No, I think they would not cash your check if you are not selected in the lottery. It was the mistake they made last year...even after sending the receipt notice, some of the candidates did not get the lottery last year, so they changed it for this year and they are not to cash the cheque of anyone who is not selected in the lottery...so, if your cheque is cashed, that means that your application is picked up in the lottery...you would still have to go through the approval process, which is think is about 2% of the work(going thru lottery and getting picked is 99%).