After a pleasant flight SQ26 landed safely at 10.30 a.m. at JFK. Marco’s Cameras were scanned for any dangerous substances and Mona washed her hands with mouthwater instead of soap ..
First we went to Hertz to get our car … a very nice Chevrolet Impala and after 3 times circling around the airport we managed to find the way to Ronkonkoma, where we currently are …
Now we are going to bed very soon .. we had some Budweiser and we are tired …
Stay tuned for the next report tomorrow!
Greetings from Long Island,
Mona and Marco
Today The Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs updated the Visa Bulletin for October and released in its Advanced Notification the cut-off numbers for November 2007.
| Region |
All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately |
|
| AFRICA |
10,000 |
Except:
Egypt:
6,000
Ethiopia:
5,000
Nigeria:
6,300
|
| ASIA |
3,500 |
|
| EUROPE |
9,200 |
|
| NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) |
3 |
|
| OCEANIA |
500 |
|
| SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN |
700 |
|
The high increase for Europe is a big surprise and we are more thrilled what numbers are shown next month 😉
from September 19th to October 5th we’ll travel to New York City, Long Island, Cape Cod and Boston. Stay tuned for the latest information!
Today The Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs updated the Visa Bulletin and released the first cut-off numbers for DV-2008.
| Region |
All DV Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed Separately |
|
| AFRICA |
6,700 |
Except:
Egypt:
3,400
Ethiopia:
2,900
Nigeria:
4,700
|
| ASIA |
2,100 |
|
| EUROPE |
5,800 |
|
| NORTH AMERICA (BAHAMAS) |
2 |
|
| OCEANIA |
300 |
|
| SOUTH AMERICA, and the CARIBBEAN |
400 |
|
The number for Europe is higher than ever. Now we are curious about how the number will increase in October bulletin!
KCC also published the Diversity Visa Lottery 2007 (DV-2008) Results
The Kentucky Consular Center in Williamsburg, Kentucky has registered and notified the winners of the DV-2008 diversity lottery. The diversity lottery was conducted under the terms of section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and makes available *50,000 permanent resident visas annually to persons from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. Approximately 96,000 applicants have been registered and notified and may now make an application for an immigrant visa. Since it is likely that some of the first *50,000 persons registered will not pursue their cases to visa issuance, this larger figure should insure that all DV-2008 numbers will be used during fiscal year 2008 (October 1, 2007 until September 30, 2008).
Applicants registered for the DV-2008 program were selected at random from over 6.4 million qualified entries received during the 60-day application period that ran from 12:00 AM on October 4, 2006, until midnight, December 3, 2006. The visas have been apportioned among six geographic regions with a maximum of seven percent available to persons born in any single country. During the visa interview, principal applicants must provide proof of a high school education or its equivalent, or show two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience within the past five years. Those selected will need to act on their immigrant visa applications quickly. Applicants should follow the instructions in their notification letter and must fully complete the information requested.
The results for Europe are shown in the table:
| ALBANIA 2,862 |
GERMANY 1,469 |
NORTHERN IRELAND 34 |
| ANDORRA 1 |
GREECE 77 |
NORWAY 43 |
| ARMENIA 1,130 |
HUNGARY 182 |
PORTUGAL 48
Macau 19 |
| AUSTRIA 70 |
ICELAND 13 |
ROMANIA 1,526 |
| AZERBAIJAN 271 |
IRELAND 162 |
SERBIA 557 |
| BELARUS 1,072 |
ITALY 363 |
SLOVAKIA 157 |
| BELGIUM 89 |
KAZAKHSTAN 304 |
SLOVENIA 12 |
| BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA 73 |
KYRGYZSTAN 180 |
SPAIN 135 |
| BULGARIA 1,567 |
LATVIA 75 |
SWEDEN 118 |
| CROATIA 41 |
LITHUANIA 334 |
SWITZERLAND 132 |
|
CYPRUS 16
|
LUXEMBOURG 12
|
TAJIKISTAN 126 |
| CZECH REPUBLIC 158 |
MACEDONIA 343 |
TURKEY 2,188 |
| DENMARK 58 |
MALTA 5 |
TURKMENISTAN 124 |
| ESTONIA 37 |
MOLDOVA 474
|
UKRAINE 5,018 |
| FINLAND 59 |
MONACO 4 |
UZBEKISTAN 3,101 |
|
FRANCE 603 French Guiana 6 French Polynesia 6 Guadeloupe 4 Martinique 4
|
MONTENEGRO 22 |
|
| GEORGIA 516 |
NETHERLANDS 123
Aruba 8
Netherlands Antilles 18 |
|
No Express Plus, but our letter was delivered 🙂
From now, we have to wait some month if everything is working well.
Finally we managed it to get right sized shots for Mona. Now we had to hurry, our letter should shipped via UPS before the weekend to Kentucky.
We decided to take the “luxury” Express Plus shipping for 88 Euro (aprox. $115) with guaranteed delivery on Monday bevor 10 a.m. – yes, $115, you’ll get a lot prime beef at Grasch for it :)))
Some hours later we tracked the letter and saw problems. It was downgraded by UPS as Express Plus is not available to that location.
Today we took the photos for the application. The photographer was a little strange and I had a worse feeling after we left there what came true. I checked the shots at home realized, Monas was not right. Shit, we have to complain there!
Today we filled out all the forms for the application that has to be returned to Kentucky. Nothing magic, but you have to look up all schools you had attened, the universities, former employer and much more.
Hopefully we did everything right.
Today we got something we had never expected. A letter from Kentucky Comsular Center.
Inside the congratulation letter for Mona, she really won the lottery!
Hi friends,
We left our hotel at 11am and are already checked in. However, no new day without mishap, Mona forgot her brand new Packers umbrella in the hotel room. We now have to figure out who’ll get a nice package within the next days :))
The good new for today, we were able to get the two seats at the emergency exit – not that bad 🙂
Bye, bye from Chicago,
Mona & Marco
