Marriage in DV Lottery

Single parents in the DV Lottery Program: This guide is for the single parents that are intending to apply for the DV lottery or are selected or they are selectees in the DV lottery.

Categories of Single Parents in the DV Lottery Program

We have two categories of single parents:

Category one: Maybe you have never gotten married in your life, but you have kids and that means that even when getting the kid, delivering the kid, there was no manly figure that was there to claim paternity of the kid or the kids.

Or if you’re a man, the lady gave birth to the kid and left the kid immediately, and therefore you are the custodian of that child as a man.

Category two: You are a single woman because you have a relationship with a man, and therefore you have kids whose birth certificate have the name of the second parent as well as yours. That means that during birth of your kids, that man was there to give you support and claim paternity of that kid.

You are in either of these situations or scenarios and you want to apply for the DV lottery or you have been selected a winner in the DV lottery.

1. If you are in either of those scenarios and you are intending to apply for the DV lottery, the first key point that you should note is that you are supposed to apply as a single.
2. Applying as a single, you have to add all of your kids. All of your kids must be lined up in the application.

Those two things must be done. If you get successful and you are selected, the process begins. So you proceed the way you did in the application.

When it comes to your kids and immigration, of course, no country will allow anyone to get out of the country with any kid without the consent of both the parents.

For the first case that you are single and your kids, no one came to claim paternity. That means that you have the full custody over your child. That means the children belong to you solely, you alone. No one claims the other parenthood.

In that case, you have nothing to worry about. You don’t need to look for any consent. In any case, whose consent are you looking for? You don’t have anyone claiming paternity.

Even on the birth certificate, there is no indication of the other parent. It is only you. And therefore that means these children belong to you. No consent is needed. You are right to go ahead and immigrate with them. You have the full custody over your children.

But when it comes to the single parent who is maybe in a relationship or was in a relationship and the kids have the second name of the parent in their birth certificates. So there’s someone claiming the parenthood of the children as well. In this case is when you will be required to have the consent of the other parent.

You cannot move out with the children without the consent of the other parent claiming parent hold of the children. It does not mean that it’s a hard process. You just need to get the other parents to sign a consent letter.

It must be a notary consent letter, meaning before an advocate or a court that is signed and stamped by the legal authority that the other parent intends the children to immigrate with you. In this case, you will be required to look for that consent letter and it should be notary, that should be noted.

If you are a single parent, and you have another parent claiming parenthood of the children, then look for his or her consent.

However, there is a second option, if at all you cannot reach the other parent, maybe you were in a relationship long time ago and there’s no way you can access this other parent, then you need to look for the full custody through a court, the full custody of your children. It is called the sole custody.

That means that before a court or an advocate, you will sign the sole custody of your children. It means all of the decisions around your children be imposed on you, be transferred to you.

When you obtain the sole custody over your children, then you have the right to make all decisions, be it academic, be it immigration, about your children, you are allowed to do that. That is the second option.

If at all you cannot reach the other parent in whichever way, then you can go and seek to sign the sole custody of your children and you’ll have all the decisions over your children by yourself without needing any consent letter.

Finally, remember that in this case, if you don’t or you are unable to get the consent letter, you will not be allowed to get out of the country with your children.

Some Questions About Applying As Single Parents In The DV Lottery Program

Question: Is there any advantage applying as a single parent?

Answer: No.

Question: What if I don’t want to initially travel with the kids and later pick them up? Should I tell them so or keep it to myself.

Answer: First, even if you don’t want to go with them, you have to add them in application and also in ds260. And in DS-260 you select not immigrating with them.

Question: I’m the principal applicant and have a husband and daughter, I filled DS-260 with both as my accompany but we got issues with the husband, can I travel alone with daughter, what do I expect on interview because since we separated he won’t be coming, can I remove him?

Answer: First, a consent letter for the kids from him is a must. Second, you can immigrate without him.

Question: Will you be denied visa if you applied as single parent but you want to leave your child behind?

Answer: So long as you included the kid in the application you are safe. You can choose not to immigrate with him. However if you left the kid out, you will be denied visa.

Question: Can you be denied visa if you are married for like 20 or 25 years and you recently got your marriage certificate like this year.

Answer: No you won’t be denied. You did good to get the certificate.

Question: The person on my son birth certificate died some yes back which was my uncle, since the father deny the pregnancy and I don’t have any information about his dead. How am I going to do to have consent letter for my child, can a lawyer sign the consent letter for me?

Answer: A lawyer cannot sign. What you do, get the uncle death certificate. You will be totally safe.

Question: What if one is a widow how do you go about it?

Answer: You use the death certificate of the husband.

Question: If I happen to fill DS-260 form before I give birth and I don’t include my baby, will I be denied visa? or where will I fill baby’s details? Or I can wait to start the process once I give birth?

Answer: You will fill the DS-260 early, and unlock it to add the newborn.

Question: Does the consular at the embassy ask for consent letter during interview or is it at the port of entry you are asked for?

Answer: At the embassy.

I hope this information for the single parents is clear.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

In this guide, we will learn who qualifies to be added as your derivative when applying for the diversity visa lottery. What is the spouse Diversity Visa lottery?

First of all, we know that if you are a family man or woman, you are required to add the members of your family as your derivatives when applying for the diversity visa lottery without leaving anyone out.

Speaking of the family, here it is referring to the immediate family, that is the nuclear family, the spouse together with the children. But who qualifies to be your spouse? Or who qualifies to be your children when applying the diversity visa lottery?

The answer to this question will be divided into two parts.

In the first part, we are going to discuss on the qualifications of a person to be your spouse and as a derivative in the Diversity Visa Lottery Program. In the second part of this answer, we are going to discuss on the qualification of the children that are supposed to be added as your derivatives.

Therefore, read this guide to the end to avoid jumping into conclusions that are not valid.

Who is your spouse that qualifies to be added as a derivative?

A spouse is your legally married husband or wife. This means that you have a certifying document issued by the government showing that this is your wife or this is your husband. To be more precise, you should be having a marriage certificate issued by the Registrar of Marriages in your country.

Having known that, who does not qualify to become your spouse that you should add as a derivative when applying in the diversity visa lottery?

1. Your girlfriend or your boyfriend does not qualify as a spouse to be added as the derivative when entering the diversity visa lottery program.
2. Partnering is not allowed. That means if you are residing with a man or a woman or cohabiting with a lady or a gentleman, that lady or gentleman is not your spouse. He or she does not qualify to be added as a derivative in the Diversity Visa Lottery Program.
3. Your fiancé is not a spouse or your fiancée is not a spouse. You are not yet married, meaning you don’t have the marriage certificate. Therefore, during application and you have a fiancée, you are supposed to apply a single and not as married.

But you will continue with your plans and get married and then add him or her as your spouse in the DS-260 form, after marriage.

4. Your second wife, your third wife, or any other wife apart from your first wife, is not considered as your spouse. So if you are married to several wives, then they are not all qualified as your spouse. Only the first wife is your spouse and is the only one that you will add as the derivative when applying in the Diversity Visa lottery Program.

What if I’m married, but I don’t have that certifying document or the marriage certificate?

If you were customarily married, that means you took your wife or your husband and you went to your parents and you were given a go ahead to go and marry, and therefore you don’t have any certifying document.

Then you will be required to follow the legal procedures for you to obtain the marriage certificate before you enter the diversity visa lottery. Or in some cases, you might apply as married because you’re married, only that you don’t have the certificate. Then you follow the legal procedures and obtain a marriage certificate before you are interview date.

You apply as married because you’re married, yes. Then file for the marriage certificate and make sure you obtain the marriage certificate before you attend your diversity visa interview.

There are many cases where people who are married customarily and did not have the marriage certificate, but after entering the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, they were selected, and what they did, they went ahead and obtained the marriage certificate because without the marriage certificate, you wouldn’t be given visa. Only the marriage certificate will you prove that you are married.

If you are engaged to marry each other and you have applied as a single person because that is what is required, and then you are selected, and in the process you get married and you have your marriage certificate. You will go ahead and add your spouse in the DS-260 form.

But you must note that you must have evidence or proofs of your existing relationship or engagement before entering the Diversity Visa Lottery Program. You’ll have to provide documentation of your engagement or any proof of relationship prior your entry into the Diversity Visa Lottery.

You must have the proofs to prove that you were engaged, you had previous relationship.

Therefore, when applying in the Diversity Visa Lottery Program, ensure you don’t make these mistakes. Ensure that the spouse that you are adding is really your spouse, as we have discussed above.

I hope this information has been useful.

For the next part on the qualification of the children who are supposed to be added as derivatives in the diversity visa lottery application, check here.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

Assume someone is applying the DV lottery, on the day of the application that person is unmarried. Maybe one month later, the person is married. What happens? What if i get married after DV lottery?

Will you be allowed to add your wife or your husband, if you got married after application or if you get married after the DV lottery results is out?

Above are some of the questions many individuals applying for DV lottery program asked regularly.

The answer to these questions is yes.

If you are among those that will be selected or have been selected successfully from the DV lottery program, there will be no problem at all to add that particular person (your spouse) but you can only do that when you are filling the DS-260 form.

Any change in marital status after applying for DV lottery program or after the results is out, it will not affect you negatively in any way.

The problem will be if on the day of your DV lottery application, you are married and you lie, you say you are single, or you are single, you lie, you say you are married.

But if you are single and you get married after the DV lottery application, you’ll be able add your spouse when filling the visa form, i.e DS-260 form, and then you’ll be able to go together to the United States, if you both of you pass the DV interview successfully.

The only difference is this way, on the DS-260 form, if you are married on the day of application and you include you are married, when you go to the visa form (DS-260), when you put your confirmation number and everything, you sign in to the DS-260, you will also see the name of your wife or your husband, and if you have children, their names will be already in the DS-260 form.

But if after the DV lottery application you go and get married after or you have a child later, you will manually add those dependents in that particular form (DS-260). That’s the only difference.

But obviously, you need to have evidence to prove that you got married after the application or after the results, to show that the marriage is the bonafide marriage, not the scam, immigration scam or immigration fraud. Maybe you want just to get the benefit of the immigration to go to America through Green Card lottery.

What if I get married after submitting DS-260?

Report the marriage and provide documentary evidence at your interview. The consular official should request that your spouse file their own application for a derivative immigrant visa (and pay the fees.)

The consular official will interview you both to determine the genuineness of the marriage. If they are convinced your marriage is genuine and you both otherwise qualify for visas, you’ll be issued DV immigrant visas. You must then either immigrate together or you must immigrate first followed by your spouse.

I hope the information is very clear.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

This guide is about Marriage, Fiancé and Spouse Issues in DV Lottery, and how it affect your Visa Approval.

Some Frequently Asked Questions About Marriage in DV Lottery

• Can I marry after applying the DV lottery or after winning DV lottery?
• Will marrying after applying for DV lottery reduce your chances of getting the visa approved?
• If you applied as married and got separated or divorced, how do you go about it?

When you applied for the DV lottery, continue with life as normal, and if you are planning to marry, continue with the marriage process and get married. Even though you applied as a single, because at that time you are not married, continue with the marriage process and get married legally.

By you doing so, you don’t risk or reduce your chances of getting your visa approved once you win the DV lottery. You don’t reduce or risk so long as you continue with your marriage process legally and you end up marrying legally, there is no reduction in your visa approval or winning the DV lottery.

Don’t allow anyone get you discouraged from getting married after applying for DV lottery. Though there are some things you need to take note of, i.e

• Once you get married and you are filling the DS-260 form, you need to add your spouse in the DS-260 form.

You add him or her in your DS-260 form. Don’t leave your spouse out. Even if you applied as single and you’re married, you add your spouse in your DS-260 form.

• The other thing is that, you will be required to prove the legality of your marriage and that is by producing the marriage certificate.

In all embassies, you have to prove that you are legally married to this spouse.

• You will have to prove the evidence of your existing relationship even before the results were out or even before you applied for the DV lottery.

You need to arm yourself with the proof documents of your existing relationship, prior the application or the DV results.

If you do those things, the certificate and the proof, you are very safe. Nothing will hinder you from getting your visa approved.

• If you applied as married and got separated or divorced, how do you go about it?

If you applied the DV lottery as married because you are married, but later on you got separated, you are now living separate ways or you got divorced, what should you do? You just indicate in the DS-260 form that you are divorced or you are separated. But you need to have the separation documents or the divorce papers with you.

If you don’t have the divorce papers or the separation documents, then you cannot claim that you are divorced, because these proof documents will be requested. If you cannot prove it, then you definitely will not succeed in the DV interview.

Only if you have the documents should you feel separated. But if you are separated or you consider yourself divorced, yet you don’t have the papers, you’ll have to continue as married.

And if you continue as married, when you go to the interview, you just simply say that your spouse is not willing to immigrate with you and that’s why they are not in the DV interview. They refuse to immigrate with you, and by so doing, you’ll be successful.

So if you don’t have proof papers of divorce or your separation, continue as married, and say that your spouse is not willing to immigrate with you, by that you’ll be safe and your visa will be approved.

• When your spouse refuses to relocate with you

If you are married but your spouse refuses to immigrate with you to the U.S, that is not a problem and it will not reduce your chances of getting selected. You just indicate that your spouse is not immigrating with you.

When you go to the interview, you will go as the spouse not immigrating with you, and you’ll get your visa approved if you are successful, it will not hinder you from getting your visa. If he or she does not want to go with you, it is well and good. You just indicate not immigrating with you.

But note this, if during your DV application, your country of birth was not qualified for the DV program, and you went ahead to use your spouse’s country of birth and the spouse’s country of birth was eligible for the DV lottery, if you used the country of eligibility of your spouse, and at this point that spouse refuses to immigrate with you, then that becomes a problem.

Because you by yourself, you are not eligible based on the country of your birth, but your spouse’s country of birth that you used is the one that made you eligible. So if he or she refuses to immigrate with you, you can’t proceed with the process because you’ll not get successful.

Because the country of eligibility that you choose was that of your spouse, what you need to do is to talk with your spouse, for him or her agree to proceed with you through the DV interview. After the interview, if you are successful, then the spouse can decide to remain behind and let you go. That would be the only way in this scenario.

• If you mistakenly selected married yet you are single, is it correctable?

When filling the DV lottery application form during the DV entry, you need to be extremely careful.

When you are selecting your status during the DV application and you are single, for example, but you mistakenly select that you are married, either to a United States citizen or not to a United States citizen, it is incorrectible. You cannot correct it. If it can be corrected, it would be during the DV interview.

During the interview, if you are able to express yourself to the consular, the interviewing consular officer, that you had made a mistake, it was erroneous that you selected married and the consular officer get convinced, then he or she can let you go through.

But the question is, how can you do that? How will the consular believe you? How will the consular know that you’re telling the truth?

It is a hard process, but if you can well explain that you mistakenly selected it and also prove that, then you can get your visa approved.

But know this, if you mistakenly did that mistake, your chances of getting the visa approved is very minimum.

When filling or entering the DV lottery, you need to be very careful on which boxes you are checking, let them be correct, take your time and don’t just rush through, make sure you select the correct status.

DISCLAIMER: This post and content is designed for general information only and is NOT legal advice. This site is not offering any Diversity Visa and is not the official site for DV Lottery program. The information presented in this post should not be construed to be formal legal advice.

If you have any questions about the DV lottery, please contact an immigration professional/officer or a licensed attorney.