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Wouter

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  • Gender
    Male
  • City
    El Cerrito
  • State
    California

Immigration Info

  • Immigration Status
    IR-1/CR-1 Visa
  • Place benefits filed at
    California Service Center
  • Country
    Russia
  • Our Story
    I am USC and filed I-130 for my wife who is in Russia

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  1. Hello @blakezero, Currently, US citizens do not need a Schengen visa for any of the Schengen area countries, and can stay for up to 90 days. (It does look like that from November 2023 US Citizens will need to register with ETIAS before they can travel to the Schengen zone). Regarding the time it may take to get the passport (with the visa) back from the US embassy in Warsaw, my wife had her interview in October 2021 and at that time everyone got their visa back the next day, but as @Simplytex mentions, this may have changed and it may take longer now. So not a bad idea to plan for a possible longer time. He is also correct that technically there is no requirement how much time you should spend in the visa issuing Schengen country, but the purpose of a Schengen visitor visa is to visit the country for which you have the visa. It is common for the immigration officer at entry of a Schengen country to ask the purpose of the visit. Of course it is important to answer truthfully, so when you answer that you will not even be spending a day in the issuing country and that your intention is to travel onwards to another country almost immediately, I do believe there is a risk that the immigration officer will flag this as possible abuse, and could argue that you should have applied for the Schengen visa of your destination country. (Perhaps I am too concerned about these things, and there may be people who have had no problems spending less than a day in the Schengen visa issuing country. So this is just my estimation and opinion.) All the best! Wouter
  2. Hi! Congrats on getting the interview scheduled, but now that the waiting is over you suddenly have to hurry to get everything organized, I know how it is. To answer your questions: - you will get the passport with the visa back the next day after the interview - you can fly straight from Poland to the USA if you want. You can also fly back via Turkey but that is not necessary. - you also mention a Schengen visa and yes, your wife's mother will need a Schengen visa to be able to enter Poland. Does she already have one, perhaps from Spain since you are flying through Spain to Poland? If not then that will be something to get as soon as possible. - Don't forget that you will also have to organize the medical examination. I believe this can be done ahead of time in Moscow or you can do it in Warsaw or even in Krakow. Let me know if you want any more information on anything. Good luck! Wouter P.S. Could you fill in your timeline? I would be interested to hear how long it took to get the IR5 visa.
  3. Hello, I know it is very difficult for a Russian to get a US tourist visa (B2) right now, but does anyone have any recommendations on a way that it may be possible, even if it will take a long time? Any (recent) success stories? I am aware that the US Embassy and Consulates in Russia pretty much stopped processing any visa applications, so it has to be done through a US Embassy/Consulate in another country. How about Kazakhstan? Georgia? Turkey? Armenia or Tajikistan perhaps? From what I am reading it seems allowed to apply for a US tourist visa simultaneously at multiple embassies (as long as you pay the $160 for each), is this right? Any advice, or experience, or suggestion is much appreciated.
  4. If you want to stay with the Caribbean the US Virgin Islands may also be an option to consider for the honeymoon while waiting for AP.
  5. Happy to help, and thank you for the clear information. It is unfortunately quite normal for your application to still be with US immigration (USCIS) for more than a year. With your spouse becoming a US Citizen (congratulations) and notifying USCIS of the upgrade it may pick up speed a little (like what happened for me) but there is no guarantee. However, you don't have to worry about things slowing down because of the upgrade. Your priority date of October 2020 will stay the same. I understand you are worried that when USCIS approves and your case goes to NVC that after DQ you still have to wait 2 years. First of all, I would not worry that far ahead and focus on getting to DQ. You will have to submit documents and get things sorted out with the NVC to get to the DQ which is an important milestone to reach. By that time things could be different. Are the people who have a DQ date of December 2020 all applying for an IR-1/CR-1 visa? (If they are interviewing for a different visa category it can take longer for them) In my experience, your spouse upgrading to become a US Citizen will only help your case and make it stronger, and will not cause delays or extra waiting.
  6. Hi, I am fortunate to be able to tell you that my wife immigrated to the US in November 2021 on her CR-1 visa and we have been happily together for the last five months. So our visa-journey is over, but of course I am still happy to help. I would like to understand your situation better. (It helps if you fill in the 'timeline' in your profile.) So you were DQ in Dec 2020 and your case is with NVC, and you say you are F2A case. So I assume you are still a Green Card holder? And you are expecting to become a US Citizen soon? If/when you become a US Citizen you will have to write to the NVC to upgrade your case but it will not slow you down and will not cause you to have to wait more. Your priority date of October 2020 will stay the same and secures your place in line (and in my experience it may even speed things up a little). It sounds like you have been in DQ for a long time, that must be very frustrating. I hope the letter with the interview invitation will come soon.
  7. I have been doing some research on this and have come to the same conclusion as millefleur. Although there are many sanctions against Russia and diplomatic relations are pretty bad, there are actually no changes in the rules, laws, or proclamations or EOs that restrict Russians from applying for a visitor visa to the US. The only problems are practical, i.e. the US consulates in Russia are not processing visa applications and it's incredibly difficult to find a US consulate outside Russia that is willing to accept visitor visa applications from Russia. I am wondering why you went for Mauritius? I have written to several US consulates but didn't get a reply. I guess the only possibility is to just submit an application (and pay the fee) and hope they will process it. (I am thinking Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan which has a listed appointment wait time of 106 days and there are stories of Russians getting a visitor visa appointment there in the past, but that was pre-war) @JayFromTexas if you do find out more about a US embassy/consulate willing to take on your girlfriend's visa application please let us know!
  8. Hi everyone, I know this is not going to be easy for someone in Russia to get a B2 Visitor visa under the current circumstances, but I also believe the path may not be completely blocked. So I am hoping that people here have some experience, information, or guidance on this. My wife was thankfully able to immigrate on a CR-1 in November last year. Now we would like her mother to come and visit from Russia, just for a month or two. I know my mother in law (MIL) needs to apply on her own merits and we can't petition/sponsor/invite her, but I am trying to help her figure out how to do the application under the current difficult circumstances. From what I gathered the first step in the process is: > submit a DS-160 application form online (with all necessary supporting documents including a photo) Q1: the DS-160 application can be submitted online here https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/ but it requires to enter where you want to submit. For my MIL should that initially still be Moscow, even though we know Moscow is not actually processing visa's at the moment? Q2: Is there any point even to submit an application for a B2 to Moscow, is it just going to sit in an inbox? Has anybody seen a DS-160 submitted to Moscow being processed/approved lately? Q3: Is it an option to submit the DS-160 application to another location right away (e.g. Kazakhstan, Poland, other)? Q4: Does anyone have any advice or experience on how to initiate a B2 application from Russia at the moment (March/April 2022)? I know it is complicated and uncertain and will probably take a long time to get it, but I also believe that it's worth trying because if you don't submit your application you know 100% sure that you won't get a visa. I also know that even with an approved DS-160 the next challenge is to get an interview which can't be done at a US consulate in Russia for sure. But that is a next step that we will have to deal with when we get to it (who knows what the world will look like by that time). Thanks, Wouter
  9. When I submitted in August 2021 I submitted transcripts for tax years 2018 and 2019. I believe tax transcripts are superior evidence because it shows your actual tax filings as the IRS have them on record. However, by August 2021 my tax filing for 2020 had not yet been processed by the IRS and the online IRS tax portal showed no tax transcript for 2020 was available yet. So for 2020 I submitted a copy of our 1040 (MFJ) with all schedules, and my W2. It all went through fine without RFE. There is a view that 'more is better' but I wonder if sometimes sending double information can actually be detrimental. There could be small discrepancies between the two redundant sets of documents, it could cause complications in how they enter information into their internal system, or it could cause extra work to analyze both sets that could cause your case to be delayed. Personally, I have stuck to following the USCIS and NVC instructions as closely and completely as possible but without going beyond that and doubling down on sending information. I have had no RFEs through the entire process. Good luck!
  10. Yes, but thousands of cards shouldn't be that hard if you have a proper production line (think of how Visa and MasterCard and even the DMV produce millions of cards each year). It's not like they are made by elves in a workshop by hand...or...perhaps.... (And by the way, unfortunately, the stamped passport does not confer ALL the benefits. For example, when trying to sing up for a phone plan at AT&T they ask for your immigration status and when you say Permanent Resident they want to take a picture of the front and back of your GC. When you show the stamped passport they just look at you with a puzzled look and say the AT&T software requires a picture of the card and that they simply can't process a passport page with a stamp. Similarly, at the bank they also wanted to see the card. Coming up with a Russian passport to prove your American legal status is just something that is immediately met with skepticism by people who are not familiar with the rules and leave you stuck. Not the worst thing; you can simply go to another phone carrier or bank, but I wouldn't say the stamped passport is completely equivalent to the actual card.)
  11. Hello, My wife immigrated on her CR-1 visa on Nov 13th, 2021. I know her stamped visa is proof of her permanent resident status (for one year) and allows her to work. She also already received her Social Security card (I have to compliment SS on that). We expected the actual Green Card to come within a few weeks but it has been more than a month and still no card. I understand that with the stamped visa there is no real urgency to get the card (although we already ran into a few instances where not having the actual card caused confusion and problems). It would just be nice to finally have the card in hand and be done with all this for at least the next one-and-a-half years. How difficult is it for USCIS to just produce the card and send it in a timely manner, they have all the information and there shouldn't be any further 'processing' or 'decision to be made', right? I am hoping some VJ'ers have recent experience in receiving their GC so we can have some expectations (and my wife can stop watching the mailbox every day 🙂 ) Thanks, Wouter
  12. As mentioned by @Caboose29 you need a Schengen visa and many Russians go through Greece, but here is a nice report of someone who went through Hungary. Good luck!
  13. @millefleur is correct on all points, but I'd like to add that the COVID vaccine requirement does not apply to US citizens, permanents resident or immigrants. So when you fly to the US on a CR-1/IR-1 visa you are not yet a permanent resident but you are an immigrant so the vaccination requirement does not apply for that reason. (My wife was not vaccinated and flew Aeroflot from Moscow (SVO) and at check-in they were aware of this rule and it was no problem she was not vaccinated. Of course she did need a negative COVID test less than 24 hours old.)
  14. When I moved to the US in 2012 it was an international transfer within a big multinational Pharma company and this company actually had arrangements with mortgage lenders (Citi, Wells Fargo, etc) to allow employees coming to the US the opportunity to buy even without any US credit score or credit history. I still had to show my contract and income and proof of making timely rent and car payments (from the country where I lived before moving to the US), but a credit score was not required thanks to my company 'backing' the mortgage. The interest rate was not the best and I actually refinanced a few years later when I had a decent score, but it allowed us to buy right away. It may be worth it for your husband to check with his company to see if they have anything like that.
  15. She still had a valid multi-entry Schengen visa from a trip to Switzerland we had done together earlier in the year, in May. We decided to both fly to Zurich first to enter the Schengen zone through Switzerland again. We then took another Covid test at the airport in Zurich and flew from Zurich together to Krakow (via Warsaw).
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