QUOTE(peejay @ Oct 12 2006, 06:46 PM)

The problem occurs if a flight is delayed or the connecting flight is the next day or longer. Without a valid tourist visa from Germany or any country the airport is located in, your fiancee cannot leave the secured area of the airport and get a hotel room.
Whereas a US citizen can leave the airport in countries we have a VWP (Visa Waiver Program) agreement with, your Russian fiancee cannot do this without a tourist visa from those countries. A US fiancee visa does not allow your fiancee to leave the airport and enter Germany, France, UK, etc. to stay overnight in a hotel. They are not US citizens and do not qualify for VWP.
My wife (then fiancee) and her daughter flew from Moscow to Frankfurt to Houston. I made sure the layover in Frankfurt between flights was short enough that they would not need a German hotel / German tourist visa (which is almost impossible for a Russian to get).
Russians do not need a German transit visa to transfer to a connecting flight to the USA through Germany. They just cannot leave the airport.
That pretty much clears it up
Thanks!