How I Reached the US Territory
My story is identical to other people who came to this country as Refugees. We may have a slight different in terms of where we came from, but overall we came here for a purpose or to live in peace and start a new life.
I have been working as a translator with US armed forces for over 3 years from 2008-11+. Luckily, not much had had happened when I was there. The location of this job was not safe, at all. Of course we were sleeping in a small military base that was surrounded by US and Iraqi soldiers, but you weren't felt safe, again, at all.
Every night or each night we had dealt with sound of mortars, sirens, and guns been cleaned up in small tent or in a small building. Because our base was located in the middle of the city where most of the terrorist were watching us.
With all of these fears, we had to, sometimes, to make a vehicle patrolling. Evern vehicle patrolling required a translator to be presented in case of anything. Fears were great when we made a stop at any place especially in an open area, because they(US and Iraqi forces) had to make a checkpoints called a snap checkpoints. Snap checkpoints were held at any place if they had received an intel from trusted people.
Our regular hours of operation was simple, 24/7. We were at attention mode 24/7. Sometimes we had tasks in the middle of night, twilight, to dawn. Of course we were several translators to do this job, but remember, these jobs were not safe doing it. My main focus was on....
Every translator was able to apply for a US visa if he or she's completed a one year service with US armed forces. This visa was special, also has a special or unique name, called SIV. SIV stands for Special Immigrants Visa. These Visas were given to local people who, again, served US armed forces for a year with, this is an important point, with recommendation(s) from POS(point of contact). Your point of contact is either a lieutenant or a sergeant who deals with Translators schedules, issues, or vacations.
I am not going into the depth of the salary or even the vacation because I'd like to discreet on those, although they were nothing comparing to what we had done while in the job.
Finally, I've decided to apply for the Visa with the completion of the forms and recommendations, with other required documents. I got the Visa after a year from the date of the application submission. I was at home with my parents when I got a phone call from US embassy in Baghdad. I cannot interpreter how I felt so happy by him telling me ''sir, you got the US visa and your date and time is such.''
Unfortunately, I left my parents and brothers behind. I left my Mother behind me. I haven't seen my mom since then. But thanks to technologies that makes things easier to us that we can see and communicate with people that we love them.
In conclusion, this land is a land of opportunities, it is the land of many many religions that people from all around world have come and made it great. We can make it great too, right? by our good things, by showing natives what we can do, or what we have brought with us.
