Neonred

You need to pick a cell phone company that has a GSM network such as Cingular or T-Mobile. Sign up for their service and then put the SIM they give you card in your phone. They will probably also give you a cheap phone when sign up but it sounds like you would rather use your Nokia quad band phone. The SIM card will work in either phone.

After waiting almost three weeks following entry we went to the SSA office and she was still not in the system. We went ahead and had her information entered manually. Her SS card arrived six days later. Didn't seem like a really big deal.

You got your card six days after you went to the SSA office, so I don't doubt that part, but I find it very hard to believe that the SSA office sent a G-845 and got it back in time for you to get the card 6 days later. I guess they could have faxed it, but immigration and SSA offices normally don't fax G-845s to each other.

I don't know about the G-845 and figured it's not my problem to worry about. All I cared about was getting my fiancee her SS card. As I said we had it in 6 days, and I was happy and a bit surprised. Like I said, it wasn't too difficult.

After waiting almost three weeks following entry we went to the SSA office and she was still not in the system. We went ahead and had her information entered manually. Her SS card arrived six days later. Didn't seem like a really big deal.

We had the DHL tracking number.

When a girl leaves the embassy she knows if she has been successful and the staff at the embassy will tell her when they will send out her passport and immigration package. DO NOT open the immigration package. It's a sealed manila envelope with "do not open" written all over it in English and Russian. It's only to be opened by immigration at her POE.

All information about the DHL air bill is in the packet sent to your fiancee. We had it held in Moscow at the

DHL office and picked it up the day before we returned to the US. She will have to pay about 1000 rubles and take the form to the embassy at the time of the interview. You may also want to discuss the delivery problem regarding her city with DHL.

I would also suggest Ukarina Hotel as it is an easy walk to the embassy. It will probably cost at least $150 and you better book it now. Since the closing of Rossia hotel and it's 2700 rooms all other reasonably priced hotels have been more difficult to find. We stayed there before our return to the US and had a difficult time getting a room and had to search many internet sites to find a company that could get us a room. A few companies have blocks of rooms reserved for resale.

Another hotel choice a little farther away is the Belgrad hotel at Novinskiy and Arbat street, again within walking distance. There is an expensive hotel right next to the embassy called Mir but I could not tell you what they charge.

That is exactly correct!

K-1 visa holders fall under the following from the SSA policy site

1. Aliens Work Authorized Without Specific INS Authorization

The following lists nonimmigrants, by alien classification, who are authorized to work in the U.S. without specific authorization from INS. The alien’s I-94 will not have the INS employment authorization stamp and the alien will not have an EAD.

For those with an asterisk, the principal alien, spouse, and child all have the same visa symbol.

Well, good news. Although we visited the SSA office last Friday and her information was not in the

SAVE system, today just 6 days later her SS card arrived in the mail. I am very surprised at how quick it arrived. Finally something good has happened.

Looks like Austin doesn't understand about calling the embassy.

About an hour after my girls interview in Moscow her cell phone rang. It was the embassy with a question about her daughter. We got cut off...lost the connection. I called back to the number and said I was returning their call. First they put me on hold, and then I got cut off again. I called back and that person gave me a different number to call. Turns out that number was the $1.95 a minute number. I said NO WAY, and called the first number again and let them know I was returning THEIR call and would NOT pay $1.95 a minute. They did take my call and got all things corrected, or so they said.

Point is there IS a way to talk to somebody there without paying, but I guess you have to have a good reason before they will talk to you. I wish I still had that number. I'll check her cell phone tonight to see if I can pull up that number.

We went to the SSA office last week and after about 3 weeks she was NOT in the system. They told us it is taking well over a month to appear on the SAVE system. I did have a good talk with a knowledgable woman there. Her recommendation was to wait until marriage to apply for the SSN. We did apply anyway as work is currently not necessary for her. I did reaffirm with that lady that even though she did not receive the EAD at POE she is eligible to work until the 90 days on her K-1 are up, or until she is married at which time her SSN is not valid for work.

I don't know where the idea of paying an EXTRA $200 for using a service came from. I use www.russia-visa.com and pay $160 for a double entry tourist visa WITH invitation. Just fill out application online and send in your passport with one photo. Tell them the dates. Be sure the begining date is the day you will arrive or before.

So really I am paying an extra $60 for the invitation and their work. Much easier for me. They don't care where you are staying. They don't care if you already have a plane reservation or not. I always make my travel reservations first then apply for the visa.

You will have to pay the shipping, but you have to do that anyway unless you are lucky and live close to the embassy.

I did do the homestay visa once, but it was a hassle and never did it again after that trip. Much easier for me to do the tourist visa.

I ordered a (free) tax transcript from the IRS. It's an official document and for me very good as my huge tax return was condensed to 4 double sided pages. I also gave my fiancee a copy of my W-2 but I am not sure they cared much about it. The embassy in Moscow was especially interested in looking at the tax document, but didn't look at my bank letter or bank statements. They also want to see the letter from the employer. I am self employed and they still wanted a letter, but I didn't provide one. It wasn't a problem however.

A one way ticket is fine. There is no requirement for a round trip ticket for a K-1 visa holder.

When my wife had her interview in December, we used the Arbat Metro stop and walked maybe 10 or 15 minutes (we're both fast walkers) before reaching the Embassy. Novinskii is a six-lane highway with no crosswalks, so you either cross at Novy Arbat (tunnel) go four blocks past the Embassy to cross at the skybridge, where there is a cafe,

After leaving her (the hardest part of the whole process, believe me), I walked to the Skybridge, crossed back over Novinskii, walked past the cafe, back down Novinskii, and halfway down Novy Arbat to find an ATM machine, walked back to the Embassy, took some photos of it, had breakfast at the cafe across the street, drank a lot of coffee, and finally walked back to the Embassy wondering what they were doing to her.

She was standing on the corner waiting for me, because she hadn't been sure where the Cafe was. She said the Consul was a 'serious woman, and recognized that I was a serious woman too, and so, no problem!'

The cafe is hard to see from the Embassy because it's six blocks down the street and on the opposite side. I posted six photos in the "Overseas" Gallery that will help you to find the Embassy and find the cafe. The cafe is a great place to wait on a cold day -- good food, good service, and about half the staff speak English, and reasonably priced by Moscow standards.

Mike, we were there for my girl's interview March 17th and the sky bridge is now gone. I saw it last year when we were at the zoo and checking out the embassy. Just a half block past the old sky bridge is a tunnel under Novinskiy. I too had breakfast at the same cafe as it was the only place open at 8:00 am. I took the same pictures as you, but that cafe is not really six blocks down the street.

By the way, did you notice that our embassy does NOT fly the American flag anywhere on the compound?

I sent my lady money for her to purchase the ticket to Moscow for her interview. For our flight back to the US we used Delta. I purchased our reservation over the phone and it was not difficult. They sent me an e-mail with her flight info and I forwarded it to her and printed it out to carry over. Delta never even wanted to see it as all they really need is the name and ID. The reservation is on their computer and with the name info they print you the boarding pass and you are ready to go.

Hi neonred,

Sorry to hear your bad experience in POE (Atlanta). NOw.... im getting scared actually, my POE is in Atlanta as well on Apr. 25th .... but i have no choice at all ..... thats my destination ... my fiance is from Georgia.

Do you have any tips of directions or wat i need to go or go thru?? so i wont be getting lost??? im entering ATL with my 4 yr old son and 3 big luggages with us.... that will be really scarry to me though my fiance tried to flew with me, but it happened that he needs to come back early to Georgia without me and my son.

any advices?? thanks so much

-rebelheart-

I think most people will be helpful and you won't get lost...just ask someone. Your first stop will be easy, and that man/woman will look at all your documents and direct you to baggage. Just follow the crowd. You will then pick up your baggage (carts are available to place your luggage on) and then you will head to the exit area. There a man will take your blue customs slip and passport and direct you to the WAITING are. Be prepaired to wait up to 4 hours, but I have to believe it can't always take so long. Since you will not have to make a connecting flight your fiance will be the one worrying. Tell him to be very patient. Might be a good idea to have something to keep your young son busy.

You will be fine.

My girl had her interview in Moscow on the 17th last month and they REALLY wanted tax returns no matter if self employed or not. They also wanted the letter from the employer. Phone records and a picture were very important for them also. I wrote a detailed report about the whole procedure in the Russia section of visajourney http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6319

Thanks everyone. I thought about complaining but didn't know who to complain to and didn't want to make things worse while we were waiting. After that I just wanted to make our next connection.

A friend came in through Chicago bringing in his girl on a K-1 about a month ago and he said it was great there. Took him a half an hour from the time they got to the customs officer 'till they were in the parking lot ready to go home. If you can do it that sounds like the place to enter.

I promised you all some info on our POE. We flew into Atlanta from Moscow on Delta's flight 47. Everything was going well, and I had thought I had allowed enough extra time (4 1/2 hours) so we could go through whatever was necessary and then sit down for a dinner before our flight to FL.

Our flight was almost 1/2 hour late because of a little late departure and a head wind. OK, no problem...still 4 hours. Got into line with my girl in the foreigners line and waited as many of the people in front of us could not speak English. We were about the last ones from our flight to go through the first check point. That was easy and I had used this same guy once before. He asked a few simple questions and got the right and left index finger scans and a picture, asked us if we had our package, and told us to go down stairs and get our bags and someone would help us there. Then he said "welcome to the US".

We went down, picked up our bag and as we handed over our blue slip and I was explaining about the K-1 this guy grabs her passport, my passport, the package from the embassy and places it in a folder. He tells me to take it to the roped off area right and sit and wait. These guys processing all types of entry visas in Atlanta are....jerks. A## holes. They are rude and uncaring. There were 16 packages in front of ours and it took more than three hours for them to get to our documents. These guys were more interested in what their co-workers were having for dinner and what they were planning for the weekend. Lots of talking and walking around and very little work. When some people wuld go up to their desk and explaine they had a flight to catch these guys said...sit down, we don't care about your flight. You can take a later flight. Stop bothering us.

They finally made an announcement that they usually take 2 to 4 hours processing cases. At about the thired hour the guy grabs ours and bitches about a K-1. It really only took him about 10 minutes when he started working on it. Called us up and gave us our passports and said "you are all set". And that was it.

Got out of there and ran to get our next flight with little time to spare.

Check the embassy website to see how long it will be valid. At the Moscow embassy they say one year. DO NOT WAIT until one month before the interview as it often takes more than one month to get the police certificate. We had that problem, and I have seen many others have the same.

Good Luck

I will have to disagree with Satelitte. Perhaps things have changed some in the year and a half since their interview. The DS-230 will be sent to your girl, and they will ask for it and take it. At least this was the case last week! See also the K-1 flow chart here and list of required documents for K-1 in the Guides section. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...om&page=k1forms

Oh, let me add one more thing. HAVE HER GET THE POLICE CERTIFICATES NOW, especially if she needs to get any from a different country or other FSU country. We had problems with this and ended up going to the interview with a faxed copy from Germany. I was sure we were going to get shot down with it but they said it was OK. We did not enjoy the stress that went along with trying to get things at the last minute, and to have the official certificate not show up (at the German embassy).

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Neonred Great info for all of us waiting for the interview.

You mentioned a DS 230. I have not seen this on the Embassy website. Is this something New and required in addition to the DS 156. I found the form on the net and it looks pretty much the same.

Anyone have any info on how the medical examinations went. Fast / slow what they docs did.

My Fiancee is strssing about everything. She is quite worried that anything that can go wrong will.

The more I can tell her, the less she worries.

Your girl will get the envelope with all things including both forms. The DS 230 is available for download on visajourney, I think. She will need both forms filled out. Nothing difficult, but you may have to help her a little to be sure she understands what answers.

My girl used the health clinic on 2-Zwenigorodskaja Street building 12. They call this clinic "MOM". She will get results the same day at about 5:00PM. She needs to call a few weeks in advance to set up an appointment. She will need to bring her old vaccination records with DATES, day, month, and year. She will still need one vaccination as Russians do not get the MMR vaccine. The vaccination will cost an extra $40.

They asked my girl if she had been ill with terrible sickness, and then if she is smoking. Asked about her weight and height. They will take some blood for an AIDS test and a chest X-ray.

She spent about 2 hours total, and had to do things in two different buildings.

Sorry to hear about that Slim. We had a major scare with police documents too and were down to the wire getting them, and never did recieve the "official" one from Germany, but thank God we had a faxed copy that my girl had translated. We were sure the US embassy was going to reject it, but they said it was fine. We were terrible nervous about that but now it is all behind us.

Good luck.

Oh, I forgot to add they really wanted a letter from my work. I am self employed and she told them that, but they indicated they really would have liked some letter about that anyway. Didn't seem to be a problem. They didn't look at the bank letter or my 6 bank statements.

I'll write about the medical exam later when I purchase more internet time, and then about our return to the US through Atlanta after that happens.

Yes, I agree about the use of public transportation, but my girl was very nervous and we had some trips to make to the German embassy for some documents. And it made her feel much better to use the taxi to get to the embassy. We did use a prearranged taxi driver at a known price. Much better than getting ripped off at the side of the road. Spoiling her a little on this went a long way....

You won't, however, find me lugging my baggage (and hers) on and off a bus and the metro to get to the center of town from the airport to save $25. I always prebook the taxi for that one for $25.