PorknBeanz

Well, my mother-in-law’s appointment was for May 19. She took the 8-hour train ride to Kiev and had her visa interview at the Italian consulate. Mostly, she just handed over all the papers that she had. The young man at the consulate told her that a private company handles all the incoming applications, and the Italians approve or reject the visas. The consulate representative who took her application and supporting paperwork had no idea if her application would be approved or not, all he did was collect the paperwork. He didn’t ask any questions about the trip.

On Friday night, May 22 we checked the Italian consulate website and it showed a status that her application was being processed. On Monday May 25, the website said that her application had been processed and that her passport was being returned to her by courier.

My wife called her mother every day to find out if she had received her passport. Finally on Friday May 29, she got a call from a man on the other side of town. He said that he had picked up her passport a few days ago and that if she wanted it back she could come and pick it up. Since my mother-in-law wasn’t feeling well she sent her son to get it. After he received it, he peeked inside, and it turns out the Schengen visa was approved! We’re all very happy.

My mother-in-law said she almost had a heart attack. She tried to explain that at her age, 59, living most of her life under soviet rule, she knew that travelling outside the soviet block was impossible for the average person. Now, in just another month, she’s got a balcony suite on a cruise visiting Venice, Athens, Istanbul, Ephesus, Mykonos, Naples/Pompeii, Rome, Florence/Pisa, Monte Carlo, and Barcelona.

Thanks for the responses.

Thanks for the replies.

I think the "host" means a person or an entity in the country you're visiting. The host is supposed to provide EU papers and an invintation to allow the visitor in the country.

We're hoping that since my mother-in-law has already visited us in the US for a month and returned to Ukraine, and because she still has a valid 5-year US visitor visa, that it will be easier for her to get approved for a Schengen tourist visa. Time will tell. She has an appointment at the Italian embassy in Kiev on 5/19. I'll let you all know what happens.

Hi Everybody,

This summer myself, my wife, son, mother, and mother-in-law are going on a Mediterranean cruise. My questions is about the Schengen visa application for my Mother-in-Law. She already has air tickets reserved,a shipboarding pass, and the Venice hotel registration. She is a Ukraine citizen and resident, has never been to Europe, but has traveled to the US on a tourist visa (B1/B2) which is still valid. Italy is the entry point and main destination (Barcelona is the exit point), so she'll be applying at the Italian embassy in Kiev. On the application for the Schengen visa it asks "Who is paying for your costs..." and only allows a choice of one of three boxes: myself, host person, or host company. I'm (US citizen) paying all the expenses, but I'm not a host. Does she just write in my name? Will I need to send her bank statements? Has anybody dealt with the Italian embassy in Kiev? Are visas usually granted or is it difficult? How long does it take to get one? Thanks.

Hi Everybody,

I got this email today:

Application Type: I485 , APPLICATION TO REGISTER PERMANENT RESIDENCE OR TO ADJUST STATUS

Current Status: Notice mailed welcoming the new permanent resident.

On April 19, 2007, we mailed you a notice that we had registered this customer's new permanent resident status. Please follow any instructions on the notice. Your new permanent resident card should be mailed within 60 days following this registration or after you complete any ADIT processing referred to in the welcome notice, whichever is later. If you move before you get your new card call customer service. You can also receive automatic e-mail updates as we process your case. Just follow the link below to register.

My wife and son arrived on a K-1 visa. We filed the I485 in September 2006 and had a biometrics appointmewnt a few months ago. In February we received a RFE for the medical exam and vaccinations and sent that in a couple weeks ago. I thought we would have an interview and have to wait a few months for a name chack before we're approved. Maybe I don't understand the process. Does this notice mean we're approved without the interview and name chack or will the notice give us an appointment for the interview? Thanks for any info.

Wow, time flies when you're having fun!

The only uncomfortable thing that happened was during the visa interview. I travelled to Kiev to be with my fiancee for the interview.

Our appointment was at 8:45AM on Wednesday May 31. We arrived at the consulate at about 8:30AM and after going through security handed over all the required paperwork from the KEV-1 checklist. The lady at the bullet-proof glass window was friendly and smiled a lot. We noticed other people were getting called into the interview area and then leaving. At about 10:00AM we were told to come back at 2:00PM. We went out to have lunch. I was getting nervous because in the stories I've read, I haven't read of anybody having to come back later in the day.

At 2:00PM there was only one other woman in the waiting area. She was called to the interview area first. She came back to the waiting area and told us her visa was declined. She said it was her second time traveling to Kiev for the interview. The first time, she didn't have one of her documents translated. She didn't know why she was declined this time.

We (my fiancée, her son, and me) were called to the interview window. The consular officer who did the interview was an American man with red-hair and a beard. He asked if I was the petitioner and I said yes. I was asked how many times I've been to Ukraine, and I said this was my fourth trip. He asked if I spent all four trips with the same woman, and I said yes. He asked if this was my first visa application and I said yes. He asked if I have ever been arrested. I said yes and yada yada yada… He asked about a restraining order that was filed, and I told him that I had already fied a RO against my wife and she filed one after she received the one from me (same day the divorce was filed). He said that my record was confusing about what I was convicted of and my sentence. I told him I wouldnt plea-bargain, so it was a misdemeanor (not domestic violence) and my sentence was 40-hours helping out at the local animal shelter. He asked for my passport, looked through it, and handed it back. He thanked me for the clarification and told my fiancées son and me to return to the waiting area.

He asked my fiancée if she knew about the incident he asked me about, and she said yes. He asked her for her interpretation of what I had told her about the incident, when I had told her, and if my story to him was different than what I told her. She said that I had told her about this early in our relationship because I had explained about green card girls claiming abuse, and that many American men are worried about that, because many American women do the same thing to gain leverage in a divorce. She also said that I had told her the embassy might give her a booklet on how to claim abuse and get an automatic green card. He asked why she loves me.

He asked her to name where I worked, what is my profession and my salary, and if I had any children. He asked how many men she had met through the agency, how many people knew that she was planning to leave the country, and if I was friends with the owner of the agency. He asked how many times I had visited her and the dates of each of my visits. He also asked if she knew my birthday.

I could hear her interview from the waiting room, but it was in Russian. Fortunately, her 11-year old son could also hear, and translated each question and answer to me as the interview progressed. The consular officer handed her the domestic violence book without comment, and said congratulations.

I think you have to be honest about any indicents you have in your past. The government knows everything about everybody, and the officer at the embassy will already have a file about you in his hand when it comes time for the interview. If you are untruthful or try to hide something, it can go very badly.

We were married in September. She received her travel documents in December and visited her family for a couple weeks around New Years. A couple of weeks ago she got her EAD card, and today she passed her written test for a drivers license. Everything is going great!

Thanks for the replies. Today I got the hard copy in the mail. I was expecting my approval and my son's approval, as stated in the email from USCIS, but instead I only received two copies of my approval. Is it normal to get two identical travel approvals, or did USCIS make a mistake?

Hi,

I have a K1 visa and am married. I received an email notice from USCIS that on 12/19 my I131 advance parole travel application was approved and mailed. I bought tickets for a one week trip back to Ukraine. I still haven't received the hard copy in the mail. Since the approval is also listed in the USCIS website status, will I have trouble re-entering the US after my trip, without a hardcopy of the approval?

Thanks.

IMBRA 2005 thanks for enlightening me on the law that bears your name.

Ya see, I was going to spend time doing research on marriage agencies and spend a few hundred dollars gathering addresses. I was then going to spend another couple months writing letters to weed out educated women in my search for those elusive submissive, illiterate women that I keep hearing about. After that I was going to spend a few thousand dollars to visit her and propose marriage. Then, all I have to do is pay a few hundred more for paperwork, wait about 6 months, pay for a flight to the US and marry her... so I can start abusing her.

It was all so simple before IMBRA! Now after IMBRA, I see there are other easier routes to domination, that are unaffected by IMBRA’s disclosure requirements.

I can go on a sex tour! I can go on a tour sponsored by a marriage agency. I can meet a foreign woman on Match.com or Yahoo personals. None of these requires a note from my mommy or disclosure before conversing. Since IMBRA (brilliantly written and executed) eliminates all the low hanging fruit, may be I’ll just abuse an American woman tonight.

But now I’m torn. IMBRA 2005, you pointed out 14 woman who have been killed in the past 20 years (great detective work) but didn’t equally name the 4,000 plus American men who were murdered last year by their significant other. So obviously there’s some danger in being a typical American male abuser. Because surely these 4,000 men must have done something to deserve this, right? Otherwise, congress would pass a law to help men, right?

BTW, although you state “facts” from the congressional record, there were no congressional hearings on IMBRA. There was a government study commissioned by the supporters of IMBRA, but it was filed away because the US Attorney General concluded:

“Concern about immigration fraud and domestic violence involving foreign-born spouses is well founded, but the administrative sources of information available to the INS for this study failed to establish that the international matchmaking industry contribute in any significant way to these problems.”

I guess if I was a supporter of IMBRA I wouldn’t want a congressional hearing either.

So IMBRA 2005, thanks for enlightening me. I recommend you go into a field where you try to shape public opinion (if you haven’t already). That way, when you’re finished educating us here on visajourney (“people getting upset over something they didn't really understand.”), you can get paid for your next assignment. Perhaps the “Smoking is Good for You (and Me) Institute” is hiring. Or maybe you can help out with the Steak & BJ Day petition .

Maybe it would be helpful to send emails to the proud sponsors of IMBRA:

Senator Maria Cantwell - D - WA

Senator Sam Brownback - R - KS

Representative Rick Larsen - D - WA

Representative Frank Wolf - R - VA

Funny, but in the IMBRA law it says that the law does not authorize additional checks.

"Then it's simple, you drive down to Mexico, drive back into the US with the one you love. No waiting no, hassle"

Except for one thing - how is your foreign fiance going to get from Mexico to the US without a visa? If you don't want waiting or hassle, Mexico is NOT the place to do it - it's not exactly an easy place for US visa processing - Fiance, Student, Tourist or otherwise.

You missed the point, Mexico is the easiest place to get into the US. No visa required. Just ask the 10 million illegal immigrants already living here. They'll probably become citizens before the legal immigrants. And if you're a fair skinned red-head with blue eyes (like my fiancee) it's even easier to get in.

It is all well and good to post timelines- but it doesn't fix the IMBRA, and bigger picture, USCIS problems.

Please, call your congressmen. Ask to speak to the immigration specialist on staff. If you live reasonably close, go visit them. Express your rage at the entire application process not only being stopped, but REVERSED! (interviews canceled, approvals reversed)

This is insane.

It drives me crazy to read posters say- Just wait. Be patient. Be a quiet sheep. That is #######- our rights as citizens to pursue happiness and love where and how we chose to was trampled by the IMBRA law.

There is no earthly reason a fiancee visa should take more than a couple months from application to approved visa. There is no excuse. People must be held accountable for this not happening.

Today I made my 4th call to my Congressman's office and I will continue to call them until somebody fixes USCIS.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Don't be a sheep! Make some noise!

I posted this to a different thread but the message needs to be communicated far and wide.

I think this is good advice. Now that I know how things work, it seems we'd all be better off getting our fiances air tickets to Mexico. Then it's simple, you drive down to Mexico, drive back into the US with the one you love. No waiting no, hassle. In a couple of years congress will make them citizens ahead of the people who did the right thing and went through this bullsh*t process.

When our government screws up something this badly you can usually only blame nameless bureaucrats. But for an especially screwed up law like IMBRA, there is a name... Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state. Her manipulation of the legislative process (attaching a bad law like IMBRA to a good law to protect women, voice votes, false testimony to support IMBRA, etc) is what's causing a lot of good law-abiding US citizens and an equal number of foreigners immeasurable grief.

I want to agree with you because it does seem only fair--and a lot less like profiling. But someone must have done some research and found out some grim statistics about IMB marriages in particular or they wouldn't have written the law in the first place. Although trying to fit logic into the legislative process is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

When the senator from Washington thought up this law in 2003 a study was commissioned to gather statistics on physical abuse in visa-related marriages, and abuse of the system in general. That study and another subsequent study, found the actual number of confirmed abuse cases was so small as to be meaningless in the context of the large number of visas issued.

When she again tried to get this law passed in 2005, the senator didn't mention the study because it would hurt her platform of fighting rampant abuse of poor illiterate women brought to the US by abusive men. In fact, there were no hearings at all. IMBRA was added to the law protecting women act and there was only a voice vote.

When IMBRA was challenged, the study was brought to light. A federal judge issued an injunction against IMBRA for probably violating two of our constitutional rights. He also felt the law was overreaching and unfair in that it only covered IMBs. Since there was no statistical evidence that IMB marriages were prone to abuse, why not protect people who meet in brothels, or libraries? Why are international Match.com marriages exempt from the initial contact disclosure requirements of IMBRA? To be fair, the law should state that domestic women who meet domestic men in the US should have to carry a letter showing how many children they've had, every address they've had since they were 18, and that they're not in the sexual predator database.

My case might be good to track. We met through an IMB and said so on the I-129f. Interview is scheduled for 5/31.

Texas isn't handling the I-129F. Texas is sending all these to California, the slowest of the service centers (takes about 3 months). Why not Vermont, the fastest of the centers (about 2 weeks)? Nobody knows.

Robert,

I feel really bad for you. I've read a few of these stories (it can happen to small and large age differences as well as any nationality) and it's something a lot of us fear, because you don't know it's happening until you're already in trouble.

Like others have said, protect yourself first. NEVER be alone with her. A guy on another forum visited his soon-to-be ex-wife to discuss the impending divorce and the next day found out when the police visited him that he had abused her. Look at the difference in size, if she calls the police crying, guess who's going to jail.

As hard as it might be, now is not the time to be the understanding boyfriend. All indications are you're being used, you don't really know her, and you don't know what else she's capable of, or has planned for you.

I hope it all works out for the best.

I agree with evrything that's been said so far. She must have already had a visa, or was expecting it very soon. But the chances of a single Russian woman getting a tourist visa for the US are just about zero. She would need to have a house in Russia, a minor child in Russia, a job, and some assets all tied to Russia, just to have a 1 in 10 chance of a tourist visa.

The other option is that she snuck across the border and needs to lay low for awhile. But in any case, if she's not contacting you, it's time to move on.

Aussie, I agree the law doesn't affect the answer given in Q18. It would have affected what is discussed during the consulate interview about how the couple met. The law directs the CO to ask how the couple met. If the couple met through a dating service, the CO must ascertain if the service followed the law to facilitate the initial meeting. The law is unclear about what steps might be taken against the couple if the service did not follow the law.

Currently it makes no difference.

The International Marriage Broker Act of 2005, which was slated to start on March 6, 2006 requires a lot of extra disclosures if you met online and certain other factors apply. In part it requires that if you met through a third party, that party must take extra steps. You will be questioned about the company you used and if they followed the rules of the new law.

Fortunately, the law was challenged and a federal judge put a temporary injunction on it on March 3. A hearing was held on March 20 to determine the government's case, but the government attorney did not show up in court. This law might come back if the government figures out a valid reason to have such a law.

Plenty of people are still waiting. Fill out your timeline and add your name to this list.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...topic=57&st=210

There are a lot of other factors that can affect his income beyond salary like: sale of stock, interest received, rental income, etc.

Well, the visa application was approved today, 3/14/06, after 92 days. I think that's about average for the CSC, so it appears my background did not have any effect on the timeline. Either that, or I was close to the top of the FBI list and it didn't take long to find my history!

My Turn!!

This case has been approved. On March 14, 2006, an approval notice was mailed...

I was touched on 3/13, 3/14/ and 3/15. I'm actually a bit surprised (happily surprised). I thought my case would take longer than average because I'm the USC and I have a criminal background from years and years ago.

I got touched on 3/13, so they're apparently not sleeping all the time.

I didn't realize that getting touched can be frustrating. You go to check your status online and you see your date has been changed , but then you click on your case number, and you realize nothing has changed . This visa process has surely taken a year off my lifespan, and I haven't even gotten the NOA2 yet.

Bwaaderant

I wish you the best, but I think you’re making a mistake. From what I’ve read, she may not be asked for a permission statement in Russia, but she will almost certainly be asked for a permission statement at the POE. In that case they’ll be denied entry, she’ll have to take a long depressing flight back to Russia and face her ex anyway, you’ll have to file another K1/K2, and wait another 6 months. I just don’t think a 5% chance that US Immigration is going to forget about a permission statement, is worth all the downside.

Like I’ve said before, I got lucky. But when I had problems with my fiancées ex giving permission, I traveled to Ukraine to confront him. He wanted $15,000 and I offered to put $20,000 into a college fund for his son. There was also the implied threat that asking the police to break his legs would only cost a few hundred dollars and if I had to pay for a death certificate (real or fake), I’d still have enough money leftover for a nice vacation with his ex and her son.

I think your lady needs to talk to a Russian lawyer and you should talk to a US immigration lawyer and find out about every conceivable angle to this so you both can make an informed decision. FYI, A Foreign Affair has a link to a US immigration attorney who has also practiced as a lawyer in Russia. She might be able to give you better advice.