On Wednesday we opened a bank account at the Bank of America. We decided not to do this online, so we went there in the morning and were actually surprised by how easy it went. You don’t have to be afraid about it, but I still do have a few tips for every Greencard winner that will have to do this soon:

1. What you need to open a bank account is: A Social Security Number, your Greencard and Passport, an american address and an american phone number. For the address and phone number you can use those of friends. Postboxes and foreign phone numbers are not allowed. Also – at the Bank of America – you need a national E-Mail-Address for online banking. Our banker told us to get one at G-Mail oder Yahoo for example.

2. Bring some money! There are minimum amounts that have to stay on your account in order to keep you away from paying a monthly fee.

3. Don’t think that you will get a credit card immediately! In the US you will not get a credit card without a credit history, but you will be able to get a secured credit card. A secured credit card is like a Pre-Paid credit card. You decide on a certain amount – for example $ 1000 – and pay it to the bank as a deposit. For six months you can now use your secured credit card as a normal one. You can buy stuff and have to pay your bills. The only important thing is: Do not buy stuff for more than 1000 bugs monthly and do pay your bills in time. After six months the bank will check if you are on the level to get a “real” credit card.

4. If you like Hello Kitty, do not open a joint bank account with your husband. This is what happened to me and now I am not allowed to get my Hello Kitty checks and cards, because Flo doesn’t want to have them.

For now we are proud owners of our temporary debit cards and checks. In about two weeks our “real” cards with a beach image on them will arrive. But it still feels good to be a little more american after all.

This is for everyone who is a winner of the DV-2011 and is right now nervously waiting for his or her interview date at the US consualte in Frankfurt. Our date there was nearly exactly one year ago and now Flo and I can laugh about it! I already told you that our interview wasn’t very nice, but hey – it all worked out positive in the end and we now are proud owners of our very own Greencards.

You shouldn’t let yourself get freaked out by that date. The most time of it you will be sitting there and wait anyways! But there are a few things that you can do to prevent the worst. First you should have all certificates, passports and other stuff required with you and more important organized and by hand all the time! Make sure to have the money in cash, to have pictures of yourself and to have copies of everything as well! If you are well prepared you are on the safe side I would say! You should also bring some money, something to drink, something to eat and perhaps a book to read. You are not allowed to bring a mobile phone, a laptop or any other electronic devices with you so make sure to leave those things at home or in your car!

If your english is not very good, you should ask for a person to translate everything to you. This is your right! Even if the consulate staff doesn’t recommend it! If you aren’t very secure with speaking english, you should print out some sentences and learn them. You will be asked after your education, your work situation and your plans for everything regarding the US. Make sure you are able to answer questions about that topics!

As you know I didn’t win the Greencard myself – my husband did. At the consulate I wasn’t treated as a actual winner, but only as the wife of my husband. I wasn’t allowed to speak, if I weren’t addressed specifically be the consulate staff. So if you are not the Greencard winner but “only” a spouse, try to keep yourself low profile. If anyone wants to know anything from you, he’ll ask!

I don’t want to scare anyone away or make you insecure about your interview, but always have in mind: The US doesn’t give away those Greencards for fun! They only want to give them to people who are serious about an emmigration and who will follow their dreams in the near future! So even if that may be the case don’t act insecure about your emmigration at the consulate or even come up with your doubts about the whole thing! Because this will not help you at all!

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask and I’ll try to answer them! You also may check the American Dream winner forum, which actually helped us a lot with our questions!

I wish everyone with an upcoming interview the best of luck, I keep my fingers crossed for you guys and am looking forward to meet you all in the US one day!

So, it’s finally time for me to tell you about our Greencard interview at the american consulate in Frankfurt. This day is not a day that I love to remember, but I can’t forget it neither! Okay, you know how the day started, so right now we are at the point where Flo and I were again sitting in the waiting area of the consulate. At the time we were waiting, there were three people doing the interviews. I prayed that we won’t get to take to the woman that looked the meanest. But guess what: It was her, who called our number!

Before the interview we had read that you can ask for a translator, but we chose not to, because our english is good. So, we went up to the window and handed over all the forms we had to. The woman started to ask Flo some basic infos and than came to the question that changed all: When did you marry? Flo was very excited at that day and by accident told her a wrong date. I corrected it and with that pissed off that woman seriously! She nearly yelled at me that I did not have to say a word at all, because I was only his wife and that I would get serious problems, if I would again! As you may imagine that didn’t calm down Flo a bit and the interview went on very bumpy! The woman asked some more questions about our wedding, looked at our marriage certifacte and than said that we had to hand in wedding pictures after the interview. She told us that she didn’t exactly believe that we were married for real and that she had to check on that fact!

Than she asked Flo about the money he would bring to the US. He told her (it is a high figure for our age I guess and much more than you need to bring for the application) and the woman seriously had the nerves to laugh and ask us (sorry, ask Flo), if he thought that he could live from that money for real! Before Flo could answer that question, she gave us a very mean look, asked us if we had any more questions and than told us to go, because we were done!

Imagine you standing there like shaking with horror, because this interview could decide about your future and knowing nothing! She didn’t tell us, if we still had a chance to get the Greencard or what would happen to our passports!

As you may see in the post below we do have our Greencards! It actually took our passports about 4 weeks to arrive home – but still this day till now was our worst in this whole Greencard process!

I told you before: This is not how the usual interview goes, so please don’t be scared! But: Prepare yourself for that interview the best you can and take this thing very serious! Because the staff of the american consulate obviously does!