After five years of waiting for a permit to travel abroad, Pitra's partner Irena Bryndová came to New York at the start of August 1968. They planned to return to Prague together, but this definitively fell apart following the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. With the prospect of long-term residence in the United States, Irena Bryndová found work as a fabric designer and in October 1969 was married to Svatopluk Pitra.