Poor Marina is scheduled for her interview on January 11th and is so scared i think she will have a mental breakdown or drop 30 lbs from not eating. Well the brerakdowen anyway, she loves those cakers too much to stop eatring those.

Anyway, she is asking for crazy information from me to study and memorize for the interview. LIke my whole life history with dates, birthdays of every relative. hell, I don't even know them!

I assume they will not ask any information that they don't have and the only info they have is whatever we put on the forms. Anything else they wouldn't know if the answer was true or false. Am i correct on that? Iwould like to ut her mind at ease but i know she will still worry till sher gets that visa in her little hand.

Anna finally started to relax when I got her in contact with someone who had been through this process. I actually asked for volunteers on this forum and they wrote emails back and forth. I have to say I think it was very re-assuring for Anna and helped her understand what was going to happen.

Paul misses Anna

Thanks paul i will look intyo that. i notice from your timeline you are tight about where i am in the process. You must have an interview date by now

Not yet...Moscow has not confirmed they have the package from the NVC yet. Hopefully soon.

Well check on the embassy site for appointment dates. I never got any info from them either. I looked there and my MOS number had a date. The first thingwe heard from Moscow was when marina got the packet

They do ask questions that they don't have the answers for. I know in the case of my former fiancee they asked several. I think she is wise in asking a lot of questions. Make sure she knows your address in the USA. They do have that and do ask it and it was one of the questions my former fiancee couldn't answer. One of the others she missed was one they did not have the answer for.

I have seen some interviews where the only question was "how are you today" Others can be a grilling with them asking for relatives names (even though they don't have them) zip codes, phone number you name it.

I do not know about the Moscow embassy, but I have heard other COs can sometimes expand on the questions based on the information they have from the petition. They may not know the correct answer but they seem to be looking for how the beneficiary responds. I'm sure she will do fine. I imagine the beneficiary's hear so many stories - some true and some not- that it only adds to the stress.

If she can get over her nervousness, and when she does provide an answer she should answer confidently as they probably look for weakness in the voice and if the answer is weak then they may decide to ask more and more questions....

I am sure Tanja would be happy to email back and forth to answer whatever questions you might have about the interview time. She was extremely nervous as well, and it all turned out ok. Just try and relax a little =)

Jim

Well I got the date...

Anna's interview date is Jan 30th!!!

She is out of town on a business trip so she will not get my email until she returns but I am sure she will be thrilled to finally have a date for the interview.

Paul misses Anna

That's great Paul.

Actually marina is flying here on Feb 7th into NYC on russian airlines. When do you plab oin having Anna come over?

While I am not superstious I do not think I should buy the plane ticket just yet. Anna wants to give her company two weeks notice. While her immediate supervisor was very difficult she still respects everyone at the company and wants to leave on a good note. My guess is the earliest she would fly out would be on the 19th or so of Feb. Of course these are just my hopes but we have to talk about it and figure out what works best.

Paul misses Anna

DHL her some Paxil.

Cheers!
AKDiver

Don't know why she would need that. They have half the worlds supply of vodka

But it leaves an awful smell on one's breath.

Besides, if you have been reading the news lately, Russia is having a big problem with counterfiet Vodka. Nasty stuff.

Cheers!
AKDiver

Elena had her interview last week the day before thanksgiving and they asked how we met, how many times we have seen each other, has her family met me, and then some very general things, nothing specific like my sisters birthdays or my cats name or anything silly. The interviewers main goal is to determine if the relationship is real(I am not making any assumtpions) and they are more interested in the body language and the general conversation. They understand that people are going to be nervous and they expect it a little bit this is a big deal. Just tell you fiance to relax and pretend she is talking to someone at a bus stop and just have a conversation.
We hit one small snag but that has been taken care of and her visa is due to arrive on december 6 and she will arrive in the US shortly after.

Good luck on your interview and rest assured everything will be fine.

I have told her not to worry, what the questions most likely would be, tell them the truth, etc, etc, etc.
We all know that won't stop the anxiety. She will just hasve to live with it until it is over. Thanks for the many goos suggestions.

Also, something about some Polonium-210 that seems to be nasty stuff as well.