Hello and good day everyone.
Basically I want to move to the United States and do it the best way possible, so I want to know well what to do, and I think the best for that is to consult as much as possible on internet, gather the information and organize it (which I already did), but what I found is very general, or about particular cases different from mine, so I think one of the best options left is to present my case in a forum like this.
1. Information about me.
This is information that I consider relevant (except for my name, that is only for formality):
My name is Andor Flandorffer, I was born January 27 of 1991, I was born and lived all my life in Medellín/Colombia, my father is Hungarian, I inherited his nationality, he is diversity visa eligible, I am not because he lived outside Hungary when I was born, and I have understood that that waives my eligibility, furthermore, I can use the visa waiver program (VWP), although I don’t think it can be very useful (even if the requirement to have a returning ticket is waived)*, an aunt of mine is a lawyer graduated in Colombia, and lastly I am waiting to have enough savings and/or monthly earnings from business in Medellín and/or internet so I can ensure a permanent and nice stay in Montecito or Santa Bárbara.
* With this I am referring to the 5th point of the 5th question in the page cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_visa/business_pleasure/vwp/vwp.xml that says:
Q: Who Is Eligible to Use the VWP?
A: To qualify for admission under the VWP, you must:
• Be a national of the VWP country that issued your passport;
• Have a passport lawfully issued to you by a VWP country that is valid for six months beyond your intended visit;
• Intend to enter the United States for 90 days or less for temporary business or pleasure;
• Have received approval for travel under the VWP via the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA)* prior to your travel to the United States;
• Have a return trip ticket to any foreign destination other than a territory bordering on the United States or an adjacent island unless:
• Not have failed to comply with the conditions of any previous admission under the Visa Waiver Program;
• If arriving by air or sea, you must arrive aboard a carrier that is signatory to the VWP. Waive any right to review, appeal or challenge a CBP Officer's decision as to your admissibility, other than on the basis of an application for asylum or an application for withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
* Information on ESTA may be found on the Travel page.
Getting not waived the requirement of having a returning ticket (if possible) would solve only the least of the limitations that I see the VWP has for me.
2. What I want.
3. Options I have, according to what I understood from my internet consultations.
As the VWP is very limited, from the beginning I discard it even as a step to begin the process (specially because the limitations that impede staying more than 3 months, or changing my status, which I see strongly against what I want to achieve).
I have clear that to live in any place on the United States as comfortable as any American (my main objective), the best is to (1) be a naturalized citizen, to achieve it I have to (2) live 5 years as a permanent citizen, which requires to (3) have a permanent visa (green card); now, I don’t know if there are alternatives to the point 3 to achieve point 2, alternatives to point 2 to achieve point 1 or alternatives to point 1 to achieve my main objective, so the only thing left is to search how to have a permanent visa, so most of what I have written below are what I consider the best ways to achieve it:
If luckily my father wins a diversity visa, I would have the right to obtain a similar visa, but I don’t know well the details, and I couldn’t find nothing to clear up the doubts I have, the best I could find is on the 5th page of the document travel.state.gov/pdf/DV-2011instructions.pdf under the title ‘Selection of applicants’ at the paragraph’s end and says: “Successful entrants’ spouses and unmarried children under age 21 may also apply for visas to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant.”, that way I could apply for one of these visas, but it seems to be no information about what kind of visas are these, what I have to do to apply for (and to later obtain) these visas, nor information to clarify something very important, and it’s that if my citation’s last sentence (… to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant.) does imply that I won’t be able to go to the United States if my father doesn’t go, and more importantly, if it also implies that I will only be able to stay in the United States while my father stays (as long as I don’t obtain another way to stay, for example another visa), it’s very important because even though my father is very willing to help me, he has very important plans to do in Hungary that…, in few words, he doesn’t want to go to the United States and much less to stay.
I have understood that if, in the best case scenario, my father wins this visa, the process to obtain it lasts 2 years, so minimum until 2012 I have to find another way to live in the United States, so as long as I don’t have that visa I will follow the processes that will let me achieve my objectives even if I never obtain it, but ask my father every year to apply for this visa as long as I don’t obtain a better way to stay in the United States.*
My father has a brother that is eligible too, but I don’t know how much that can help me, and the fact that I will be 21 in 2 years makes it harder.
Investor visas seem a good option, but because the requirements they have I want to let them among the last options I would consider, mainly because I will have to engage (relate, associate…) with a company according one of the criteria of these visas, and before doing something like that I want to discuss the criteria (and other things) in person with the company which I will have to serve that way; by in person I mean going to United States, and I would have to search some way to go that lets me stay until I have the visa if it’s still the best option.*
Regarding student visas, I thought in the case in which the company would prefer me to make some study before working and/or serving as an investor; one of the other few ways I see I have left to use one of these visas is to find one that lets me study English (in my case actually perfect it) freely and autodidactically, (although I don’t really believe this option to work better than a not so helpful excuse).
* One of the possible ways to stay in the United States while my father doesn’t win the diversity visa or while I come to an agreement with the company is the following idea (that I haven’t studied much so it can have errors):
It’s based on using a visa (tourist or similar, and/or the VWP) finding the way to use the visa (investor, diversity or student) as soon as I get it (that is, change my status, as I know, so I don’t think the VWP would be very useful).
To do it well there are some factors to consider, and I think the most important is the time that I will be without the visa (investor, diversity or student), which I don’t know how much it can be, but I am quite sure of coming to an agreement (mainly to be told how or by what criteria they prefer me to obtain and use the investor or student visa) informally in less than a month and formally in more or less a month (which can include paperwork and whatever is necessary), the only thing left is to know how much can take the rest (which I think is just visa related) to know better which method I would use for this idea.
According something I read, it seems that at some point giving up any foreign nationality (citizenship in said text) will be necessary (at least in the form of an oath), so I was wondering if at any moment it would be convenient to bring forward something about this, I wouldn’t like to renounce to my Hungarian nationality, but I really don’t care about the Colombian, so I wonder if it would be convenient to start renouncing to this if it starts to bring inconveniences, and from my point of view I see at least one possibility (although I don’t know whether large or small) of something like that happening.
Another option would be using some renewable visa (I think tourist ones are the only option), and renewing it constantly so I can live in a way as similar as the one I want, or do it until I achieve a better way to live, but I know (or at least I guess) the kind of limitations this kind of visas have regarding what I want.
A final (but fantastic) possibility would be that I could offer something special enough to be wanted anywhere (obviously that mainly in United States); what made think about this (even as a very remote hope) is something I read about a special type of blood; not that I want something similar to be true, instead I rather mean that it may be worth to consider each possibility not regarding if it seems odd or improbable. As a simple comment maybe not so relevant, the only thing I know about my blood is that I am O- (Universal donor), but I think that my three semesters on “ingeniería física” (physical engineering) may be worthier.
I know that it’s better (at least for me) that I finish as soon as possible the processes I have to perform to move to the United States, but I would like to be informed about which steps of the processes I will have to realize would be deferrable, for how long and how, in case something unexpected happens, but actually is because I want to have more control over my free time.
In short:
4. Last (minor) details.
Maybe I will have to find out this by myself in Montecito, but I would like to know how can I provide myself with typical food of the region (at home delivery preferably), not that I am not good for cooking, but because I want to have more free time, and be sure to have a nutritious, energetic and healthy diet.
Any additional information, tip or advice you may have can be useful, so don’t limit yourselves only for omitting information that seems obvious or superfluous.
Except if it’s about homes in Montecito, because only right there I will be able to know the only information that will make me take a decision.
Because of the length (and complexity) of my case and my post I know some time can pass before I get a complete answer (maybe some days, however I hope not as much as a week).
Meanwhile, I would also like to know some tips on what I can do before and/or after arriving to the United States to improve my skills to speak and understand spoken English.
I want to be sure to improve my English as much as possible, so I think trying to achieve the following objectives would quite help:
- Learn that which someone who would want to be a good English teacher for English speaking Americans would have to learn.
- Know the proper pronunciation of each word according different accents, so I can understand best different kind of people, and talk to them so they feel comfortable with me equal or better than with someone of the same region or nationality.
- Regarding pronunciation, I also think that tying to learn to read lips could help.
- Be able to understand and sing the best possible even the hardest songs in the minimum of attempts possible, ideally the first.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.
Basically I want to move to the United States and do it the best way possible, so I want to know well what to do, and I think the best for that is to consult as much as possible on internet, gather the information and organize it (which I already did), but what I found is very general, or about particular cases different from mine, so I think one of the best options left is to present my case in a forum like this.
To have it organized, I divided my case in the following sections:
1. Information about me.
2. What I want.
3. Options I have, according to what I understood from my internet consultations.
4. Last (minor) details.
1. Information about me.
2. What I want.
3. Options I have, according to what I understood from my internet consultations.
4. Last (minor) details.
1. Information about me.
This is information that I consider relevant (except for my name, that is only for formality):
My name is Andor Flandorffer, I was born January 27 of 1991, I was born and lived all my life in Medellín/Colombia, my father is Hungarian, I inherited his nationality, he is diversity visa eligible, I am not because he lived outside Hungary when I was born, and I have understood that that waives my eligibility, furthermore, I can use the visa waiver program (VWP), although I don’t think it can be very useful (even if the requirement to have a returning ticket is waived)*, an aunt of mine is a lawyer graduated in Colombia, and lastly I am waiting to have enough savings and/or monthly earnings from business in Medellín and/or internet so I can ensure a permanent and nice stay in Montecito or Santa Bárbara.
* With this I am referring to the 5th point of the 5th question in the page cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_visa/business_pleasure/vwp/vwp.xml that says:
Q: Who Is Eligible to Use the VWP?
A: To qualify for admission under the VWP, you must:
• Be a national of the VWP country that issued your passport;
• Have a passport lawfully issued to you by a VWP country that is valid for six months beyond your intended visit;
• Intend to enter the United States for 90 days or less for temporary business or pleasure;
• Have received approval for travel under the VWP via the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA)* prior to your travel to the United States;
• Have a return trip ticket to any foreign destination other than a territory bordering on the United States or an adjacent island unless:
1. You are a resident of an adjacent island,
2. This requirement is waived by the Attorney General under regulations, or
3. You are a visitor for business who arrives aboard a private aircraft that maintains a valid agreement guaranteeing to transport you out of the United States, if you are found to be inadmissible or deportable;
• Present to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer a completed and signed Form I-94W, Nonimmigrant Visa Waiver Arrival/Departure Form. ( Visa Waiver Program Applicant Responsibilities )2. This requirement is waived by the Attorney General under regulations, or
3. You are a visitor for business who arrives aboard a private aircraft that maintains a valid agreement guaranteeing to transport you out of the United States, if you are found to be inadmissible or deportable;
• Not have failed to comply with the conditions of any previous admission under the Visa Waiver Program;
• If arriving by air or sea, you must arrive aboard a carrier that is signatory to the VWP. Waive any right to review, appeal or challenge a CBP Officer's decision as to your admissibility, other than on the basis of an application for asylum or an application for withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
* Information on ESTA may be found on the Travel page.
Getting not waived the requirement of having a returning ticket (if possible) would solve only the least of the limitations that I see the VWP has for me.
2. What I want.
A. Live in Montecito or Santa Bárbara (not very close to the seashore) as I want, to start, my first objective could be a 5 decades, however it wouldn’t be bad a minimum of 10 years.
B. Have the right to get whatever job I want, I know very well that I will have to take upon myself to qualify for the job (studies, experience, etc.) but I don’t want to be limited for not being American or for having done something wrong in my immigration process.
C. Have the right to make whatever studies I want (for example any higher education).
D. Have (1) the right to travel across California (for now I don’t know how much but I think it will be somewhat uncomfortable to have limitations to leave a small city), (2) the right to travel across the United States (for now this point is less important for me than the previous), and (3) the right to travel outside the United States (equally, this point is even less important for me than the previous).
B. Have the right to get whatever job I want, I know very well that I will have to take upon myself to qualify for the job (studies, experience, etc.) but I don’t want to be limited for not being American or for having done something wrong in my immigration process.
C. Have the right to make whatever studies I want (for example any higher education).
D. Have (1) the right to travel across California (for now I don’t know how much but I think it will be somewhat uncomfortable to have limitations to leave a small city), (2) the right to travel across the United States (for now this point is less important for me than the previous), and (3) the right to travel outside the United States (equally, this point is even less important for me than the previous).
3. Options I have, according to what I understood from my internet consultations.
As the VWP is very limited, from the beginning I discard it even as a step to begin the process (specially because the limitations that impede staying more than 3 months, or changing my status, which I see strongly against what I want to achieve).
I have clear that to live in any place on the United States as comfortable as any American (my main objective), the best is to (1) be a naturalized citizen, to achieve it I have to (2) live 5 years as a permanent citizen, which requires to (3) have a permanent visa (green card); now, I don’t know if there are alternatives to the point 3 to achieve point 2, alternatives to point 2 to achieve point 1 or alternatives to point 1 to achieve my main objective, so the only thing left is to search how to have a permanent visa, so most of what I have written below are what I consider the best ways to achieve it:
If luckily my father wins a diversity visa, I would have the right to obtain a similar visa, but I don’t know well the details, and I couldn’t find nothing to clear up the doubts I have, the best I could find is on the 5th page of the document travel.state.gov/pdf/DV-2011instructions.pdf under the title ‘Selection of applicants’ at the paragraph’s end and says: “Successful entrants’ spouses and unmarried children under age 21 may also apply for visas to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant.”, that way I could apply for one of these visas, but it seems to be no information about what kind of visas are these, what I have to do to apply for (and to later obtain) these visas, nor information to clarify something very important, and it’s that if my citation’s last sentence (… to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant.) does imply that I won’t be able to go to the United States if my father doesn’t go, and more importantly, if it also implies that I will only be able to stay in the United States while my father stays (as long as I don’t obtain another way to stay, for example another visa), it’s very important because even though my father is very willing to help me, he has very important plans to do in Hungary that…, in few words, he doesn’t want to go to the United States and much less to stay.
I have understood that if, in the best case scenario, my father wins this visa, the process to obtain it lasts 2 years, so minimum until 2012 I have to find another way to live in the United States, so as long as I don’t have that visa I will follow the processes that will let me achieve my objectives even if I never obtain it, but ask my father every year to apply for this visa as long as I don’t obtain a better way to stay in the United States.*
My father has a brother that is eligible too, but I don’t know how much that can help me, and the fact that I will be 21 in 2 years makes it harder.
Investor visas seem a good option, but because the requirements they have I want to let them among the last options I would consider, mainly because I will have to engage (relate, associate…) with a company according one of the criteria of these visas, and before doing something like that I want to discuss the criteria (and other things) in person with the company which I will have to serve that way; by in person I mean going to United States, and I would have to search some way to go that lets me stay until I have the visa if it’s still the best option.*
Regarding student visas, I thought in the case in which the company would prefer me to make some study before working and/or serving as an investor; one of the other few ways I see I have left to use one of these visas is to find one that lets me study English (in my case actually perfect it) freely and autodidactically, (although I don’t really believe this option to work better than a not so helpful excuse).
* One of the possible ways to stay in the United States while my father doesn’t win the diversity visa or while I come to an agreement with the company is the following idea (that I haven’t studied much so it can have errors):
It’s based on using a visa (tourist or similar, and/or the VWP) finding the way to use the visa (investor, diversity or student) as soon as I get it (that is, change my status, as I know, so I don’t think the VWP would be very useful).
To do it well there are some factors to consider, and I think the most important is the time that I will be without the visa (investor, diversity or student), which I don’t know how much it can be, but I am quite sure of coming to an agreement (mainly to be told how or by what criteria they prefer me to obtain and use the investor or student visa) informally in less than a month and formally in more or less a month (which can include paperwork and whatever is necessary), the only thing left is to know how much can take the rest (which I think is just visa related) to know better which method I would use for this idea.
According something I read, it seems that at some point giving up any foreign nationality (citizenship in said text) will be necessary (at least in the form of an oath), so I was wondering if at any moment it would be convenient to bring forward something about this, I wouldn’t like to renounce to my Hungarian nationality, but I really don’t care about the Colombian, so I wonder if it would be convenient to start renouncing to this if it starts to bring inconveniences, and from my point of view I see at least one possibility (although I don’t know whether large or small) of something like that happening.
Another option would be using some renewable visa (I think tourist ones are the only option), and renewing it constantly so I can live in a way as similar as the one I want, or do it until I achieve a better way to live, but I know (or at least I guess) the kind of limitations this kind of visas have regarding what I want.
A final (but fantastic) possibility would be that I could offer something special enough to be wanted anywhere (obviously that mainly in United States); what made think about this (even as a very remote hope) is something I read about a special type of blood; not that I want something similar to be true, instead I rather mean that it may be worth to consider each possibility not regarding if it seems odd or improbable. As a simple comment maybe not so relevant, the only thing I know about my blood is that I am O- (Universal donor), but I think that my three semesters on “ingeniería física” (physical engineering) may be worthier.
I know that it’s better (at least for me) that I finish as soon as possible the processes I have to perform to move to the United States, but I would like to be informed about which steps of the processes I will have to realize would be deferrable, for how long and how, in case something unexpected happens, but actually is because I want to have more control over my free time.
In short:
I want to know the best way to achieve what I want (just as is written in section 2. ‘What I want.’), and (as I already said) I think that (according what I found on internet) is among the options of section 3, so I want to clarify the doubts I have regarding these, basically are:
1. To live in any place of the United States as comfortable as any American (my main objective), is the best to be a naturalized citizen? to achieve this, do I have to live 5 years as a permanent citizen? does this require a permanent visa (green card)? and if it is so, the best way to get one (regardless if it is or not among the options I mentioned), which would it be?
2. A. What kind of visas are those for which the children under age 21 of the successful entrant (my father) may also apply?
2. B. What do I have to do to apply for (and to later obtain) these visas?
2. C. Does my citation’s last sentence (… to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant.) imply that I won’t be able to go to the United States if my father doesn’t go?, and more importantly, does it also implies that I will only be able to stay in the United States while my father stays (as long as I don’t obtain another way to stay, for example another visa)?
2. D. From which moment will no longer be worthy for my father to continue applying for the diversity visa?
3. Which kind of visa (or method) is more convenient for me to stay in the United States while my father doesn’t win the diversity visa, while I come to an agreement with the company or while I achieve a better way to stay?
4. If at any moment I have to renounce to one (or both) of my nationalities, which would be the best way to keep the Hungarian one as longer as possible? and, how convenient would be to renounce to the Colombian one (or bring forward anything regarding this process) to avoid present or potential inconveniences?
5. How convenient would be the renewable visas to achieve what I want (at least temporarily or in case the other (possibilities) don’t work)?
2. A. What kind of visas are those for which the children under age 21 of the successful entrant (my father) may also apply?
2. B. What do I have to do to apply for (and to later obtain) these visas?
2. C. Does my citation’s last sentence (… to accompany or follow-to-join the principal applicant.) imply that I won’t be able to go to the United States if my father doesn’t go?, and more importantly, does it also implies that I will only be able to stay in the United States while my father stays (as long as I don’t obtain another way to stay, for example another visa)?
2. D. From which moment will no longer be worthy for my father to continue applying for the diversity visa?
3. Which kind of visa (or method) is more convenient for me to stay in the United States while my father doesn’t win the diversity visa, while I come to an agreement with the company or while I achieve a better way to stay?
4. If at any moment I have to renounce to one (or both) of my nationalities, which would be the best way to keep the Hungarian one as longer as possible? and, how convenient would be to renounce to the Colombian one (or bring forward anything regarding this process) to avoid present or potential inconveniences?
5. How convenient would be the renewable visas to achieve what I want (at least temporarily or in case the other (possibilities) don’t work)?
4. Last (minor) details.
Maybe I will have to find out this by myself in Montecito, but I would like to know how can I provide myself with typical food of the region (at home delivery preferably), not that I am not good for cooking, but because I want to have more free time, and be sure to have a nutritious, energetic and healthy diet.
Any additional information, tip or advice you may have can be useful, so don’t limit yourselves only for omitting information that seems obvious or superfluous.
Except if it’s about homes in Montecito, because only right there I will be able to know the only information that will make me take a decision.
Because of the length (and complexity) of my case and my post I know some time can pass before I get a complete answer (maybe some days, however I hope not as much as a week).
Meanwhile, I would also like to know some tips on what I can do before and/or after arriving to the United States to improve my skills to speak and understand spoken English.
I want to be sure to improve my English as much as possible, so I think trying to achieve the following objectives would quite help:
- Learn that which someone who would want to be a good English teacher for English speaking Americans would have to learn.
- Know the proper pronunciation of each word according different accents, so I can understand best different kind of people, and talk to them so they feel comfortable with me equal or better than with someone of the same region or nationality.
- Regarding pronunciation, I also think that tying to learn to read lips could help.
- Be able to understand and sing the best possible even the hardest songs in the minimum of attempts possible, ideally the first.
Thank you very much for your time and attention.