Moscowmojo

Correct, I dont think it had any effect on our case.

That happen to my case, they wanted additional docs after the case was DQ. It was basically the same document we already submitted regarding dissolution of the marriage, but they called it something else. I submitted and it showed submitted status all the way up to the interview. It was never an issue for us.

I will be submitting my Taxes as "Married filing Jointly" for 2022 even though my wife didnt arrive until Feb 24th of 2023. As we were married in 2022, you can attach a declaration to your tax return (as U.S. citizen) that your spouse was a nonresident alien, but they choose to be treated by the IRS as a resident alien. You will need a Social Security # or a ITIN number from the IRS. When my wife went through border control, they said she would receive her SS Card and Green Card in 3-4 weeks. If we dont receive the the SS card by the tax filing deadline, I will file for an extension. I am not a tax attorney so dont take this advice to the bank, but this is my plan to save money on taxes at this point. You get an automatic tax deduction of $24,400 for filing Married Filing Jointly.

Great news for both of you! My wife had her interview last Tuesday at the KZ consulate and arrived here last Friday! Everything went smooth! You are close to the finish line)

My wife is taking the train to E-burg on Feb 15th and flying to Almaty on the 16th. I will let you know how it goes)

@Simplytex is correct. She will be flying on Redwings, cost was about 17,000 rubles ($242) for a one way. This route is only available on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. My wife owns a travel agency, so this part of the process is easy for her). Yekaterinburg has a very nice airport too.

She will fly from Ekaterinburg to Almaty for the interview and if all goes well, it will be Almaty to Doha to Seattle. The flight from Doha to Seattle is 14 hours...I know, I have taken it a couple times)

Right... She will be most likely taking Qatar Airlines. I will do a number of screen shots and web addresses and get those to my wife just in case they give her any problems at the ticket counter.

@stacys I understand, you had an appointment in Warsaw therefore the NVC already transferred the case and now the case has been moved to KZ. We received our appointment letter from the NVC, not the KZ consulate. Has your case number been change to ATA? I think you proceeding correctly by writing the KZ consulate. They have responded to my inquires pretty quickly (2 - 4 days). Best of luck.

Now we have the question: With the airline verifying the passengers is eligibility to enter the US, will they understand that an immigrant visa from a country (Russia) that has a Covid waiver understand that she is eligible? Nothing is easy for Russians in the process.

@Runner19 Thanks for the info I went to the registration link and I am attaching what I saw. It says if you "opt" to have it delivered enter the address. I was planning having my wife stay in Almaty until the visa is ready and picking it up at the Consulate. Maybe i need to write them to verify if that is possible.

You dont schedule the interview date, the NVC will work with the Almaty Consulate to schedule it and will notify you of the date.

Why do you need to create an account with Traveldocs? I have not do that and we have an interview date.

I received this email from the consulate in KZ. Greetings! Please be informed medical exam must be done in the panel physician clinic of our consular district, which is IMC Almaty +7 727 3786464. Best regards, Consular section U.S. Consulate General 97 Zholdasbekova str., Samal Towers Almaty, Kazakhstan, 050059

Thanks for the information! My wife did her medical exam in Moscow as IMC said it would be valid for KZ, that was wrong info. KZ requires the Medical exam in Almaty, so she is scheduled to do it on 2/17, Interview is 2/21.

Our case was DQ on 12/16/2022. The NVC moved it from Warsaw to KZ the week before and we received the interview date on 1/9/2023. Good luck with your case!

If I remember right, I didnt have to pay another filing fee because we already paid for the I-130. Maybe Simplytex could verify. I received the Notice of Action from the Nebraska Service Center.

I wrote to about 8 different embassies to see if they would take our case, Romania and Kazakhstan were the two that responded positively. I didnt try Egypt, some embassies only take Citizens or Permanent residents of that particular country.

That is crazy you havent heard anything yet. I submitted on 8/18/2022 and it was approved and sent to NVC on 10/24/2022 so it took 67 days for the approval. The NOA came from the Texas Service Center, the approval Letter came from the Nebraska Service center. I submitted everything online.

We just received an interview date for my Russian wife at the Kazakhstan consulate for 2-21-2023. Total time from submitting the I-130 to interview date was 6 months and 3 days. We are very happy with the progress, she should be here before the end of February! i requested and moved our case from Warsaw to Kazakhstan in mid December 2022.

The United States is trying to identify countries that are more accessible than Poland, in which Russians could obtain American visas, US Chargé d'Affaires a.i. in Moscow Elizabeth Rud said in an interview with RIA Novosti. The article is in Russian but the video has her speaking English. Here is the link to the article. The US is looking for an affordable country for issuing immigrant visas to Russians https://ria.ru/20221128/vizy-1834655753.html?in=t

Yes, you are right, Romania requires a visa for Russian citizens, but its pretty easy to get one. 10,000 Rubles and two weeks and its good for Bulgaria and Bosnia too. My wife had a Bulgarian visa which would have allowed her into Romania. Although with Romania you still have the issue of no direct flights from Russia and no connecting flights through Europe, except for maybe Serbia. I will say the American Embassy in Romania was very quick in their responses and friendly and could be an option for some. Bulgaria refused our request to move our case there from Poland as they only accept Bulgarian residence.

Regarding the Schengen, from my understanding, it all depends on the country you are applying to for the Schengen, every country has different requirements. I our case we were looking at Italy as the best option and the Russian Visa company recommended she show at least 300K roubles for our length of stay. I think some European countries want to make it as hard as possible for Russians to get a visa. We ended up not applying for a Schengen, so I have no personal experience with it.

Serbia refused our request to transfer our IR1 case from Poland, they only accept legal residents of Serbia and Montenegro.

Your can transfer your case to another Embassy, but I dont think Turkey will accept it. Many countries only accept legal residents of that country. We transferred our case to Kazakhstan from Poland. Only took one day to complete the transfer. Poland is a nightmare for Russians to travel to right now and you must get a Schengen visa and that is time consuming and expensive.