90 DAY FIANCÉ Vanja’s immigration story is incredible

In her 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days intro, Vanja Grbic mentions that she is originally from Bosnia. She doesn’t elaborate much, which is unfortunate because her family’s immigration story is incredible!

Vanja Grbic Immigration Story

42-year-old Vanja Grbic grew up in the former Yugoslavia. After she completed fourth grade, civil war broke out in her country. She and her family were forced to leave their home and possessions and never look back.

Prior to the war, Vanja’s dad was a Director for the NorthEast Bosnian railroad system. After the war broke out, his only job was to keep his family safe. He narrowly escaped death on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for his parents, who were murdered in a brutal fashion.

Between Vanja’s fifth and eighth grade years, she attended 13 different schools.

In 1997, Vanja’s father was able to bring the family to America. He arrived in Orlando, Florida with a bag of clothes and $200 in his pocket.

Despite the lack of resources, living in a completely new country, and not being able to speak the language, Vanja’s father managed to find success. He passed his Master Electrician exam and started a successful electrical contracting company.

Vanja followed in her dad’s footsteps by achieving a great deal of success herself. She obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Social Science Education and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida.

Vanja is a professional bellydancer as well as a vegan chef, and she has been working in the medical sales field since 2006. Unfortunately, her many successes do not include relationships.

To find out if she is able to turn the tides on her bad luck with romance, be sure to watch her and Božo on new episodes of 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days airing Sunday nights at 8/7c and streaming on Discovery+ and Max.

UPDATE Vanja Grbic Shares Her Story

Vanja Grbic opened up about her time in the former Yugoslavia on 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days during an emotional confessional. Below is her story in her own words:

“At first, growing up in Bosnia was the most magical childhood. But then, when I was about 10 years old, the whole country separated, broke into pieces, and a war started.

“We went to visit my grandparents. We were actually getting in the car to start driving back home, and then we just saw missiles exploding. The night sky was just lit up, the ground was shaking, and that was it. We were never able to go back home.

“We ended up having to stay at my grandma’s house. We had no electricity for a year. We had no water for a year. We ended up boiling flour and onions, and we called that the black soup, and that’s what we ate for months.”

“We got bombed all the time. I was almost killed on a couple of occasions that I know of.

“I will never forget sitting in basements for days at a time because, you know, the air raids are happening, bombs are dropping everywhere, and you’re just feeling the ground shake.

“And then you’re just — you don’t know if the next one that drops is going to come on top of you.

“To have to go through that level of stress and trauma as a child, it is absolutely devastating.”

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com