irish44

It has been almost a month since I received the approval from NVC. I also got an interview date via email on Mar. 18th (Interview May 12).

Tanya has not recieved any letter or checklist from the embassy. I decided to bite the bullet and make the $ phone call.

The lady who I talked to told me that it goes regular mail and that Tanya doesn't need to have it, and may not even receive one!

In fact, she could not even verify the interview date and would have to make an inquiry to the Consular Section. (Please call back tomorrow-more $)

What a bunch of garbage and a waste of money.

Any ideas folks?

Thanks!

Hi Folks.. Happy Easter!

Since I have more than a month, I was going to send documents to Tanya USPS Global Express in Cyrillic.

I need a little help with translating into the format that Slim suggested in the post below please:

"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!)"

I believe Sochi is in Krasnodar Krai

Her fullname is Tatiana V. Rebenok

Her address is: 5 "B" Titov St. Apt. 9

Thanks again!

postal code, Россия, краснодарский край

город Сочи, улица Титова, дом 5Б, квартира 9

Ребенок Татьяне

p.s.your fiance has a cool last name)))

Mariya

Thank you again, all.

I actually sent it via DHL on Saturday. It was only around $60.00. I know I could do it on the cheap using USPS but it took me many hours to gather all the info and I wanted to be able to track it so she could be home from work to receive it. I priced out Fedex for grins and it was $213.00!!

I had to ask the people at the mail place to repeat that to me..

Anyway, her name is her maiden name. Isn't an "A" only added when a girl gets married?

Hi Folks.. Happy Easter!

Since I have more than a month, I was going to send documents to Tanya USPS Global Express in Cyrillic.

I need a little help with translating into the format that Slim suggested in the post below please:

"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!)"

I believe Sochi is in Krasnodar Krai

Her fullname is Tatiana V. Rebenok

Her address is: 5 "B" Titov St. Apt. 9

Thanks again!

Ready to give a hand:

Россия, Краснодарский Край,

город Сочи,

улица Титова, дом 5 Б, квартира 9,

Ребенок Татьяне В.

Good luck!!!

Thank you!

Thanks all for your advice!

I emailed them once a week. Although it takes 2-3 days to get a response, they do always let you know. (ConsulMo@state.gov).

I would try to get some cash back from that paralegal! In my case, the interview was scheduled just under 60 days from their acknowledgment of petition receipt.

Hi Folks.. Happy Easter!

Since I have more than a month, I was going to send documents to Tanya USPS Global Express in Cyrillic.

I need a little help with translating into the format that Slim suggested in the post below please:

"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!)"

I believe Sochi is in Krasnodar Krai

Her fullname is Tatiana V. Rebenok

Her address is: 5 "B" Titov St. Apt. 9

Thanks again!

Thanks all!

I have to say again that going through this with "The Gang" here has really helped my mental state ( now I'm merely neurotic), as well as all the practical knowledge shared.

I still think that someday we ought to try to find a mutually agreed location and have a little get-together.

Ideas for get-together - feel free to add some:

1. We can have the wives (or the husbands) participate in a Pelmini contest, since food has been discussed a lot lately.

2. Prizes awarded for the most creative and/or unusual fenderbender car accidents.

3. Prizes awarded for the Russian wife who gets up the earliest in the morning.

Tasteless Ad of the year!

This reminds me of those Benneton sweater ads with AIDS patients in them.

Well,we finally got an interview date! I emailed the Embassy a few times and was very polite.. more flies with honey as they say.

It's on May 12 (not listed on the online appt. schedule!), so that will give Tanya time to get her Police records and so on. (does Alina, 13 y.o. need the police records as well?)

Since her interview is on a Monday at 8am, does anyone know if AOM is open on Saturdays? We are just trying to make a doable plan.

Any suggestions folks?

Thanks as always!

I thought that the Seafood I had there was fantastic.

However, one might want to be careful about the "Atlantic Net-Caught Herring" that comes in cans.

I know in the US there is an occasional thumb or molar found inside frozen Burrito's, but seeing this picture made me swallow hard a couple of times.

I will offer a free trip for two to Las Vegas to anyone who can identify the type of Herring seen in this can. And yes, to qualify for the trip you must also participate in a 5 hour timeshare presentation.

Are Russian Banks using pirated Windows Software, or are their IT Departments a little lax?

Thanks again.

As she lives in Sochi (Krasnodar), where can she go for the Medical exam, and how far ahead can she do this? Do we need to wait for the interview date?

She will have to go to Moscow for her medical as eekee said but she can make an appointment with them only after she knows her interview date. As I know they won't let you do your medical too early. I did mine 4 days before my interview in AO Meditsina. I also know that girls who don't live in Moscow prefer to do their medical one day before the actual interview in MOM because there they are given the result the same day and girls don't have to come back to Moscow twice for medical and interview. In AO Meditsina you get your results the next day.

Sasha

I think someone posted recently that they got their results back from AOM the same day...but maybe it was an exception and not the norm.

Some people do get it the same day but it's really an exeption. I know some girls who asked to get them the same day but they were not allowed to. So if you want to get the results the same day i would go to MOM, just to be on a safe side. Besides, i couldn't even finish my medical in AOM in one day, I had to go there twice.

Sasha

Thanks yet again, Sasha.

Contact details for MOM, please? I have it already for AOM.

I agree with Sasha that you shouldn't worry about them not acknowledging receipt of the approved petition. They may even have it and just don't have it "logged" yet. Either way, I don't believe that there is any point to calling them. I've always had good luck with email correspondence with the Moscow Consulate.

This is true. Using the "DHL trick" I was able to track my petition being sent from NVC to the consulate. The consulate received the DHL package on March 5th, but they still have not "received" it into their system.

Another thing that may or may not be worth knowing is that on the same day NVC send your physical packet, they transmit an electronic copy. I don't know what all is in the electronic copy, but if NVC tells you that the consulate has received your packet, make sure they distinguish between the electronic copy and the physical copy. I fell for that the first time I called. The electronic copy, from your perspective, is worthless. They won't schedule an interview or send out the packet until they have the physical copy received into their system.

Also note that NVC doesn't seem to realize that it takes DHL 3 days to deliver your petition to the consulate. The lady I spoke with this morning said that it was much too early for me to be checking on status, as my petition was certainly still in the mail. I don't bother arguing with them anymore.

According to the DOS, the way the process should work is like this.

> embassy receives approved petition

> embassy sends out packet 3

> beneficiary returns completed forms

> upon receipt of visa application, embassy sets interview date and sends out packet 4

NVC told me the same thing, but I believe they are misinformed. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but there is only one packet that goes to the beneficiary. Once Moscow physically receives your petition into the system they schedule the interview and send the packet out at the same time. There are no completed forms the beneficiary has to send back. She just has to bring the forms with her to the interview.

Can you tell me or guide me to the thread of the "DHL Trick"?

Thanks!

Kazan - no reason we can think of, or they will tell us. Frustrating as hell to be told for two weeks "visas approved, you'll have it soon" only to have the rug yanked out from under you.

WWW - we'll eventually get to a full review of the interview, but we were hoping to do that in Omaha. We're not much in the mood now. I will say it was a very short interview, perhaps 5 minutes, and they asked no questions about me at all. Natasha had a previous K-1 visa 2 years ago, and only stayed a few days because the guy proved to be a real jerk, and most of the questions were about this visa and why it didn't work out. The consul also asked Natasha's 11 year old daughter if she wanted to live in the USA.

Like you, Tanya had a K-1 6 years ago and left quickly for the same reason. I may be seeing this issue for ourselves as well.

Good luck and hang in there!

One last question and I'm done.. really!

The Consulate Website says that I must file a separate I-134 for Alina (13 y.o.) as well. Is this true? I lsted her on Tanya's I-134.

Thanks.

Sorry folks.. I posted before I had my morning coffee.. pls. disregard the last question.

One last question and I'm done.. really!

The Consulate Website says that I must file a separate I-134 for Alina (13 y.o.) as well. Is this true? I lsted her on Tanya's I-134.

Thanks.

Thanks again.

As she lives in Sochi (Krasnodar), where can she go for the Medical exam, and how far ahead can she do this? Do we need to wait for the interview date?

Thanks, Sasha.. great advice as always.

By the way, I see you have only 12 days till you are here.. awesome!!!

You are very welcome.

Yeah, i'm very impatient now. It's 12 days left but i already packed everything, just want to go now.

I bet you are ready! Tanya tells me that Alina, who is 13, already sits on her suitcase and asks "When are we going to America?"

Thanks, Sasha.. great advice as always.

By the way, I see you have only 12 days till you are here.. awesome!!!

Thank you all for answering my previous questions!

I called the NVC yesterday and they verified that they have indeed sent the application off to Moscow 10 days ago.

I emailed the Consulate and they responded with:

"As of today, we have not received the case from NVC, please contact us in 1- 2 weeks for updated info."

Should I be concerned and spend the money to call them?

Also, is an interview scheduled only after a packet is sent to Tanya and received back?

By the way, it looks as if they finally updated the interview dates online.

Thanks again!

Great pics, folks.

Here are a few Tourism Posters that you might enjoy.

I've been using discall.com and have been pretty satisfied with them. Most of the time, the connection is good. There are occasional disconnects, and there is no call history available. When all fees are taken into account, it's about $0.05/min for me to call Tomsk. I've got pinless dialing from my home phone and cell phone (cost is the same for either). Cost varies depending on the city, and a call to a mobile phone is always at least a little higher. I use the Discall EZ Dial card. You can set up your account for auto recharge if you want.

http://www.discall.com/cards/

I use a system that is similar to discall.com called Dialbug (www.dialbug.com). The rates are 0.055 per minute to cell phone in Sochi or anywhere in Russia. Moscow, however, is cheaper at 0.029/min.

I have been using it for 6 months now and it works consistantly and well. As with discall, it has pinless dialing from the phone of your choice and has auto-recharge or manual pay.

It does have accessible phone records, which I used as one of my proofs of ongoing relationship.

Thank you very much, guys!