Green Card Lottery time!

Hi world.

It has been a long time since I’ve written an update for this site. I’ve got a few things to post (like I really should update my About Me to reflect my various Chicago activities). In the meantime, let me link to the website of someone who does actually put fingers to keyboard: I present Andrew Allen’s excellent and comprehensive article How to Win the Green Card Lottery.

Both Andrew and I come from Auckland, and we were both selected in the 2014 intake of Diversity Visa Lottery winners – in fact our consular interviews were just one day apart. We were connected by mutual theatre friends, and we ended up on the same variety show bill before we emigrated. Andrew now lives in New York City, where he quickly found work as a theatre publicist. I now live in Chicago, where my rent is three times smaller. read more

Get out please Robbie, head overseas.

So, news.

Uniquely American objects.

Uniquely American objects.

I have a US green card. Well, I have a thing in my passport which entitles me to enter the USA within the next five months and hold permanent residency.

It was nearly two years ago I entered the Diversity Visa lottery on a whim, but my number came up (literally) and I went for it. It’s been a long process – from entering the lottery to entering the United States will be 26 months all up – but hardly an arduous or harrowing one. All in all, if you meet the criteria and are careful and conscientious with your paperwork, getting from the chance stage to the “heck yes I got me a green card” stage is straightforward*. My interview at the US Consulate had remarkably few questions for me to answer – just a two-hour wait while I read some Thomas Mann. read more