Have not been around for Awhile and have received some PM's about our status and timeline. So I figure it was time to post.

Olga had her interview on May 3. I traveled in late April to be with her during the process.
She went to Moscow for her medical exam before I arrived and experienced the same treatment at MOM as was written in an earlier post.

We flew to Moscow on the Monday the 1st and got situated in the apartment I rented. We stayed in the "OLD ARBAT" apartment leased through GoToRussia.com. The apartment was nice, very clean and cost was $159 per night (( much cheaper than the decent hotels in the area). It is also within easy walking distance from the Embassy ( about 15 minutes). We spent the second day locating the Embassy and taking the little one to the Moscow Zoo.

The morning of the 3rd we arrived at the embassy around 7:50 am. There were quite a few people lined up. I though we were in for quite the wait. It turned out however that most of the people were there early to wait for other visas Tourist, work Etc. At 8 am those waiting for fiance/spouse visas were allowed to the front of the line. First the Militsia checked their passports ( ???? ) then then proceded to the Embassy guards who checked the pink invitation form against their list. Then security checked their bags, wanded them with the metal detector and allowed them inside. Items such as cell phones had to be left and picked up after the exited the embassy.

Her experience inside the Embassy has been hard to decipher. She speaks English well enough to communicate. We had been going over all the possible questions Etc. She said she was so nervous that she forgot all her English and did the interview in Russian. She thought that the Woman who conducted her interview was nice but did not speak Russian very well. Olga does not remember what questions she was asked other than How we met (she was to nervous). For the most part questions were the same as have been listed in previous posts on the forum. The interviewer seemed more interested in proof of our relationship ( photos, letters/cards, phone records Etc.) Thankfully we had enough of both. The only possible problem area for us was the requirement that Fathers give permission for children to leave. Fortunately, Olga did not include the little ones father on his birth certificate. So she was able to prove that his biological father has no interest in him.

At the end of the interview she was told that she approved for the Visa. She spent the rest of the day in shock. She had been told by several people that her chances were only 50/50.

There were some women who did not receive visas. All for the same reason, Documents.
Make sure that they have them. Women who did not have all the documents necessary were told to submit them later and they would be approved.

Also do not trust the information on the embassy website in english. The information given to the women is different and the two versions contradict each other.

I worked constantly in preparing the documents for the interview and we still worried.

We returned to Ufa on May 5 and DHL delivered her visa on May 6.

Olga our 3 year old and I arrived home on the 21st. We went through immigration in Denver. Other than a 5 minute wait in line, Immigration took about 10 minutes to process her visa. The C & I officer was very polite and nice.

Now the new Journey begins adjustment to the states and another process of documents and government Bureaucracy for the AOS.

All questions are welcome and any Advice on the AOS and registering and changing her passport will be greatly appreciated.

Congrats centurion and good luck with your new journey!

CONGRATULATIONS!! Good job! Good suggestions and if any "memory" comes back, let us all know.

Thanks again so much and hope everything goes very smoothly in the future!

Larry

Congratulations!

Congratulations centurion! My Katya's interview is on Monday, and I know I'm definitely worried about it. She has plenty of photographs of us together and copies of my boarding passes, airline ticket, etc, but copies of only about 5 or 6 e-mails. We communicate mostly through SMS (text messages) and an occassional phone call, but I use a prepaid calling card so that doesn't show any record of calling Russia. Oh well, I guess there isn't much I can do except keep my fingers crossed.... hopefully Katya is not as nervous as me!

Great news! Sounds like your experience was a lot like ours (I wrote about it back in March here on VJ).

Your entry was a lot smoother than ours in Atlanta....I also wrote that horror story here.

Will keep everyone posted about AOS, we will be doing it very soon......as we are getting married tomorrow!

Congrats. Thanks for sharing.

centurion -- Congrats on the visa and welcome Olga to the USA!

JamesT -- Good luck on the interview!

Neonred -- Congrats on the upcoming nuptials!


Very nice thread with much good news!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Thank you Neon. I read your posts and used the information to help Olga prepare. I also made travel plans based on your information about Atlanta. I could have arranged a cheaper flight though Atlanta but based on your post decided to fly direct into Denver instead.

Based on my experience I would reccoment to anyone pay the extra money and fly into Denver.
British air has a flight from London and Lufthansa has one from Franfurt. Both airlines service Moscow.

JamesT

I think you will be Ok. We also did most of our communicating via SMS. If Katya has a cell phone it may be possible for her to
get her phone records. Looks like your a bit short on time though. Still I think you will be fine.

Neon I hope your wedding is a huge success and wish you the best. I will be looking for your post concerning the next adventure AOS.

Congrats Neon!!!

congrats on the approval

Congratulations!

CONGRATULATIONS and GOOD LUCK!!!

Interview PASSED!!!!


(Don't get too excited yet.... Russian superstition... we can't get excited until Wednesday or Thursday when it actually arrives.)

I've posted some of the details of the interview in the other thread, but I really didn't learn too much today. We'll talk again Saturday, and I'll post more then. Good luck to all of you still going through this!!! (And remember, your interview date will come!!!)

Great news, Slim!!! I remember when your girl's interview was to be a few days after my girl's, and then all your troubles. Now it is all behind you and just a memory.

When is she flying to the States?

My Veta and I were married 12 days ago and life is wonderful. Now I am preparing AOS docs. When will all this paperwork end? At least we are together.

Again, congrats Slim!

Congratulations Slim. Now the next step of the journey will begin for you also.

Neon,

Have you done anything as far as Social Security yet? I have heard two things.

1. If she requested a social Security Number on the Visa App, they will send her a card which should take 3 to 4 weeks.

2. If she requested SSN on the Visa APP, we still have to go in to the SS Office to have one issued.

What have you experienced or heard on this ?

Glad to hear it! Congratulations!

At least not everyone was negatively affected by recent legislative changes.

Allright Slim !! I was wondering what had happened with your interview. I am glad everything went smooth and she will be arriving the visa soon.

Congrats!

Great news. Congratulations.

Congratulations Slim!!!

I am also happy to post that Katya's interview was successful on June 5th, and she was approved for the visa! It took one week for delivery of the visa which she received via DHL on June 12th.

I don't have a lot of details about the interview because Katya is definitely not long-winded when explaining things like this to me. She did say it was very tough and they grilled her with a zillion questions. Apparently at first they were reluctant to approve her visa, but eventually she was able to convince them otherwise! I wish I could explain more about this, but really that's all I know...

She is finishing up some things at her University now, and we're planning to have her fly to America the first week of July most likely. I'm still debating on whether to have her fly to Atlanta or New York as her POE. I'm actually thinking of taking a few days off work and driving to New York to meet her! Then we could take our time driving back to Atlanta and stop at a couple fun places on the way.

Good luck to those still waiting!!

That is great news. Congratulations and best wishes. We are still waiting on our interview.

Congratulations

Thanks for all the congrats. It does feel good to get it done. Now comes the new journey!

Congrats!

We applied for her SSN about 3 weeks after she arrived and the card came in the mail 6 days later. We didn't request SSN on the visa app and don't know anything about that.