The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.

Deployed at the airport of a foreign country: how the winners of the green card lottery were closed the way to the USA

'06.02.2021'

Source: dv2020.help

We already wrote that in connection with the ban on legal immigrants from entering the United States adopted by the 45th President Donald Trump, thousands of winners of the DV-2020 green card lottery lost the chance to fulfill their dreams and move to the USA... Some of them never had a chance to attend interviews, and some were “deployed” at the airport with children and pets. We bring to the attention of our readers the story of a family from Belarus, which was not allowed on board at Istanbul airport, next to the United States, even with an immigrant visa.

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First-person story published on the site dv2020.help, spelling and punctuation of the author are preserved.

“We are a family from Belarus. Found out about winning the lottery when I was pregnant. Oh, dreams come true, and the number was not big, up to 10000, which promised good luck.

They were in no hurry to send the documents, who knew ... they were waiting for the child to grow up. The interview in Warsaw was scheduled for early April. We planned a new life, dreamed, my husband's brother lives in the USA, he was already making plans for a meeting. For two weeks the interview was canceled, well, nothing, I thought, we'll leave soon. But then the proclamation, its further extension in June, and it became clear that we were not in time until the end of the financial year. We almost surrendered, but here is again a new hope, a chance - a court decision of September 4 was issued and the opportunity to obtain visas. And again obstacles, the political situation, a pandemic and closed borders, and an interview in Warsaw. Excitement, nerves, correspondence with the embassies, and here we, citizens of the Republic of Belarus, have a window of only a week and a half for passing a medical examination, obtaining Schengen visas and passing an interview. We were among the few in time, and three long-awaited visas appeared in our passports.

On the subject: Unfulfilled dream: how the winners of the green card lottery lost their chances of living in the USA

Further waiting again. After Biden's victory, the belief in an early fulfillment of the dream increased. We bought suitcases, tickets and waited for a month, reading all the news to see if the ban was being extended. Everything is quiet, nothing indicated it. They sold a car, some property, my husband quit his job. We bought tickets on 31.12.2020/01/2021 to Istanbul and on January 31, 1 in the USA, they decided, since there is no information about the extension of the ban, we will fly away, and it was symbolic - a new life in the new year. On the evening of December 5 we flew to Istanbul. At that time, the daughter was only 31 year and 2021 months old. We celebrated the New Year in Istanbul on a plane. With the same lucky ones as we were discussing plans, laughed. But now in Istanbul we were caught up with the news about the extension of the proclamation until March 21, XNUMX. By the way, we have visas until March XNUMX. Confusion is not quite the right word to describe our condition. We are, in the middle of the way, in a strange camp, with a small child and suitcases. What's next? A ticket back on New Year's holidays costs almost the same as for the entire flight to the United States. A lot of money was spent on medical examinations, visas, tickets. The last hope for departure was dashed at the Istanbul airport when checking in for the flight, where they said that we could not be allowed on board. Next day of waiting at the airport. The airport staff were helpful and helped us with tickets home, and the next morning we were on our way home.

We were devastated and frustrated. We didn’t fly for good luck, we flew after going through all the formal procedures, checks, interviews, paid all the fees due. We have a valid visa and legal basis to enter the United States, but we cannot, and unless the proclamation is lifted, we cannot. It looks like cheating. We are law-abiding, it was never in our thoughts to deceive or illegally emigrate to the United States, or be dependents there. We want to live, work, build our new life and raise a child on a new land. The presidential proclamation is unfair, it infringes on our legal right to emigrate, it deprives us of hope, since all visas received in September expire by the end of March 2021. Due to the fact that the financial year 2020 is over, there is practically no chance of their extension ...

Our group of people is small, and therefore we do not carry any real threat to the labor market, but at the same time we are practically not noticed. When discussing emigration tasks before the new administration, they don't talk about us. We are all in a stressful, uncertain situation and are waiting for news, waiting for the ban to be lifted and dreams come true. "

More stories of the winners of the DV-2020 green card lottery, deprived of the chance of moving to the United States, can be found on the website dv2020.help.

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