Intrepid123

Hello,

I'm British, and my wife is South African, we have 3 British kids, and we live in the UK. My wife is still on a SA passport and was born there. I just wanted some clarity on a few things from people on this forum.

- Can we apply for the DV through my wife?
- If we can do we just apply in her name, or can I put in an application too using my wife as the reason for applying
- Can we apply from within the UK?
- Is there any pitfalls I need to be aware of when we apply?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

bearclaire1

My husband and I both entered this on the night it opened.

He was born in SA, so we both get to apply because I am married to him. We are also in the UK too. It’s all on the birthplace rather than your current citizenship or where you are residing.

They do provide full instructions and requirements to read before you apply, as you do have to meet some and not everyone qualifies.

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam...ns-English.pdf

Hope this helps?

Intrepid123

That's great thank you.

I was wondering about passports too, my wife still has her maiden name in her passport, but we are married, could this prove to be problematic?

bearclaire1

I don’t think so as you have a marriage certificate to prove, and not all women change their name to that of their husbands 😀

Pulaski

[1] Yes
[2] Yes, the reason is the principle of "cross chargeability"
[3] Yes, the applicant's current location is irrelevant, as is their passport/nationality. Only the location of birth is relevant.
[4] None spring to mind, other than that the chances of success are less than 2% per individual per year, so be prepared to file many times if you still want to emigrate to the US.

Also, if you are successful in the lottery you will still have to go through an application process, you aren't just sent green cards in the mail, so be prepared to move quickly to get the required documents together, as this may include a criminal background report from the police in South Africa, assuming that you wife (and you?) spent any time as an adult living there.

AND you have a relatively short time to relocate your family and your life to the US. Do not underestimate the difficulty of finding work at the experience and income level you expect, especially if you have a career-type job and professional certifications. It may be a very tough challenge, and one that gets harder (to accept the career set-back) as you get older and accumulate more experience and higher pay, and you have fewer opportunities to retrain and obtain US qualifications.

tom169

Let me add, do not go through any unofficial website or pay for this.

bearclaire1

Just thought I would advise that by chance I went onto the registration page for the 2019 entry, and read the following...

Down for Maintenance!
Due to a technical issue, the DV-2019 entry period that began on October 3 has been closed. Entries submitted during October 3-10 are not valid and have been excluded from the system; they will not count as a duplicate entry. The technical issue has been resolved and a new full entry period will begin at noon, U.S. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday October 18, 2017 and will run until noon Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday November 22, 2017. Only entries submitted during this period will be accepted and considered for selection in the lottery. Please throw away any confirmation number or other documentation that you have if you submitted an entry during Oct. 3-10.

So I shall have to re-do my application now, as I originally applied the day it opened.
I wonder how many people now don't realise as I never received any notification that there was an issue.