July 2004 Archives

This week, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) released Public Notice 4765, which offers adjusted fees for consular services and would become effective October 1, 2004.

The DV Lottery surcharge for immigrant visa will be raised from $100 to $375!! That's what you have to pay when you win and then still want to apply for a visa. Participating in the lottery will stay free. Basically people who win to lottery have to pay for those who lose.....

read more at regulations.gov

--------------------
The Schedule increases the Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery surcharge
for a diversity immigrant visa application from $100 to $375. The
Department has legal authority to collect the surcharge only from
persons who are selected through the lottery process and therefore
qualify to apply for a DV visa, and to set it at a level sufficient to
cover the entire cost of running the lottery. The current $100 DV fee
recovers only some of the costs of the program, with remaining costs
recovered through appropriations. In order to make the DV surcharge
more consistent with the costs the Department is authorized to recover
through the surcharge and with the full-cost recovery basis on which
other consular fees are set and collected, the proposed increase allows
for full recovery of all costs, both direct and indirect, from those
who are selected through the lottery process and apply for a DV visa.
The fee will continue to be collected from everyone selected in the
lottery who pursues an application for DV status.
--------------------

The Register reports that a Florida couple has been sent to jail for 37 months after pleading guilty to mail fraud offences in connection with a Green card Scam.

Again, participation in the lottery is free. No charge, so you never have to pay for it. You can however, ask somebody else to help you fill in the necessary forms. And they can charge money for that. Sweety and I didn’t use a company to fill in the forms for us. Since it’s basically just your name, date of birth and current address they want, we managed our selves :)

So finally TheJob called me yesterday! They called me at work and caught me a bit by surprise. The lady started:…. “I’m sorry to inform you….”, oh no! I thought I wouldn’t get the job… she continued: “….we haven’t send our recommendation to the personnel department yet.” There's a delay beacause of some people being on vacation. So it turns out that they’ll contact me again next week to tell me if I got the job or not! I’m glad they called to inform me, now I can go a couple of days without thinking it’s them each time me phone rings. Since I work at an IT support desk my phone rings a lot :).

Anouk forwarded me an e-mail sent to her by the International Student Office of George Washington University. Here it is:

------------------------------
It has been brought to our attention that an email message (from
“dvlottery2004-2005 dvlottery.state.gov”) is currently in mass circulation.
PLEASE DISREGARD THIS EMAIL! The message is a hoax and actually originates
from the French ISP “caramail.com” and not from the United States government.
The message states that you have “Won the DV lottery” and targets
international students and scholars living within the United States. You
will be asked to give your personal information, submit a picture of yourself
and submit a fee of US$349.67.
------------------------------

You can find more information about this scam at Siskind’s Immigration Bulletin.

Thanks Anouk!

They said ten days... and today is day ten.... please TheJob! Call me!

One day I hope to be blogging about this ;) This weblog is from a Dutchy that moved to the States six years ago and filed to become an American citizen.

http://thenewcitizen.blogspot.com/

The Bureau of Consular Affairs of the Department of State has launched a new layout for their website. But why did they post the May bulletin nr. 69.... everybody is waiting for nr 72!

Everytime my phone rings I hope it's somebody from TheJob telling me I got the job... I can't stand it!! Call me already!!

Man, Sweety gave me her cold and it makes me so tired! This morning I had a interview at KONE (going up!). I would have just loved to stay in bed. This is me just seconds before going in for the interview….

After that I went back to work. This week I’m at another office which is brand new. It’s really nice. It has air-conditioning, that’s unique in The Netherlands. Everybody is complaining about it, that’s very common in The Netherlands! But I like it, at the other office it’s to hot for me and I sweat a lot. Maybe I shouldn’t work so hard :)

Anyway, I was the last man standing again tonight and decided to make a picture of me and the empty office.

Well, it seems we haven’t won a Green Card in this years Diversity Lottery. Winners have been notified between May and July. We weren’t among them. So better luck next year! Or… will there even be a next lottery? The U.S. Green Card Lottery has come under attack by certain government officials and organizations that would like to see the program ended.

"The bottom line is it's a program that can be taken advantage of by hostile intelligence officers or terrorists," said Anne W. Patterson, deputy inspector general for the State Department.

The Center for Immigration Studies called for the elimination of the Green Card Lottery, claiming the visa lottery is the perfect means of immigration for a terrorist lucky enough to be selected.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), a former immigration lawyer, introduced a bill (H.R. 775) last year to eliminate the visa lottery, though it hasn’t been acted on yet.

Now, after reading a lot about it I understand the flaws in the current program. It doesn’t provide diversity at all. So changing it might be a good idea. But canceling would not suit America. I think it should always be possible for people to move to the US without a family member or employer sponsoring them. Just pack your backs, get on a plane and follow your dream. Isn’t that the American Way? Why is it that people in favor of canceling the Diversity Lottery don’t come up with an alternative?

I know Sweety and I will get a permanent visa, one way or another. Just like terrorists will find their way in the country. I mean, all you need is a company willing to fill in a form saying that they need you. You really think a terrorist can't find one? His terrorist friends will start a company and fill in the forms. They're not going to gamble on a lottery.

So come up with a program that lets Sweety and me in! We’ll work hard and take care of ourselfs.

About a month ago i responded to a vacancy notice at TheJob. And last Wednesday I received an e-mail from their recruitment department asking me to call them to make an appointment.
So this is me on my way to a test on Thursday….

And this is me getting ready for the job interview Friday, you can see our new mirror is still hanging :)…

It was my first job interview in English and with a panel of three, it made me a bit nervous but I think I did just fine. There are a total of four candidates left and I hope they choose me! TheJob is an international organization and the most used official language is English (others are Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese and Arabic). Working there would be a great preparation for me on our way to working in the States. One of the people in the Panel was clearly American and I think he’ll be my supervisor, when I get the job :)

Here's a picture of the TheJob building and my new company car? Nah, I think it belongs to one of the North Sea Jazz artists. TheJobbuilding is right in between the festival location and the Bel Air Hotel where most artists are staying and where I spotted this brand new Chrysler 300.

So we lost the game against Portugal....

At least we can stop dressing in orange. Or should i say undressing.