My wife's been here over a year now. Looking at ways for her to visit with family, the best seems to be if they can come here. Because, she doesn't really care to visit Russia, its just her friends she misses, while they all are intensely curious about her life here and want to visit her here. But having a hard time finding info on how they can get the right visas for this.

It seems they would come on a tourist visa? Anyone know where we can find good, reliable info on that? VJ doesn't seem to have much organized info on that, they are more geared to immigration, and I know the standards (ie probability of getting one) are different depending on country, so thought I'd check in here with the Russia crowd.

Seem to recall, back when working on our K1, a few threads where people wanted visas for relatives to come to the wedding and almost all were denied. Sure hope the situation is not that bad. Anyone have any help for me here???

Chuck

Brother or family need to apply for ( B ) tourist visa, they need to demonstrate strong ties back home.

See the embassy site in Moscow. http://moscow.usembassy.gov/consular/consu...record_id=visas

Excellent. Thanks!

But now I understand why these are so hard to get. The rule is the consular officer must assume the applicant intends not to visit but to immigrate. The burden of proof is on the applicant. And it says they must demonstrate social, family and economic ties strong enough to "compel" the person to return after a short visit.

Well, maybe it will work if just the mom and son comes, leaving dad at home for this trip. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

Thanks again!

If your wife is a LPR it's actually pretty easy to get a visa for her mom and dad, brother is another story. If memory serves me correctly any LPR can apply for his or her parents to immigrate to the USA and there isn't a wait beyond the typical I-130 filing. Because they have an easy way to legally immigrate it's not hard to prove there intent isn't to immigrate, that they only want to visit. It's a logical conclusion that mom and dad don't want to immigrate and to grant a tourist visa in this situation, so it's pretty easy to get.

Brother is another story, he isn't allowed to automatically immigrate based on LPR of a brother or sister, so he has to prove why he will return to the his home country and doesn't intend to immigrate, this can be really hard to prove and visa are handed out sparingly from Russia and Ukraine in these situations.

This is what I've heard (read) from other people, how true it is I don't know first hand, just throwing in my $.02.

This is completely incorrect. An LPR cannot sponsor their parents for immigrant benefits. A USC, however can and his parents will be considered an immediate relatives so the process is in theory just as fast as bringing over a spouse on a CR-1/IR-1 visa.
Brothers and sisters can also receive immigration benefits based on their USC siblings but they are put in the fourth preference category rather than immediate relative. Thus the wait time is closer to a decade or longer depending on what country you are from.
As far as the tourist visa is concerned the same burden holds true for close ties to Russia. Just because you have a good reason to come to the US, doesn't mean you are excused from proving you won't stay. Perhaps it is a tad easier for parents because they are usually in an age where staying illegally and trying to make it here is impractical.