Hello All,


So I'm new to VJ and this is my first post BLAH BLAH BLAH...

My question is about the many fields on the I 130, and G-325A, for that matter, asking for the beneficiary's address.

I'm a U.S. citizen who has lived in Moscow with my fiancee/wife (as of 11/30! ) since 07/2007. Since we JUST got registered at ZAGS (which, btw, I'd recommend to any VJers living with their spouses/GFs in Russia, since I've read a few posts of ppl worried about this being time consuming. It really WASN'T that difficult, let me know if you'd like more details.), I was getting the K-3 visa process started, and-lucky me!- I learned from a call to the Moscow embassy that DCF is possible so long as I've been in Russia for six continuous moths! Even better, the worker at the DHS section of the Moscow embassy told me that it's not a problem that my 6+ months were interrupted by 2 week-ish visa runs out of the country; I'd just need a letter from my employed stating I've been continuously employed.

So that's the background, now the question. As I said my (now) spouse and I have been living together these past six months, only, not at our 'official' address per our registration. For those not in the know, Russia has this clever way of controlling/tracking its populace by requiring registration at one's place of residence. Further, Moscow is this wonderful town in that it's like the ONLY city in Russia in which one can find well-paid work, but AWFUL in that it's nearly impossible to find a landlord willing to register you. So, my wife and I have been living in Moscow I guess illegally (per this silly registration law); her registration is in far-off Vladimir, mine is some semi-legal one done through the tourist company that did my visa invitation.

I HAVE NO CLUE WHICH ADDRESS TO LIST AS HERS OR EVEN OURS! (for the line in the I-130 about living together) I'm guessing US-CIS doesn't care about Russian registration laws, and so am leaning towards writing her address and our co-residence address as the actual one in Moscow, regardless of whether EITHER of us is registered there, but I dunno. What if they double-check with the Russian government which address she’s registered at, and find the discrepancy? Vice versa, what if I list the officially registered one as her address and our co-residence, and they find out (quite easily, since I work 400 KM away in Moscow!) that it’s not where we actually live.

I’m sure this isn’t an unusual problem, TONS of Russians live at non-registered address from what I understand (And good for them!), but my head is spinning from trying to figure out which address to write. I know not many of you do/did DCF, but nonetheless you had to list your fiancée/spouse’s addresses in Russia. Did you list their address according to registration, or the actual address at which they lived!?

Thanks for the help!

--Nick

Welcome to the board, but there is sure a lot to consider in your situation. Hopefully many from Moscow on the board have similar situations.
chispas

My wife was never registered period to save money for the family which was billed for their home and utilities based on the amount of people registered. Therefore, we simply put the address where we wanted to receive the embassy packet.

You should write the place(s) you actually live at. If they check the Russian registration records and ask you about the discrepancy (doubtful), you just tell them what you told us. The U.S. wants to know where you actually lived, not what some stupid bureacratic records say about where you are supposed to be living. Think of it this way, if you move in the U.S. but don't change the address on your driver's license (or even the state, if you changed states), you are not going to go around telling people you still live at the old address printed on your license, are you?

Don't sweat it. They're not trying to crack down on illegal Russian address registration, only trying to figure out where to send your papers or to contact you if needed. (As said above.)

Welcome to the board and big congrats on tying the knot! I hope to see you on here more often as you're definitely more "in the know" on things going on inside Russia than most of us that haven't been there for years.

Good luck with your DCF and all the related paperwork. Also, what are you doing (work wise) in Moscow? And fill us in on your story a little bit. Where are you from back in the States, how'd you guys meet, etc., etc., etc.....

Hey Everyone,

thank you for your quick replies!

Yea, I figured it'd be best to list the actual address at which we live(d) for the co-habitation part of the forms, as well as her "actual" residence for mailing purposes. Satellite, Chris, and Slim, thanks for the advice; the discrepancy is what I was most worried about,and I know I feel better hoping that whoever reviews my application will be more interpretive than a bureaucratic robot that spits out my app as rejected if address X doesn't match address Y in entirety!!

Also Satellite funny story for ya about utilities, as I think my wife's family may have something similar going on- my first time back in Russia after meeting then leaving my dear Kat' was during my Winter Break from college, January 07. We went to spend some time in her family's apt in Stantsia Mstyora, a miniscule village (if that!) in Vladimirskaya Oblast' (Vladimir is part of the Golden Ring, once capital of Rus', about 300km east of Moscow). Well, one reason we took off for Mstyora is that there's a washing machine there, which Kat's landlady in Vladimir didn't have, and we had a TON of dirty clothes and very little energy to hand wash them (let only desire, me being a spoiled American who earlier would complain about putting his clothes INTO A MACHINE!)

So, we get to Mstyora and begin enjoying time with the family etc. but also get down to business (=washing our clothes!). Afterwards it doesn’t surprise me to not find a drying machine, but we have a problem- I can’t hang my jeans up to dry because they’re the only pair I’d brought with me from Vladimir. At this point Katya tells me to hang them on a line above the stove, for what, I have no idea, until I see the stove turned on, gas burning away, below the clothesline!! I began to get very nervous about the cost of all this and explained to my girl that I could wait for the jeans to dry, no problem, when she told me that it was OK to dry them above the stove because her godmother Valya, a pensioner who’s the only one permanently living at the apt while everyone’s off in Moscow earning money, pays a set monthly rate for gas, no matter how much she uses.

So, Satellite, perhaps this is a similar situation to your wife’s previous living condition, with some sort of flat rate per person. You can be sure that that rate was INCREDIBLY low by our standards, though-I’m not sure how much dear Valya pays, but after living for a month in a 1BR in Vladimir with Katya, our gas bill was thirty-some-odd rubes. Mind you, we were paying for a winter month, with heat running constantly, cooking every day, etc, and all this gas cost LESS THAN FORTY RUBLES!!! I don’t know if we have subsidized utilities for the northern states, I know that in D.C. electricity costs (I think) more in the Summer due to increased demand, but my typical gas bill back home in the Winter is $300+!

So, yeah, utilities are a funny thing here in Russia…

Oh yes and Slim, so a little about us.

I met Katya in September 07 in Vladimir, where I was just starting two semesters of studying abroad through ACTR, and she was in her junior year studying Economics at a university located next to mine. After two or so weeks of eating lunch in this soviet-era-looking cafeteria that the two universities shared, I was tired of listening to the other students in our group blabbing incredibly loudly in English (yes, there’s some truth to the loud American stereotype), and thought, dammit, I didn’t pay all this money to travel to Russia to speak English with Americans! So, I walked up to a table with an incredibly cute Russian girl and her friend and asked in Russian if they’d mind me joining them. A friendship pursued between Kat’ and me from then until April, with each of us demanding English/Russian conversation from the other, and then, with only ONE month left for me in Russia, we began dating (DAMN!!). That Summer was tough, with neither of us certain where we were headed (after all, who can make such guarantees??), but emails and cheap calling rates from the U.S. to Russia helped, and by my winter trip to Vladimir I was pretty much certain (though Kat’, the typical worrying woman , still had her doubts). *FLASH TO SUMMER* After getting my diploma, I hopped on the metaphorical first flight to Russia, not sure where to work, etc., but fairly certain she was THE ONE. Thankfully, (non-Moscow) Russia is pretty cheap to live in, so it was only in late July that I absolutely had to find work. And it didn’t take me long, after a month of searching, with the help of some acquaintances, I found a job doing-what else?-teaching English! For anyone thinking of running off to Russia to be with his/her love, I think work is the last thing you need to worry about, so long as you’re in a city. Native speaking teachers are in high demand, the pay is nice, and some places don’t even care if your degree is in teaching or you have certifications!! Mind you, the legality of such companies may not be so solid, LOL, but for those in my situation, waiting to either get Russian temp residency or a visa for one’s spouse/fiancée, it’s a much better option than sitting at home in the states missing one’s beau!

Well guys this has turned out to be another pretty long post! I guess I’m pretty starved for social outlets-Moscow is a BUSY freakin city, especially if you’re running around all the time to different companies teaching their employees English freelance, and so, alas, little time is left to make friends. I’ve got no regrets, just warning you all that to live in an affordable apt in Moscow means to live on the OUTSKIRTS (=second-to-end-of-the-line metro stop, then 30 min by bus), which means it’s pretty tough to go out partying in the center. Which reminds me, does anyone know ‘typical’ rents for say NY or any other big U.S. cities? I’m tired of Russians gloating about Moscow being the most expensive city in the world, esp. when utilities/food/other basics are so much cheaper than back home in D.C., as I remember! My best guess is that Moscow is rated most expensive because of its way over-inflated housing market, a bubble I’m just waiting to see burst!

Oh yea and my apologies for any weird English I may have typed or grammatical mistakes I may have made—6+ months in Russia has done a number on my English language skills! Chego!!?? LOL

I look forward to getting to know all of you better, and getting answers to my questions. Oh yea and anyone looking for Russian info/tips/etc., please hit me up! Gentlemen, remember, if you especially miss your Russian beaus, now’s the TIME TO FLY!! During the winter months I flew DC to Moscow RT for $700, vs. one way for that much in the summer. No one wants to go to the frigid motherland in the winter, so take advantage of those discounts for some cozy fireplace fun!!

Thanks again for the quick replies,

Nick

Oh yea and about the DCF--I may need some luck; the man who answered the phone at DHS at the Moscow Embassy said just living in Russia 6 months is enough, but the USCIS site says resident status is needed. So.....we'll see

As for the forms, my main concerns are the police docs for my wife and the financial support ones. You see, my wife was born in Samarkand,Uzbekistan, moved to Russia when she was 17, and is now a Russian citizen as of one year ago. So, she has a doc stating her record is clean here in the RF (=since she was 17), but the instructions specifically state needing police docs from the age of 16! Getting these docs (from age 16 to 17) means at best a lot of traveling, at worst, a lot of waiting and bribes (Uzbekistan is even further behind than Russia in the corruption dept!) Anyone have a similar situation, or could you all at least let me know how meticulously your wife/fiancee's police docs were poured over? Actually, forget that, I know these are INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT, if not the most! What I need to know is, how your fiancees got them/what they're called/what your beaus said to get them, because when the wifey and I went to the OVIR/Pasportny stol, then police HQ, this summer in Vyazniki (the "city" LOL in whose region Mstyora, her village, is located) to ask for docs stating all addresses lived at and police records, the bureaucrats looked at us like we were speaking English and said the best they could do is issue a doc stating she had no criminal suits initiated against her in the RF. Is this what's meant by police docs? Because it somehow seems to me like it's not enough!

2nd, financial support--

So, I only finished college 7 months ago, and while working during school/the summers I made so little (well, under the $7k min/yr required to pay taxes) that I have no tax returns. And, since May, I've been working in Russia, but have no idea whether this salary is documented! Therefore, I most definitely will be having a family member file an I-864 or I-134 to get me over the income/assests threshold. My only question, then, is how many of you went this route, and how difficult/helpful/hurtful it was, in your opinions, to your loved ones getting visas.

Thanks as always for the help!!

--Nick

Yeah utlilities are joke in Russia except for the phone bill. It is cheaper for me to call Moscow then for a Russian living in Siberia to do the same. Calling america is still around $1 a minute and the internet is sold by the megabyte or by the minute if on dial up. Both are outrageous. But otherwise, I read a great article that said, if Russian utilities weren't subsidized, and people paid market rate, everyone would move from the north down to say Sochi.
On another note, as we try to reduce our carbon emissions in California, Russians are busy burning wood in the winter to heat their homes. Go figure!

I'm probably the only one, because most of the folks here are older, have property, good jobs, and a few failed marriages under their belt. It took our combined effort as two working students these last two years to break the minumum required. Student loans can't be used as income. It is really easy. The consulate will be satisfied with the I-134 / I-864 that meets the requirements, they could care less who is the sponsor.

In my case we have similar problem, worse in fact because the two countries are angry with each other (Russia and Georgia, regarding the Abkhazia region where my beneficiary is also from!).

We've done everything we could do to try to get the police certificate to no avail, now we'll just have to see now how the consular officer handles the situation on the day of the interview.

As far as getting (or not getting) a police doc for the one year between her being 16 and moving to Russia, try going to or contacting the Uzbekistan embassy in Moscow. If they can't get you an actual police report, perhaps they could get you a letter or something to the effect of "no police report is possible/found." That should work for USCIS purposes because that will show that you at least made the effort to get one.