In the US, you get a credit or loan only, when you have a "credit history". Meaning, you had a credit card, a cell phone, some contracts, or something similar for a while and your "credit score" is high enough to provide trust for the loan provider.

But when you are new to the US, like having received a greencard and just moved here, your credit history does not exist. There are a still a couple of ways dealing with this:

Today we had our interview for the Diversity Visa program ("Greencard Lottery") and as far as we can tell, everything went smoothly without problems. We have to wait for our passports now, then fly back to Calgary and down to California.

Hopefully everything happens as we planned ...

So, we took the first hurdle - we had the medical check at the official doctor in Frankfurt. It took about three hours overall, but was not really problematic. We were properly prepared, had all necessary vaccinations and all the paperwork ready and as it seems no obvious problems that prevented us from passing the check.

So far so good now, in a couple of days we have the interview at the embassy and hopefully everything will be okay there, too. I'm not really worried about that part though. Again, we are well prepared, have all the necessary papers and information and know what that all means. After all, we lived in Canada for two years now and know how to prepare for this and what to expect.

More to come ...