Diversity Visa Charts Glossary

CEAC: Consular Electronic Application Center, manages the status of DV lottery cases.

Hole: a case number for which CEAC database responds with "Your search did not return any data." error message.
At NVC: an initial state of every case in CEAC database. Both the name ("At NVC") and the status description are not applicable to DV cases.
In Transit: a short-lived status indicating that a given case was invited to an interview. At this point we don't know which embassy.
AP (Administrative Processing): a short-lived status indicating the final visa application processing after the interview. However, the status might oscillate between AP and Ready a few times before it becomes Issued. The most likely outcome is Issued.
221g: a case that was refused for administrative processing under INA 221(g). That indicates e.g. missing documents, extended background checks. Typically that refusal is temporary and more often than not, it ultimately ends up with a visa issuance.
Ready: a case that has been scheduled for an interview
Issued: a case that was granted a visa
Refused: a case that was refused a visa. Typically a final state, but there are rare occurrences where it is either reconsidered or indicated erroneously.