Elena and I are finally together - I met her in Atlanta airport yesterday afternoon! It was a long wait for us and we are so happy to be together! POE in Atlanta was long (took about 2 hours) but not difficult, just long lines of people because her flight arrived at 3:00pm - probably the busiest time in Atlanta airport. They took her brown envelope, attached I-94 into her passport and asked when we are going to be married. Said "Welcome to United States" and that was it! Despite some negative reviews about Atlanta POE on this site, the immigration staff was very friendly and wished us happy life together.

My husband also had a great POE experience at ATL. It was very quick and the gentleman was very friendly, telling my husband to hurry and go to his wife.
Congratulations!

Awesome that you guys are together.... It's cool that Atlanta was a good POE, but the big news is, she's here!!! Congrats, and good luck on your "real" visa journey that begins now!

Congratulations dkrivosheyev!!! Glad to hear her POE experience went well. Mine is going through San Francisco, and I've heard a lot of good things about it. So hoping her experience is typical.

Cool! Congrats!!

I went through Atlanta too, with my F-1. Everyone was super sweet there and wished me luck and to have a good time at school It's not that bad of a POE, I think.

Congrats my wife went through Atlanta without a problem except missing the connecting flight but the airline got her a hotel room.

Congratulations again.

Congrats dkrivosheyev!

Not to stray too far off topic, but for you newbies out there here's some advice: don't sweat the POE stuff. I see guys on boards going so far as to arrange for their fiancee to arrive at an airport hundreds of miles from their local airport simply because they read that the local staff can be rude.

While it's great that people wish to ease their partner's transition and make things as easy as possible, IMHO there are many, many more important areas you should concentrate on (mostly preparing YOURSELF for her arrival, as you more than any POE officer, USCIS bureaucrat, DMV worker, family/friends, will have the most profound effect on her comfort level and happiness).

If she unfortunately encounters a rude POE clerk upon arrival, believe it or not she will entirely forget all about this experience within the next 4 hours as she is bombarded with stimululi in her new surroundings.

FWIW, I went through POE w/my wife upon her arrival at JFK a year ago. We had a long delay due to a computer glitch and an error on our I-94, a long wait in the area where she was to get her EAD stamp waiting behind a bunch of pissed off Egypt Air employees, and when we finally emerged we discovered our lugguge was lost (got stuck in Prague, we later found out, but all our bags were delivered to our home the next day). None of this mattered in the slightest once we emerged from the airport. Bottom line is that her POE experience, good or bad, will have absolutely no affect on how she perceives her new life.

I'll agree 100% on this one. First of all, your girls (and guys) are Russian. So, overcoming adversity in the process of $#!tty uncomfortable travel, customer service, and things not going 100% according to plan is something they've done since before they were born. (No offense to Russian mothers out there... just saying.)

Just because someone is rude to them or doesn't do exactly what's on your itinerary during their stay isn't going to ruin your relationship. As stated above, if anything's going to really matter, it's what you do. The trip is going to be unpleasant at best, but some of you guys act like your girl is made of glass and will shatter if she's not handled carefully.

Chopper Reed that $#!T. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmXri8ZCKjc) You talk about "walking up-hill both ways through the snow carrying your little brother on your back".... well, she's actually done that. Really! She'll be fine at the POE. Fly her to the nearest/cheapest one and use the money you save to buy her something nice (she'll have plenty of suggestions) when she gets here. Good luck!

I'll second that, but for another reason. As far as am I aware the immigration laws on entry and exit remain the same no matter which POE you use, America after all is not Russia, where the federal laws can vary depending on the locality (exception being the 90 day work permit given at JFK, and nowhere else).
Next, as far as I am aware every POE airport has more than officer working meaning that you really don't know who you will get at any given POE. So fly her in on the cheapest / most convenient flight and don't even worry about this issue.

I suspect Natasha and I will be processing through Atlanta as her POE as well, before catching a connecting flight home to Omaha. I'll be traveling to Russia to bring her and her daughter back to this country. Not because I think she is fragile and can't handle it, but because I want to go through as much of this process as possible with her, as part of our new life of shared experiences.

Congratulations! I'm so envious - you get to spend Christmas together!

For Russian Christains the 25 of December doesn't mean much. Their Orthodox Christmas falls somewhere in the beginning of January. Plus the big holiday is New Years and not Christmas. That is the day you give presents and such.

Christmas is on January 7th.

Since we live in America, we celebrate both - Dec 25th and Janury 7th

In true Russian fashion, we celebrated any chance we could whether it was an American or Russian holiday and had drinks every time. But, since we were freshly married..... no presents!

This year may be a little different, but it's not looking good for the Red Team. (Or the Blue, for that matter.)

Congratulations on your new life together.