Curious

[Perfect two 💑 1,147]

How many times, you (beneficiary) going back to your home country within a year. Did you missed your family a lot? What did you do when you miss them? 

[Sunnyland 639]

At the end of my first year here 2012 I went back to my home country for almost 2 months to see my family and friends because I was missing too much and they could not come to visit me here. I used my AP at that time and I almost was not admitted back at secondary room at POE.  The officer at sec room (a young lady) did not think it was a good idea for me to travel to see my family in my first year I guess. 

My second time to Argentina was in July 2014 I went for 1 month already with GC in had fortunately.

[Going through 5,671]

The first year, I didn't go back to my home country at all.  Missed my family a lot, but more so missed my way of living....even though Canada and the US are close in lifestyle, it's still different when actually *living* here, and I still experienced culture shock because so many things that I took for granted was now completely new to me.  It quickly became frustrating for me and I felt like nobody understood my  predicament.  Plus, the overall attitude of many NY'kers compared to many Canadians was something to "learn about" as well....  :/ 

 

For example, I no longer knew where to get the best pizza or best coffee in "my" city anymore..  I no longer knew what brands were better than other brands when grocery shopping.  I had to re-learn simple things I did without even thinking before:  like how to navigate public transit,  how to mail something, things like that.  Even ordering coffee was different in terms of lingo used.  So I started to miss the familiarity of my surroundings and being able to do things on my own and with confidence, more than I missed family/friends.

 

Now, I return to Canada at least 3 times a year, and I'm grateful that flights are cheap or I can drive there so it's easy to hop back and forth.  I miss the cuisine of Canada most of all...although I have been lucky enough to come across a few websites where I can get food items shipped to me. 

 

Food is a huge part of someone's culture, and sometimes just eating something familiar can make those feelings of "missing home" go away for a little while.

[gypsyqueen 103]

1 hour ago, MalaysiaUS said:

How many times, you (beneficiary) going back to your home country within a year. Did you missed your family a lot? What did you do when you miss them? 

I haven't gone back to my home country since December 2014. I miss my mom a lot. We call each other on Skype most of the time so it helps when I miss her. We talk about anything and everything. I usually call when she wakes up in the morning. She'll be preparing breakfast as I am preparing dinner over here. We share recipes. We even watch movies together (I put the camera phone towards my tv). When it's night time for her and morning for me, we'll chat until she falls asleep. When I hear her snoring, that's when I hang up on her. Of course, it would be nicer to be physically together but I'll take whatever I can until I get the chance to go home to her.

[mallafri76 1,012]

I’ve been in the US for 18 months now and haven’t been back to my home country yet. But I’m lucky to be from a VWP country so my parents have visited us three times in the US. And thanks to Skype and WhatsApp, I video chat with family and friends on a regular basis. 

 

I’m a citizen of the world, the US is like the 7th country I’ve lived in, so I have friends and family all over the world. I don’t really feel home sick because home is where I make it, it’s where I’m living right now. Five years from now, we might be living in New Zealand or Iceland and then that’s our home. 

 

[dentsflogged 352]

I feel like I'm probably in the minority here, but once I've got visa in hand and have moved, I doubt that I will ever return to my home country for any significant time (more than a week or so at a time), and certainly not within the first 2-3 years. I don't have close family in this country (my parents have both died, and I am not at all close to my brother - my Aunt that I AM close to lives in a different state to me right now and I see her maybe once every 4 years or so) and my close friends have already said that they're likely to visit me while I'm settling in there.  That's part of the reason why I've said that I will move though - I haven't got the strong family ties in Australia the way that my partner does in the US.  

 

Everyone is different though.  Some people will have very close families that they want to spend as much time as possible with, and some won't. 

[Umka36 781]

I promised my wife that she could go visit her home country annually before she got to the US. She took up that offer during her first year here and visited for 3 weeks. A year after that, we had our son and she hasn't been back (about 5 years now). She still has the option to go, but rather wait until our boys are older.

[-Trinity- 513]

On 10/21/2017 at 9:23 PM, mallafri76 said:

. 

 

I’m a citizen of the world, 

 

That use to be my motto, it still is but never expected that I will have to adjust to the American culture.

[-Trinity- 513]

Last year I had to cancel my tickets to my home country. When I booked them I didn't know that I will be married end of 2016. 
I thought it would be a piece of cake ,  I have been in the US since beginning  2015, but I was so wrong. I had a hard time not being able to travel to see my family. After the interview this year the first thing I did was book tickets.. It felt so good to see everyone and eat the food I missed so much!

 

I'm now planning at least going every year, tickets are expensive especially for an entire family. But I need that and I don't have any expensive hobbies not habits so that should be possible.

Edited October 25, 2017 by Beachlover