obender

sounds cool and easy going.

right, "no pressure" post was to be expected...

by pressure i meant necessity to conduct certain types of transactions in the russian locality that one's leaving such as (but not limited to) care of remaining relatives, inheritance process, and major of them all - real estate dealings... if one has nothing of that - no pressure but not too many individuals leave absolutely nothing after living more than quarter of a century in a home country.

o bender

Alright, AKdiver I forgot another way that no russian who is not under pressure would ever take. Changing russian "propiska" to registration abroad as your wife did (in the thread posted) cuts all the ties to Russia and renders internal russian passport irrelevant.

Since that person has no ties to russia except with consulate, embassy etc. only those institutions could change the name in international passport. There is no question about it.

What I wrote is correct, I just made an assumption that person is still registered in russia. Most people if not pressed keep their russian registration "propiska" to be able to deal with various aspects of life there: inheritance, real estate etc.

obender

finally! a topic which interests us, people that passed all the stages of USCIS burocracy and ascended to spouse citizenships... ha ha

anyways, important question in AKdiver story is if there was a stamp with the name change is the russian passport. without that stamp (which is still surprisingly made free of charge in russian consulates, i'm sure they'll come to their senses soon) airline indeed could deny her entry.

that stamp actually connects two passports.

now to change the passport with maiden name is entirely different and more sad stroy. first you have to change the name in internal russian passport (in russia only of course). then get new international passport there with the new name. very unpleasant procedure i believe...

we did a lot of travel with that name change stamp in russian passport, it worked so far... i wonder for how long it'll be...

also in VA they put both new and maiden names on the marriage certificate... we're lucky that way here

obender

internal passpot was not required to change external at least several last years. all documents they needed were expired or expiring external pasport.

one more related thing - you can apply for new passport only within 1 year of expiration of the old pasport, not earlier.

obender

i can only add to the previous post that you'll have to send your passport to these guys at http://www.gotorussia.com/ and they'll mail it back to you. processing takes several days and about 200$ depending on how quickly you want it to be done.

with that visa you'll have to stay in hotel in russia and the hotel will register you with no problems. you can also look at

https://www.russia-visa.com/cgi-bin/visa.cgi

obender

thanks! i'll do the same

Thanks,

I hoped so... one should try not to assume anything with those guys... hence was my question

obender

Hi,

a very simple question for the citizenship application based on US citizen marriage... so if the spouse spent only 3 years in US what does this person answer to the Part 7 question: "Write total number of days you spent outside US during last five years"

does one have to write 730 days?

and for the part B, how do those two years before coming to US (out of asked five - since 3 years is what it takes to become eligible) count?

Thanks,

obender

that's what voipcheap.com did then... Satellite, thanks for pointing that out, I thought my free call period expired again.

voipcheap is still cheaper than skype for russian landlines. sorry, I got no alternative for you...

obender

the bribe in Sh-2 airport could be absolutely another matter... if they have doubts in your registration it most probably could not be resolved at the counter. then all bets are off... you could be recorded in a freaky case of bribe fight and even if not the prices there are quite different. it's Moscow afterall.

and true, i do not want official record of any kind. need to visit motherland freely from time to time...

obender

I wonder what "dinged" exactly meant there... just a fine or significant fine? or some kind of record in your file with consequences?

also I wonder how they have their computer system set up: new registration rules through post office do not leave any mark (stamp or anything like that) on your registration card. so how do they know if you're registered or not? post requires several days for delivery plus data input etc...

obender

Russian law of registration says "3 business days" but 1-10 January are holidays. Don't worry and repeat those words if they try to hassle you.

S Novym godom!

it's nice there now...

Mike,

very short and very precise answer to your question is NO. Satellite is the only one in this topic who has relevant information (as he usually does bring). I am/ was in this situation. It very simple really if you have 2 passports you can only travel to russia with russian passport. if you have american passport but it says you were born in russia (or ussr for that matter) you have to provide the russian embassy a piece of paper... (it takes about a year, it might paradoxically need a trip to russia: russian court, tax, and military registration services, and about 600$)

bastards...

indeed many us jobs now would not let you have second passport so, unfortunately, your friend should forget about trip there for some pretty long time and enjoy the rest 5/6 of the land on the planet.

obender

payxibka,

you're certainly correct from statistics point of view but you'd be surprised how much other countries do not know and do not wish to know about US rule intricacies.

obender

Hi,

we filed removing of conditions about 10 months ago (and still in processing) therefore original 2 year green card expired and my wife obtained "green card stamp equivalent" in her passport. Now, we going to fly to Mexico in two weeks and we're wondering how easy it will be for Mexican border officials to understand what that stamp means. Have anybody had an experience of crossing mexican border with the passport stamp before ?

Important fact is that my wife has russian passport and Mexico requires visa for russians. On the hand green card holders seem to be allowed to go into Mexico visa-free regardless of citizenship...

Thanks!

obender

Changing the subject will not excuse your lame attempt to point fingers. There are plenty of directions to point. The reasons are many. But IMO, the two biggest reason this happened was because people are greedy and the regulations that were in place to keep this from happening were removed. Greed took over and new and innovative ways were found to bleed us of every penny. Unfortunately for all, the path that was taken to accomplish this was very risky and when it collapsed, it did so in a very big way. It is sort of like running around for a few days writing checks on an empty account. It works for a little while but then it catches up to you. I can guarantee you that Uncle Sam will not be there to make deposits into your checking account because you wanted to get rich quick.

well, capitalism is based on greed. read a bit of unpopular on this side of the pond Karl Marx. without deep modifications to the system itself this will happen over and over again...

but i agree about dufflebag ...

obender

Texas should not have a say in this elections due to production of current president

I'm surprised he even made it past governor.

But, if you blame Texas, you have to hold the rest of the U.S. accountable as well.... they re-elected him.

... but I do

obender

get out of here with your political #######... and if you want talk politics at least use facts not fiction.

30 sec search on the net would tell anybody what are your words worth

Texas should not have a say in this elections due to production of current president

obender

it is very bizzare giving the current state of the world... goverment structures in two contries do not cooperate (and even quite the opposite) so even by hiring a private company in russia they would not discover anything "anti-american", which seems to be of interest in 99.9% background checks here today.

as far as criminal and may be medical problems go i can not imagine any company in usa today that would be seriously interested and more importantly would be seriously relying on the results of some russian private company search...

it just does not add up. what line of work that could be???

obender

important point is raised here...

and it looks like there is no real answer but to pay "an arm and a leg" for any parent one might want to bring to usa. what is approximate amount i wonder? about 1K a month ? more? does it really cover anything serious?

asking anybody of age above 60 from different country to find a job here with benefits is absolutely rediculous idea (better try and win lottery, say, that one that pays 1K a week for life).

also, some replies here are mildly put - wierd (I'd been frustrated if I started this topic). one would think that some simple thinking process must be in place for writing a reply...

Satellite you're good provider of information, as usual, even though no real breakthrough here. Thanks,

obender

it's simple really...

if they ask put all citizenships - put them all. you don't have to conseal your second citizenship, for example, you have to present CIS your trips to russia and what is better evidence then your stapms in russian passport??!!

if they ask nationality - answer is USA... put anything else and they have right to ask why the hell you' re filing as us citizen?

i've passed through it without problems,

good luck

obender

did that... takes 5 minutes itself but not all post office personnel know what to do or even if it is legal to do so...

funny, this topic gathered lots of old-timers here. most hurdles (in usa) passed but some will remain forever (in russia)

obender

thanks, but we can't take this way. if we schedule our trip too much money would be on the line to be dependent on USCIS whims.

so has anybody stamped their passports with I-551 before their conditional card expired????

obender

Hi,

VCS accepted our pettiton on Feb. 26, biometrix was done on March 18. USCIS site says NOA was sent Feb. 26... It's been a month but nothing arrived...

We are planning some travel in May (conditional GC expires on May 18) but we need to get a visa first. Therefore we need extention documents right away. Can we schedule an appointment for the stamp in the passport (since it is most probable that nothing will arrive prior to expriration date...) or THEY do it strictly when conditional GC expires?

Thanks!

obender