Green Card, Gold Ring — a memoir, coming 2026
I landed at JFK in 2005 with three dollars, a bandura, and a folder of documents — and a story nobody back home believed.
This is that story, told whole for the first time: immigration and marriage, as the one story they always were.
Author of The Misadventures of a Ukrainian Orphan — on Amazon since February 2022, now in its second printing.
Vitaly Kirkpatrick
Chernivtsi, Ukraine → JFK, 2005
The interview
The scene that decides whether this marriage counts — excerpt coming soon.
Read more below →“The California Supreme Court's ruling came down on May 15, 2008, exactly two years to the day after Kimball and I had become a couple.”
— Book Two, from the manuscript
The beginning
The story begins in an orphanage in Chernivtsi, where the gloom of the town and the shadow of communism pressed in from every side. This is the window I watched the world through — a square of cold, a square of hope.
May 15, 2006
Love arrived with two careful messages and a dollar movie ticket. Nothing about it was strategic. This is where the story turns — the moment the folder and the form met something that had no box.
“A marriage certificate dated August 16, 2008. Proof that we didn't wait for permission.”
— Book Two, from the manuscript
2005
I landed with three dollars, a bandura, and a visa I barely understood, in a country that didn't owe me anything. The story of how I got here — and what it took to stay — is the spine of both books.
“In that moment, I forgot about the three dollars in my pocket.”
— Book One, from the manuscript
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From the manuscript
GREEN CARD, GOLD RING — excerpt pending
The opening chapter excerpt is being finalized and will be posted here soon — not yet ready to share.
No newsletter, no drip sequence. One message when Green Card, Gold Ring has a date, and one when it's available.