ONA

DO NOT let the Russian passport expire. My wife was going to renew hers in Russia, but we made a mistake when looking at the expiration date (expired 9/10 instead of 10/9....you know how we write dates differently) and just missed going to Russia. Called the Russian embassy and they said she would not be allowed to enter Russia. Thought about using the agency in Chicago and even spoke with them. They seemed helpful and legit. The embassy said that she would need to prove she was a Russian citizen since her passport was expired. We paid the embassy and provided all the required documents, but as is typically Russian, that wasn't enough. We have tried everything we can think of here, and with influential friends in Russia but just have not been able to fix the issue. A couple of grand would probably do it, but we don't need it that bad. My wife is a US citizen now so we can go pretty much anywhere EXCEPT Russia, which is fine with her.

First of all, if the internal passport is still valid, the OP's wife is fine. My international passport expired in December 2012, I renewed it in 2013. It was not a problem at all, but my internal passport was still valid.

Second of all, proving your citizenship is very easy, even if all of your passports have expired. I know people, who have done it recently - not a problem. I don't know what you're talking about by saying that something was "typically Russian" because everybody I know, including myself, had a very positive experience dealing with the embassy in Washington DC.

I will never understand people like your wife. How can you call anything a dump if you haven't been there for years? I visited my city in July and it was amazing.

I'm living in Arlington, VA. Not that many Russians but there's sooo many in DC. Looks like we'll move to Houston soon.

Are you, guys, still in Arlington? It would be fun to meet up some time

we are in smaller town outside DC, Woodbridge VA. Interesting to find or neighbor was a Russian language instructor

You, guys seem to be relatively close too.

We live in Severn MD, which is about 15 min outside of Baltimore and 40 min from DC (if there is no traffic). I work in DC though, so I am always sort of close to VA.

I have done all the translation myself. Didn't notarize anything. It worked just fine.

Same here. You just have to make sure that you certify your translation (by adding a statement that you are fluent in both English and Russian and the translation is accurate to the best of your knowledge).

Thanks for the replies...

She is looking to work as an adjunct professor at a local college.... I guess we will contact them to ask what they want.

What does she want to teach?

I did my evaluation through ECE and their report says that I have an equivalent of a Bachelor's degree in Secondary Education and an MA in English Linguistics.

I started looking for a job as soon as I received their report and have been working as an ESL Instructor and a TOEFL TCA at a language school in DC for about a year and a half now.

I would love to go back to school and get my doctorate, but that's just me. A lot of other people would be more than happy with what I have right now.

Be very careful. You can ask 5 people at the MVA the same question and get 5 different answers. They are technically wrong and I know of many people in your situtation who have been issued citations by the Maryland State Police for driving without a licenses. You end up going to Court and at least some of the Judges are finding people guilty.

Well, everybody I've talked to at Annapolis MVA seemed to have the same answer. Needless to say that I drove myself to the driving test and that was not a problem.

Thanks anyway. Luckily, I did not get "caught" though and I've had my MD driver's license for over a year now. Good news is that I won't have to deal with MVA until 2016 - that's when I'm going to have to renew my DL.

so my fiance had her interview scheduled after she registered at usatravel website but she decided to call customer service and ask few questions, well during the call they asked her what is her patronymic name is, she said that she does not have it in her passport but they insisted so she said, now they entered it into the site system and she can't remove it from there, she called again but they refused to remove it, she does not have it in here passport nor in any of the forms, so what is gonna happen because of this? will embassy use her patronymic name form the web site for visa or not, did anyone had their patronymic name entered in the site?

Does she have her patronymic listed in any of the forms? Even if she does, they may or may not use it, it's hard to tell. I had 4 US visas (3 J1 visas and a K1 visa), I always listed my patronymic in all of the visa related forms. All my J1 visas had my patronymic, but the K1 visa did not. I don't know why.

The police and birth certfcates do have to be translated into English. The good news is that if your fiancee's English is good, she can do the translations herself - I did my own translations.

Where did you read that biometrics were required? Neither a photograph nor fingerprints are required for a police certificate in Russia unless they've changed something recently (I don't think they did).

I am wondering what my Russian Fiance' will think when my family has, "crab night"... 3 dozen boiled crabs and a few cases of beer... cover the table with newspaper, give everyone a wooden hammer.... and go to town....

She'll love it. My mother-in-law says that I married my husband for crabs... and crab cakes (I tried my first crab cake on our first date)

And don't get her started on how soft and watery potatoes are or the lack of variety in grains and fruits.

it depends on where you shop. Some stores have a great variety of both. Actually variety of fruit is even wider here than it is in Russia.

Farmer's cheese resembles Russian "tvorog" more than cottage cheese (but farmer's cheese is also less common).

My husband looooves almost everything - even fish and beet salad (I absolutely hate it, by the way ). The only thing he would not eat is kholodets.

He can make blinchiki (or crepes) himself and make pelmeni himself too (I usually make the dough and freeze it though).

I got everybody I know hooked on Russian potato salad, even my boss I never make it with bologna though... only with beef or venison.

What is the purpose of her coming to the USA? If it's work, she should apply for a work visa.

If it's marriage, she should apply for K-1.

The best advice is not to lie to immigration authorities.

I'm going through the process right now. I went to DC Consulate (luckily, I work about 10 minutes away from the place, so getting there was a relatively painful process for me - the hardest part was to find a parking spot).

Calling the embassy is not as crazy as some people would think - I was able to reach them on my first try. The problem was that the date when I called them and the closest possible appointment date were 3 months apart (I called in late December, I had my appointment scheduled for yesterday: March 28th).

All instructions seemed pretty clear to me, your wife can have a look at them here: http://www.russianembassy.org/ru/page/%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%8F%D1%89%D0%B8%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%8F-%D0%B4%D0%BE-14-%D0%BB%D0%B5%D1%82

I was surprised by how many people did not read/didn't follow the instructions and were complaining about it

My appointment was scheduled for 2:00 pm. At 2pm exactly they let me with about 10 other people in the building. There were only 3 consulate workers and, like I said, some people didn't read instructions, which obviously caused delays, but I was out of the embassy by 3pm.

They said that the passport would be ready in 2-3 months and I can track the status of the case online.

Everybody in the consulate was surprisingly polite and patient. Overall, so far I have enjoyed dealing with the consulate more than with USCIS.

I agree, flowers in US seems to stay fresh much longer than in Russia. Any flowers I got for my wife stayed fresh for at least 2 weeks if not a little longer, even any simple bouquet from Kroger for $10-15 never did look bad in at least 12 days, not speaking about flowers from special florist shops. In Russia you never know, flowers in my Russian city were MUCH more expensive than the same kinds of flowers here in the US (not speaking of roses - you barely could get 2-3 roses in my city for the price I can buy a whole dozen here in the US), and I'm not from Moscow. They always were a lottery in Russia - sometimes they wouldn't stay fresh even for a 5-7 days, you never know, and it was rare if they would stay fresh for 2 weeks. So yeah, I definitely don't see anything wrong with flowers here. In Russia they were often less fresh and always much more expensive.

- Victor

The only difference is that in Russia you have to know how to pick flowers (of course they will try to sell you the ones that are old). Here old ones are usually sold with a discount, but it's still good to look. The flowers I would buy or get in Russia would always be good for at least 2 weeks. It's about the same here.

How do you all suggest she prepare this time around? Three years ago she took the mandatory class which included a few hours of driving time but that was predictably useless since the instructor mainly did highway driving time while running his errands. What about buying more one-on-one instructor-driving time or having a friend teach in place of husband? Did your wife pass the test in your car, or if you have a big ol' American gas guzzler (/sarc) did you rent a smaller car for the exam?

In MD you can schedule a couple of classes with an instructor from any driving school. I could drive and had a Russian DL when I came here, but I still decided to take a couple classes with an instructor, just to find out what was expected from me during the test at MVA. we paid $50/hour.

Your wife can also take a test in a driving school's car. It cost $150 a year ago. However, we did not use this opportunity, since I started driving my Toyota Yaris around before I took the test (I was allowed to with my Russian DL)... so I took the test in my car. I still don't want to even try to drive my husband's truck.

Don't feel bad, when I was still in Russia my husband's ex-girlfriend kept calling him (it's OK if men hit on me, it's not OK if women hit on him... lol), now she's my hair stylist - she even did my hair for the wedding.

You can't do much, I know it's hard, so try not to focus on it. If she tells you when things like that happen, you can trust her - that's the main thing. Other than that Victor's advice might be helpful

We used "travisa" for my husband. We're planning on going to Russia in summer, so thanks for the info on 3-year visas.

It's funny, I almost got a job at VisaHQ. It's a good thing that I did not, because I make much more money now than they were going to pay (off top, I know, sorry).

My husband is going to have to go through this process soon as well... We're a bit worried, because he didn't get a TS/SCI clearance when we were going through K-1 process. Hopefully, it's different when you're married and your spouse is an LPR.

How many Ukrainians (or Russians, but I am told this is done in Ukraine) clean their carpets by taking them out in the snow and scrubbing them with fresh snow? How did this one escape discussion?

My parents used to do it, but they stopped with the development of technology.

However, I hate stupid carpets in every house here too. We are getting rid of carpets in our house some time soon.

She loves her little Toyota Yaris, it drives like a go cart and she can whip it into any paralell parking spot as easy as pie.

LOL

I drive a Yaris too, my husband keeps joking that if I ever can't find a parking space, I should just put the car into my purse

Weird... Russian women, who move here, can't find decent clothing in the US, yet I know TONS of women in Russia, who order stuff from American stores online.

I am petite myself and while finding pants and jeans that fit can still be hard, it's a lot easier than it used to be when I lived in Russia. Every single thing I would buy there had to be altered, cause it was way too long.

I bought my wedding dress in the US too and it was perfect. I was looking for something simple and fit. Dresses in Russia had too much "decorations" on them - I hated that.

However, I've been having a hard time trying to find a decent pair of dress shoes or boots. One of my American friends said, "I feel your pain... they make them either for strippers or for grandmas".

In Maryland it is 30 days after becoming a resident but the State Police will write you a ticket for Driving without a valid licenses if they stop you and you do not have a B1/B2 visa and international drivers licenses and you have to go to court and fight it out with the Judge.

it's actually 60 days after becoming a resident of the state.

However, I used my International DL longer than that: when I took my knowledge test and found out that I had to wait for 2 more months before I could take my skills test, people at the MVA office told me that I could drive with my international DL while I was waiting.

Thanks that's refreshing to hear. I think we might use them too. Just curious - how long did the process take?

It takes 5 weeks on average, but if you pay extra for rush service, they can complete it in 1, 5 or 12 business days:

https://www.ece.org/main/content=EvaluationServices&SubSite=1&LeftNav=2#Rush

I was looking at this one for my wife...WES seemed really expensive compared to it...

www.ece.org

I had my credentials evaluated by this agency, they did a great job.

We're in Baltimore/DC area. Last night we lost power for about 5 minutes and that was about it. There was no serious damage in our town, both me and my husband enjoyed 2 extra days off.

Hope other VJ members are OK too.