St&Sv

Hey guys, been quite awhile since i've been back on here but I find myself circling back for some advice. My wife, who has her conditional green card, is trying to apply for college. She's going to take the TOELF and studying hard for to take the SAT too. Her problem is trying to apply for schools, she's lost and well I am too. It's been forever since I went through the college process and on top of that many things have currently changed. She's trying to fill out the Common Application (which is 100% new to me). Do any of you know of any resources to help us understand what to do, or even someone on here who has gone through the process that could help her?

Whoa quick responses, thank you everyone for the advice. As per what I meant by the K1 visa I was referring the K1 Visa that is within the international passport.

Greetings everyone, It's been quite awhile since I've been active on the forums but I've been more active offline now that the wife is here. Thing is though we have hit a sort of a snag that I thought would be an easy coasting road. So I was hoping to turn to anyone with a similar experience for advice.

The problem: I've booked a flight for my wife and I to Denver that will be in 2 weeks and used her new married name. The only thing we have linking her to the new married name is the marriage License. The social security office would not issue her a new card with the new name until after the work permit or green card is issued. We have also just recently started the AoS (submitted and received by the USCIS) and her I-94 is now expired. I thought it would be easy to obtain her a State ID card and so we tried that today and found a road block. Additional information needed to be received from the USCIS in order for them to process it, and so we have to wait. When they will get back to us, we are not sure, and being that I booked her tickets in her married name I wonder if I should change it to her maiden to match her K1 VISA. We now plan to bring a certified copy of the marriage license with us and use her international passport w/k1 visa as her photo proof of who she is. I'm concerned that with the only the maiden name it make create a hassle when trying to board the plane.

Has anyone had a similar experience and what did you do?

It's difficult to say and it could take up to 2 weeks or perhaps longer. When we received that message we went ahead and paid the interview fee but we waited until the embassy contacted us before scheduling the interview.

If you received the email from the embassy saying they have it and with instructions then pay the fee and register on the traveldocs website. Afterward it could be as soon as the week after that you can get one. At least that was our case, though we opted to wait a few more weeks, but the potential for a next week interview was there.

You will do just fine

How about emailing or calling the consulate today? Ask them about the form thing.

Phone (General): 514-398-9695

Edit:

Also do what makes you feel better and more confident about your case. If yours will be anything like my girls you'll go with a lot of excess paperwork and only need a fraction of it. Though peace of mind is much more important, right?

I think this is a conversation meant for just the two of you, or between a good friend or family member who knows you both. By coming on here and asking you are going to get many different answers formulated by random peoples perspectives on the situation. These are people (including me) who are trying to help but honestly it's like asking a stranger on the street what they think of your situation, would you do that? Sit down and ask her why she feels she needs to dig into your past, but also take a step back and see how you would feel if you moved to another country to a person you "think" you know. Maybe she is only after a green card. Maybe she is just scared now that she is here. Maybe she wants to know more about you? The answer to all your questions are locked away in the beauty sleeping next to you, so be the key that unlocks them.

Good Luck.

Thank you everyone!

Congratulations man! Best of luck when she goes to USA!

I just have one question for you!

How were you even able to sleep knowing she would have her interview that night I mean, if my wife had her interview and I am not in Russia with her I would probably not be able to sleep like a week before it until like the the moment she enters USA (before from worried and after from excitement )

ochen kruto!

Hmm how was I able to sleep, haha that is a good question. My answer: an overly optimistic personality and my belief in us and that the world will bring us everything we want. Does this mean I slept like a baby, well that's another matter hahaha.

I was a tad bit curious about the whole situation as well, but good for them that it worked out. As I told my Fiancée a denial isn't always official until we've used up all our resources.

Hi, I'm new here and me and my fiance are currently getting ready to start the k-1 visa process in the next month or so. But we had some questions that maybe someone could help us with. I have read a lot of the forums so far and I'm trying not to repeat, so I am sorry if I ask a common question I missed. But here are my questions.

1. What cost should we expect for her medical exam?

2. Can She do the medical exam in Ufa (Her home city)? Or does she have to do it in Moscow?

2. What is the interview like for her? Specifically, how good does her English need to be? She is not great in speaking English, and gets really nervous around people she doesn't know. Can she do the interview in Russian?

3. She is living in Ufa now, and how much time will she have to spend outside of Ufa for traveling for the visa? So far, she will have to travel for the interview and the medical exam it seems. Will she have to travel for anything else?

4. Can she set up her interview online or does it have to be by post?

5. Can the interview be done in St. Petersburg as well as Moscow?

6. How long after the interview until she gets her Visa?

7. Will there be any costs for translation documents or anything? What documents will need to be translated?

Sorry again if I have asked the same questions as someone before. But any help would be really great!

1. Not higher than ruble equivalents of $175 (you can pay in dollars, my fiancée did)

2. Moscow only (You'll get the info once the embassy contacts you)

2(2). Interviews can be done in Russian

3. The only travel time for the process will be to Moscow for Medical + Interview

4. She does it online (payment for it can be made at the post, online or through VT)

5. Only Moscow does K1 interviews

6. They say 2 weeks

7. Generally if you aren't doing them yourself or have someone helping you will need to pay for them. As for what you want translated for the interview: Police Report and Birth Certificate.

Once the Embassy receives your packet they will email you in English and Russian asking you to forward this to your fiancée; this is the site they send you to: http://moscow.usembassy.gov/iv-fiancee.html

However this is just the basics to get you through the interview and obtain your visa. If you look further into the process (AoS) you'll see that there are other things you could collect now to help later. One thing we asked for was a duplicate copy of her medical exam, she asked while there, so that we could have the vaccine information for later.

Well I seem to have misplaced the topic where we were all talking about this story, but I thought I'd let everyone know that in the end she was approved. It seems they had their parents help support their relationship, and turned the case around for them. Just goes to show that a denial at first still has another chance to be turned into an approval.

The 8 weeks is just a general response they give to everyone, most people experience less of a wait time than that. Give it at least 2 weeks from your NoA2 and begin calling them, and if they keep giving you the same response call the Dept of State. The DoS will probably know your case number before the NVC will give it to you. In our case I knew it weeks before I received a letter in the mail letting me know the number and that our case was shipped to the Embassy. From there is only took a week to get to the Embassy.

2:30am (ring) (ring) [in a groggy voice] Hello?

[women on other line] I broke my umbrella, it's raining, i'm cold, and probably going to get sick. Though I don't care BECAUSE WE WERE APPROVED!

She nailed it, and I knew she would. I hate that she had to go alone, but now in the next few weeks I can make up for that. She'll be here soon, flying into NYC and I'll get to show her a days worth of it as well. The journey has just begun, but at least now we will be able to face everything together, and in the same space. Words are unable to convey my excitement, though I know it's not time to roll down the sleeves yet. Thank you all for helping to make this possible.

This is definitely quite the situation you are in, but people have given you a lot of good legal advice to maul over. I know your goal is to limit or eliminate the separation but you are going to have to accept the fact that it is going to happen. No matter what her time will run out here before the K1 or CR1 process is done, and on top of that she will have to go back to Canada to do her interview at the embassy. Interviews cannot be done within the United States for these visas even if you want them to be. As someone else said here I would recommend seeking a lawyer in your case, if you have the funds, because all we can do is advise you from our own views. An immigration lawyer will be less basis and will know the laws much better. Speaking of funds, and I know someone else mentioned it as well, you should look over the costs of the K1 vs CR1 (they are both $1000+, though the CR1 is less expensive) .

While you are figuring out what to do you may also want to find her options in Canada. You know at this point that legally she will have to go back, so you should start to make those arrangements for them. As for her daughter the school year is about to start, is she going to attend this year or will she be held back a year now? You'll need to contact the schools in your area and find out what your options are too. So lets tuck in that shirt, tighten that belt, roll up those sleeves, and straighten that tie because it's time to get to work.

Best of Luck and I hope your family finds a solution to all its problems.

Edit:

I wanted to add that if you are viewing this website on a mobile device you are missing out on a mountains worth of wealth that can only be viewed on the full version of this website.

I would say that the K1/CR1 are your only options at this moment and neither of them are probably as quick as you want them to be. Though I will say that the K1 is a tad bit quicker than the CR1 but the CR1 gives him a green card out the gate.

I would say that if you had the baby in Italy it would have not been a problem, and he/she would have been able to obtain American citizenship easy. You can read about it here http://travel.state.gov/law/family_issues/birth/birth_593.html and here http://italy.usembassy.gov/acs/birth.html

You didn't make a mistake, you made the choice that felt right to you

You will be notified through email and also with a hardcopy in the mail. The email/txt message notification will come before the mail. It will probably be any day now for the email but a week or so until the mailed copy. As for what to do between NoA1 to NoA2 plan life

I recommend you google "embassy location + us embassy + k1". You will generally find their instructions page this way, but other than that technically you wait for the Embassy to email you with official instructions. The guides here (look on the top bar menu system) can give you a good overview of the basics. Each Embassy has it's own rules though. Good Luck and Congratulations.

We were apart of the first batch of TSC transfers from VSC back in May.

And I'm happy to report that my fiancee picked up her Passport with Visa and Visa Packet today from the courier!

We hope this will give our fellow TSC transferees hope.

Congratulations, we are not far behind you with our Interview scheduled for the 5th of September.

Check out the Ohio DMV here http://www.bmv.ohio.gov/state_id_card.stm

It looks like she may have to wait until AoS to prove legal status in the United States, http://publicsafety.ohio.gov/links/bmv2424.pdf is a list of the acceptable documents.

If you received a digital copy of it I would take it to http://travel.state.gov/visa/visaphotoreq/visaphotoreq_5334.html and scroll down to "Do you want to take the photo yourself?" and click on the "Start Photo Tool". This will allow you to crop and change the photo to the requirements, and then save it. Afterward you could upload it to walmart or other services like it and have the photo printed this way. Other than that if you are uncomfortable with sending the photo the way it is now then you should definitely take it back and have it redone. Peace of mind is better than being worried if a few 1/8s will cause a problem.

while it's all well and wonderful that some members feel it's not important for the op to renounce ukranian citizenship and have made that information quite available in this thread, it's not answering the op's question.

going forward, if you don't know the answer to the op's question, please refrain from posting as i'm sure the op has a valid reason for asking the question.

Answers also come from indirectness of the question, the ones that you might not have thought of until someone said something. So yes we should answer his direct question without a doubt, but we should also give more food for thought. As Gary said there are very legitimate and good reasons for keeping the citizenship that maybe the OP hadn't though of. Maybe he has though, it's his choice to pick and choose what he accepts or doesn't accept. By not trying to hit all the bases we do a disservice to people we try to help.

As to not derail the OPs topic too much I would say you have your own reasons for wanting to look into this and if you want an exact answer to your question I would contact the Embassy. Here is the link to their contacts page: http://usa.mfa.gov.ua/en/embassy/contacts I'm sure they can inform you exactly how to do it.

The NVC is terrible, but you got music! I'm jealous I had to listen to the same recording a 100 times over. I did call them several times, but after waiting about 20 minutes they would tell me they didn't have it and we weren't in their system. So I was given the advice to call the Dept of State [1-202-663-1225] instead, but you still want to wait roughly 2 weeks after getting your NoA2 to do this. The Dept of State did give me our case number even after the NVC told me they did not have it.

Long story short I (The fiancé) did receive a letter in the mail from the NVC stating our case number and that it was being shipped to the Embassy within a week. The case number is what you will use to pay your Visa Fee and to schedule the medical. As for if they ask you for it at the interview I can let you know after she has hers on Sept 5, but It seems they still use the Receipt number that you received with your NoA2 for some things as well.

Edit:

I wanted to add the Letter from the NVC came on August 3rd (I had already had the case number a week or 2 before the letter thanks to the Dept of State), with a date of July 30th on the letter head. I then received the email from the embassy on August the 9th.

Also to try not to add to the confusion the NVC is part of the DoS (Dept of State) which is why you can call them as well.

Edit Edit:

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions that I might be able to help with, but for now I must run off to work.

Hi guys. We got NOA2, and USCIS sent it to the Consulate in Kazakhstan. I called the embassy today and they said to wait a couple weeks before US Embassy in Kazakhstan emails me. How soon is the itnerview usually after NOA2? how does my fiance sends me his tax stuff now for the interview? Do I need an original of his birth certificate for the interview? What does my fiance need to mail me for the interview. He is currently in the US and I am back home starting the preparation for interview which I have no idea when will happen.

This is the best thing I can find for you to look over:

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/almaty/19452/pdfs/2013Interview%20Instructions%20for%20website.pdf

Each Embassy handles things differently. Case in point the Moscow Embassy doesn't send a packet but instead sent me an email with instructions to forward to my Fiancée. When the Embassy had our petition we were able to pay the fee (we actually paid this sooner since we received the case number from the NVC before Embassy), and then we had to go to a website and fill out a long form, put in the receipt number from the payment and then we were able to schedule the interview. We did this yesterday and there were some Interview dates as early as Next week.

Hope this helps and start having him collect all his documents and get your police report and everything else together. Your petition will probably at the Embassy in the next 3 to 5 weeks.

The only thing the Moscow letter tells you is:

Dear Petitioner:

Please resend the letter to your fiancé(e).

Dear Applicant:

We are pleased to inform you that the Immigrant Visa Unit of U.S. Embassy Moscow has received your approved visa petition and that your case is ready for processing.

You should now visit http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ru to complete the following steps: 1) arrange payment of the $240 visa fee; 2) enter an address to which the visa will be delivered; and 3) schedule your interview appointment. Once you pay the fee and specify the delivery address, you may schedule your interview for any available appointment slot. Please ensure that the date you select falls within four months of the date on which the visa petition was approved. Failure to do so may impact the validity of your visa petition.

All applicants for fiancé(e) visas must comply with the processing requirements detailed at http://moscow.usembassy.gov/iv-fiancee.html. This page provides the most accurate and complete information needed to prepare for your interview including a list of required documents. Thank you.

Immigrant Visa Unit
U.S. Embassy Moscow

If you truly wanted straight answers then you should have contacted a lawyer, sure you have finical hardships right now but no one here appreciates people who try to play the system. We all have our reasons for not wanting to be separated from the one(s) we love, but this is one of the reasons the process becomes more difficult for others. It's a shame that you take these risks with her as well, one which may include a ban, but this is just my 2 cents. Sure you can file the AoS but understand you are taking the risk, one that you already did once and succeeded but to try it again is up to you.