Choosing a Different U.S. Embassy for CR1 Visa Processing for russian citizens

[mojo 123 0]

My fiance is a Russian citizen, and I am a U.S. citizen. We plan to marry next month and file for a CR1 visa. Currently, the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, is processing cases for Russian applicants, but she does not have a Schengen visa, and we’ve heard they are rejecting applicants for schengen visa.

Question: Instead of initially filing in Poland and later transferring the case, can we select a different U.S. Embassy (in a third country) for visa processing from the beginning? 

Please advise—your guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Edited April 19 by mojo 123
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[TBoneTX 46,860]

Welcome to the forum!

 

There are several active threads about this topic in the Russia/Ukraine/Belarus regional forum.  I'll transfer this thread there, and you can not only await answers but also read the experiences of others.

 

Good luck in getting this arranged -- it can be done!

[P3ACHY 27]

The most reliable way this can be done currently is for your wife to live temporarily out of Russia when you file the i-130 petition. If your wife's physical address, when you file the petition, is in a different country, then they will send the petition to that embassy. Recommended countries are FSU countries, such as Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, perhaps Serbia. Only countries that can handle Russian documents.

 

This is how we accidentally ended up in Armenia. We didn't plan for it, we just got lucky it worked out that way, all we had for proof of living in Armenia was our apartment lease. However, I've seen in some Russian language visa groups, that some notaries try to set this up for clients to avoid the Warsaw interview. I'm not sure how they do it exactly.

 

I will say if you haven't done your petition yet, the situation could still change until you're actually at the interview stage. As of now, they're still issuing Schengen visas to Russians. Maybe it will be easier to transfer to a different embassy in the future, or maybe they'll be more strict. Maybe the Moscow embassy will reopen. No one knows.