Wow.
Word in the office is that our vice-director (at left) just won a lottery which qualifies him to move him and his entire family to the United States, where he'll be provided a job and a home and be able to become "American."
If you're looking a bit incredulous, that was my reaction too. I'm doing some recon to learn more, but the entire Cambodian staff ensures me that this is the real deal, and in fact, someone they all seem to know from the Provincial Department of Education won the same lottery recently. This POE man apparently migrated just last year and has spent at least one happy Christmas in the US celebrating in the home of new-found American friends.
Given how difficult it is to get a visa these days, and given the fact that our vice-director has very limited spoken English skills, I'm not exactly sure how all this works. I was just mentioning to some of the staff how a Canadian friend of mine at Google was turned away at the US border upon returning from a trip to visit friends and family because the occupation on her Google-issued work vis, "Computer Programmer" didn't match the occupation on her university degree, "Computer Science" (yes indeed, what is our country coming to?).
It's just another example of some of the hare-brained (and sometimes expensive or dangerous) schemes folks here seem to have to get out of the country to better things.
___________________________
Update as of 4/24
Sean kindly explained the deal to me:
Apparently, there is a lottery under the Diversity Visa program, which as far as i understand, is meant to ensure randomness in the visa selection process: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html
Fascinating.
View Jessica Daniel's profile
Posts
hey jess. miss you.
ReplyDeletethere is a lottery under the dv program, which as far as i understand, is meant to ensure randomness in the visa selection process: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html
i don't believe the visa guarantees citizenship, but i too was skeptical the first i heard about a lottery for such things. but one thing i've noticed in my travels is that some private companies have sprung up claiming to BE the lottery or "assisting" (without any assistance) with the otherwise-free process so that people, unaware they could apply to the visa lottery directly, would go through companies (of questionable repute).
so, if anybody you know is considering applying, i'm sure they would appreciate your help and objectivity in pointing to the resources and processes available to anybody -- and don't feel obliged to go through a company with a flashy advertisement.
hope to talk soon,
- sean
Wowsers. Thanks for the information. I was really totally flabbergasted by this whole idea. The crazy thing is, they promise a job and a house in addition to the lottery. And you're right, they do ask for an upfront "charge" of something like $8000.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'll write soon. Miss you lots too.
Jess