Will Russia-Ukraine conflict affect Visas for Russians?

[PakistaniRussian 83]

Hello everyone,

 

My fiancee is from the Russian Federation and this news has been horrible and affecting everyone. This may be a dumb or worry-some question, but would they stop issuing K1 visas for Russians given the current political situation with sanctions? 

 

Hopefully this conflict ends soon. Thoughts and prayers for everyone affected

[slavaskii 886]

No, the US won’t stop issuing immigrant visas to Russians. I heard the Czech Republic was no longer issuing certain visas, but if true, they’re a huge outlier. Everyone well understands that a Russian trying to move westward has no support for the war, but even if they did, that’s no reason to deny a visa. Take care.

[SalishSea 17,928]

2 minutes ago, PakistaniRussian said:

Hello everyone,

 

My fiancee is from the Russian Federation and this news has been horrible and affecting everyone. This may be a dumb or worry-some question, but would they stop issuing K1 visas for Russians given the current political situation with sanctions? 

 

Hopefully this conflict ends soon. Thoughts and prayers for everyone affected

Russians have had to interview at Warsaw for K visas for some time - for as long as the embassy has been closed.

 

In terms of  visas for Russians, it's anyone's guess.  A lot of the challenges for Russians, including access to visas, will be the Kremlin's doing more than anything.

[Mike E 11,741]

if hostilities break out between the USA and Russia, I expect a ban on any visa issued to a Russian citizen.  Such bans have waivers.

[PakistaniRussian 83]

2 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Russians have had to interview at Warsaw for K visas for some time - for as long as the embassy has been closed.

 

In terms of  visas for Russians, it's anyone's guess.  A lot of the challenges for Russians, including access to visas, will be the Kremlin's doing more than anything.

Thank you. Yeah we applied 2 months ago, so we still have a lot of waiting between now and the NOA1 approval. We also did select Warsaw. Hopefully. everything turns out okay. Thanks for the responses

[slavaskii 886]

1 minute ago, PakistaniRussian said:

Thank you. Yeah we applied 2 months ago, so we still have a lot of waiting between now and the NOA1 approval. We also did select Warsaw. Hopefully. everything turns out okay. Thanks for the responses

Just so you know, what you wrote on the I-129F doesn’t matter; they will send your visa to whoever the Department of State designates for Russians (in this case - Warsaw). Also, it would take something near unprecedented for a country-wide ban against Russians. I can only imagine an actual war would prevent issuance on such a scale, but even then, Moscow’s closed so...

[AD1 59]

We are Iranian and visa was not ban for us, in fact we don't have us embassy in Iran for past 4 decades so i highly doubt it will be ban for Russian

[millefleur 5,047]

9 minutes ago, AD1 said:

We are Iranian and visa was not ban for us, in fact we don't have us embassy in Iran for past 4 decades so i highly doubt it will be ban for Russian

Thanks for this, I thought about Iran when I heard of all this speculation. So, do Iranians just apply for visas at other embassies?

[AD1 59]

3 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Thanks for this, I thought about Iran when I heard of all this speculation. So, do Iranians just apply for visas at other embassies?

Yes turkey UAE or Armenia 

[iwannaplay54 985]

30 minutes ago, AD1 said:

Yes turkey UAE or Armenia 

Iran is not banned from everyone’s airspace.  I am afraid this may become an issue.

Edited March 9, 2022 by iwannaplay54

[PakistaniRussian 83]

Well luckily we are both in Turkey right now until we get our visa appointment in Warsaw and my fiancee already has a Schengen visa, so we got lucky. Hopefully everything gets better soon 🙏🏻

Edited March 9, 2022 by PakistaniRussian

[millefleur 5,047]

1 hour ago, iwannaplay54 said:

Iran is not banned from everyone’s airspace.  I am afraid this may become an issue.

Russia is not banned from everyone's airspace. The airspace ban is a mutual ban between most of Europe, the US and Canada (excluding Serbia, who is still flying between Russia and actually increased their flights to meet demand.) South America, Asia, so actually the countries with the majority of the world's population have not banned Russia from their airspace.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/map-shows-countries-closed-airspace-120656871.html

 

 

It's an issue that it makes it more annoying for Russians to get to most European countries or North America via airplane. Russians are not banned from entering any of these countries right now (including the banned airspace ones) as long as they hold valid visas. It merely means Russian airplanes cannot fly into the blue shaded countries (and vice versa for their airplanes flying over Russia.)

Edited March 9, 2022 by millefleur

[PakistaniRussian 83]

28 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Russia is not banned from everyone's airspace. The airspace ban is a mutual ban between most of Europe, the US and Canada (excluding Serbia, who is still flying between Russia and actually increased their flights to meet demand.) South America, Asia, so actually the countries with the majority of the world's population have not banned Russia from their airspace.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/map-shows-countries-closed-airspace-120656871.html

 

 

It's an issue that it makes it more annoying for Russians to get to most European countries or North America via airplane. Russians are not banned from entering any of these countries right now (including the banned airspace ones) as long as they hold valid visas. It merely means Russian airplanes cannot fly into the blue shaded countries (and vice versa for their airplanes flying over Russia.)

Thank you for the full explanation. I appreciate you looking into this. The best thing to do is just wait and not to think too much as things change all the time. 🙏🏻

Edited March 9, 2022 by PakistaniRussian

[Simplytex 387]

I've been wondering, in a similar manner, at what point the US government would recognize that the impacts to people and/or family members in Russia for US citizens and PR's reaches a level to which expediting visa's would be acceptable? At a certain point, the Russia matter is building an significant amount of urgency given the rate at which flights have been cancelled, money transfers are blocked, media/internet lockdowns are possible, and who knows what is next - will having Western or US immediate family members start to 'flag' ordinary Russians for special attention?

 

Please don't take the comment the wrong way - I truly understand that the Ukraine/other active conflict areas, or humanitarian life and death situations would of course take precedence.

[slavaskii 886]

5 hours ago, Simplytex said:

I've been wondering, in a similar manner, at what point the US government would recognize that the impacts to people and/or family members in Russia for US citizens and PR's reaches a level to which expediting visa's would be acceptable? At a certain point, the Russia matter is building an significant amount of urgency given the rate at which flights have been cancelled, money transfers are blocked, media/internet lockdowns are possible, and who knows what is next - will having Western or US immediate family members start to 'flag' ordinary Russians for special attention?

 

Please don't take the comment the wrong way - I truly understand that the Ukraine/other active conflict areas, or humanitarian life and death situations would of course take precedence.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but in countries like Belarus, having Western family members or even desiring to visit the West already 'flags' you for special attention. 😕 

 

In any case, 'fear' isn't a valid grounds for expedition, but I do see your point that Russians are already facing persecution (which would be an expedite ground). However, there's been some confusion on if Ukrainians are still eligible for expedites, and I think we all need to watch the situation closely. The airspace being closed doesn't affect expedites at all, though (to use Belarus again, they've been in Russia's exact position for almost a year now). Thus, persecution is probably the most likely expedite ground because it's analogous to 'humanitarian reasons.' 

Edited March 10, 2022 by slavaskii