How to Get a Green Card

Okay, now that I’ve stopped bouncing off the walls, I think I can write some details down about the past few days…

Thursday Morning

I quite literally hadn’t put much (if any) thought into the outcome of the Green Card Lottery since my initial entry was submitted back in December of 2006.

So it’s now a phenomenally bizarre fact that I woke on Thursday the 19th of April 2007 and lay in bed wondering when applicants might start being notified about winning the DV Lottery.

My ponderous thoughts continued as I shuffled into the bathroom and then the kitchen as I went about my morning/pre-work routine… How did that friend-of-a-friend win her Green Card? Did she know someone in the US Government? Did someone pull a few strings for her? Is the whole “random lottery” a lie and do they really only choose the crème de la crème of applicants?

What about that Australian actor who plays Lincoln Burrows on “Prison Break” (Dominic Purcell)? I know he won the Green Card Lottery too, but how!? Did he get some special attention because he was already an established actor? Did he TOO pull strings!?

I raced to my computer (I work from a home office) to open the US Dept of State DV Lottery website - I wanted some information and I wanted it NOW! Surely there would be some indication of when people would start to be notified about winning…right? Wrong.

My questions (and considerable paranoia) were left unanswered and, as is the way for most people who work at a computer all day, I was quickly distracted by the exciting rush brought on by the sight of new emails waiting in my Inbox.

Thursday Afternoon

Post-lunch I decided it was time to distract myself from the massive amount of work I had to do and nip around to the supermarket to grab some groceries.

On the way home, I stopped to check my post office box and the one belonging to my housemate. After extracting an armful of your standard business size envelopes, I wrestled out a larger white envelope, expecting it to be a letter from a business women’s organisation I had recently joined.

And yet there in the top, left-hand corner of the front cover were the logo and words printed in black ink: US Department of State Kentucky Consular Center.

My heart stopped, eyes were twitching, hands trembling and mind racing with a million thoughts all in one second.

I knew I had won. You don’t receive ANY sort of response if you didn’t win. Before I even opened the envelope I quickly checked my housemate’s post office box as well - no envelope.

I set everything I was carrying down on a bench people generally use to address envelopes, gently gripping the large white envelope in one hand while I opened it with the other. My eyes went blurry after “Congratulations…” and I set the letter down onto the bench to prevent myself from bursting into a quivering mess.

I grabbed my phone and called about six friends, my mother, and my boyfriend - who all expressed a mere fraction of the surprise, confusion and elation I felt for the rest of the day.

What Does This All Mean?

To put it simply:

• 6.4 million people applied for the Green Card Lottery at the end of 2006.
• I am one of the 100,000 people selected at random to win the lottery.
• I now have to go through further processing and an interview.
• If I am deemed suitable for an interview, and provide all necessary paperwork and meet all of the US Dept of State’s eligibility requirements, I will be granted a visa during my interview.
• 50,000-55,000 visas are handed out each year.
• This means I have more than a 50% chance of receiving a visa!

I have entered the Green Card Lottery once before, without success in the late 90’s, and this time applied with only an extremely vague hope that maybe I might get lucky.

Little did I know that when setting the alarm reminder on my phone in early 2006 it would pay off so generously almost a year later!

Here’s more info about the Green Card Lottery Notification Letter!