Personal experience: how a family of five won the Green Card Lottery

The chance to win the Green Card Lottery is very small, but it is. If you applied for the lottery for 2019 year, then the status of applications can be checked this month - from 15 May to 30 September. In the meantime, about his experience of winning the lottery told the publication "ZagraNitsa" A native of Kyrgyzstan, Daniel Taranov.

Photo: personal archive

We learned about the lottery from our friends who left for America back in the 90s. They persuaded us to participate in the raffle. Four times we sent the application, and the latter was successful for our family. My wife, Evgenia, won. So in 2015, we finally moved to the USA.

Unexpected win

This was not our first attempt, so we filled out the questionnaires in October 2013 of the year and safely forgot about it. In late April, I went to Kyrgyzstan, to a friend's wedding. The next morning after a noisy and merry holiday, friends advised me to check the results. I somehow tried to catch at least some Kyrgyz Internet. I went with a grief in half on the site and checked. I generally unlucky and did not even hope to win. Well, did not win. But I remembered my wife last but not least for some reason. And when I saw the congratulatory text - even at first I could not believe my eyes! Emotions beat over the edge: I jumped, cried and hurried to share the good news. I called my wife and tried to explain to her that we were going to America. But she, because of a bad connection and my tumultuous joy, did not immediately understand anything. The irony is that she did not want to go to America at all. She was afraid of the unknown and what will be there waiting for us. She was more attracted to Europe. But now she is delighted. Do not worry about children and their affairs at school. Zhenya communicates with a friend who lives in Russia and tells all these horror stories about local schools. Here everything is different. Children can still play half a day after school, and not engage in endless lessons. At such a small age (daughter - 8 years, twin boys on 6), babies are not ready to devote a whole day to learning. And it's great that they have such freedom and the opportunity to remain children longer.

Photo: personal archive

Application documents

With the collection of documents had to sweat. My wife was born in Kazakhstan, I - in Kyrgyzstan. And we lived in St. Petersburg, so we had to request certificates of good conduct, children's certificates of vaccinations and other documents from the country of birth. Some still had to redo in Russia. Of course, all this took a lot of time, effort and money. We checked several times, afraid to make a mistake. We had a crazy chance, and we did not want to miss it because of some trifles in the documents. There was also a dilemma about whether we should translate documents ourselves or contact specialists. We decided to partially make a transfer ourselves in order to save money. Zhenya and I had education documents with text in the national language. So I had to pay for the translation of the seals. In fact, we could leave everything as it is, but decided to play it safe. About $ 1000 was spent on paperwork, plus a mandatory visa fee for an interview: for the five, they gave $ 1650. And this did not mean that we will go.

Photo: personal archive

Parent Support

Our parents were unanimously in favor. My mother is a journalist and often went to work in the USA for work. It happened that she lived there for months. Therefore, she was very happy for us when she found out that it was there that we would go. The only thing that the parents were worried about is that now we will see even less often. But we are waiting for citizenship and we will be able to invite relatives to the United States. Our example inspired loved ones to play the lottery too. And we all hope that the family can at least partially reunite here.

City selection

Like many new immigrants, we wanted to live in Los Angeles. As a child, seen Hollywood movies. I wanted to be involved in this life and settle somewhere near Schwarzenegger or De Niro ... Then we really assessed the situation and decided to reconsider the decision. With three children, we did not dare to start in a big city. In truth, after St. Petersburg and Moscow, we wanted to find a more pleasant place.

In the end, we chose Ithaca. My father’s friend lives here. He spoke very well about the city: around the forest, Cornell University, the population - students and teachers. It all suited us. And despite the size, the infrastructure is well developed here, no worse than in the metropolis. Only with a big plus - the absence of queues and traffic jams. Moreover, in large cities, all shopping centers are usually on the outskirts, and we have it all near by. Malls are built in the forest, next to waterfalls and other beauty. Although they began to think about moving closer to the ocean.

Photo: personal archive

Moving to Ithaca, New York

When we decided on the city, many questions were solved by themselves. In Ithaca, we were met by Daddy’s friend Victor with all our 20 bags and loaded them into his truck. Fortunately, everything fit! At the airport, people asked us: “Where are you from?” From India?". So we looked from the side with these trunks, quite comical. Although they took only the most necessary. The Transaero company, which closed after our departure, allowed us to carry a certain number of bags for free. 250 kg all our good weighed. And plus hand luggage!

Not only did Victor meet us, he also rented an apartment to us in advance. We really liked it: 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms. In a nice cozy area. At first, of course, for us it was a little expensive. Therefore, we found a cheaper option.

Here is incredibly beautiful nature, lots of greenery, fresh air, and we often encounter forest dwellers. It happens, and with skunks! There are few cars here. Nice weekend ride, as if you were alone in the city. Apparently, we lacked so much privacy that we climbed away into the forest so that no one would touch us.

Photo: personal archive

New work - new life

We both have higher education: Zhenya is a specialist in finance and credit, and I am a specialist in international relations. But now I work in a factory. BorgWarner. This is a huge American corporation that has two large factories in Ithaca. We manufacture parts for cars, and all brands. Mostly American, but also for Japanese and European too. But I, in fact, no difference: for Lamborghini make chains or for Ford. Sometimes you have to work at night. But for me the most important thing is that the work is stable, they pay for it and I can support my family. Zhenya is now learning SMM management. In addition, we still have a channel on YouTube - 5 Lives USA. And this, as it turned out, is also a lot of work!

Photo: personal archive

The nuances of American medicine

We were warned that we did not expect anything special from the doctors in the outback and that the best doctors were in the megalopolises. However, I only had a positive experience with doctors. For work, I went to Pennsylvania - it's not far from us, 30 is a few minutes drive. There I went to the clinic and it was as if I was on the series Doctor House. Many doctors, space, light. And the doctors are good. I especially liked the oculist. The spouse believes that this is because I have not been checked.

Yes, if I had to pay for everything myself, I would absolutely not like medicine! Expensive, uninteresting, and in general - nothing hurts me! Insurance is one of the biggest benefits of living in America. Especially when you just arrived in the country and you still have a small and unstable income. And the first time you can not worry about the fact that your children will suddenly be left without medical care. When I later switched to another insurance, I felt some inconvenience. After all, for it you need to give a significant part of the salary. But the main thing is that social insurance does not cover all medical procedures - only the most necessary. For example, to increase the breast for free you definitely will not work. At work, I made a great insurance, and one of the cheapest: about $ 6000 is allocated to a family. I had to pay extra for the services of an oculist and a dentist, but not much.

Photo: personal archive

Plus life in the United States - a sense of freedom and security

I like the feeling of freedom here. Although friends ask: "And what, you were not free in Russia?" It turns out, really. Here you can breathe and think more freely, you do not strain yourself, you are not afraid that someone will break into you, take something from you or somehow harm it. You just live, pay taxes and feel protected. Yes, no crime is complete. But mostly it is in big cities. And in Ithaca, quietly and quietly, there are local alcoholics and drug addicts, but they are harmless and a handful somewhere in the center. The city has a lot of security, after all, Cornell University is considered one of the best. And it is important for the state, so the territory is carefully guarded and guarded.

I am still very touched by how young people feel about their elders. My wife and I were brought up so that we are crazy to see some moments in the behavior of children. Here, parents are afraid to scold a child or say something wrong. And this led to the fact that children are insolent, behave provocatively, and indeed can report to the police. And so they relate not only to parents, but also to adults in general.

Photo: personal archive

And in the end ...

The most important thing is never to despair. If you decide you want to leave, hold on to any chance. Even if the lottery fails, try other options, other countries. We, for example, considered Israel, the Czech Republic and even Montenegro. If you decide that you want to change something in your life, you need to get up, start acting, sell everything and leave. In addition, besides the lottery there are plenty of other options. How many examples were there when people without a green card came to the USA and were already in place. There would be a desire.

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