DV Interviews: One of the factors that determine the number of selectees that will be scheduled for DV interview in a certain embassy, is the family size.
If you have been following guides in this site, you might be knowing that the number of visas for a DV lottery, they are 55,000 per every DV lottery. These 55,000 visas, they are meant for both the principal applicant and the derivatives.
In other words, both the derivatives and the principal applicants, they share in these visas. There are no side visas for derivatives. It is the 55,000 visas that are shared with both the principal applicant and their beneficiaries.
Having known that, it’s now clear that the number of interviews per embassy depends on the size of the families.
When you apply for the DV Lottery, the one known in the case is the principal applicant, that is the person applying. Since the principal applicant is the one that has been selected, then there are people attached to that principal applicant, if they had families.
If you are an applicant and you are selected, and you have a family, of course you included the family in the application. Let’s say, for example, you have a family of four that is you, the wife or the husband, and some two kids.
When you win, that is one visa. Then your wife or your husband takes the second visa and the children take the third and the fourth visas, in total becoming four visas out of the 55,000 visas. Those are four visas from the 55,000 visas.
The family size will determine the number of interviews scheduled in an embassy. You might find out that one embassy has principal applicant, and in that country, the principal applicants they tend not to have families.
In other countries, you’ll find them having a high rates or high tendency of having families. So in one particular embassy, you find, for example, 1,500 applicants, and of these 1,500 applicants, you find that around 1,200 of them have families.
So if we take, for example, the 1,200 applicants with families have a family of 3. That is to mean, it is 1,200 multiplied by 3, and that brings about 3,600. So if they are successful, that means 3,600 visas out of the 55,000 visas have been removed from the 55,000 visas.
That means, that embassy will have fewer interviews because visas get exhausted after every interview. After this interview, three of them have gone. After the next interview, another three. After the next interview, another four, depending on the size of the family, and therefore keeps on decreasing the number of interviews to be scheduled in a particular embassy.
I hope this has been explained at length and clearly.
If you applied a single and later on you married, that is a visa added. You are single, meaning you were to use one visa. But since you’ve gotten married and you’ve added the spouse, then those are two visas from the 55,000 visas.
Another thing, let’s say you marry within the early stages of the DV lottery, and then your wife conceives, or you as the wife conceives. Then, before you are scheduled for the interview, the child comes, you have a kid. You become three.
You applied as one, but you have become three. Those are three visas from the 55,000 visas. And that means you decrease the number of interviews that will be scheduled at your embassy.
Another instance is this. If you are married when applying, you are two of you, your husband or your wife and you yourself. Those were two visas. And then along the way, as you’re waiting for the interview or during the DV process, you happen to be blessed by a kid. That is another visa added on top, and it becomes three. So you are reducing the number of interviews to be scheduled.
Another way, you find a family. One person applies as a single applicant, and then in the process of the DV lottery, she gets married or he gets married, and the spouse comes in with step-children. Let’s say, for example, three. So that is one principal applicant, and then has added a spouse plus other three kids. It becomes a family with a total of five members. So it was one visa, but now four others have added, and that is five visas from the 55,000 visas.
Therefore it reduces the number of interviews to be scheduled at the embassy.
Also, it may also happen that you apply as a family of three, and then a long-long process. By the way, something tragic happens, maybe one of you passes on, then you’ve lost one. That mean you have decreased the number of visas used by one, and therefore you’re increasing the number of interviews to be scheduled at your embassy.
If something happened and you applied as a family and some of the members get lost, those are some of the visas that have been spared within the 55,000 visas, therefore increasing the number of interviews to be scheduled at that embassy because of those extra visas.
So if a family decreases, visas become available. But if the family increases, then visas, they decrease, and therefore reducing the number of interviews to be scheduled.
In conclusion
The number of interviews to be scheduled at any embassy will also depend upon the size of the family, which is called the family rate. Some countries have higher rate than the others. You may find that other countries have high tendency of principal applicants having families while other countries have lower tendency of principal applicants having families.
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.