rentvent

You can only skip the last leg of the roundtrip. Any other missed legs and the airline cancels the whole ticket.

I don't think DCF is possible in Russia anymore unless you have been a resident there for several years.

I have requested quite directly that the same people stop clogging up my thread with personal debates and opinions. These same people continue to rant. Do not take over my thread with your personal rantings. Feel free to start your own but leave mine unless you have a direct referral to an agency in Russia that can help get a B series tourist visa.

DO NOT POST TO MY THREAD UNLESS YOU HAVE THE REQUESTED INFORMATION.

All these jack-offs who are posting in your thread are just bitter because they had to do all kinds of legal stuff to get their sweethearts over here. They hired attorneys, filed K-1/K-3 petitions, had to wait for approvals, show financial responsibility and all kinds of other things. It's just a shame that none of these guys were smart enough to pay a few $$ to a good agency in Russia to get their sweethearts here on a tourist visa. Heck, some of them even had to go visit Russia several times and learn some Russian. I can't really blame them for scoffing at the idea of your sweetie that you never met coming here on a tourist visa. They are just jealous because they had to do so much work to be with their loved ones.

Some Russian cities have travel/marriage agencies that are experts at obtaining tourist visas and purchasing tickets. The best agencies are in Yoshkar-Ola, Cheboksary, and Lugansk. Since the agency is getting the visa, they will certainly require that the tickets be bought before applying for the visa. You should be prepared to send the entire sum which on average is about $1800. Fat Yuri Masha will need the entire amount in order for the agency to process her visa.

The best way to send the money for visa and tickets is by Western Union. It's easy and you can process the transaction online. Since the recipient is in Russia, you will have to call Western Union after the online process to release the funds to Yuri Masha. One of the first questions the friendly Western Union customer service agent will ask you is if you have ever met the recipient in person. Be prepared and say "YES." If you say no, you will be asked a bunch of other questions and in extreme cases, they may deny transfer. Western Union has been known to be a source of broken hearts. Don't make the mistake. Some say Western Union asks these questions so they can cover themselves for liability and have the ability to refuse refunding money to guys who got scammed. Don't play their game! Tell them that Yuri Masha is your mother-in-law and they should mind their own business. Unfortunately, Western Union is the best way to send money to people in Russia; especially since almost nobody outside of Moscow has a personal phone number.

Agency issued tourist visas usually have another condition: At the airport, the customs officials will require that the passenger have at least $1000 cash to travel with. This is to insure that she has enough money to support herself during her trip to America. This poses another problem because a person with so much cash is susceptible to theft. Be prepared to send the $1000 more than once.

Another little known fact is that the US embassy also sells airline tickets in conjunction with tourist visas. I didn't know this until a smoking hot 19 year old blonde girl from Kazan told me. She offered to arrive to me and even said that she would sell her grandmother's ring to help me out with the cost of the package offered by the embassy.

I hope all of this helps. Ignore all of the crusty naysayers. They are just bitter and want to see you fail.

Good luck and welcome to Visajourney

The individual must get the tourist visa herself. The only assistance that a travel agency can offer is helping her fill out the application and informing her of what documents to submit. There are a couple outfits in Moscow that help with visa preparation. They will give the applicant a checklist of what documents to bring to them. They will review and organize the documentation so that the applicant is best prepared. The one that I know of will not accept a customer if they believe that he or she is not eligible for a visa.

This reeks of a "Fat Yuri" scam going on. To the original poster: Please google "ticket and visa scam."

Holiday Inn Lesnaya is less than 1 mile from the Embassy and Red Square. Costs ~$150 a night.

Are you doing Direct Consular filing?

Dang, I wish I had read this topic two weeks ago before my sweetie arrived.

Things I didn't think about and bought in the first couple days:

Bath robe with hood

Ironing board (she wouldn't unpack her suitcase until she could iron everything)

Clothes hangers with slots on the tops ( to hang dresses, etc)

Things I had thought of beforehand:

Laundry basket

Her own E-mail and ICQ account

Mobile phone

Damn, I spent a lot of hours trying to learn Russian. I'm self taught and always looking for a little help. I know a couple hundred words and can handle almost any situation without translation.

I don't like the snobs who trash my attempts to convey things in Russian. I know my Russian sucks. It seems that some of my favorite experiences have been where I have had to do a business transaction with a Russian that knows minimal English. It seems that the Russian person is willing to cope with my bad pronunciation.

Dress warmly if you decide to accompany her to the interview. Some days can be cold/windy/rainy and you won't be going inside the embassy.

Thank You Slim.do You mean big packet with x ray and copy of vaccinations?

To be honest, I have no idea what the packet looks like! It's the "sealed packet" you get from the embassy.... that's all I know. I'm assuming you're going to have only one "sealed packet" from the U.S. Government, so by process of elimination, I'd assume also, that's the one you need to use.

Not trying to sound like a smart@$$ here, just unsure, I never had to clear customs on a K-1. Maybe someone with some experience could be a little more specific. (Wifey's not home, otherwise I would ask her.)

No SLim,they took sealed one at the interview and never gave back.All i have is an X-ray and copy of vaccinations.

You get the sealed package that Slim is talking about with your visa in the DHL package.

Cuban Adjustment Act allows Cubans who make it to US shores, land or territory illegaly to apply for political asylum. Otherwise know as dry foot policy. Cubans are the only privilaged bunch who have this opportunity and the process is rather fast and they are usually processed within a few days.

Soo.. Once the Cuban fiancee is here on K-1, He/she can just claim asylum and avoid having to pay all those ugly AOS/AP/EAD fees?

Thanks to all at VJ and bolshoi spasiba to the folks in the Russian section.

Some more notes:

I followed the VJ guide and used the sample forms. I even used the sample fiancee letter of intent and treated it as a fill-in-the-blank form. My package was THIN. Airline stubs were 2 color photocopied pages. I never sent originals. Phone records were one page per month each of Skype logs. Financial form was the form (notarized), letter from my employer (notarized), and a couple paychecks. She also had three photos of us together.

At the embassy she noticed all of the other girls had big portfolios of documents and evidence. Most of the other girls had portfolios were over an inch thick. My girl worried for a moment that I had forgotten something.

My fiancee just went through the interview process. Her take:

All the girls went through the Clinical exam the day before and were given packets. At the entrance to the embassy, they all recognized each other because they all had the same packet.

The person conducting the interview was a young American man. He was flanked by two women in the fiancee interview windows. The interview is is across a window like buying tickets to a movie.

She said he was struggling to speak Russian.

First question: Who is "rentvent"

"How did we meet?"

"do you have any evidence of meeting Rentvent? ""Phone bills, E-mail, photos, etc."

She gave officer entire packet and said that there are no e-mails since she has no internet.

He thumbed through the papers and said in English: "I see that you are an English teacher"

He asked a few more questions in English:

When did I visit?

Do I speak Russian?

Do I have any Children?

She says that the interview lasted about seven minutes. Some girl was freaking out her interview and my girl was sort of relaxed because of the drama. Thanks to VJ and the other sites I wasn't worried. I think my melancholy attitude helped expedite things. I also find it interesting that the interviewer switched languages without asking her. The remainder of his questions were in American English.

I'm arriving in Atlanta (my hometown) about the same time on Tuesday and can meet them at the Customs exit point and take them to baggage claim if you want.

e-mail me: Rentvent (at) yahoo (dot) com

I've sent several packages and document folders via USPS global express mail.

I want to say my K-1 packet was about $16 and took around three weeks to get all the way to Vladivostok. (As stated above, that's with USPS delivering to Moscow, then Russian Post all the way across Siberia.) I don't remember exactly, but I think that was the ballpark.

Through the years I've learned the best way to assure the package/letter arrives is to write it like this:

RUSSIA/РОССИЯ

682640 (or whatever your sweety's postal code in Russia is)

Хабаровский Край (Name of Region/Krai/Oblast)

Амурск - Пушкинская ул 24 Д 95 Кв (City/Oblast/Metro stop if applicable, Street, House #, Apt. #)

Шарапове Марие Н (Your sweety's name.... (in the dative case! Don't worry about that!))

(07) 4214-238-436 (Your sweety's mobile or home phone number. Maybe most important!)

It doesn't have to be in Cyrillic, but I believe it really expedites the process. Also, sometimes foreign packages and mail must be picked up in person, and if you don't have the phone number on there, they won't get the notice for six months. It'll just sit at the post office until they "happen to stop by" raising hell wondering where their package from America is. If you put the phone number on it, the workers at the PO might call because they're tired of tripping over that "stupid American box." Keep in mind, you can write everything in Cyrillic because your customs declaration is going to have the sender and recipient's name and address in English already. As long as that big "RUSSIA" is at the top, USPS will send it to Russia.

I pretty much used the above method and got 100% arrival of several packages that I have sent.

I use the format:

682640 РОССИЯ (ZIP, Russia)

г. Хабаровский (city)

24-95 Пушкинская ул (House, apt#, street)

Шарапове Марие Н (Your sweety's name.... (in the dative case! Don't worry about that!))

(07) 4214-238-436 (Your sweety's mobile or home phone number. Maybe most important!)

Russia 682640 (in big bold letters so the USPS computer sorting system will recognize that the parcel is going to Russia)

As far as I can tell, the only Original documents (that can't be reproduced) that you need to send are boarding passes. The I-134 can be re-created if lost. Make color copies of the boarding passes and send half (enough to prove one visit) in the first parcel along with the color copies of the remainder. After she gets the first package, send the remainder of the boarding passes in a second parcel.

She likes the indoor temperature to be around 80 degrees no matter what time of the year it is.

She turns off the lights every time she leaves a room - even if it's only for a couple of minutes.

She's 33 and I'm 38

Approved!!

2/28 -noa1

5/16 -touched

5/17 e-mail saying it was approved yesterday!!

Touched!!!

NOA1 -2/27

Touched 5/16