Wouter

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

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.

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.

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.