Everything started on a warm September day in 2016. A mobile phone, the cherished number of the International Exchange Center in Minsk, a pleasant female voice, a mini-interview in English, and there it was – the beginning of the journey across the ocean.

Next came checking emails, the first installment, filling out the application for the program, signing the contract, and... we, four third-year Belarusian students, were "in the game." Everything was quite easy and simple; even finding a job offer seemed like an easily solvable task. But as they say, if only... it turned out to be much more complicated than we thought. According to the program terms, we had to submit a job offer for verification by March 1, 2017. We were counting on the help of a good acquaintance who had already been there, across the ocean, in the summer of 2016 through the Work and Travel USA program. He had connections with employers in the USA, so we were sure that the job offer was in our pocket. However, at the last moment, my friends and I had to start looking for work on our own, which actually turned out to be quite a difficult task, considering we had less and less time left. We managed to jump on the last train, and at the end of February, we finally submitted our work contracts to the sponsor for verification. Four weeks of waiting, and there it was – the cherished job offer confirmation, the thrilling joy, and the final decisive step on the way there, across the ocean – passing the interview at the American consulate. We are going for a visa!