I'm applying for a the US Diversity Visa Lottery and there is something in the instructions (PDF) that is making me so confused, and I'm so paranoid about it, so bear with me.
I live in Egypt, in Cairo.
Now I'm required to enter the city where I was born in the DV Lottery form and mentioned above ("City of birth only. Do not enter District/ County/ Province/ State"). I believe I was born in Cairo, but what is really Cairo?
Now because I live in Egypt, I never really understood the concept of what a state, county, district nor province really mean. All I know is that Egypt is a country, but is it a state?
And I know that Cairo is called the City of Cairo and it is also one of Egypt's twenty-seven governorates, so what category does Cairo fall into regarding from an American perspective? Is it really a city, a district, a county, or a province of Egypt? And what's even the difference between those?
Furthermore Cairo is divided divided into forty-one administrative divisions, called qism in Arabic. I live in one of those administrative areas, called
Ain Shams (literally meaning Sun's Eye if you'r curious). This is even more confusing to me because I do not know what those administrative areas should be called as they are parts of Cairo, and I grew up knowing that these areas are just neighborhoods if I would translate how it is said in Arabic.
So same question: What is Ain Shams, a district, a county, or a province of Cairo? and what should I write in the DV lottery field that asks for the "City of Birth"? Should I write Cairo or Ain Shams?
What makes me more confused is there is another field in the mailing address section that asks for the City/ town, What should be my town? will it be the same as my city?
and another field asking for the District/County/ Province/ State, What should I write in this field?
Finally, my address. How should I translate my address in terms of eligibility if reviewed by someone potentially American.
My Address as in my ID would be translated a so,
first: Street number
Second: My street name
third: the neighborhood I live in
fourth: mentioning the neighborhood either (eastern or western)
So my address would be
20 Ahmed Hamdy St. Eastern Ain Shams, Cairo
Is this eligible? or should I write it
No 20 Ahmed Hamdy St. Eastern of Ain Shams (district/ county/ province whatever you tell me it is) + my apartment number.
If I made you confused sorry, Here are two links from wikipedia about the topics
check them:
Best Answer
Americans would consider Cairo a city. It is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Any of those other terms are intermediate between a city and the entire country. Egypt may not have that kind of a division, Wikipedia says that Cairo has a population of 9,500,000. The metropolitan area, which generally means the city and suburbs, has a population of 20,439,541.
A metropolitan area is not a unified government. The main city has its own local government, and nearby smaller cities and towns have their own governments. One way of picturing a metropolitan area is the territory covered by broadcast television stations, because usually over-the-air signals can travel maybe 80 km (50 miles), and do not stop for city and town borders.
Reading the Wikipedia article, I see that Cairo is also a governorate. Governors in the US are the executive leaders of states, so that Cairo is, no doubt due to its size and importance, also (in US terms) its own state. This fact does not take away from the fact that it also counts as a city, which is what those instructions ask you to list. This is similar to Washington, DC, which is the city of Washington, which is in and equivalent to the District of Columbia, which is a special territory similar to a state (but not part of any other state). This is a unique situation among cities in the US, but not in the world. Canberra, Australia, is in, and contains nearly all of the population of, the Australian Capital Territory.
I feel you're probably overthinking the question. You probably consider your city of birth to be Cairo, and Americans do, too.