Pupsik

gotcha thanks.

at the oath or interview do they take the green card?

My wife has her citizenship interview scheduled for the 19th of next month. She is being told by some of her friends who went through the process that the oath can be taken the same day. When I look on this site it seems more like you have the interview and then the oath ceremony is scheduled for you in the coming month.

So which is it?

we are waiting for an AOS to have conditions removed and ours was just transferred from the Vermont Center to the CSC. from my research it seems that it is to speed up the process and most that have had a transfer get approved without any further information needed.

we always carry a copy of the marriage certif just in case. we just came back through JFK on wednesday and I asked if it was a problem that her passport and GC did not match and the officer said no. He didnt even look at the marriage certificate. We have to get her a new passport in about 6 months so we will do the name change then.

hope this is true...it has been rumored for years. will love to get it since the $300 each time i need a visa really adds up. Of course this would go into effect right after i get back from russia too. just my luck

we always fly out of JFK and there were no issues coming back with a permanent resident card. But the line to go through customs does take a bit of time. a 3 hour layover should be fine.

Smiling is so american

Just curious if I have any other options besides getting a tourist visa all the time. It is looking like we are averaging 2 trips a year to russia and it would be nice to not have to shell out $400 a year just for the tourist visas. Are there any other types of entry documents to get? i remember talk a while back about a 3 year visa but not sure if that ever happened. Is there some type of allowance for the spouse of a russian citizen?

Just take your wedding album. I took my wedding album plus some extra printed pics, but the IO just wanted to look at the wedding album and didn't want any of the extra pics for the file.

i disagree and say bring everything. Our IO didnt even look at our wedding album and only looked thorough our personal photo album. our theory was bring as much proof as we possibly could. when the IO asked for something, we kept handing paper upon paper until she said stop.

If my wife and I did it without a lawyer, anyone can. I dont see how a lawyer can really help. I have heard many stories about lawyers being late with paperwork or not sending complete packages. If your case had a lot of red flags or if you were denied AOS, then I would suggest legal representation. Sounds like you guys are genuine and can supply plenty of evidence supporting your relationship over the 4 years.

best of luck to you both...Happy holidays!

ok here is the new problem i have pictures of us with family and friends in my computer i was going to get them printed from cvs in few days .. but last night my

niece spilled some soda on my laptop and i have lost all my data .. i am freaking out 23 days left in interview and all i have is the wedding album..

im sure you can recover the data. open the laptop and let it dry out(take the battery out, take all the screws out and open the cover and remove any components that are attached to it. Let it air dry overnight. Use some alcohol on a Q-tip to remove any sticky residue. If all else fails you can bring it to a shop and they can pop out the hard drive and recover the data.

my wife did the same with her laptop and thats what I did. it wouldn't turn on and she thought it was toast. Took it all apart, let it dry, reassembled it and it fired right up.

also make sure that you print it correctly on one sheet of paper, doublesided

just relax....its more like a conversation than an interrogation. Its ok to be nervous or anxious. don't be paranoid

i just went through the process and actually leave on thursday to go. only advice I have is make sure that you fill out the forms correctly and you leave yourself plenty of time to make changes if need be.

I started the process with 3 weeks until my flight. I had a mistake on the application and having to send overnight mail twice was a waste of $25. I also had to pay extra since it was a short window of time.

I got the passport back in about a week with the visa inside. never had to visit a consulate, just the fed-ex

sounds like you dont need a lawyer. We did it on our own and we had more issues than you do. Just relax and be yourselves. its more of a conversation than an interrogation.

congrats!!!! Ill be in Russia for New Year as well!!!

we were approved on the spot and stamped as well. Maybe you could just ask after the interview if it all goes well. They may do it. It is up to them.

Just an FYI though, when we went to the airport they didnt care about the stamp and demanded to see a greencard. Luckily ours arrived the day before she left for Russia. I have been told that the airport staff dont know that the stamp has the same validity as a greencard. So you may have some difficulties trying to fly. Leave extra time to find and speak with someone who knows the rules. A flight desk attendant is not an immigration agent so they may not know the rules.

the sooner you start...the sooner you are approved

very glad to hear! congratulations!!!!

we sent our pictures (about 20 of them) in a plastic ziplock bag that was stapled to a blank piece of paper. That paper was with all the other paperwork and copies of evidence of our relationship.

No that's KVAS

Ahhhhh, yes. My mistake

i thought kefir was made with bread and allowed to ferment almost like a beer.

reminds me of when I was dating an asian woman and her mother kept a jar or fish heads in the cabinet for sauce....GROSS!

you are still within the "normal" time-frame. We were lucky and things went quickly

we were just approved and got the stamp without asking. when we were at the airport though, the clerk demanded to see the green card. so be warned that if you do get the stamp, most people dont know that it has the same validity of a green card. you may have some trouble with just the stamp and may have to talk to these peoples bosses in order to travel.

^^^dont forget quicker too. My russian tourist visa arrived today. whole process took about 2 weeks. i hear that the homestay (private) visa can take a substantially longer time since there have to be documents filled out in russia and then forwarded back to the US.

I went through an online tour agency that arranged the invitation and handled everything by mail. total cost was about $250 including postage.