Posts Tagged ‘Visa’

Sometimes I feel like Flo and I actually live the dream of someone else. Yes, we both always wanted to move to the US. Yes, we are more than overjoyed to get this opportunity. But no, we didn’t wait desperately to get this chance. The moment we read this mail telling us that Flo won the Greencard, kind of blew us over. As I already told you, Flo took part in the lottery for the first time and I never took part in it. So it wasn’t as if Flo and I waited for this chance for the last 20 years.

Yesterday we met a guy, that has been visiting the US up to three times a year for the last 20 years and took part in the lottery ten times more than we did. This guy already is half American and would move right now, if he got the chance, too. He actually thinks about trying to get a Visa on another way and I guess would fit in the US better than any American.

Seeing this sometimes makes me feel bad, because the Greencard kind of come to us via fate and not via hard work. We didn’t pray for this for the last 20 years. We didn’t cry over negative notifications for the last years. And we didn’t leave the US after a holiday with the desperate urge of just running back.

I somehow believe in fate and know that this chance is a chance we just HAVE to take und that we will make something good out of it. But it is a strange feeling to know that there are people out there that want this chance so badly! If I could, I would give those people a tiny part of my Greencard to live their dream as well. But I can’t. So I feel like I have to make this chance – at least to not be a burglar of someone elses dream!

No, I am not mixing up holidays accidentally. I know that today is the 4th of July and not Halloween. Unfortunately I can’t be in my new home country to celebrate, today! But I will be there on Halloween this year. Right now we are busy planing our next trip to the US. Finally after weeks of struggle, Flo’s boss accepted his application for some off days and now we are looking for flights. We will fly to Orange County, California, again not only because we love it there, but because we want to move there in January and have to get a lot of things done. but let’s leave this part to one of my next posts.

Right now I am much more excited that I will be in the US for Halloween. Halloween is one of my favourite holidays, because I love spooky stuff and dressing up. Our friends plan to take us to a Halloween hunt at a amusement park called Knott’s Berry Farm. I am not very pleased about that, but I think I will have to fit in with the traditions in my new home country!

But more scared than of that Halloween hunt, I am of the officers at the airport. Last time we went to the US our Visa expired a week later. The officer was nice, but made a joke about that. This year it is the same! Due to our work and the wedding we will enter the US last minute again. I hope this won’t make any problems. For all of you who don’t know: As a Greencard winner you have to enter the US every six months minimum. You practically are also allowed to leave the US for up to 12 months, but in this case the officers at the airport are in charge to decide, if they take your Greencard or not! (FYI: These are just the basic facts, we will talk about it another time)

I hope that this year’s entry will be as easy as last one’s, but I am afraid that the officer might give us a little Halloween scare and will “trick” us!

Since we won the Greencard last May so many things have changed regarding the whole US VISA process. First you don’t have to do an AIDS test anymore, while applying for the Greencard. That is one of the best changes, because it means that the many restrictions against HIV positive people are now history. But for us this change came too late. We had to do the test!

The next change happened only a few weeks ago. The I 94W formular, which my fellow germans better know as the nervwrecking green document, that you have to fill all your personal information in when travelling to the US, is history, too. Again for us, this change comes too late. Because we don’t need to fill out one of those forms since our last visit to the US!

But the most exciting and the only change that affects us is the new look of the Greencard! It will finally be green! And we will hopefully receive it very soon! Last week our american friend Scott found a letter in his mail, saying that the US Department of Homeland Security received all our information and will deliver our Greencards very soon! I am so curious about the day that Sott will send us a pic of him holding our Greencards! Our green Greencards!