Mike&Luda

Sounds great! I love cheap summertime fares through Houston on Air Singapore. Last year we were able to fly down to Houston and stay over night on credit card points before taking the cheap flight over! Have fun!

Not near OHare but Google the location of the Ukrainian Village neighborhood. It is on the NW side... can't remember the name of the market though. Restaurants are in the neighborhood too.

I definitely agree with Tygrys. If you can take that plunge... K-1 is the way to go. You just have to pay the fees, file all the ridiculous paperwork and wait out the process. The financial threshhold is very low so I wouldn't worry about that as long as you are employed. My other advice would be to make sure the paperwork gives the story that you want to give... if you've changed jobs or lost jobs... explain why and be thorough. We got complimented on our paperwork's completeness and accuracy but most of our volumes of proof was never even looked at!

After a terrible experience with FedEx slowness, we always used UPS. They did fine and definitely more affordable than DHL. Deliveries still took up to a week with Customs in Moscow being the biggest hang up.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Wishing you Good Luck and NO delays!

I second the wish for a Happy Mother's Day to all the moms on the forum! It is especially happy for us as we've just added another boy to our home on April 27th. Born fit and healthy and looking like his dad.

Congratulations! I agree with Johnny. It is a very good and respectable job to start with too. We have a friend from Moldova who took the same route.

WOW! That is a great price! Have a great time and best of luck finding that "click" on your trip!

That many touches doubtlessly means someone is actively working on your application. Good Luck. When ours finally got touched, things happened in a hurry!

Happy Aniversary! We are coming up on 3 years rapidly!

DEFINITELY use the EXACT English spelling as shown on her Russian passport! All paperwork must match. I am surprised the Go To Russia people didn't know. Maybe you got a new person? They are usually very good. Good Luck to both of you. I flew United to Moscow through Washington once and thought it was a pretty good airport and not too big.

I am leaving for Moscow 7:00 am CST on Tuesday July 20th. If you can get another set of documents sent to Ames, Iowa for Monday delivery, I can take them as long as your fiancee or someone else can meet me at the airport to get the documents. My flight is Air Singapore flight SQ61 from Houston to Domodedovo airport in Moscow. It is scheduled to arrive 14:00 on July 21st. Respond this afternoon please if you are interested and we'll trade contact info. I'll need a Moscow cell phone number for the pick up person too. The Rule is NEVER USE FEDEX TO GET STUFF RUSSIA FAST. For some reason, their stuff is always held up in the airport. DHL or UPS is the way to go.

It is set in stone now! I have talked to the travel agent and paid for my ticket. The total is 1,153 dollars round trip to Odessa. I paid a little more because I do not have more than 2 hours between flights (layovers) coming or going. And I am flying into Odessa where she wanted to meet me. It was only 50 dollars more for Odessa rather than Kiev. It is United out of Iowa and LOT to Poland and Odessa.

I am staying one month. Leaving Nov 7 and returning Dec 6. I have heard that the high taxes and fees are due to health insurance coverage, etc if anything happens to you in the country. Can anyone verify that?

I started off this ticket search with a local agent. I booked with a travel agent because I wanted to keep the busness local. The cheapest airfare was with cheaptickets.com. But it seems they bait and switch. last night I was once again playing with the flight search and noticed the difference between days. So I kept playing with it until I got the best fare. It was 963 dollars round trip to Odessa on the cheapest days. Then I called the agent back and she returned my call this afternoon with 100 dollars higher. I decided to go with cheaptickets.com but when I went to order the ticket I got that it was no longer available. It suggested another flight at 1,173 dollars. So I went back and started over and it gave me 1,483 dollars. It sounded like a scam so I ate another 100 dollars and booked with the agent. It is the exact same flights I was going to take on cheaptickets.com.

So much for online airline tickets.

Good Luck on your trip. You must be a fellow Iowan? I'd advise you to be careful of LOT. They aren't the most organized of airlines... schedules are only a suggestion to them. Good food though. Best wishes for a great trip.

We were told exactly the same and are planning a trip to Seattle to renew my wife's Russian passport. Apparently you have to make a second trip too to take the new passport. So two big air fares! Russians were we live have been protesting this but no changes have been yet.

Hi everyone, I am new here. I assume Russia is considered this but not sure...have the interviews been particularly tough in Russia? Thanks for any info you can give a newbie. :-)

Grahm&Sarah

On the contrary, my wifes K-1 interview was so easy it was a complete joke. No tough questions at all... just asking her easy questions that he already knew the answers to... apparently to check for slip-ups and to make sure it was a real relationship. She took a bound volume of proof that was never even touched. Her friend recently had an interview just as easy.

Hello fellow Russian forum friends! Happy holidays!

I would like to send my wife who lives in Siberia (until our immigration service gets its head out of its ###) so I would like to send her a Christmas e-card. I could send one in English but I thought it would be nice surprise to send one in Russian. My only problem is I can't read Russian so this will be a tricky task.

Can anyone help me here? Thanks!

This site toggles between English and Russian... Postcard.ru

Oophs. I congratulated you on the other thread... Oh well, it deserves it twice! Congratulations what a NICE gift for the holidays!

CONGRATS on the fast inteview date! Wow! What a nice Christmas gift, huh? Have a blast and keep warm!

I think the wife will help you survive without VJ JUST FINE! Have a GREAT trip. I am jealouse and kicking myself for not going back myself... even though I was just there!

I certainly agree it is a definite downer to take so long! Our lawyer originally told us that Luda could come by Xmas, then New Year, then Feb.... you get the picture. But in your case all may not be lost... you should be coming up FAST on your approval (assuming everything is correct). The giant bulge in visa applications must be working its way through the system finally too! It has been my impression that your application date is still taken into consideration when prioritizing because we jumped ahead with our NOA1 and then fell back into the pack at NVC and beyond and had to slow down and wait our turn! Take heart !! By the way, we "jumped the gun" too on our engagement... to start this whole marathon of a process! Luckily it has worked out!

ABSOLUTELY it feels good!! I would be much more explicit except I am on a work computer! Thanks for the congrats, good luck and tip on the mail. I will check to make sure Luda has received an Xmas card that one sister sent... even though it should have fit in the mailbox.

Can someobody point me to the website that shows the interview schedules?

http://www.usembassy.ru/consular/iv_dates.php

Good Luck!

FYI - New interviews until Feb. 12th show on the site the embassy this morning! A Wed. even! Luda tells me that on a Russian site one woman knows her interview is scheduled on Feb. 16th! How do others get this info? I called Moscow embassy phone service and NVC again this morning. Both places say they can not even tell me our petititon was received in Moscow. NVC person denied they have ANYTHING to do with interview dates. Jason, if you see this... How did you find out that yours was delivered to the embassy? I was told again to wait at least a month before trying the embassy paid phone service...

I got the shipping date from NVC. the date they sent it to Moscow. I tracked the package through DHL. Its a really neat trick that a couple of guys came up with. Worked beautifully. Its in the NVC forum. Listed as something like "how to track your petition from NVC to Embassy".

Thanks Jason! It took a lot of tries and a lot of patience but it finally worked. Lots of error came back at first. At least I feel reasonably comfortable that it was delivered! Keep warm on your trip to Moscow... November there was no cake-walk!

Keep trying and expand the search dates! It does seem to work but I had to try 25 times probably!