Personal experience. How I Moved to USA - ForumDaily
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Переклад цього матеріалу українською мовою з російської було автоматично здійснено сервісом Google Translate, без подальшого редагування тексту.
Bu məqalə Google Translate servisi vasitəsi ilə avtomatik olaraq rus dilindən azərbaycan dilinə tərcümə olunmuşdur. Bundan sonra mətn redaktə edilməmişdir.

Personal experience. How I moved to the USA

Maya Buryakina. Photos from the personal archive

Maya Buryakina. Photos from the personal archive

I've always wanted to live in a country for a few months - not as a tourist, but as a local. As you know, all our dreams come true, and now I have been living in California for almost two years, where I moved with my husband in May 2014 from my beloved St. Petersburg.

We never dreamed about America, and I didn’t even know about the green card lottery, about which close friends told us one autumn evening. The guys were going to participate in the lottery, as they had long wanted to move to the USA. They offered us to try our luck for the company. Why not, my husband and I thought, and filled out questionnaires on the official website lottery

We filled out the questionnaires in November 2012. They filled it out and, as they say, forgot about it. But the same friends with whom we applied for the company reminded us that it was time to check the results. So, in May 2013, we found out that my application won! I don’t believe in lotteries at all, but I was so lucky here. Although at first I thought my husband was playing me. But our friends, unfortunately, flew by. But they continue to participate, and we hope that, sooner or later, we will still live next door to them in California, as we once lived in St. Petersburg.

There were some funny moments too. Having started to read the instructions about what to do next for those who won, we misunderstood the conditions - apparently, we were still in some shock from the unexpected news. For some reason, we read that one of the conditions is having a higher education in priority areas for the United States (the list was listed on the website), or continuous work experience in one of these positions. I personally had neither one nor the other. For the last six months at the time of winning, I had been working as a “project manager” at a chocolate factory.

But my friend, who lives in the United States, shared with me a useful link to resourcewhere such issues are discussed. Climbing the site, we realized that those who have a higher education, are suitable for participation in the lottery. So, we need to prepare a package of documents for consideration in the United States.

The process of obtaining an immigration visa, we have turned out not so fast. In May, 2013, we learned that we won the green card, and a week later, we sent a package of documents to Kentucky (The Kentucky Consular Center (KCC)). And only in March, 2014, we received an invitation for a personal interview at the embassy in Moscow for the end April. We immediately took tickets to the capital and signed up for a physical examination.

In the end, we spent three days in Moscow. On the first day we went through a medical examination, on the second we walked around the city, and on the third day we went for an interview. It was possible to do it in two days, but sometimes it happens that the results of the medical examination do not have time to be released on the same day. Without them, you can also go through an interview at the embassy - this does not affect the decision regarding the visa. But we decided to play it safe and took one day in reserve, so that later we would not have to go to Moscow from St. Petersburg again and bring a package of documents from the clinic.

23 April 2014, we had a personal interview with the consul. He asked us only three questions: is this our first marriage, who do we work with and what will we do in the USA? Then he smiled and said: your visas are approved. This is how one phrase of a stranger changes your whole life.

Of course, we expected that they would approve visas for us, and prepared for the move in advance. And so 31 flew into the US in May 2014 of the year. Only a month after receiving the visa, we landed at San Francisco airport, and our American history began.

For me, moving was a kind of black box game. I have never been to the USA before. But I didn’t build illusions and didn’t think of anything like that to be disappointed upon arrival. I am already an adult girl, and I know that there are no ideal countries / people / superiors. Perhaps that is why we did not have adaptation as such. It’s as if we did not move from one continent to another, but from one apartment to another.

For now we don’t plan to return to St. Petersburg, unless we go on a visit. Moreover, there is a reason - six months ago we had two sons who became US citizens. Who would have thought…

If you look globally, life is the same everywhere. We go to work - before maternity leave, I worked at a children's music school, my husband works as a project manager in a cloud telephony company, cook dinners, do hobbies, and travel on weekends. We had approximately the same routine in St. Petersburg. It’s just that the daily sun reminds us of where we live. For the climate alone, I endlessly love California and especially the part of the Bay Area where we live. It’s never very hot here, and fogs don’t visit us either - the climate is ideal!

Maya Buryakina. Photos from the personal archive

Maya Buryakina. Photos from the personal archive

Although, of course, California has its downsides. As I wrote above, there are no ideal places. For example, real estate is very expensive here. We are talking about both buying and renting. And what about the ocean, which is almost impossible to swim in? Also such a fat minus. 🙂 You dream for yourself, you dream of living by the ocean, and on you it’s so cold that even getting your feet wet is problematic. Although my husband swims a couple of times during the summer.

Now we already have our own social circle here. For now, mostly Russian-speaking friends. It’s surprising that I met all of them through Instagram. The Internet, of course, is a thing. Thanks to him, we are always in touch with our dear people - we text every day, call each other, send each other photos. I don’t know what we would do without the World Wide Web.

 

Maya Buryakina, Ruslan Volkov. Photos from the personal archive

Maya Buryakina, Ruslan Volkov. Photos from the personal archive

Do we miss past life? Rather, we miss the people who stayed there - our relatives and close friends. Sometimes you really want to walk along the empty morning Nevsky, or stand in line at the Hermitage, ride a river boat on the Neva or wander through the Summer Garden, covered with bright autumn leaves. But after two years, we have never regretted our decision and move.

On the contrary, it seems, he made us even more courageous and open to the world. And I do not exclude that there is more than one move ahead - the world is so big and interesting!

See also:

How to fill in the form on the green card: detailed instructions

Immigration to the USA: five stories of people who won the green card

Lottery "Green Card-2017" in questions and answers

How can I get a green card

10 about honest ways to stay in the USA

lottery Our people green card loudspeakers moving to the USA Editor's Choice
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