Green light

Many people ask me how I got my Green Card. The answer seems simple: I won the lottery. That suggests you write down your name somewhere and then wait if you ‘get lucky’ and receive a card.  Most people have heard about the Green card lottery, but it is actually called the Diversity Program and it’s a lot more like a competition than like a lottery.  Ten million people applied for the DV2009 program. 100.000 (including 82 Belgians) made it to the ’second round’ and about 50.000 people  made it to the end and received a Green Card.

Without really realizing what I was doing I filled out the on line application form on December 2nd, 2007, only two hours before the deadline. I hit submit and forgot about the application almost straight away. Four months later, in March 2008, I found a big white envelope in my mailbox which remained unopened for a couple of days. It said “Kentucky Consular Service”, which made me think of fried chicken. When I opened the letter, I didn’t really understand what I was reading at first. The language was pretty official. The document said I had been selected to take part in the DV2009 and described what I had to do next. It also informed me that my case number was 13xxx. Case numbers are randomly selected, so that part could be called a lottery.

After doing a bit of research I realized I had a great number! Even if all 13xxx-1 preceding me successfully completed their procedure I would still be under the 50.000 cap. I read the document over and over to make sure I really understood what I was diving into. It took me several months to complete all the forms attached to the letter and I finally filed everything in July 2008.

In January 2009 I received a new set of forms and a date for an interview at the American Embassy. I never thought I would get this far so I hadn’t gone through the trouble of collecting all the required documents. Now I had only about six weeks left to gather everything. I had to rush!  I had to provide a copy of all my diplomas,  a birth certificate, a blank police certificate, a military certificate, a bank statement and a clean bill of health. Next I had to visit a doctor for a physical exam and provide the results of blood work and a chest x-ray. And finally all those documents had to  be translated by a certified sworn translator.

Mid-February this year I drove to Brussels to hand in my paperwork and to finalize the procedure, which took about two hours. In the end this was the trickiest part of all the steps. One missing document or signature would be enough to get me out of the running. One signature was declared ‘not original’ because it was printed and my bank statements weren’t certified. I thought that would be the end of it, but I got the green light.  Next up was a short interview, finger printing and handing over of $750. A special document was stapled in my passport. From that moment on I had six months to travel to the States to receive and activate the actual card. I have until August 16th, 2009.

The whole procedure took 1,5 years but it didn’t require a lot of effort from my side. Counting the fee and all the costs to get the right documents, I spent about 1.100 euros. That seems a lot, but compared to what I get in return it really isn’t.  I get to live and work in a country with more than 300 million people with incredibly diverse backgrounds. If you factor in that this country has a reputation for being extremely difficult to get into, you’ll quickly understand that card is worth a whole lot more than 1.100 euros.