If you submitted your application for the 2024 DV Lottery at www.program.state.gov last year and beginning yesterday logged into the U.S. Department of State Electronic Diversity Visa Entrant Status Check for DV-2024 for the results of your application and was successful, congratulations honey!
Then of course there is the excitement of submitting your application for a Green Card.
But before that you will first have to receive a letter from the Department of State. In this letter there will be:
- your Case Number
- Preference Category, and
- Foreign State Chargeability
So at what point do you submit your US Green Card application?
What's Covered in This Article
What is case number in diversity visa lottery?
It is imperative that you know your case number which usually looks something like this: 2024AF00036470
The first four digits of your case number is the DV program/visa year in which you are eligible to apply for the Green Card aka permanent residence which in the above example is 2024.
This is followed by two acronyms which stands for the applicant’s region of origin e.g. AF for Africa region.
The following last 8 digits are your case number. That is, the ensuing zeros; and 36470 is your actual case number.
How are DV case numbers determined?
DV case numbers usually are generated during the lottery winners’ selection process.
The DV lottery entries are initially grouped depending on the region the applicant comes from. During the selection process, each entry’s group (region) are then randomly assigned numbers by a computer algorithm which remain ‘assigned’ to each applicant until the end of the lottery process.
Only successful applicants get to know their numbers aka the Diversity visa selectee’s case number, which is usually indicated in their letters of selection.
Importance of your case number
Your case number determines when in your DV lottery fiscal year you are supposed to submit your US green card application and be interviewed.
The reason is because Green card interviews start with the lowest case numbers in each region and progressively end up with the high case numbers.
Therefore, the lower your case number is, the “nearer” you will be “in the queue” for submission of your US green card application package and being interviewed.
If you have a low case number therefore, you stand a better chance of being interviewed earlier than an applicant with a high case number.
In essence therefore, case numbers contribute more to whether or not a successful DV lottery applicant gets the PR than does their personal effort.
That is why it is extremely important to understand the position of your case number in your region and have an inkling as to when you’re likely to be invited for interview.
Which brings me to one of the most FAQ as pertains to DV lottery, “When will my green card interview be?”.
Know how to read the Visa Bulletin
Let’s start by defining what a US visa bulletin is:
Simply put, the US Visa Bulletin gives information about immigrant visa interview dates by showing up to what case number is supposed to be interviewed in the next two months in each region. The bulletin is around the 15th of each month.
Every month, the Department of State issues a visa bulletin every month including for the Diversity Immigrant (DV) Category.
In this context therefore, it shows which green card application can proceed to file by Consular Processing or Adjustment of Status applications.
The visa bulletin therefore helps you get an estimate of how long it will take before you are invited to file your green card application. So think of it as different “queues” for each region, and when you get to be interviewed depends on which “queue” you are at and how fast your “queue” is moving.
The visa bulletin is also vital for know when approximately you should take your I-694 medical examination bearing in mind it expires within two months.
For this information, you will use the visa bulleting to find the cut-off case number for your region for the current month and the following month. The screenshot below gives you an idea:
You are only eligible to submit your Green Card application immediately if your case number is lower than the DV regional lottery rank numbers BELOW the specified allocation cut-off number.
The DV Section of the visa bulletin has two components.
1) The first one shows the DV Category for a given month (i.e. case numbers to be interviewed in the month immediately following the month the VB is released), and
In contrast, if your case number is higher than the DV regional specified allocation cut-off number, you will have to wait for the release of next month’s visa bulletin to see if your number is smaller than next month’s listed numbers.
If you submit your application before it is your turn according to the Visa Bulletin, your application will not be accepted by the Consulate Office or the USCIS.
You are only allowed to submit your application when your case number is reached as per the visa bulletin.
2) the second category is the DV Category rank cut-offs which will apply in the following month right after that
Submit the required documents for filing the Green Card
If you will be submitting your Green Card application via a U.S. Consulate Office abroad, please click on the Department of State website for instructions on how to submit your Green Card application.
If you will be submitting your Green Card application from status within the United States, then please follow the USCIS guidelines here.
Kentucky Consular Center (KCC) will send instructions explaining how to scan and email your Green Card application supporting documents and any required translations after you submit a valid DS-260 application for you and all accompanying family members.
Your visa interview appointment will not be scheduled until KCC has received and reviewed all required supporting documents.
Do not mail any of these documents to the Kentucky Consular Center. All paper documents or correspondence mailed to KCC will be destroyed.
You will take original documents with you to your interview at a U.S. embassy or consulate.
Thanks for the info. Was planning to try my lack this year.