numbers will be prioritized over higher ones – which was not always the case when documents were being submitted to KCC.
Another effect this change will have on the Diversity visa process is that it’s not likely that we see the regions easily made current during the fiscal year.
The regions are made current to ‘step up demand’ in an effort to prevent so many visas from ending up unissued. That is the same reason why this change has been introduced.
The Reason
As is noted in the Diversity Visa 2022 update posted on the State Department’s official website, the reason for this change in procedure is to allow all available Diversity Visa appointments to be exhausted.
The DV Program was established to encourage immigration to the United States. However, experience from the past two years – effects of the Coronavirus on the DV Program during the past two years – saw many Diversity visa interviews not conducted and less than half of the total number of available visas issued at the end of the fiscal year.
Having so many visas unissued for two consecutive years proved to be counterproductive to the essence of the Program, which resulted in this move by the State Department.
DV 2022 Only?
It must be noted that this change in procedure, which concerns the ongoing DV 2022 Program is a pilot action by the State Department. Its pros and cons will be analyzed later in the program year. The outcome of the analysis – I believe – will determine whether this ‘new’ procedure will be extended to future DV programs or whether we will witness a return to the electronic document submission procedure which we had come to know in recent years.
