DV 2012, When Should I Apply?

From October 2, 2012 to November 3, 2012 registration for the 2014 Diversity Visa program occurs. This means that if you want to apply for the green card lottery this year, 2012, you will be applying for a green card that will be issued in the year 2014. While this may not seem to be instantly gratifying, when put into context of other immigration benefits it is a significantly reduced time frame. Many green card applicants must wait ten years or more to be granted permanent residence! These applicants, while they wait for their visa numbers to come up apply for the green card lottery as well—as long as they are from an eligible country—to potentially cut down on their wait time.

Of course, we are familiar with the benefits of applying for a green card with the green card lottery, but the real question is how one should go about the application, especially if you applied for DV-2013.

Earlier this year, the State Department selected the winners of DV-2013 and began their application processes over the summer. However, as will sometimes happen, it was found that quite a few were ineligible due to poorly filed forms or simply they did not respond to the Department of State because they had lost their confirmation numbers. The government prefers to fill all the available visas for this program, so they’ve decided to have a re-draw on October 22. If you filed for the 2013 Diversity Visa in 2011 you should have kept your confirmation number and on October 22 you should check your application’s status yet again to see if you have won the second drawing.

However, in the unfortunate event that you are not selected, you should immediately file for the 2014 Diversity visa because there will only be 11 days left for you to do this.

Though it does not provide any real benefit to apply earlier than later in the registration period, there is an American adage called Murphy’s Law which states that, “anything that could possibly go wrong, will.” An apropos addition to this statement might be, “…and it will happen at precisely the moment at which the whole effort will be ruined.” What this means is that when you apply earlier than later for the green card lottery, you will have more opportunities to correct some unforeseen problem that has arisen.

If, for example, you decide to apply during the last possible hour of the application period and your computer shuts down, or the State Department’s website is downed for repairs or you have to run out of the house very unexpectedly and you are unable to finish submitting the application, you are, as they say in America, out of luck. You would have to wait for a whole year again. Part of the benefit of using our service is that you reduce the likelihood of Murphy’s Law striking at the exact point where you need everything to work smoothly. Give us a call or send an email to sign up for our service and avoid the frustration of immigration application.