Approximating when to file K-1.

[Cixelsyd 1]

I realize this can be considered a K-1 topic, but I'm greatly interested in feedback from people in the Russia forum, since I know average times differ from country to country. Not that I don't welcome information from everyone.

Anyway:

After trying to do some fuzzy mathematics and guesswork it seems that the average processing time is around 6-8 months from start to Visa. Then there is a 6 month period when the visa can be used.

Basically the future wifey and I are looking to get married mid July of 2010. In that case, I think the best time to file is going to be early/mid September (probably Sep. 7th) of this year. So the ideal plan is that she should have her visa some time around March/April of 2010. Then she will have the 6 months to use it, which puts us well in the range of a mid July wedding.

Possible Problems:

If she get's the Visa in 5 months or less; that could create a potential problem by placing her Visa expiration in late July. I don't want her to have any problems using her visa when it's about to expire. But I don't want to file any later in case of someone handling my paperwork misplaces it after an all night binge (or whatever other reason they have for keeping it longer).

Getting to the Point:

Do you think I should file earlier, later or has my 3rd grade level math finally pulled through?

Also, if anyone sees any potential pitfalls in my logic, please point it out.

Some Background in case it Helps:

We originally met in person last summer.

I visited her this winter in Russia (man Russia is fun btw).

She is hoping/planning on coming back this summer again.

I should be going to Russia again in the winter.

So, we should have plenty of evidence etc...

I easily clear the poverty level (I don't know how).

No former marriages on either of us.

She doesn't have any children and I don't have any that I know of.

So no criminal background or any other crazy thing I can think of that would hold us up. Should be smooth sailing when we file.

Almost forgot, we're planning on having an unofficial wedding in Russia and then spending some time there before coming to the States. Hence the reason a late July expiration would be a problem.

And in case you're just plain curious; we're waiting to file because we're waiting for her to graduate. That's University graduation, not high school and shame on those of you who thought the later.

Finally:

I know this is a really long post for such a simple question; but I thought you looked lonely.

[payxibka 10,048]

I realize this can be considered a K-1 topic, but I'm greatly interested in feedback from people in the Russia forum, since I know average times differ from country to country. Not that I don't welcome information from everyone.

Anyway:

After trying to do some fuzzy mathematics and guesswork it seems that the average processing time is around 6-8 months from start to Visa. Then there is a 6 month period when the visa can be used.

In addition, don't forget about the 90 days to get married after arrival... so as long as she arrives while the visa is still valid, you then get another 90 days to complete the ceremony

[K1researcher 0]

Not sure I understand why you are purposefully making this difficult.

at works she gets the visa early comes to the states and you get a justice of the peace to fulfill the AOS obligation then do the wedding in July.

I guess i am not understanding the reason behind not wanting to be together for another year plus ... You can have the wedding in July anyways.

anytime you bet on a time line with govt you are asking for problems. Just file and work out the time line after you get your visa.

[Cixelsyd 1]

In addition, don't forget about the 90 days to get married after arrival... so as long as she arrives while the visa is still valid, you then get another 90 days to complete the ceremony

The ceremony will be in Russia, we may just have a JP wedding or small party the day we get back to the States. I'm just trying to time it so the visa doesn't expire early or have us waiting after July. I should have mentioned her graduation will be in July, so getting married before that is somewhat unlikely.

Not sure I understand why you are purposefully making this difficult.

If I just took the easy way out, I would be married to my last girlfriend. And probably attempting to catch a bullet with my teeth right around now.

at works (worst) she gets the visa early comes to the states and you get a justice of the peace to fulfill the AOS obligation then do the wedding in July.

I guess I should have clarified that she graduates in early July (2010). This would mean having her try and take some time out of school. Although it's not a bad idea, depending on other facts. I'm not sure how easy it would be for her to turn around and get approval to go back to Russia until she graduates.

I guess i am not understanding the reason behind not wanting to be together for another year plus ... You can have the wedding in July anyways.

Believe me, -not- wanting to be together couldn't be further from the truth. But she only has 1 fricken year left til graduation. It would be selfish of me to take that away from her and her family when she is so close. She's already going to give up her life and home there to be with me.

Sometimes it sucks to make the right decision, but it's only a year versus the rest of our lives.

Not to mention the benefits of having a degree in the job market, but I don't suppose I have to explain that.

Also, having 4 months together this summer and a couple weeks in the winter helps ease the time apart.

anytime you bet on a time line with govt you are asking for problems. Just file and work out the time line after you get your visa.

Except taxes... you can depend on that every April 15th.

[mkg265 2]

Check the timeline for after NO2 approval till interview for Russia only. Some places have much longer wait lists for interviews than other countries. I would think Russia would have a longer wait than average. Do check though.

[baron555 934]

I'm no expert but I think you have it backwards. The K-1 is for the un-married fiancee to immigrate, unmarried, to the US and then legally get married here in the US (county legal marriage, not necessarily a church marriage).

You CAN NOT have her obtain the K-1 Visa and then you go to Russia to get married there first.

If you do that, then the conditions of the K-1 are void, since she would be entering the US as married. Understand?

What you can do is go over to Russia and get married then you leave and file a K-3 Visa and bring her over as married, but K-3 take longer to process.

What Alla and I are planning is bringing her over on the K-1, unmarried, then we legally marry at the county courthouse (no ceremony), then later we will go back to Russia and do something ceremony-wise later.

Maybe I' m reading your intentions wrong. If you want to time all for her graduation, then I guess waiting a bit would be prudent.

Phil

[baron555 934]

And, I'm sure you know that not all degrees obtained in Russia are directly transferreable to the states. It may be better to pull out of school there and complete it here if she has to undergo further schooling/accreditation here.

Others will have better advice I am sure.

[Cixelsyd 1]

Check the timeline for after NO2 approval till interview for Russia only. Some places have much longer wait lists for interviews than other countries. I would think Russia would have a longer wait than average. Do check though.

Good call. I think it said the average was 61 days. Unless I read that wrong somewhere/somehow.

And, I'm sure you know that not all degrees obtained in Russia are directly transferreable to the states. It may be better to pull out of school there and complete it here if she has to undergo further schooling/accreditation here.

Right, we are taking a gamble on this one. I've talked to a lot of people who are in positions to hire foreign nationals and they've assured me it's not a problem. I guess we'll find out how truthful that is when the time comes. If nothing else, I'm sure it won't hurt.

@baron555: They're talking about doing a ceremony without getting a marriage license in Russia. They will do the actual marriage license with a JoP in the US.

Bullseye. I probably shouldn't have buried that fact near the end of my book. Most people fells asleep before getting to the end of my post.

@Cixelsyd: File now. She has 6 months to use the visa. If you really feel like you need to get all the timing right, a 6 month leeway is going to pretty much guarantee that you'll make all your personal deadlines. If you file now, let's say you get lucky and you are NOA2 approved in 4 months. Another 3 months to the interview makes your wait 7 months total. If she waits exactly 6 months to use the visa, you have a grand total of 13 months in which to get all your plans squared away.

There's the information I was wondering about. So the average from start to Visa for Russia is probably a little higher than 6-8 months, which means I can file earlier. Although 13 months from today does place us in April/May 2010. Again, we're shooting for July 2010. None the less, very good.

Cixelsysd, make sure she's cool with the "ceremony-only in Russia plan." The actual signing of the marriage license is a huge part of a Russian wedding. Without it, it's a little hollow. Many women would rather not go through with the non-licensed wedding in Russia, and instead do it later. If you've both talked it over already, then cool. Otherwise, make absolutely sure she's on board with it.

Actually, we have talked about this a lot and I'm glad you brought it up. It deviates from the original topic, but I would be interested in hearing what some other people have done to deal with this.

So far we're not sure exactly how we're going to do it, but we've thought about going and talking to someone at the Zags about doing everything except making it legal. Then some year come back to Russia and actually get stamped. We really haven't figured out the details, but it's a work in progress.

[Cixelsyd 1]

In my case, we talked about doing exactly this, and she decided that if it wasn't going to be registered, she didn't want to do it. It was explained to me that having a wedding without the registration is like having a wedding in the US without exchanging vows. If she's fine with it, then cool. But don't be surprised if she doesn't want to do it.

It was her idea. She probably has a better picture of the ordeal in her mind. I'm still just trying to figure out the crazy Russian wedding; can't wait though.

You can't do this. Once you're married in the States, you're married everywhere in the world. You can't legally be married twice. Sure, you might get away with it, but you could also be opening up a can of worms in the future.

This is something she actually told me. So I have very little info on this matter. But she talked to a friend who was married to someone from a different country and at some point in time they came back to Russia and filled out some documents which made it so the marriage was recognized by the Russian government.

Again, I don't really know exactly what she was referring to here, but I'm guessing the idea is that you fill out some documents that informs the Russian government of your marriage. Technically, I don't think they would know otherwise.

Again, this is just a shot in the dark and it's really not all that important anyway.

If you want to be married in Russia, go the K3/IR-1 route instead. In fact, this might fit the timeline you want to work with a little better.

I did think about this too. Feel free to correct me, but don't the K3 have a lot more problems/denials or overly extended wait times?

I'm not saying it's morally right, but it's the impression I've gotten so far when reading about the things people have gone through with them.

[baron555 934]

Cix and mox, I made the ceremony comments on purpose.

Cix, sounds like the K-1 would work. Can't you also ask for an extension on the interview date? (Question for the seasoned veterans.)

Read up on the traditional Russian wedding ceremony and celebrations and etiquette.

In short, it's a three day ordeal, with paper signing the first, big celebration the second with lots of kissing and lots of toasting and lots of drinking. The third day is more celebration with more kissing, toasting, and prepare to have your bride kidnapped and you must pay a ransom to get her back. All great fun.

I personally can not wait and sounds like you two are in the same boat. Good luck to us all.

Phil

[Chuckles 0]

Cix and mox, I made the ceremony comments on purpose.

As I understood your comment, you believed he was talking about a legal marriage in Russia, in which case you would be right, the K1 would be invalidated. But to be clear, having a ceremony without registering the marriage doesn't void the K1, and this is what he's talking about.

I tend to skip over lots of things when I read through here, but it sounds like he is going to do a K1, but do a ceremony without a 'license' in Russia?

If you do, do not use any, or take any of the pictures to the consulate as evidence. Do it, get it out of your system, then pretend it didn't happen. There are many stories where a ceremony took place, and couples were denied, even though no 'rules' were broken.

Read a few forums here, you are bound to find someone who got burned.

[slim 1,534]

And post wedding pics here when you tie the knot. Slim (another VJ'er around these parts) likes nothing better than a good cry over some wedding pics and pie, while he polishes his guns.

I was actually out shooting my guns (and training folks how to shoot theirs - www.appleseedinfo.org) this past weekend so I missed this wonderful post.

First -

Welcome to the Russia Forum. This place is an elite brotherhood of "old, fat, bald, rich guys" who have all "purchased" hot sexy young Russian women and are now only on VJ to offend Canadians and Britons. We also like guns and pie, if you haven't noticed. (And as mox said, a good cry every now and then at some wedding photos.)

Second -

Don't waste your time in the K-1 forum. Everything you need to know you can get here and the only thing you'll be doing over there is offending Canadians and Britons with all your talk of "purchasing" your young hot sexy new wife. Stick to the pie, and you'll be fine. Guns, even better.

OK. Down to business....

Are you going to be living in America with your new wife or are you one of those international businessmen who will be able to spend half the year in Russia with your wife and her family? Are you able to pay for her to be able to spend half the year in Russia with her family?

Or, are you one of those guys who, for whatever reason, decided to marry a woman from Russia and is now going to make a life in the U.S.? But, in the mean time she (or probably more like her mom and grandma, sisters, cousins, friends, etc.) would like to "keep it Russian" as far as the wedding is concerned and go about living her life all the way up until the point where it's time for her to transition to the States.

Here's where you're going to run into problems.

If she's coming here to live with you..... her life there is pretty much done as she knows it. The sooner she (and her family) realize that, the better. If she's under the impression that she's going to be able to "have the best of both worlds" then she's wrong. (Unless you're rich, of course.) Her family is also wrong. If they'd like to see their Russian daughter get married in Russia and you guys have the means to do it, that's great. But, you'd be better off using the next year and a half convincing them that she's moving to America and she's going to get married in America and that's the way it's going to be.

On that note, she's wasting her time finishing up Uni in Russia. Get her over here ASAP, get whatever credits she can get transferred over and have her graduate from an American school. Remember, she'll be living in America, after all. Not that a Russian uni degree is worthless, but she'll still have to jump through a bunch of hoops to make it work in the States. Might as well save all that hoop jumping and apply it directly to an American degree, no hoops required. There are several highly-educated Russian women here on VJ and they can tell you how much "worth" their degree was when they got here. It's not like they can step off the plane and start their dental practice the next day. "Russian law degree? That's cool. Would you like to answer the phones in our office? Maybe after a few years of hard work at the local community college you could be a paralegal." Get her over here and get her accredited as soon as you can.

A year and four months?

That's a long time. You can get the interview date pushed back and she can stay the six months after the visa is granted. (I know, my wife did both.) But why? Think about it this way... you could apply now, and she could be here in time to go to school next year. You guys could do the "Russian wedding" over there this summer (to satisfy mom's photo fetish) and then have everything ready to go to start your life together here. By July 2010, she could already have numerous credits toward her "American degree" and she'll also already have a green card just in case she wants to go home or you guys want to do the "Russian wedding" then.

I think it's silly for her to "work towards something" in Russia when she could be working towards something here. I'm also just saying all this because I secretly desire everyone to be as "happy" as I am. Get married soon!

[Cixelsyd 1]

First, sorry for the wait on a reply. Blame work... or alcohol. I leave the choice up to you.

Baron555:

Every story I hear about a Russian wedding just makes me look forward to it all that much more. I've already been warned about the tradition of the friends trying to keep you from getting her to come out of her house to go get married. It's going to be so much fun and the perfect opportunity to alienate family members on both sides.

You'll defiantly have to tell me about your experience, since I figure you'll go through it before me.

Mox:

I agree about being able to sign the registry in Russia would be much better; we're still figuring it out and with the new information you all have provided, it's given me a lot to consider.

Either way, I'll post the pictures and discuss war stories. Much pie and ammunition will be allocated for said day.

Chuckles:

I tend to skip over lots of things when I read through here, but it sounds like he is going to do a K1, but do a ceremony without a 'license' in Russia?

You pretty much nailed it on the head, good skimming.

If you do, do not use any, or take any of the pictures to the consulate as evidence. Do it, get it out of your system, then pretend it didn't happen. There are many stories where a ceremony took place, and couples were denied, even though no 'rules' were broken.

That's just for the consulate interview to get the k-1 visa right?

I would think it would be the opposite for adjusting status interview (whatever that's called, don't shoot me for not knowing lingo yet). Or am I wrong about that one?

Slim:

Welcome to the Russia Forum. This place is an elite brotherhood of "old, fat, bald, rich guys" who have all "purchased" hot sexy young Russian women

and are now only on VJ to offend Canadians and Britons. We also like guns and pie, if you haven't noticed. (And as mox said, a good cry every now and then at some wedding photos.)

Anyone know what the return policy is in case they get mouthy? (Hope the future Mrs. never sees that; or you'll find me in the Gulags)

And who let the Canadians have computers?

Don't waste your time in the K-1 forum. Everything you need to know you can get here and the only thing you'll be doing over there is offending Canadians and Britons with all your talk of "purchasing" your young hot sexy new wife. Stick to the pie, and you'll be fine. Guns, even better.

Will do, besides it feels like home here; kinda like the short bus. But as they say, birds of a feather...

So I don't make another book, I'll try to sum my answers:

We're planning on living in America; my only international traveling is over the Internet. Work likes to throw a computer at me and lock me in a room.

And of course we're not planning on living apart for any time longer than what we have to now.

To be fair about having the wedding in Russia, it was my suggestion. It will be easier for my family to go there and I know it would mean a lot to her and her family. Plus her family is amazing, so I would feel bad if we didn't at least do something.

You are right, her life there is pretty much done because the only time I'm rich is when I go to the dollar store.

I have no idea what the job situation is going to be like for her. I already figure I'll have to pull whatever connections I don't have.

Not that I don't appreciate a lot of insight and suggestions about getting married earlier. I did honestly think about it and consider how it could work.

It would be really difficult to pull off at this point in time. There's just a lot of other little things that would push the date we could get married back, which would bring us to about the same time we're planning on getting married anyway. We talked about it and both came to the conclusion that while as much as we hate being apart, we realize it really is better to wait.

Plus like I mentioned earlier, she should be here for 4 months this summer. And I'll go visit her again this winter.

Waiting is a hard thing to do, but she's more than worth it.

Of course it's easy for me to say that now when she's only a month and change away from staying here for 4 months. Wait until after she leaves and we have to wait a long time to see each other. Then I'll be screamig "WHY DIDN'T I LISTEN TO SLIM!".

But we will get married and be more than happy. Until then, we can dream about what will be.

Interesting Side Note:

I saw your picture with the cow in Moscow. I was JUST there a couple weeks ago. I should upload the picture. Made me laugh that we would both get a picture of it.

And Finally to Everyone:

Thank you very much for the welcome.

I look forward to annoying each and every one of you.

[slim 1,534]

All I can say at this point is - "Good luck."

As for the pictures with the cow, yep, it's "on the list" of photos you have to get with your S/O while in Moscow. I'm sure we all have a photo in front of St. Basil's and maybe even enjoying a real gambooorger at McDonald's.

[Brad and Vika 130]

Better change your flag to UK if that's your plan.

I thought RU flaggers had cornered the market on annoying.