An "exit permit" is what a Soviet citizen needed to obtain before being allowed to leave the country. If the government refused to give you one (usually because you knew too much about how bad things really were), you became a "refusenik".
My story wouldn't read well. Most of the 2½ years was spent waiting to find the strength to try again. Only about 6 months total was actually waiting for the FBI to send me another rejection notice. While some of their excuses were laughable (one rejection said "request not signed", although my signature was in the middle of the page--perhaps they looked only at the bottom), and some were just ornery (one rejection said "check too old", although cashier's checks never expire), I decided I needed to have a "perfect rejection" before talking to the ACLU and/or my local congresscritter. Apparently the fifth request was perfect!
I like Canada because the culture shock would be minimized, although some people say New Zealand is politically similar but has better weather. The omnipresent security cameras in England make that destination rather unattractive. When my sister emigrated to Israel, she attempted to get instant citizenship on the grounds that our father had been in Palestine in 1948 when they were handing out Israeli passports, but the current governent "couldn't find" any record of him, so she ended up doing the regular Jewish-immigrant thing for a year.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 11:03 pm (UTC)My story wouldn't read well. Most of the 2½ years was spent waiting to find the strength to try again. Only about 6 months total was actually waiting for the FBI to send me another rejection notice. While some of their excuses were laughable (one rejection said "request not signed", although my signature was in the middle of the page--perhaps they looked only at the bottom), and some were just ornery (one rejection said "check too old", although cashier's checks never expire), I decided I needed to have a "perfect rejection" before talking to the ACLU and/or my local congresscritter. Apparently the fifth request was perfect!
I like Canada because the culture shock would be minimized, although some people say New Zealand is politically similar but has better weather. The omnipresent security cameras in England make that destination rather unattractive. When my sister emigrated to Israel, she attempted to get instant citizenship on the grounds that our father had been in Palestine in 1948 when they were handing out Israeli passports, but the current governent "couldn't find" any record of him, so she ended up doing the regular Jewish-immigrant thing for a year.