visa lottery 2011 gov

visa lottery 2011 gov

Did we apply for the Diversity Visa Lottery 2011 or 2012?

My future brother-in-law helped my fiancee to apply for his Visa via the “open window” between October-November of this year (2010) so which did they apply for, the 2011 Lottery or 2012?
I went online to two different websites to find out the timeline of “if approved” when he would receive the “notice of approval” letter. One website said if he was approved he would receive the letter the following year in May-July.
So is that true, or if he applied this year, he was probably applying for the 2012 Visa Lottery?
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_5073.html
Also, he lives in Egypt so I know the chances of being approved for interview date is like 1 out of 4,251
His also received a confirmation once he applied so does that mean anything or what?
I know I can check his status results through the website, once I get the confirmation # but until then I was wondering should I even hope for something to happen next year or nothing till 2 years. 2012?

He applied for the 2012 visa lottery. They have a complicated system, and use the government/fiscal year which is slightly different from the actual year.
Basically he entered in Oct/Nov 2010, they draw the names of winners sometime in the next 4-5 months. Then from May to July 2011 they notify the winners by sending a letter. Sometimes letters do get lost in mail, so keep the confirmation number [!!!] and check their website once it is working [site says check back May 1, 2011].

If he wins, then he would get his interview and visa sometime during the 2012 fiscal year. That runs from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012. So he could go to the US as early as say mid-October 2011 if he won, got a good priority number and his paperwork got done quickly? That is best case scenario though.
The winners get a priority number, they process and interview people in order so the smaller/lower his number is the better his chances are. Sometimes people who get a very bad/high number do not get visas in the end because they run out.