Chanthy Ny and Da Has, owners of The Donut Palace of Forest, passed the U.S. Citizenship Test and officially became citizens of The United States of America on October 5.
Originally from Cambodia, Chanthy and Da met and married while attending school at Build Bright University in Takeo Province. Takeo Province is often referred to as “the cradle of Cambodian civilization”. Build Bright University started as a non-profit organization called Cambodia Youth Volunteer Organization founded in 1998 to provide training to Cambodian young professionals in Business, Management and English Language.
From this humble beginning, it developed and became Faculty of Management and Law in 2000 with additional areas in Accounting, Finance, Human Resource Management, Computer and Law. In 2002, the school emerged as Build Bright University.
After graduation, Chanthy and Da heard about something called the United States DV-2009. They discovered that each year, during a very short, very specific time frame, The United States accepts applications for the Diversity Visa Lottery (or the “Green Card Lottery,” as it is informally referred to).
The idea behind the Lottery is to give the opportunity for immigration to people from cultural backgrounds that are considered under-represented in U.S. immigration statistics. The theory is that the American economy and culture are stronger when people from diverse backgrounds become part of U.S. society.
An extensive background check is also conducted on all applicants and persons listed on the applications. The information from all visa applications is saved permanently by the U.S. government. All information must be correct; mistakes can invalidate the application.
Only a scant 50,000 people in U.S. approved countries, world-wide, have a chance to win. In 2009, both applied and Chanthy Ny won! Because she was married to Da Has, he qualified to accompany her and, in 2011, the ecstatic couple relocated, ironically enough, to a town called Humble, Texas where they wasted no time in getting jobs working side-by-side at local a donut shop.
In 2013, some mutual friends asked Chanthy and Da if they would be interested in moving to Mississippi and working for them in their donut shop in Richland. By June of 2014, the couple decided it was time for them to become donut shop owners themselves and when they learned of a store that was on the market in Forest, they took another leap of faith and opened The Donut Palace of Forest, where, they say, “We couldn’t be happier”.
In 2017, Chanthy and Da received notification that it was time to present themselves for the required face-to-face interviews with U.S. Agents and take the U.S. Citizenship examination, so, as well studied and as best prepared as they could be, Chanthy and Da drove to New Orleans to pass the test of a lifetime.
Could you pass a U.S. Citizenship Test? The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, creates and administers the exam. It has two parts: a language section where applicants have to read, speak, and write in English, and a civics portion with 100 possible questions (and they aren’t multiple choice). Applicants are asked 10 of them and must get six correct. Some are easy, such as, “Who is the President of the United States?” Others are more difficult. For example, “How many amendments are there?” or “When was the Constitution written?”
Chanthy Ny and Da Has both speak Cambodian, specifically Khmer, as their first language.
