Olga's mom is coming for a visit in summer. I browsed around a little but do not see a very good guide or hints for getting the visa. I guess I have a few questions.

Do I send a packet with documents that prove I can support her while she is here to Moscow? Do I need proof of citizenship/marriage/permanent residency from me or my wife to send? Am I supposed to send a seperate invitation letter to the embassy? I see some conflicting information about this.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Unless I miss my guess, I believe that she has to apply at the embassy herself to obtain a visitors visa. Being that she's not a direct relative of you, a US Citizen, you're unable to sponsor her. However, letters and documents that indicate your willingness to support her while she's here probably won't hurt her application.

I think Slim had a recent success in this area. There's also some useful info in this thread.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=104242

Good luck.

Z

Where have you been? This has been discussed numerous times on here.
Basic idea is this:
Your mother in law applies for the visa. Her application is based on two prongs (1) valid reason for coming (seeing her daughter) and (2) she is not an intending immigrant i.e., she has strong ties to Russia.
The first prong is proved using your wife's green card and her birth certificate. The second prong is the difficult one. Common proof used is (1) high salary; (2) real estate ownership; (3) expectancy to return to work; (4) health insurance; (5) other friends and family staying behind in Russia; (6) car ownership; (7) sufficient income to buy plane ticket and cover necessary expenses while in the US.
You can write your letter of invitation and have her take it to the embassy. That will go towards prong (1) the easy one. Sponsorship letter I-134 or other affidavit will cover prong (7) of prong (2), but will show two things: (1) you will provide funds for her travel and stay and (2) leave an impression that your mother in law lacks the other prongs because she can't even come up with the money to buy her own plane ticket, thus making her a likely immigrant. Don't forget the embassy assumes all applicants for tourist visas are intending immigrants and the APPLICANT must disprove this presumption.
As for actually applying, it is done through a third party carrier Pony Express. They take all your documents, application, and passport and mail it to the consulate / embassy. Then they notify you of your appointment.
http://moscow.usembassy.gov/consular/consu..._id=nivapplying

Basically, it's all been covered above (and in the other thread) but what you'll need to do to make it real easy is this:

- Fill out (and print out) a DS-156 for her and you sign the part that says "prepared by" with your relationship to her.

- Assemble a similar packet to what you sent for your wife's K-1/3 with an I-134, check stubs, bank statements etc. but it doesn't need to be as "in depth"... simply an "I make this much money. See, here's proof via check stubs, etc."

- Mail it all to her and have her submit it to the embassy.


Done.

Ensure you have a specific time-frame and specific reason on both documents. (Reason for visit: To visit LPR Daughter and Son-in-Law for two weeks during the summer. I-134 specific contributions to care of applicant: Filed in support of B-2 visa for XXXXXXXova.)


I too was looking for a guide for this sort of thing and there really isn't one for a visitor visa. There's a good guide for the family immigration visa but none for simply visiting. I kind of just winged it (and actually found some great help from Indian websites that had everything filled in for Mumbai.... change all the Mumbais to Moscow and you're in business. Google B-2 visa or visitor visa and you should be in the right ballpark. I wanna say it was visahelp.com or something like that. Great site also. Google it and you'll find it) and it worked out great. Any specific questions post 'em here or PM me and I'll do my best. Good luck!

Thanks for the help, she got her visa a few days ago.

The lady before here was in a similar situation, but she didn't emphisize during her interview she had stuff to come home to do, and when asked why she is going to America she answered "to help my daughter take care of her baby" and apparently they ended the interview right there and told her she could not get a visa.

Moral of the story, do some brief coaching and make your in-law understand excatly what the consul want to know and hear, as we did.

Anyway she got the visa and everything worked out.

What should she have said instead? They seem like such jerks about b-2 visas.

Yah, they are jerks.

The implication is her daughter needs her to take care of the baby, and she would be inclined to stay and help. I would have advised her to not say anything about helping, and just about visiting, emphisizing why she would need to come back soon to Russia (job, husband, children, cat, anything).

Chuckles, could you elaborate a little bit on what you submitted, what her mother's "ties" were, and what the interview was like? My mom is about to have an interview, and your post could help us much!

No matter what they say, they need to have a "story" and that story needs to be one that says something to the effect of -

"I'm going to visit my XXXXXXXX in the U.S. for two weeks and then I MUST come home to my family/house/car/job/etc. so I can get back to my normal life."

I hope after elections,it will be easier to bring here family for visit...

Sorry for the late reply.

Her ties were a home and apartment she owns, her family, and her job. They seemed most interested in her job.

They asked her if her daughters middle name was alexandaya or something, which it isn't. I guess they were trying to catch something (???). They asked how long she wanted to stay in America, she said that she had to get back to work on September 1st. They noticed the invitation was for September 10, she said no, she needs to be back by the 1st. She mentioned how important her job was to her... laid it on a little think. Some other questions, like how do we communicate (in Russian), where she would stay in America (she was specific about our town and house). At some point she mentioned her husband, I forget where and what the question was.

Anyway, follow these guides and have your in-law impress the consule that they really must come back to Russia for something. Do not overstate your need or intentions to be in America. If you/she does that, it will be fine I am sure.

Thanks, Chuckles; your insight was helpful. I will keep you posted on everything!

Do you think it'll have any impact at all on the process?

Based on the past couple years that I've been on here, it seems we have more family visa approvals lately than ever. I hope it improves even more too but I don't know if the election has anything to do with it. It would be cool to see the new President help out a little with visa issues. Kind of ease the process.

Slim,thats my hopes and dreams:)))I really hope something will change ..so we can have families visiting us with less hassle...

My father-in-law was approved rather easily just a couple weeks ago.

He is a computer engineer, living several hours outside Moscow and will be leaving behind his wife and other daughter. He was only asked three questions - where is he going, where he will stay and when he will return to Russia.

Obviously, leaving behind his wife and daughter helped tremendously, but I was very surprised at how easily he was approved. He received a multi-entry visa good for one year.

Wow, that's great! Congratulations--I bet now it will not be a problem to get another visa opened.