This week the Diversity Visa 2023 just opened. We did not apply yet, we still have to make good photos for all 4 of us, but we will most certainly apply for the second year, the second try. This year we’ll submit two applications, one for me as the main applicant and one for my wife Catalina as the main applicant. Basically, we’ll have two chances rather than one like we did last year.

One of the first questions we get from friends is why? I have a nice paying job in Romania, as a programmer, I will always find a decent job that pays well and I can do more stuff than others just because I have more money. At least in theory.

Well… we have various reasons why we want to give the USA a try, and I will try to outline some in this short article.

First… at least from the outside, the USA seems like the country in which you feel the highest level of freedom. Basically, every country looks at its example and tries to copy or implement the same steps regarding democracy and civil rights. Again, this is how it looks from the outside while living in the EU begins to feel like we’re heading in the opposite direction. EU is a great thing, on paper, but especially during this coronavirus pandemic we’ve seen civil rights abandoned in the name of “being safe”. I don’t like that and if something like this pandemic made us move in this direction, imagine what war or something on a different scale would do to our rights in this community of European countries.

Second thing is that our country, Romania, deeply tries to copy the American lifestyle and American culture. Why copy it when you can live in the original version? From the way we talk, the way we dress, and down every little thing, we’re trying to be Americans, but all that we can achieve is a very low-quality and sovietic-Balkanic version of being an American.

The third thing on our list: our own kids would have much more opportunities there. I landed a well-paying job and I really enjoy doing what I do for a living. But not everyone likes programming and well.. programming is not for anyone. There are other well-paying jobs here but it is very hard to make a great living out of those. While the USA seems like a land of opportunity: there are a lot of great schools, you can make money in a lot more ways than you can do here. I’ve heard a lot of stories from persons that started walking dogs or delivering newspapers and they made enough so they can open a bigger business and then after a while another one that is even bigger. Basically, you can make money if you see a need a try to fulfill it. While in Romania if you’re not bribing anyone you will hit resistance on the way.

And the more I think about it, the more sense it makes: what should I do with money, no matter how much I am earning? Build something else in our house? Invest in a place where we’ll stay forever and grow old here? In the USA if you make money you really have a lot of ways to start using your money. Not trying to sound materialistic, but you have thousands of shops, thousands of choices for food and groceries, and so on. Living in an eastern-mostly-poor country limits your options in terms of spending your money. You either pay for super-high services or products or travel to more western countries that have more to offer. And then, you cannot travel so much with kids going to school and also if you’re 90% out of your native country, while bother staying there after all?

The only thing that sucks about moving to another continent is the fact that you’re living the family and friends behind. This is not really a problem in this century with the technology we have. 20-30 years ago I had an uncle, aunt, and 3 cousins in the USA and it was a really hard time to communicate back then. At first, they did send letters I think, one per year. Then we had dial-up and they had broadband and we could communicate via email with a few photos. But in this century and year, you can always Facetime someone on the other side of the world. You’re a few seconds away from writing on WhatsApp. Also, if you make a decent amount of money you can afford to pay your parents for plane tickets and ask them to stay with you for a month per year. Or even travel for a while back in Romania when the kids are on vacation.

Others that moved to the USA told that the lack of friends is hurting. First of all, we’re not the most sociable family. We have friends and we meet in a group of friends, but this took time to build. We’re not making friends overnight. On the other hand, we’re Christians and we frequently go to church. The church is a great way to find friends, especially since you can find Romanian Churches in the USA and you meet another fellow Romanians there.

Yes, it might be hard to restart from 0 and start building a new life out there especially since here we’re comfortable enough, we have a decent amount of money and we have our own place. But life is not always about being comfortable, sometimes it’s about getting out of the comfort zone and try to reach the next level. For us, a new continent and new possibilities for both our kids and us would be this next level.

It is a shame that the American system relies on “fate” to allow new immigrants into that beautiful country because I am sure we will integrate so well there and bring value to that society. But hey, since that is the primary way to immigrate there, for now, we’ll keep trying and these days we will apply for the Diversity Visa 2023 program. We have a really small chance to win, and that’s a shame, but we will keep on trying to fulfill our… dream!

So this is a short article on why we would like to legally move to the USA. By the time we will have the real chance to immigrate there I will try to write more on this theme and about our reasons in detail. This was just a short intro to this.