I filed our I-129F in August. It was approved in December. Olga and her son completed their medical on Jan 17. She went to the embassy on Jan 27. That is where everything fell apart. In my 129 package I included a copy of her divorcee decree, from the court in Odessa, dated Oct. 2009. In prepping for her interview we noticed that the embassy website said that for her interview, the divorce decree was not sufficient, that they require the lady to bring her ZAGS document as well. In the US, when a woman gets divorced, if she wants to take her maiden name back she must also go to the DMV and Social Security office. But this is not a requirement. Likewise, in the Ukraine, when a woman gets married or divorced she is supposed to have her identification papers updated, but many do not. It is especially difficult because the woman can only do this at the registrars office (ZAGS) in the county of her birth. My Olga, being a single working mother, had never taken the 6 hour bus ride to update her documents. When we saw on the website that the embassy would want to see her ZAGS, she made the trip and received her ZAGS certificate. She presented this to the interviewer when he requested to see it. He questioned the fact that her court document was dated Oct 2009 but her ZAGS was Dec 2011. She explained the delay, but he said that he was unsure which date would be considered the legal divorce date. So he put her case on administrative hold and sent her home. He said they would have an answer in 7 to 10 days. I called the call center and emailed the embassy every day, but all they would tell me was that they had asked the Ukrainian authorities for clarification and that we needed to wait. Finally, on May 16, 3.5 months after her interview, the Ukraine govt informed the US govt that a law had been passed in 2010 that requires the ZAGS document update as part of the divorce process, so, in fact, Olga was not legally divorced until December 2011. The embassy emailed me and said that at the time of my 129 submittal in August 2011, Olga was not legally free to marry, so my application was invalid and I must refile. I called the USCIS office and the National Visa Center and both said that I need to begin again at the very start, mailing a new package to the lockbox. I hope that by reading this at least one couple is spared the pain that we have endured. This process is absolutely horrible. I have been to visit her 9 times in the past 14 months but that counts for nothing because we accidently violated a rule that no one, not even the embassy, knew existed!
If your fiancee is from UKRAINE and is divorced READ THIS!
in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus
Posted
I filed our I-129F in August. It was approved in December. Olga and her son completed their medical on Jan 17. She went to the embassy on Jan 27. That is where everything fell apart. In my 129 package I included a copy of her divorcee decree, from the court in Odessa, dated Oct. 2009. In prepping for her interview we noticed that the embassy website said that for her interview, the divorce decree was not sufficient, that they require the lady to bring her ZAGS document as well. In the US, when a woman gets divorced, if she wants to take her maiden name back she must also go to the DMV and Social Security office. But this is not a requirement. Likewise, in the Ukraine, when a woman gets married or divorced she is supposed to have her identification papers updated, but many do not. It is especially difficult because the woman can only do this at the registrars office (ZAGS) in the county of her birth. My Olga, being a single working mother, had never taken the 6 hour bus ride to update her documents. When we saw on the website that the embassy would want to see her ZAGS, she made the trip and received her ZAGS certificate. She presented this to the interviewer when he requested to see it. He questioned the fact that her court document was dated Oct 2009 but her ZAGS was Dec 2011. She explained the delay, but he said that he was unsure which date would be considered the legal divorce date. So he put her case on administrative hold and sent her home. He said they would have an answer in 7 to 10 days. I called the call center and emailed the embassy every day, but all they would tell me was that they had asked the Ukrainian authorities for clarification and that we needed to wait. Finally, on May 16, 3.5 months after her interview, the Ukraine govt informed the US govt that a law had been passed in 2010 that requires the ZAGS document update as part of the divorce process, so, in fact, Olga was not legally divorced until December 2011. The embassy emailed me and said that at the time of my 129 submittal in August 2011, Olga was not legally free to marry, so my application was invalid and I must refile. I called the USCIS office and the National Visa Center and both said that I need to begin again at the very start, mailing a new package to the lockbox. I hope that by reading this at least one couple is spared the pain that we have endured. This process is absolutely horrible. I have been to visit her 9 times in the past 14 months but that counts for nothing because we accidently violated a rule that no one, not even the embassy, knew existed!