The interviews for K1 in Russia, are they held only at the Moscow Embassy or do they also have them at the consulates in St petersburg or Ekaterinburg?

They are only held at the embassy in Moscow, I wish they had the interviews in Ekaterinburg since that is where my fiancee lives. Moscow is a long way from Ekaterinburg!

True a long ways but a much prettier city. More expensive also for certain.

Isn't it like 7 hours away by plain? That's just insane

No... Ekaterinburg is not that far... 888 mi (1,429 km) Flight Duration: 2hr 25mn.

I've been to Khabarovsk in the far east... Now that's far!

Cheers

This is a cheap plug but my wife and son used this girls' flat in moscow several times... she's great:

http://russiangirlfriday.com/

Cheap too considering the alternatives. Not too far from the embassy or airport. EZ access to the train/subway etc...

Please check out http://www.irr.ru before making a bold comment this lady being cheap. Her prices for doing very basic personal services in Russia are so high, that I'll come out to Russia and help look up a train schedule, ( http://www.tutu.ru if you are curious), for half the price

Well it sure as heck depends on what you want done.

We used Olyessa for a quick stay (in her house - my wife and son) for 2 visits to the embassy, and the third for the last leg before coming to the usa. For all 3 times we've spent not more than $200 total. Now if you're looking for an agent to find apartments, hotels, arrange transportation or do your laundry, I dare say that would be cheap. (Note I said: my wife and son used this girls' flat in moscow several times.)

I don't disagree with you. But you do get what you pay for when it comes to foreign places and needing someone to do the groundwork when you can't do it yourself.

I don't know about the personal assistant aspect, I always relied on my wife to do the kind of services the lady on the site offers. As far as getting what you paid for...well it's generally true except in Russia. In Russia you pay an extremely high premium to anyone who is in business, knows how to speak English, caters to foreigners (they think we have a lot of money), and invested into a website with advertisement. While an average "joe" is not that sophisticated and places a simple ad in Russian in the newspaper for the exact same place if not better for a whole lot less. The whole trick is finding him. Using Russian sources is the key.
But my suggestions are geared for someone who can read and write Russian and has time to make a few phone calls and make arrangements. For those of you with a good income and no time to do it yourself, my methods are ineffective and irritative. Age plays a lot into to it too. We are young and have the energy to run around and be inconvenienced. Others like my parents prefer to have everything done and high quality service before they go anywhere on vacation.

Satellite, was your wife from around Moscow? (I thought I remembered you saying she was a couple hours away by train.) I've tried to get my girl to look into stuff like the papers and online listings and stuff but she's said that from Vlad, there aren't a lot of resources for looking into this sort of thing.

I think we're going to use Olesya's services too next month when Elena goes to her interview. However, if she can find something more reasonable through this site, it may be worth it. I found several good apartments for $400 or less each month, but I think for her to only use one for 3 days, she'd have to contact the owners or something. How did you guys do that? Did your wife e-mail or call the people listing these places directly? Or is it as easy as creating a profile on the websites and corresponding that way?

We've got about a month, so we do have a little time to check around.

No, she is from Western Siberia. About a 4 horus by plane or several nights by train.
For our Moscow trip we stayed at my wife's uncle's flat which was about 40 minutes outside of Moscow by commuter train. It was free so we got lucky.
But my wife has made arrangements as well as her parents when they travel on business to other towns. She prefers to go through the websites and negotiate with the owners for the length of her trip. Some are more willing than others. Her parents arrive on the spot and simply ask at the train station where the cheapest places for "average" Russians to stay at. Worst case scenario they spend the night at the train station as do so many other Russians until they find something. Like I said before, they don't have the means to pay much.

How much does the uncle charge for rent? (Just kidding.) Elena's uncle lived in Moscow last year while we were there, and she did stay with him for a night before she left. This year though... he moved!

I'm going to send her this site and maybe she'll be able to find something.

It is more expensive to go through Olesya, but it would be nice to have that piece of mind that I know Elena is taken care of from the moment she steps off the plane until the moment she leaves again. For an extra $200 or so, that's well worth it. After all, this is a one-time thing.