Well, we got our approval last night. She was in and out in about 2 hours 40 minutes. She said everyone was pretty friendly, and she said that there were two women consuls who were conducting the interviews. She said the woman consul who did her interview smiled all the time when looking over our documents and that it made her (my fiancee) nervous. We spoke only briefly after the interview, so I will post more details later today once I have had a chance to talk with her some more.

Woot!!! Congratulations to you both!!!

Let me be one of the first to congratulate you! Great news!

Congratulations! now another Russian woman on the OKC scene, much needed to add balance to our lives. When is your fiancee arriving or approximate date? Been so long I forgot the remainder of the process. We need to get together soon.

I leave to go and get her on the 24th of April, and we will be arriving here in the US on the 29th of April. She wants us to spend Easter with her family.

congratulations!!!

Super News! Glad to hear another one jumps the wall!

OMG... our turn tomorrow

I hope it goes as smoothly.



Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck Navarre Man!

Congratulations!!!! I love good news.

As an aside, it seems like we'll be crossing paths in the air. I fly to Russia on the 29th to get Ira, and we'll be returning on May 5.

Best of luck to you both,

Z

It will. It will. I'd wish you luck but you don't need it. Let us know when she's approved!


Wow I can't believe how much activity we've seen here lately. So many USCIS approvals, interviews, visas, and homecomings!

I just sent all the paperwork I put together to Nadya over lunch. $163.00 via DHL, but at least I know it'll get to her. She got her packet from the embassy yesterday, so when I called today she was frantic. "Too much documents Keerk!! Too much!!" LOL Damn me and my procrastination, if I'd gotten these documents to her earlier she'd have seen that I've filled out everything her packet is telling her to fill out, including the supplemental DS-156K. I couldn't get a word in edge-wise for about 2 minutes as she rattled off all this stuff in her packet. I had to put the phone on mute for a bit because I was laughing so hard. She was genuinely freaked out.

Then she said that she has her immunizations, but not the documents to show the immunizations. I told her not to worry, that she could just get her immunizations again and get it documented this time. This did not sit well at all. "Not Keerk! Not! Too much immuneezatsia BAD!" Then she said she'd go get some documentation. LOL. I don't think I'll ask how she's going to get that document.

Congratulations, Robert and Elena! We are very happy for you. Soon all of us here wll be with our loved ones.
Sasha

Seeing the big scars people who went to school in the soviet union have from their immunizations, her upset is understandable. Ouch!

As i recall, someone on this board--Blues Fairy?--was in the same situation as Nadya and she just went to the nurse or something of a local school and had them fill out an immunization history for her of the standard ones USSR schoolchildren had to get.

Knock on wood, Ira was a trooper with the documents. Of course, I was the one freaking out due to philosophical objections to having our privacy invaded. Once Ira is here, safely, and her status is legally sound, I plan to found an organization geared toward doing everything possible to raise hell for the USCIS and DOS. Somebody's got to jar these agencies out of their complacency.



Z

Yeah I think it was Blues Fairy.

Nadya's a nurse so I'm sure she's got connections to hook her up with the right documentation. As Slim is fond of saying, these ladies know their way around a system. I'm not too worried. And if we don't have to pay for more immunizations, no complaints here.

Congrats Bob and Elena!!!!!

Tanya just told me about the good news!

By the way, since you're going to Sochi soon, can you please take to Tanya something from me?
Her brother needs a new engine block for his truck, and if you wouldn't mind....

No problem man, I will have an empty suitcase, and I have seen plenty of FSU trucks, they dont have big engines, and even if it is big, the case has wheels and I am a big boy;-)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

I hope to see more approvals!

Since she' going to custom order her shot records, for ease of use later, have her get the DS-3025 and ensure they say that she's "had a the mumps and a chicken pox."




The scars that you talk about are from smallpox vaccinations which were common in the Soviet Union all the way up past even the '90s. I want to say we stopped them here in '76 when the last strain was locked up in the CDC warehouse down in Atlanta. There was still a pea can or two (containing several test tubes full of active strain) floating around the FSU after the fall and so they continued to innoculate against it. The money dried up so even though they still do it, it's not as wide-spread as it once was.

There was fear post-9/11 that these pea cans were out on the black market and an attack against Americans with either smallpox along with a dirty bomb (and possibly even Anthrax too!) was in the works. We didn't have enough smallpox to vaccinate everyone so they started with the govt. employees and military members most at risk. They now have scars on their upper arms as well. They're not quite as bad as what the former Soviets have (not as many pin pricks needed now) but they're still noticeable and instantly ID anyone that's been innoculated.

Smallpox was officially eradicated in the late '70s but it was still being used for weapons purposes in places like the Soviet Union thus necessitating the need to innoculate the people for worst-case scenarios. Plus, since they were using it for weapons, they assumed we were too (we weren't.... but easily could) so they had to have their people protected.

Who knows, maybe someday we'll see a return of smallpox or another deadly virus. Maybe even something like 28 Days Later or Doomsday (both great movies, by the way!) is a possibility in our crazy world. In the event something like that happens, scarred upper arms will be a fashion statement!

I thought people had TB scars as well?

I actually have a fairly large round chickenpox scar on my arm in the same general area. No wonder people ask to see my passport and accuse me of faking my accent in Russian when I say I am an American.

As far as I know, there's no way to vaccinate against TB. There's a way to treat it, but no way to prevent it. I could be wrong though.


And by the way..... Congrats Bobalouie!!! Good luck on your new Visa Journey. Now the fun begins!!!

Nope, they definitely vaccinated people in the soviet union against it. I have friends who went to a couple years of school in the USSR and then emigrated to the US, and whenever they take a TB test it comes back positive because they were vaccinated, and they have to explain it to the doctor and get an xray to prove they don't have tb and etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis_vaccine

Great link. I was wondering why I've never even heard of it.

Here are the questions that were asked during the interview:

Where/How we met
How many times I have been to Russia to visit
How long I stayed on my trips
What do I do for a living
What does she want to do for work in the US
She asked about our house in the US and wanted to see pictures (we didnt have any with us, and that was OK with the consul)
Asked about the agency we used
When I started writing to her
Wanted to know what information the agency gave to her when we started communicating
Asked if I had been married before, had any children, any brothers or sisters
And then jokingly asked if I was a criminal.

Rubber stamp Rubber stamp, you will have your visa in 7 days.


The interesting thing here as this is the first time I have heard of the IMBRA line of questioning (I checked the box and provided info on the agency on the I-129F petition). She said the interview was about the same for all the girls that she talked to. I wonder if they are getting ready to start cracking down on the IMBRA stuff because I have not read any reports about the in depth questioning regarding an agency and what they provided. It appears to me that the consul was attempting to put together a timeline of events to make sure that we were IMBRA compliant. Something to keep in mind.

Thanks for the report, Bobalouie. Seems the IMBRA thing is coming around.

Interesting Bobalouie, thanks for the report. It might indicate that IMBRA is starting to phase in, or just that the interviewer had been reading up on it and decided to flex a little. In any case, interesting. And congrats to you both again!!

I had never heard about IMBRA before now, and after a quick Google search, I'm both astounded and appalled. Even more so that the law was challenged and ruled constitutional!

I would have expected something like this from a Russian government trying to make it difficult for women to leave the country in an effort to stabilize their population decline. But, while I knew the US government has been doing some shady stuff in recent years, this is just simply maddening.

Doesn't anybody in government believe in the Constitution anymore? In its spirit or its written text?



Z

I haven't studied up on IMBRA so I'm not sure of the details, but it does seem to me to be a major violation of privacy, not to mention freedoms. The amount of personal data that's required to be in compliance with IMBRA seems ripe for not only data mining but identity theft. It also seems to me that, from a dating industry perspective, it's an unfair burden on free commerce. And finally, it's beyond ridiculous to say that it's ok for me to meet a woman through instant messaging, but that I have to pass a background check if I met that same woman through a dating agency. IMBRA just seems like the wrong solution for the problem.

I do appreciate the spirit/intent behind IMBRA though. There are relatively few protections for these women, and there are a lot of guys out there like my own girl's ex that are complete freaking nut jobs. An unhinged man with a woman who may not speak the language and who can be completely cut off from the outside world is bad news. But I think there are a lot better ways to protect these women than what I'm seeing from IMBRA.

A - The US government should be concerned with protecting American interests, not foreigners who are still safely on their home turf.

B - Based on all I've read in the past few hours, the intent of IMBRA is not to protect foreign women who are at a disadvantage here. It's to protect American women from romantic competition and to remove the threat to continued indoctrination into the male psyche of the feminist agenda.



Z

In a nutshell, the story on IMBRA is this: The pro feminist movement started a campain stating that a number of these foriegn spouses were being abused, the abuse allegations were, rape, sexual slavery, neglect, murder, etc. All the usual suspects. The movement sucessfully lobbied congress to get the IMBRA clause enacted as a portion of the VAWA (Violence against women act). It is a small clause in a mountain of paperwork that was probably missed by some, and of the others who may have noticed it and thought it wrong/unconstitutional, which of them is going to risk reelection by not signing/voting for the Violence against women act? None!

IMBRA is wrong on several levels, the least of which is the US government trying to regulate foriegn businesses which have no ties to the US other than clientel. Another wrong is that the letter of the law presumes guilt and you prove innocence, which is exactly backwards. Basically to comply with the law, you are treated like a sexual deviant who has a history of abusing women, and you present paperwork that basically states that is not the case.

In order to comply with IMBRA, I did a National sex offender background check on myself and printed the results and gave them to my fiancee. I also downloaded the IMBRA questionaire from Elena's Models and filled it out and printed it off and presented it to her as well. At the time of my filing (7 months ago) this was the most that any of the Big name agencies were doing to comply with the law, so, I figured that it would be ok for me as well. Most smaller agencies, like the one I went thru, have not heard about IMBRA and have no idea how to find information on it or how to interpret it in order to be compliant.

I know what you're saying shikarnov. When I say "intent," I mean the pure intent of the impetus behind IMBRA, not the actual implementation of IMBRA. I know a lot of our ladies here don't really need protection (and maybe even the opposite is true in some cases ) but I do think it's the business of the government to make sure immigrants understand that they have options available to them if they need help. This is, of course, very different than IMBRA, but I do believe that was the intent. It is, from what I can tell, a miserable failure, and I hope someone with deep pockets will challenge it again and on different grounds.

Completely agree with you on point A. On point B, this may be the "effect" of the law, but I seriously doubt there was any actual thought put into IMBRA, let alone something so nefarious as "let's make sure American women are protected from competition." IMBRA was enacted after a couple of high-profile murder cases. One was a Russian woman around 2001-2001, I don't remember who the other one was. It was a knee-jerk reaction, like so much of what our government does.

It should be noted that those allegations have been debunked more than once in recent years. Most data shows that American/Foreign relationships experience abuse 1/7th the number of times it happens in fully domestic relationships. And the whole sex slavery thing has turned up little evidence of this "widespread" problem.

Z

Preach on Brother Shikarnov

I agree that people should be protected from abuse -- but couldn't they give these immigrants a paper at the embassy that says "In the US, even married people aren't allowed to assault eachother. If your spouse beats you, rapes you, etc, seek help immediately from the local police force. They're here to help."

As for the lack of nefariousness of social activists with an agenda, I'll politely state that I disagree



Z

I guess this entire experience has had me reeling. Before beginning this process with Ira, I never really understood how invasive our government really was. Well, I knew, but it was all academic, you know? From start to finish (and we're not finished yet), this whole process has been about proving that I am telling the truth. I say I make X amount of money, but must back it up with several forms of proof. I say I want to marry this woman, and must back that up with proof. It's horribly upsetting to me that this is our government, and even more upsetting that so many people are complacent about it.

Brother Shikarnov, indeed...

Z

Completely agree. The embassy is the perfect place to do it. You've got someone there who speaks their language, and who can answer any questions without the SO present. Tell them to memorize "911" if they need help. Something that simple would offer women more protection than IMBRA ever will.


But this is the Russian forum. Why politely?!

WTF

A feminist is a person who believes that women should be held in equal esteem to men. Period.

I don't mean to offend, Eekee... If we go by that definition, I think few people, male or female, would disagree. If you genuinely don't know the types of people, and the agendas being pushed forward as a result of modern day "feminism" and the abuses in our system that it's caused, then I'd be happy to discuss it with you. But I'm sure you understand exactly what I meant. No need to mense words.

Z

Mense words... Good pun.

Honestly, I don't understand the issue. And I'd be interested in hearing what exactly you have a problem with. Personally I am thankful every day to the women who came before me who made sacrifices so that I could have so many opportunities in my life that would have been closed to me 100, 50 years ago.

When I first read that, I thought you said "menses." And I was gonna say "BEST. TYPO. EVAR!"

i thought it was purposeful.

My main issue is not with the idea of women being equal in status and opportunity. I think denying somebody a job, or equal pay, based on gender (or any reason other than ability) is quite ridiculous. And I agree that women have been unfairly treated by being forced by law, abuse, or stigma into playing certain roles within society and the family structure.

But, what I disagree with is the idea that women aren't responsible for their own actions. The very thesis of many laws designed to protect women are based on two ideas: First, that women have been, are today, and will be victims of men. Secondly, men are inherently dangerous.

Consider the case of two people drinking a bit too much. They get drunk, and have sex. Six months later, he's on a sex offender registry with his life turned upside down. That happened with my ex-wife while she was in college. Does my ex-wife have any responsibility for what happened? Was was her intoxicated lover really a dangerous predator?

Another friend, who is a housewife by choice, has no female friends. Most think she's an affront to "the cause," some others think she's being oppressed by her husband (which, if you ever met them, you'd realize is a ridiculous notion), and a few admit to simply being jealous. She gave up very well paid job because she didn't want to be apart from her newborn son as he was growing up. Is she oppressed and controlled? Should she have sacrificed her right to choose for the cause? Is this feminism?

And when I worked in a corporate office 7 years ago, why did my girlfriend of the time have to go to HR to officially report our relationship and sign a sworn statement that our activities were 100% consensual and that I wasn't pressuring or coercing her into anything she didn't want to do? Am I that dangerous? Is she that incapable of protecting herself?

I could go on and on, cite legal actions, dig up cases and articles, but I wanted to restrict this to my own personal encounters with feminism run amok. Besides that, I think you catch my drift.

Z

It is incredibly hard to actually get convicted for rape. The vast majority of rapes do not even get reported. And as a man, I doubt you think that someone is going to rape you as you're walking down the street at night alone. You don't think about when you are going into a parking garage by yourself. Women are aware of this all the time. The rate of women who will get sexual assaulted at some point in their lives is something like one in four.

All of the stuff you mentioned is really small potatoes.

I WILL agree that this idea goes too far: http://jezebel.com/375822/

*slaps forehead*

Good grief. I'm the forum tree-hugging granola-munching sandal-wearing liberal, and even *I* think this is freaking ridiculous.

I dont understand why that's ridiculous, but my examples were small potatoes? One man who will have his job options limited, who will forever be an immediate suspect whenever there's an assault near to him, who will face protests whenever somebody gets curious enough to research sex offenders and finds a "rapist" in their midst. A woman ostracized by a community of women who purportedly are fighting for choice - but only support women making choices then they agree with them. Or my ex-girlfriend having to, essentially, sign exactly the same kind of consent form the Australians propose to have it on record that she's actively choosing to be with me.

Z

Congrats!

Considering the vast amount of rapists/sex offenders who weren't prosecuted or who were let free who roam free on the streets, yes. Obviously there was enough evidence to convict this guy. As I said, it is incredibly difficult to actually prove that someone raped someone else. Usually it is the girl's word against the guy's with no witnesses.

Sex=power. There is no denying this fact, and your workplace just wanted to make sure that your relationship was not one about power or workplace mobility. Many work places ban office romances altogether for this reason. At least you had an option to have a relationship without being fired.

Oh, and by the way, I know several girls who have pressed charges. None of the guys were convicted.

I forgot to mention, even though they asked a lot of IMBRA type of questions, they didnt seem overly concerned. My fiancee told me that they asked her several questions along the lines of the IMBRA stuff that she didnt know the answer to. She could not remember the questions either. So, it would seem that they are not cracking down too hard because they accepted 'I dont know' as a valid answer.