American Aussie

By Roger Bond

On a Greencard Roadtrip Staying at Citizen Hotel.

A no-holds-barred personal account of the intricate process of obtaining a U.S. Greencard, with the added pursuit of Citizenship, through blood, sweat & tears.

In this true-life drama of high emotion, you'll feel the challenge. To embark on this trip, be prepared to pack a good measure of luck and a decent dose of humor, where you'll learn one of life's biggest lessons...

Be entertained on the journey of where persistence leads.

Be a part of a powerful personal story.

Be a modern day IMMIGRANT.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Bond
• Release date: Dec 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452461229

Roger Bond

As an Australian living in America for over 6 years now, Roger has explored many fascinating places and met some extraordinary people. An avid motor-racing and football fan, he also enjoys a quiet afternoon relaxing by the pool with a wine and some friends or watching the latest action-thriller or romantic-comedy. Roger loves food, from BBQ to Asian to Mexican and Italian, with desserts his favorite.

Book preview

American Aussie

by

Roger Bond

Copyright 2011 by Roger Bond

Smashwords Edition

American Aussie. © 2011 Roger Bond. All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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ISBN 978-1-4524-6122-9

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - You Little Beauty

Chapter 2 – Forms, Forms...

Chapter 3 – Let's Get It Started!

Chapter 4 – Medical Examination

Chapter 5 – Are We There Yet?

Chapter 6 – Interview Time

Chapter 7 – Nails Bitten Down To Stubs

Chapter 8 – Garage Sale

Chapter 9 – Finally

Chapter 10 – Time To Get a Job

Chapter 11 – Moving On...

Chapter 12 – Interview Time, Again

Chapter 13 – Last Thoughts

Thankyou my Li'l Darling, I couldn't have done it without you.

You Little Beauty

Finally, we landed. Still the fun of going through immigration to go, but at least we were here. The United States of America.

After almost thirty hours of continuous travel, including a six hour stop at Heathrow and three hours in transit in Singapore, the trip from Perth, Western Australia to New York's JFK airport was certainly no walk in the park. Whilst the flights had taken a fair while, no doubt, the relief of landing was primarily due to the culmination of a two and a half year journey. I mean process…well ordeal would be more accurate. Make that completely accurate.

Watching an early episode of Neighbours (an Australian soap-opera) one night at dinner with my wife, Bella, one of the main characters said something about a lottery he had entered. He’d then be able to go and live and work in America as a permanent resident, as his desire was to be with his girlfriend who was moving to the US and they didn’t want to be apart. Fair enough, then I thought, wait on, I’ve heard something about this.

Without thinking too much about what I was about to ask, I consulted my wife, What do you think about going and living in America?.

Yeah sure, she agreed, but you have to look into it all and find out about everything.

Yep, no worries! I say excitedly like a naïve child with no concept of the idea that I have. This marvelous idea of mine, has since formed a personal motto that, nothing is ever easy. Not, nothing worth doing, just nothing, is ever easy.

We had previously travelled to the US for a month on our honeymoon, visiting Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York, really enjoying our time everywhere. For those who haven’t been to the center of the world (yes, it is), whilst Europe is fascinating in its beautiful historic architecture and heart-touching art, Asia being breathtakingly enticing in its incomparable variety of eastern delicacies and modern cityscapes, there is no place I’ve ever felt more comfortable, than in the land of the Old Glory. I do believe though, ten hours a day, over thirty plus years of a steady diet of American TV and many hundreds of movies, may have had a touch to do with my sentiments…

By the way, I should mention now that our honeymoon was prior to 9/11, whereas our application for permanent residency was subsequent.

After determining that the US was the place to be, my wife and I decided that we should apply for the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery, more commonly known as the green card lottery. This lottery, that is conducted yearly by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is open to people worldwide. We had applied twice prior and yes, the third time was a charm for us. After completing the online forms and submitting digital photos of ourselves, we hoped and prayed for an envelope to arrive.

Incidentally, this was the first year the USCIS allowed digital photos to be taken and used with an online form submission – previously the requirement was to print the numerous forms and photos, then send the whole package via the postal service to the processing center in Kentucky.

What made the application process more harrowing, was the lack of communication allowed to follow-up your submission. Basically if you win you’re notified, if you don’t win, then you just wonder whether your submission was completed correctly, if the photos were the specified size and whether even the postman did his job right – either in the US or Australia. Once you’re tired of wondering about these things and for that matter minor details as to whether or not the sun will rise the next day, you just have to (eventually) accept it wasn’t your time – yet.

So this waiting and wishing happened twice for us – submissions are due in October and the drawing starts in about March of the following year. We heard absolutely nothing for each of these two prior submissions. Actually, if you haven’t received anything by the following September, then that’s it really. This allows you to then apply for the next year. That’s a lot of expected visits to the mailbox and having your hopes dashed, I can tell you. Not fun. Well the anticipation is, but the reality after just finding the power bill, is no fun at all. Luckily I tend to be an optimist, or perhaps just on the sane side side of crazy/hopeful?

So once again, this time with the latest submission in the lottery being done online, my daily routine continued. This consisted of firstly arriving home from work and opening the mailbox (praying that the nosy neighbor doesn’t come out to greet me) or was it to be Pandora’s Box, the Lost Ark or even Aladdin’s Lamp (I hoped). Would this box that would contain all my wishes for the future that I'd been quietly praying for every night, finally, reveal treasures within?

Started out just like a regular day, bus ride into the city was the usual, nothing out of the ordinary had happened at work. Even the weather was the same as it had been all week, but this time I'd finally received an envelope! A big, beautiful, heavy, white, letter-sized envelope, with the seal of the United States of America in the top left hand corner.

Let me tell you, the