Archive for November, 2009

As I am 27 now, the last christmas seasons were more boring than exciting for me. With the knowledge that it’s not Santa who brings the presents but my mom, the christmas magic vanished sometime in my teenage years. And since my brother has his own family he stays with on christmas, dinner with my parents and grandparents on december 24th is not something I count the minutes to.

But this year’s pre-holiday season is like a trip back to the past. It is guarded by waiting. Except that it is not waiting for Santa to bring the presents, but waiting for my passport and hopefully the visa in it to arrive. Till now four weeks have passed since our interview at the consulate in Frankfurt. And boy, it is definitely not a topic I like to talk about! I just give you this little hint: The interview went horribly bad and the woman who did the interview sent us away without any knowledge of what will happen to our passports and our dream. We gave up talking about our experiences with other Greencard winners on American Dream’s winner board immediately, because everyone kept on telling us different things based on their experiences and some of the guys there actually began to accuse us of having done everything wrong at the interview. I swear on my cat’s live that we showed our best behaviour, had all the required documents with us and are more than qualified for the Greencard when it comes to school education, jobs and money we put aside.

Normally that would mean that the consulate staff is just busy right now and didn’t find time to finish our application yet. But do you always depend on normal? I definitely don’t! So instead of just getting back to normal the door bell always startles me and every lame package arriving at our door by mistake leaves me desperate. As there are only six weeks left to go til christmas I beg god every night to give the consulate staff a little extra speed and make them send me my passport back in time to be the greatest christmas present of my young life!

For me one of the most disturbing things in this whole Greencard-process was the HIV-test we had to do. When I first heard about it, I was kind of shocked. A disease like HIV is something you should deal with personally and nowadays shouldn’t be a reason to be redlined for. My mum said that this would be one reason for her not to apply for the Greencard, because with banning HIV-infected people out of their country, the US makes a statement. And not a positive one. We applied for the Greencard anyways, but this ban was stuck in my mind. With this ban the US kind of blamed their own people of being not worth living in the US, because it is not as if this disease wasn’t present in their own country. Therefor I was more than relieved when I heard that this october president Barack Obama vowed that he will lift this ban till New Year! This is a vow that has been overdue for the last 22 years! Obama himself confirms that, stating that he has to thank former President Bush and the Congress for initiating this progress he now wants to complete. He also said that the situation is kind of twisted, because the US does so much do stem that infection and at the same time bans infected people from entering the country. Lifting the ban wouldn’t only mean that HIV-positive persons will be allowed to travel the US in the future, but it will mean that HIV-infected Greencard applicants won’t be denied for being infected anymore. I don’t know, if that also means that applicants don’t even have to do that HIV-test anymore. I hope so, because I don’t think the whole consulate staff should be informed about an applicant’s infection through a stamp on their file! This matter is peronal. And even if the US gives you the right to travel their country while being infected, they should leave you the human right to decide by yourself wether you want to inform people about your infection or not!

So, it’s this time of the year again. No, I am not talking about christmas. For this is a Greencard blog I am refering to this year’s lottery, which is coming to an end very soon. This is kind of exciting, even if we don’t have to take part anymore. I actually never took part, because my hubby did, but I can understand this feeling every participant must have right now. It must be the same as with so many other things. A job application for example. You give your best to delete every single grammar mistake, write the most appealing cover letter and a perfect CV. You print your application, put it in an envelope, wish it good luck and then let it slip in the letterbox and out of your hands. You think about it. In the first week every minute. In the second week perhaps twice a day. And somehow someday it just slips out of your mind. You still have hope, you still trust your good feeling, but do you actually believe someone will call and hire you? No! I remember the moment my hubby heard about his Greencard win, as it was yesterday. His whole face dropped in surprise when he understood what this email he just got meant. I have never seen him that surprised before. And in that moment I realized: He had forgotten about the lottery! We had often talked about moving to the US one day, but as much as he wished for himself to win that Greencard, he hadn’t actually hoped for it anymore. He only took part in the lottery once. His first attempt was a success. I guess that doesn’t happen to a lot people. My hubby actually has friends, which have been gambling with their luck for the last ten years, but never where as lucky as we were. After he won the Greencard some of our friends said that they also wanted to try it. I am not sure, if any of them really participated in this year’s lottery, but either if I know the people who are keeping their fingers crossed right now or not, I feel for them! I wish everyone the best of luck and am so excited to see, if we will have a winner in our circle of friends next year! I am excited to see, if someone actually put their money where their mouth is! Because I would say even if you have to try a hundred time – this chance is worth it!