Hey all,

Someone in another section of these boards posted this link as being a good source of information for Russians and Ukrainians who are waiting on their K-1's and K-3's. It's in Russian, and my Russian is very weak, so I don't know if it really is a good place to point my SO to or not. If it's just a whine-fest, or has a lot of rumors and disinformation then I don't want to send her there. If it's a good resource though, I think it might help her to understand the process better.

Has anyone frequented these boards, and what are your thoughts?

Also, apologies if this site has been brought up before. The search engine seems to ignore dashes, and gave about a zillion hits for "russian" and "fiancee."

This is Natasha's favorite site and where she gets a lot of her information and questions answered from 'the girls on the forum' as she calls them. Like any forum, there are some women there whose main goal seems to be trying to spoil the party for everyone else, but Natasha swears by this site. Just my 2 cents, your mileage may vary!

Kevin

Good to know, thanks!

It is a forum board system, much like this one.

There are a number of forums, grouped in two major areas: 1) getting your visa, 2) once you are in the USA, with individual forums entitled things like Adjustment of Status, Social Security Numbers, Studying & Working, Where do you live?, Cars & Driving, Doctors & Health, Food & Cooking, a general all-topics allowed sandbox, etc.

Obviously, just like this board, the individual topics and the posts are entirely created by the user base, but allows users with common interests (i.e. moving to USA) to share their thought, concerns, and experiences.

Nothing new about that, well designed board system for use primarily by Russian speakers.

Thanks Chris. My concern was just that I didn't want to direct her to a site that was more griping and rumor mill than actual information. I've hit enough English language sites that are horrible like that. Nadya's not very internet savvy, and the whole Visa process to her makes very little sense, so I want to be careful about where I steer her for information.

Thanks!

Hi Mox,

That site is indeed good. I'm fully bilingual and visit VJ and the other site frequently for my information searches. I've found lots of good and helpful info there.

Hi all,
I agree with the previous posts. It's a very good site. It provides detailed information along with a good company.

Natalia

Great! Thanks for all the replies, I've sent her the link.

I got a PM from one person who thought I might be over-protecting her from the big bad internet. I don't see it that way at all. She has an internet connection and a browser, she's free to point it wherever she wants. But if I recommend a site to her, I want to make sure I'm not sending her somewhere unhelpful. I'd do that even for my most internet savvy friends.

Thanks again!

I dunno, I sent my girl to 2 sites and that was one of them. The one she used a lot has an awful lot of griping going on. But she does consider it useful. I can understand your concern because its very frustrating to convince her I don't live in a ghetto and she will be lucky to find a job washing cars...

I'll find out tonight if that is indeed the site.

My wife was surprised when she arrived here and saw how "nice" our neighborhood was. (Complete with the "you can walk that direction or that direction but don't ever, ever, ever walk in that direction. Oh, and don't walk anywhere at night. Or alone. Or without your cell phone. You know what? I'll just take you.") They wouldn't hire her to do anything, let alone washing cars, when she first arrived because they were scared to violate the immigrations laws.

She's working now though (after EAD and GC) so we're all good. She still doesn't walk in "that direction" though.

I dont think anything wrong with trying to protect your women from bad people whether it is internet or anywhere else,thats why you guys are here to protect us!!!
and yes there are bunch of women being bitches on different sites and you know what happens?all girls attack "those"because all normal people waiting for visas while these scammers marrying men to get green card.did you hear news recently some women was arrested here in usa for fraud marriage?
and she was fined,and i still did not get why they never sent her back home?

and yes i happily listen to my man when it comes to being protected..

I'm sorry, did an attractive young woman just say that a man's role is to "protect" a woman??? You better be careful how loudly you say that in the U.S. Those "bitches" lurking on the websites around here might just attack you for being so traditional and close-minded, you non-conformist! Stand up for your rights, sister! Grrrrrrrl power!!!

And no, I didn't hear the story about the woman getting fined for marriage fraud. Got a link? That would be an interesting read.

Here You go Slim:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/12/07/green...d.ap/index.html

Thanks for the link.

You know, watching the video they said this was "the first case in which officials found out about marriage fraud online."

So, if this is the first, and ONLY one they've ever found (and was so blatantly obvious) then why is everyone here on VJ so worried? It appears they really don't have the resources or manpower to be "checking" all the websites and finding evidence of fraud online.

Not saying we can now openly share our "secrets" (ha ha) but at least we can calm down a little about the "hey, that's fraud!!! You shouldn't be talking about that on VJ." We really don't have too much of that in the Russia forum, but it seems we don't need to worry so much about it. Maybe the 1st Amendment really is working..... or maybe the govt. is just too inept to check it out.

Or, maybe this is all a big conspiracy set up through the media to entice us all into saying too much over the web.... Why was there wind on the Moon? Who was the shooter on the grassy knoll? Why didn't all those votes count? Anyway, I'm going to go put on my foil hat.

The video gives a lot more detail than the text story. Her real boyfriend, also Russian, was ordained as a minister so he could perform the sham marriage. That's hysterical!

Slim, I too found it interesting that this is the so-called first case in which officials found out about a sham marriage online. But what I think they meant is that it's the first time they've found someone blatantly trying to get a green card online. Her defense that she didn't know it was illegal is an interesting one, especially knowing what she would have had to go through during the K-1 process. Hopefully this doesn't make Moscow interviewers start waterboarding their interviewees.

I am disturbed, however, that apparently Google and the ISP cooperated in handing over emails and IP addresses. I hope there was a warrant compelling them to do it, because all too often these days companies are handing over personal information to the government any time they ask for it.

As for things we "shouldn't be talking about" on VJ, I'm actually happy with how it's working now. I'd hate for this site to turn into a place where I had to sift through the legal and illegal information in addition to the normal good-advice, bad-advice posts. Maybe I'm just happy with it because this forum is so low traffic that we can almost always get away with stretching the TOS when we need to. In any case I've been pretty satisfied with the information and discussions here as it is.

I'll second that. I don't even bother posting in the K1 or AOS forum because those people jump on every little thing that is slightly illegal. Heck, before the Russian forum my account was twice suspended for TOS violations because my advice suggested doing something illegal, like having the K1 holder working for cash before and after marriage, but before the EAD, because it will raise money for AOS, which will then forgive the illegal work!

I agree that we shouldn't be posting "illegal" suggestions on this forum (or any other forum on VJ) but as Satellite aluded to above, there are things posted here in the Russia forum, that are 100% necessary for dealing with the unique VJ process through Moscow, that would be torn to pieces in the other forums where the "by-the-book" posters (who also have the luxury, more often than not, of going through the VJ process in countries like England and Canada).

As we've had in the past, it's a shame when there's something relevant posted in these forums and the TOS police jump on it or close the thread. I don't recall a time when anyone in here blatantly said "you can do this to defraud the govt." That's just never happened on this forum. (To my recollection.) But there have been more than a few times when suggestions have been made where there is something of a "loophole" that can be jumped through and folks are quick to blast it as "illegal."

The bottom line is there are so many rules wrapped up in the VJ process that going about a visa case one way or another will no doubt be toeing the line on a few gray areas. Only the lucky few have the very straightforward process that is never in question. Hell, we're already at a disadvantage because of the country we're dealing with. It's almost automatically a gray area when going through Moscow, that's why there's such scrutiny involved in each case. But, as evidenced by the video clip and related story, it's not like there are going to be cases of people with real relationships who are actually trying to go about the process in the legal way getting busted up because of the dedicated agents sitting over at the ICE or any other Homeland Security Internet Monitoring Substation parusing the pages of VJ. (Or Craigslist.)

And lastly, all the posts on here are for advice. When you're broke and looking for a job you could take the advice of the famous rappers and hustle all day slanging crack cocaine and pimpin b!tches, or you could do what most people with half a brain do and that is apply at a few different places, evaluate your options, and choose the best one for you. Same thing should happen with VJ. Take the advice of the posters on the forums, check them out with the guides and official USCIS websites, and then do the best thing for your case. Just because someone says "you should file this form" doesn't mean you really need to. There are a lot of awesome people here on VJ (and especially in this forum) so usually the advice is spot-on, but when there are threads with the "looking for options" type scenarios then the options presented shouldn't be shut down simply because they're in the gray area. After all, there's only a thin gray line between rappin about slanging crack cocaine and actually doing it. Now, pimpin b!tches on the other hand, that's illegal!

Yeah, every "gray area" I've seen mentioned has had to do with how to handle the Russian side of the house, not the U.S. The U.S. part of the process is pretty straight forward and doesn't lend itself well to loopholes or tricks anyway. Unless you're very well connected, you pretty much stand in line with the rest of the peasants. And the people who *are* out to commit fraud pretty much know what they're going to do anyway. You don't have to come to VJ to know how to create a fake relationship and lie your way through the process. Hmmm...come to think of it, my ex was pretty good at faking a relationship and lying through the process, and she wasn't even trying to get a Visa. Not that I'm bitter...

Why is divorce so expensive?

- Because it's worth it.

True dat. Hell I almost feel like I should have tipped her on my way out.