Posts Tagged ‘The American Dream’

Do you remember the moment you found out that you were among those lucky few people who won the Greencard? Me and my hubby do! We were watching TV when the little bell, that told us we had a new E-Mail, rang. First we didn’t really understand the long E-Mail, but eventually we found this one important sentence saying “You are among the lucky winners of the lottery”! Then it hit us: Our American Dream will come true! My hubby had tears in his eyes, I was smiling like a lunatic and then we decided to make some phone calls. This is were the funny part begins. Because the reactions to our Greencard win were more unexpected than the actual win! My mum said “Oh cool, but you are not actually going to use it, right”? My mother-in-law was a bit more excited “Wow, great! Where and for how much can you sell it?” and my best friend begged me not to leave her. To sum up all the other reactions: No one really expected or wanted us to actually move to the US and work there. All those people who knew that this was our dream. Who knew that my husband took part in the lottery not just for fun but to actually get that chance. And now they all wanted us to give up this dream? Fascinating, right? In fact not really. Because many winners have to give up this dream before realizing that they won. Statistics say that the lottery picks about 100.000 winners a year. But only 55.000 of them actually become permanent residents of the US. You ask yourself why? The reality kind of hits you when the info brochure from American Dream arrives and you see that this is not only a win but some kind of new job you have to work for. First you have to meet many demands such as having the right school education or not having certain diseases. If you are healthy and well-educated you have to fill out dozens of forms, have to sit at your hometown’s bureaus for hours to get all the required documents and then you have to wait and wait and wait. This whole procedure is kind of nervewrecking but I guess it’s a good school for what is expecting us when we actually move abroad – because it’s worth it!

Hello fellow aliens, american residents or whatever brought you to this blog. I am Janina, fiancee of a lucky greencard winner and future alien. For a start why don’t we take a trip back a few years to when we all first heard about this thing called Greencard. For the record: the Greencard was first given away in 1940. I don’t know about you but I guess I haven’t heard about the Greencard for the following 50 years. I don’t remember the actual date I heard the word for the first time, but I remember the first question that popped into my mind: “Is the Greencard actually green?”. It’s no surprise it isn’t, but when thinking about what I want to write about in my first blog entry I realized that till now I don’t know why the so called “United States Permanent Resident Card” is always referred to as the Greencard. For there is no official statement about why the Greencard is called Greencard, I took a short trip through the internet and found one of the lamest explanations ever: “The name Greencard refers to the green lights and free highways waiting for it’s owners when moving to the U.S..” Come on, really? I thought there would be a cool explanation like: “Immigrants are referred to as aliens and the aliens coming from outer space are expected to be green.” Or “People moving to the U.S. are some kind of greenhorns, so let’s call their immigration permit Greencard.” To not to be too disappointed I told myself that apparently even for the Greencard the following lame saying works: “Don’t judge someone by it’s looks!” Neither the Greencard, nor it’s owner. And that would be us, fellow aliens! So we should be lucky that we don’t have to paint ourselves green or play the dumbass when moving abroad. But to be honest may come what may I will never get used to the Greencard. Neither in my pocket, neither in my mouth, nor in this blog. Congratulations to us! And welcome to Alien in America!