administrator

Hallo, everybody. This board was very helpful for me during my CP process. Now I want to give some information that may help others as well. Beware this message is a mile-long!

First our timeline:

Dec.27 2003 - application through the official DVlottery website. Both my wife and I applyed, but she was the lucky one.

Apr.06 2004 - NL received in Brazil, sent from Frankfurt,DE, with instructions in English and Portuguese. Case # 2005SA0xxx.

Apr.12 2004 - Paperwork sent back to KCC, via FedEx.

Sep.15 2004 - called KCC (I couldn't wait for the Visa Bouletin), interview set for Nov.03 in Rio de Janeiro.

Oct.14 2004 - 2nd package arrived, with absolutely no new information.

Nov.03 2004 - Interview at the US Consulate.

During the interview:

8:00 - showed up at the consulate. There were already 8 people waiting in the line.

8:30 - inside the consulate, presented the paperwork and new pictures to the official.

10:30 - called for the interview. It took about five minutes, with questions like what are we going to do for a living, where we want to live, what we are going to do with our real state in Brazil and how much money did we have in the bank (altough we had presented the bank statements).

10:45 - Fingerprints.

15:00 - received back our passports, with the immigrant visas, and one brown pack for each of us, to be handed out at POE.

These are the problems we faced during the process:

- On the paperwork sent back to KCC, we attached only one picture for each applicant (so were the instructions in Portuguese), altough it should be two for each person. KCC said it was not a problem, and we could hand other pictures during the interview.

- Name spell: I had a spelling error on my first name in some personal documents. I had to correct them all.

- Public charge: I couldn't get an I-134, and I tryed to prospect a job in the US, with no success. Therefore, we had to show our own funds to overcome the Public Charge requirements. In Brazil, they want to see 5 times the 125% poverty line (roughly 80 grand for a couple with no kids). We showed bank statements and titles of deed of real estate.

- Picture for the interview: It must show the person's ears, what may be a problem if you have long hair. We had to take new ones on a shop in front of the US consulate.

Our advices:

-Prepare your papers in advance. We had to do everything in 45 days, and we had to rush a lot. Medical exams may take several days to be completed, and may include immunization shots.

-For the interview, take all documents listed on the 2nd package, and all back ups you think may need. We had to present tax returns and old passports.

Thanks to everybody who helped us during our process. If any of you have questions, feel free to e-mail me.

All the best