This guide will explain the various CEAC Status that you will see when you go to check for your current status in the DV processing.
CEAC Status: At NVC, Ready, In Transit, Issued, Refused, Administrative Processing
- Ready Status
The first status that you would probably get would be the “Ready Status”. What does the Ready status mean?
When you visit the CEAC website and you put in your information to check for the status of your current visa processing and you find the “ready status”, that simply means that KCC has opened your DS-260 form processing and is now ready to transfer your case to the embassy, once the embassy avails an interview slot.
So it means KCC is through with your DS-260 form processing and is now waiting to transfer your case to the respective embassy. This will depend with the embassy.
When the embassy avails a slot, then KCC transfers your case to the embassy and the CEAC status will change to In Transit status.
- At NVC Status
The second status that might appear when you check for the CEAC status is “At NVC”. When you check your CEAC status and see at NVC, it would probably mean three things:
(i) When you have not yet filled the DS-260 form and you have not submitted it, then the CEAC status will be “At NVC”.
(ii) If you have filled the DS-260 form and you have submitted it to KCC but KCC has not yet reached it to process it, the status will appear “At NVC”. Again, you have submitted your DS-260 form, but KCC has not yet opened it to process it, it will appear “At NVC”.
(iii) The status at NVC would also mean that you have submitted your form DS-260 and KCC has opened it and is in the process of processing the DS-260 form. So, if KCC has opened your DS-260 form and is currently processing it, the status that will appear will be “At NVC”.
- In Transit Status
The third status that would appear will be “In Transit”. At times when you check it will appear “In transit”. “In Transit” basically means that KCC has opened your DS-260 form, has gone through it and processed it successfully and finished up with processing it and has now transferred your case to the embassy.
So there is a slot at the embassy and KCC has finished processing your DS-260 form and therefore KCC is in the process of transferring your case to the embassy for interview scheduling. During that time the status will have changed to “In Transit”.
Again, “In Transit” means that KCC is transferring your case to the embassy for the interview, and at this point, it’s when you will receive a second notification letter, once cases has transferred your case to the embassy.
- Issued Status
The other status that would appear would be “Issued”. When you log into the CEAC website and while checking the status, it appears issued, it means that you’ve gone through the interview process and you have successfully been issued with the visa.
The visa has been approved and you are now waiting for the passport stamped with the visa. During this time the status would be issued.
Again, issued means that you’ve gone through the interview successfully and your visa has been approved and you’re now waiting for the passport with the stamped visa.
- Refused Status
The other status that you would get would be “Refused”. When you log into the CEAC website and when checking the status you get refused, it would mean two things:
(i) If during the interview, the consular officer was not satisfied with the information you provided and he or she wanted some further check up to see whether you qualify for the visa and he or she has asked for some time to go through your information or has asked you to send additional information. During that time, the status will change to “refused”.
A paper that is yellow in color and it will be with 221D refusal. Meaning that the consular officer needs some time to verify your information or need some additional information from you, for the consular officer to evaluate your case. That would mean that you will be required to wait or to provide the extra information requested before your visa can be approved. During this time, the status will change to refused.
(ii) The second meaning of refused would be that you’ve gone through the interview process but you are not successful due to one reason or the other. When your visa has been denied then the status will also change to refused, meaning you are not successful and your visa wasn’t approved.
- Administrative processing
The other status that would appear would be “Administrative processing”. This administrative processing normally follows a status “refused”.
In this case, if you are refused because the consular officer needed to do some further checks on your information. If it is in that case then you change to administrative processing meaning that you have been put to further processing before your visa could be probably approved.
Administrative processing status will show up during this process when the consular officer is going through your information or is waiting for you to present some additional documents or information.
Those are the major statuses that normally appear in the CEAC Status for the DV lottery processing.
Other CEAC Status
There are other two, that is “expired” and also “expiring soon”. What they mean is that your case could have expired or is about to expire and they would send you a notification. Next guide will explain more about them.
Note: There is no definite time for the status to change from one status to the other status. For example, for the status to change from “Ready” to “In Transit”, there is no definite time in between that. It all depends with many factors. It may take some few days, it may take some few weeks. It may even take some few months.
There is no definite time for it to change from one status to the other status.
I hope this guide is informative to you and useful to you, as you have now understood the meaning of different CEAC 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.