My fiancee has her interview in Moscow on May 21st, and we had assumed that if everything was fine at the interview and she gets the visa that she would be ready to travel here in early June. Now she is telling me of a new delay that she just found out about. Her 20th birthday is June 18, and she says she has to remain in Russia to renew her Russian passport after her birthday, and then wait an additional month to get the new passport. She won't be able to come to America until the end of July.

Is all of this true, or do we have any other options? Does she really have to stay there for the additional month to get her internal passport, or for example could her Mom go to pick it up when it's ready? Or could all of this be handled through the Russian Embassy in America after she is here? I'm just dissappointed that way have to wait almost 2 additional months for a passport that she will never use in America.

Once she has her visa in her passport she is ready to go to the States.And she can change her passport in the States, to the Russian Embassy. Why to wait in Russia? Even if she wants to wait in Russia for the passport, it is not an urgent way to make her passport in a couple of days? Most of the countries have this emergency way to obtain a passport for a certain fee.

And good luck with that interview, hope you guys are together soon.

Be cautious in accepting Maydaydas's suggestion. Russian internal passports are tricky. It is very difficult to get them reissued or altered at embassies in the States, although it may be possible.

This is a topic where a consulting with a Russian attorney, resident in Russia, may be worthwhile. I may be able to provide a name if you PM me.

You may get helpful insight from a specifically Russian board, such as

http://www.russianmeetingplace.com/forums/

I wouldn't worry about the internal passport. If you don't live in Russia, it is useless. She can re-enter Russia with her international passport.

If it is expired, a small bribe is all you need if you get caught. She won't be able to get it renewed in the US.

Update from my wife: She would try to get it renewed if possible, since it will be good for 20 years. It isn't a big deal to renew it after it is expired. Maybe you can fly back to do it later in the year?

Thanks all for the replies. Russ, I was thinking the same thing like you said in your first post, and that's what I told her. The internal passport is useless in the US, so why wait around for almost two months to get it renewed? But she is stubborn and really doesn't listen to me about things like that. (I guess she feels she is the Russian citizen and therefore is the know-it-all on everything in Russia, and a foreignor would not know anything about this.) Also this silly passport probably feels like a "security blanket" for her, and she would be uncomfortable if it expires.

Your second post brings up a good question - if it expires, is there a time limit to when it could be renewed? I know we can't fly back within a year, but some time in late 2008 or 2009 would be more likely. Would that be too late to get it renewed?

To Russian citizens the internal passport is there one and only national ID. Kind of like a combination of our Social Security Card and Driver's License. As others have said the Russian consulates abroad don't really care about the internal passport and have no authority to do anything with it. However, if she wants to register with a Russian consulate a stamp showing she is bound for permanent residency abroad and her internal passport can be inspected to prove lack of Russian registration. Otherwise I cannot see any use in it.
However, a delay in renewal can lead to a huge fine when eventually moving to renew. Something in the several hundreds of dollars.
To solve this issue, I think there is an option for expedite service or a small bribe to speed up the process.
Ironically, for those registered abroad, the external passport with the registry stamp basically replaced the internal passport for encounters with the militia. But the internal passport is used for just about everything from buying property to buying a cell phone.
In my opinion, showing your external passport instead brings an unkind prejudice to the bearer because now the merchant for example knows he is dealing with a Russian who resides abroad thus giving him liberty to extort a higher fee / penalty for someone in that position because they feel they have more money.
Once again if you never plan to return to Russia or do any kind of meaningful business there, there is no point in the internal passport. Also as soon as she marries you, her internal passport will be hiding her true marital status, thus giving her a legal right to marry again in Russia if she so desires

So what about those of us that are married to Russians? What if we were to go back to Russia, could we get "legally" married there (or provide an apostilled copy of a marriage cert.), apply for an internal passport or some kind of legal permanent residency? How does it work "on the flip side?"

Anyone? ..... Anyone?

Bueller? ..... Bueller? ...... Anyone?

You have to apply and your local(region) ministry(forgot the actual name). Then there is a 32 day wait. Then you come back and get married. I believe then you apply for temporary residence. I believe you get a 4 month visa on this and then you go to the ministry and you get temporary residence )up to 4 years) then you get permanet resdidence. Dont quote me on this. I read about it once. Check the Russian Embassy website.

I will check into this and get back to you. If for some stupid reason my girl does not get the fiance visa I am moving to Vladimir. We cannot and will not be stopped!!!!!!!

Vladimir is a nice city! My girl is from right up the road in Ivanovo. Have you ever visited the beautiful, historic town of Suzdal?

Havent visted the Suzdal yet. I will be there for 3 months May31 so I think we will do alittle site seeing. She said she wanted to take me there amd to Red Square.

For what I read it is pretty much as Bill describes below:

Most of the information I have on this topic comes from:
http://waytorussia.net/business/legal-status.html

As for your other question, yes, you can get married there again as well as here in the US (some other county). But you would be committing bigamy, because you did it with knowledge of being already married. For example I doubt in Las Vegas they have time to look everyone up in some large data base to see if you have ever been married in any jurisdiction in the US, let alone abroad. And Russia is every more decentralized and uncomputerized than here.

The Russian interior passports have no expiration (They are also free and required to have).

I think the "renewal" she speaks about is just adding an updated of the photo. I seriously doubt they would take away her passport for a month, as well as that it would take more than 1 day to add a photo (as she is required to have it in her possession, at just about all times).

If she has a valid zagranpassport with more than 1 year of validity of remaining, that is all she needs to leave for USA, they don't even look at the interior passport when entering/exiting the country. When she comes back to Russia again, then she can update the photo late.

They do expire, every 5 to 10 years depending on how old you are. It took my wife about a month to get hers renewed, and cost a few hundred bucks. A complication was that it was expired when she renewed it. (She was in the US when it expired a few years back, and you can't renew them here). They do take it for a month

From Wikipedia:

- The internal passport has to be renewed at ages 20 and 45.
- "Russian citizens who move abroad and decide to give up their Russian residency must surrender their internal passport to their local Russian consulate."

You U.S. marriage is recognized in Russia, so there is no getting married again... (you'd have to submit a false affidavit to get the marriage license, and then the marriage would subject to annulment because of that)

For the marriage certificate document to be accepted in Russia, however, you must get an Apostille, which is pretty easy to do but costs a little bit. You'll also have to get a translation of the document into Russian done certified by either the embassy (expensive) or by a notary in Russia. Similar thing goes for child birth certificates, etc.

Thanks for the correction, that sound right.