LvivLovers

In a few cases where my answers didn't fit I downloaded the form .pdfs and resized the entry fields so my answers would fit (within reason of course). I didn't want my handwriting to be mistaken for Cyrillic when it really wasn't intended to be...

I can't speak for him, but I cut and pasted my wife from some internet site.

omgwhyisshewithhim.com or hotchickswithfatbaldguys.com? j/k bro

If that's your wife in your avatar...you scored big time!

Thanks! Yep...that's her! And I'm quite happy! There are quite a few of us in the RUB that have scored big time here...yourself included!

Look at it this way... you're almost done the N-400 (along with me) and never have to deal with them again. Consider this worth the money/time we've invested... paying to never deal with them again.

Oh how I wish that were the case! That is at least a small consolation! But as soon as we're done with naturalization for my wife, we will start the process all over of getting a visa/naturalization for her mother! 6 more years of USCIS fun for me!

Delays are usually the result of additional processing being sent to that center or some other unrelated thing...such as when VSC moved most of their operation in late 2008.

I still think that it's due to trying to save a few bucks here and there with complete disregard to the applicants inconvenience. I draw that conclusion from patterns I've seen in processing times on VJ. I also suspect that many large delays are due to giving business visas (aka money) higher priority.

The point of the biometrics is to make sure that the same person is applying for the AOS/Removal of Conditions/Citizenship/etc. That one seems to make a lot of sense.

Fingerprints are used to determine that the person applying for benefits is the SAME person that applied before or was issued the visa and that you didn't do a "bait and switch" People marrying FSU women should be exempt from this (Dude...you think I would substitute someone else for HER???!!!!)

On the surface, it might seem like doing fingerprints multiple times ensures it's the same person each time, but I don't really see how it makes a difference. It does show it's the same person doing the biometrics each time, I agree. But how is that any more help than doing it once and using the same A# each time? I mean we could do biometrics 7 days in a row and prove it's still the same person, but as a RUB wife might say "And what?" I don't know...I guess it might make sense to get a current photo, but I don't think it's really necessary if it's been less than a few years. I suspect again it's just another revenue stream.

Grats!

The dating patterns in the FSU country's had me very confused.

An example would be a simple sidewalk cafe in Minsk.

1) Do I make a play on the 5'1" 105lb hot little sexy grey eyed brunette in the mini skirt and stiletto heels ?

2) Do I make a play on the 5'7" 115lb hot sexy green eyed red head in the mini skirt and stiletto heels ?

3) Do I make a play on the 5'11" 125lb hot sexy amazon blue eyed blond in the mini skirt and stiletto heels ?

4) Do I make a play on all three and see if I can get at least two of the three to join me in a threesome ?

5) Did I remember to save that waitresses mobile # from this morning ?

Decisions, decisions!

I missed out on a lot of that. I had already picked and went over as a hunter rather than a gatherer! No regrets at all though.

For the record, I'm a meeting hater too (maybe there's some common thread here amongst RUB men?) I was a software developer in a past life and constantly getting pulled into meetings to hear the suits talk about doing work while keeping me from actually doing said work. I remember going to one long meeting where we discussed in great depth a month long plan for porting a subset of our web app from one platform to another. It was a very nice plan. Afterwards, I invited them to my office to see the whole app which I'd already ported in a couple days.

I hear you on the freedom thing and agree completely. This government got out of hand a long time ago...they just sit around these days and think "What new laws can we create today?" or "How can we get some more revenue?"...maybe we'd have more revenue if there was less time spent waiting everyplace? Just out of curiosity, a few years ago they raised fees fairly drastically to improve processing speed....did anyone actually see a difference at all? (Well anyone besides massive corporations?) I see so many problems in USCIS, just because I happen to have the tiniest bit of knowledge about them from having to deal with them. I shudder to think that the whole government operates like this or probably even worse. How in the heck did we get to this point?

Having been through much of the immigration process, one of the things that frustrated me the most was the difference in processing times between the various processing centers, offices, etc. It seems like we always ended up with whoever was the slowest processor at the time.

It seems to me that it would be a much fairer and less frustrating system to have applications processed without regard to what state an individual lived in. I understand some things like interviews may need to take into account location, but to be honest, I would make an appointment and travel across the country to a lesser used facility if that option was available in order to cut a significant amount of wait time.

I suspect that a good amount of the waiting is for some sort of cost savings...for example batching up a large amount of applications/documents over a period of weeks in a bin before being shipped someplace else. If this really is the case, I think almost everyone would be willing to pay a little bit extra to have their case files mailed immediately.

Likewise, it seems like there are a lot of back and forth mailings that add a lot more delays to the process. I see these as completely unnecessary. I see no reason they can't put EVERYTHING needed in the instructions and let us do one big mailing rather than having a back and forth "dialog" that lasts several months in some cases to accomplish something simple. Is this just an intentional delay tactic on the part of the USCIS?

We've had about 4-5 biometric appointments in the last 3 years...isn't the idea that fingerprints don't change over time one of the things that makes them good for identifying folks? Is this just another delay? Another revenue stream that has nothing to do with actual process?

Curious to hear others thoughts.

All I can say is it's just like with terrorism, it's a good thing there is a big water barrier between the USA and the FSU. Because if FSU women were right next door where the mass majority of American men could go and experience FSU women first-hand, I think you'd find a huge change in dating patterns.

I'd also say that although we may talk about smokin hotties in the RUB, I think it's really about what's "under the hood" of an FSU woman that is so attractive. You can EASILY find an incredibly attractive woman that is not a complete b@#$% and that will be very intelligent to boot. They don't follow the usual inverse relationship between beauty and personality that seems to be really common in the USA. I'm not saying ALL women the FSU, USA, or other countries all fall in the same bucket...there are always outstanding exceptions (usually married). Just imo though...maybe I was just incredibly unlucky and/or lucky.

Is it so shocking that men, who are visual creatures, prefer women who keep in good shape, dress nicely, can walk in heels, and know how accentuate their features to maximize their prettiness quotient? It's a no-brainer to me. I'm a feminist, but I'm also a realist. In Russia, I'm practically chubby. When I go home, everyone asks me what my secret is for staying so thin and I'm nearly always the thinnest woman in a store/restaurant/whatever. Young American women do tend to be very lax with their appearance, and I say that as a young American women.

Violent torpedo of truth imo. hahaha

Congratulations! It's all easier from that point! =)

A man wanted to get married. He was having trouble choosing among three likely candidates. He gives each woman a present of $5,000 and watches to see what they do with the money.

The first does a total make over. She goes to a fancy beauty salon gets her hair done, new make up and buys several new outfits and dresses up very nicely for the man. She tells him that she has done this to be more a attractive for him because she loves him so much.

The man was impressed.

The second goes shopping to buy the man gifts. She gets him a new set of golf clubs, some new gizmos for his computer, and some expensive clothes. As she presents these gifts, she tells him that she has spent all the money on him because she loves him so much.

Again, the man is impressed.

The third invests the money in the stock market. She earns several times the $5,000. She gives him back his $5,000 and reinvests the remainder in a joint account. She tells him that she wants to save for their future because she loves him so much.

Obviously, the man was impressed.

The man thought for a long time about what each woman had done with the money he'd given her.

Then, he married the one with the biggest boobs.

We rented a great place right near the opera house for about 1k/mo. Not sure if that's in the price range you are looking or not, but let me know if it is and I can get you more info.

Every couple is different and there are too many situations to provide a good answer. If it is your WIFE you are bringing over then you are already through a lot of the costs I would presume. Sounds like you will be fine to me.

Really? RUB wives feel no obligations to their family at home? Good riddance and all?

No. Not all of us. I send money to help my MIL and will be helping her to immigrate here as well. She's the reason my wife is as great as she is. To us, there is nothing more important than family.

Slim...my wife pays for just about everything!

If only we didn't have a joint account...

I had a few Russian scammers try to hit me on www.match.com. It was enough to get my curiosity up and google about Russian scammers. That led me to www.elenasmodels.com since they had lots of info on the typical scams. I was shocked at the difference in quality between the RUB women and American women. Still, I never figured I would ever go overseas to find someone, so didn't pursue it further until about a year later. I finally got bored and the idea popped back into my head. I ended up going back to www.elenasmodels.com and saw they had a free membership and figured wth. After seeing all the hotties that wrote to me on the first day, I was hooked and ended up getting a basic membership. Long story short, I was on my way to Ukraine a couple months later and married shortly after that. So that would be my recommendation...www.elenasmodels.com.

Many times people from less well off former republics will marry someone from Moscow, Kiev or St Petersburg to get out of Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, etc. Kind of an immigration fraud in itself.

WTH! I'm still stuck in Georgia...

Oh, right.

Grats!!!

Hey thanks also... I live in Southern Cali for a little while and I never that many Bently's and Roll Royces as I seen in Kyiv.

Ummm I don't really know yet as far as if she is the one. I want to take it slow. I rushed before and that got me into trouble. She also feels the same. And my divorce never came up once in a whole week. I'm following my basic plan and if things are still good by next trip then it's good to say that we'll in for a long V-journey ahead. I am going back in July, I can't do next month, yes yes yes... I have to see that place in summer!! But she's a wonderful girl, extremely honest almost so honest that it hurts.. But that's a good thing because she will tell you what she is thinking exactly when she is thinking it.

Edited to say... YES I totally understand why RUB girls are the best!!

Well done! Sounds like you DID learn from your past experiences and are making all the right decisions this go around!

My wife is the same way with regards to honesty, which is one of the things I adore about her. She has never told me one fib in the more than 4 years that I have known her...not a single one. She's probably the most trustworthy person I've ever met! Takes a little getting used to in the beginning but it's a good thing in the long run!

Also know what it's like having constraints on the travel. I had only been working at my job about 6 months when I told my boss I wanted to take 2 weeks off to go to Ukraine and visit a girl I met on the Internet. After my trip and realizing she was the one, I had to go to my boss about a week later and tell him I wanted to take 3 more weeks off to go get married! Luckily, he was totally cool about it and said "I'm not one to stand in the way of love!". Had he refused me I would have had to quit...I was definately going back.

Anyway, hope it all works out for ya! Sounds like it will! Looking forward to hearing all about it in a few months!

Congrats on the trip, Johnny! Now you know why so many of us are a bit enthusiastic about our women in the RUB!

Kyiv is quite a bit more expensive than other cities in Ukraine. The wealth disparity is pretty widespread though. My wife was always telling me about her friends who spent like 500-700 bucks on cell phones while barely getting by...image is important! Some people really are filthy rich over there. I went into one bank to change some money and the woman next to me pulled about 50 stacks of $100 bills out of a little plastic bag like it was nothing...not nervous or anything. Others barely have enough to eat despite working hard.

Any warning signs on your gal or are you pleased with everything so far? Looks like she's a typical hot Ukrainian babe! I bet she will be working hard on her English if she sees you are still serious about her after returning home. Anyway, can't wait to hear more details, see more photos from your trip!

I gave my wife quite a few lessons....probably at least 10 for 2 hours+ each. I took her to an empty parking lot and had her pretend there were cars parked in various spots so she could practice parallel parking, backing in, etc. Also, just to make sure she was really good at maneuvering, I just had her drive around in reverse for about 30 minutes at a time around some little islands in the lot. I'd tell her where I wanted her to go and she'd do it. Lots of times, I'd have her park the car and get out to see what the real situation was versus what she perceived sitting behind the wheel....for example, how straight her parking really was. To make sure she could handle distractions, I cranked up Judas Priest, Megadeth, and other metal bands...it was actually more for me than her to be honest, but I wrote it into the plan... I have to say...she is one hell of a driver today! I even let her drive to Hilton Head in heavy rains with almost no visibility while I was fast asleep next to her! Overall, I think it has to do with the individual and how much patience/effort you want to put into it. Good luck!

Students need to be able to speak English for obvious reasons. Fiancees do not.

Not to say it is not beneficial for a person to speak English to live here, obviously it is, just to say it is not necessary for the interview. Sometimes they ask questions, they did not ask us any and they had no idea if Alla could speak English or not. Clearly, the abilty to present other evidence has more of an influence than the language she speaks. Some people assume that the fact I was present was the reason that no questions were asked but I know of several cases where the USC was not present and no questions were asked...and also where they were present and many questions were asked. No ONE THING determines that.

Yep. I was not present when my wife had her interview. No questions asked. She did have a stack of evidence about 15 inches tall though.

I hope Johnny is just having a great time and not in some Ukrainian prison.

Congrats!