IR1 visa and 2 y.home residency fulfillment

[Eugenia1984 0]

Hi all! I have an interview in the beginning of August. My husband and I have been married for 5 years and have a wonderful 2 y.o. boy The reason we are applying now is that I had to fulfill 2 year home residency requirement which will be done on July 26th. Before we moved to Ukraine (my husband travels back in forth - poor guy :/ ) in 2009, I was finishing up grad school in US and working a year afterwards on OPT in my field of studies.

We believe we have all our ducks in a row ( praying we have it all right)..until today...I went to receive my new passport (the travel kind, not the civil Ukrainian one - my old one is expiring soon, but i paid to keep the old one as well because I have my old F1 visa, and current B2 visa in it) at the local OVIR and they told me they cannot give me my new passport until i bring them my old passport from when I was 16 (called Childs Travel Document - still a passport, where I had my J1 visa, hence the 2 year rule!).I did. And they took it away! They gave me a chance to photocopy all the pages and tore two pages out of it- pages I need to prove to the consular officer that I have indeed stayed in Ukraine for 24 months (my entry stamps)- in that child's passport I had three stamps showing when I left Ukraine for my J1 program and stamp when I came back, third stamp when I left again to go to college. The rest of the stamps are in my "adult" passport that I kept. I know its all confusing by now

My question is: will the CO accept the copies of the old passport (which OVIR took) and only 2 pages that I was allowed to tear and keep as a prove of being in my home country? Im concerned about them not believing its the pages from MY old child's passport...but they really are! the number punctured on the page matches the number on my old J1 visa which confirms my name,etc..

WOW..this was long...so nervewrecking...Please, advice!!!And if anyone has ideas on what else can serve as a proof of stay in the country for two years, please tell!THANK YOU!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hi all! I have an interview in the beginning of August. My husband and I have been married for 5 years and have a wonderful 2 y.o. boy The reason we are applying now is that I had to fulfill 2 year home residency requirement which will be done on July 26th. Before we moved to Ukraine (my husband travels back in forth - poor guy :/ ) in 2009, I was finishing up grad school in US and working a year afterwards on OPT in my field of studies.

We believe we have all our ducks in a row ( praying we have it all right)..until today...I went to receive my new passport (the travel kind, not the civil Ukrainian one - my old one is expiring soon, but i paid to keep the old one as well because I have my old F1 visa, and current B2 visa in it) at the local OVIR and they told me they cannot give me my new passport until i bring them my old passport from when I was 16 (called Childs Travel Document - still a passport, where I had my J1 visa, hence the 2 year rule!).I did. And they took it away! They gave me a chance to photocopy all the pages and tore two pages out of it- pages I need to prove to the consular officer that I have indeed stayed in Ukraine for 24 months (my entry stamps)- in that child's passport I had three stamps showing when I left Ukraine for my J1 program and stamp when I came back, third stamp when I left again to go to college. The rest of the stamps are in my "adult" passport that I kept. I know its all confusing by now

My question is: will the CO accept the copies of the old passport (which OVIR took) and only 2 pages that I was allowed to tear and keep as a prove of being in my home country? Im concerned about them not believing its the pages from MY old child's passport...but they really are! the number punctured on the page matches the number on my old J1 visa which confirms my name,etc..

WOW..this was long...so nervewrecking...Please, advice!!!And if anyone has ideas on what else can serve as a proof of stay in the country for two years, please tell!THANK YOU!

Your obligation is to show that you have returned to your country for 2 years. There is no particular way to do this. A passport is nice but you are not required to have had a Zgranpassport during this time. So obvioulsy it is not the only thing that can be uised to show you were in Ukraine. Internal passport, bank records, prepoerty papers or lease, utility receipts, etc., any and all can be used to establish this. Also your husbands travel records will show that he has been coming back to visit you. Just show "evidence" and sleep well, I think you will be fine. Kiev is a reasonable consulate to deal with, give them something to go by and they will approve you.

Any documents written in Russian, Ukraianian or English do not need to be translated.

[Eugenia1984 0]

Your obligation is to show that you have returned to your country for 2 years. There is no particular way to do this. A passport is nice but you are not required to have had a Zgranpassport during this time. So obvioulsy it is not the only thing that can be uised to show you were in Ukraine. Internal passport, bank records, prepoerty papers or lease, utility receipts, etc., any and all can be used to establish this. Also your husbands travel records will show that he has been coming back to visit you. Just show "evidence" and sleep well, I think you will be fine. Kiev is a reasonable consulate to deal with, give them something to go by and they will approve you.

Any documents written in Russian, Ukraianian or English do not need to be translated.

Thank you so much, Gary and Alla!!! Even though I have been here for totall of 24 months I dont have anything in Ukraine in my name; we have been living in the apartment my parents own, which is in their names and all the utilities are as well, even though we are the ones paying the bills... I shared your post with my hubby and thought about may be showing our child's doctor's records here in Ukraine, shots, checkups, etc..would that work? Also being a Ukrainian mother I received government money everyone in Ukraine gets when they have a baby (even though our son is US born they still gave us the money)...Its thru one of the local banks, would that be considered a proof (even though Im worried they will think Im a public charge here, but I am not!)?? I had several packages/cards sent to us here in Ukraine by US relatives and friends...Ease my mind, please Any more ideas are welcome!! Less than 2 weeks before THE big day - THE interview!!!