A_I_S

Pfffff...I had a long-winded answer all puffed up and ready to post, but ak your answer is absolutely perfect and better than my diatribe. Nicely done.

For what it's worth, Wyoming is about 1.5% of California's population.

I was afraid that was the answer.

Bah...so let's all stand up together and sing...

Союз нерушимый республик свободных...

My main question regarding EC vs PC is this:

Why should Wyoming vote count for so much considering that it, as a population, does not contribute as much to the whole US of A? Why should Wyoming, with it's 1/20th population (pulled the number out of air) of California be able to influence to such a big degree what happens to CA as a result of national elections?

If Wyoming does not like it, then I have a perfect answer...be competitive. Attract businesses to your state which will bring more people which will in turn make your state vote count for more.

Otherwise, it's not voice of the people, it's not voice of the states. It's "your voice is less important than voice of a Wyomian" and a single voice of state of Texas is less important than single voice of Wyoming (depending, of course, on whether states do full vote or partial vote based on popular vote).

I feel like a counter-scenario is appropriate. After our interview, we received the visas (we picked them up at DHL directly) about 3 weeks later. Please keep in mind that sometimes, through no fault of your own, these things CAN (not MUST) go into bureaucratic limbo. Plan accordingly. Changing airline tickets (3 times, in my case) can be a costly affair.

That said, statistics show that you will probably not have any problems, and I sincerely wish you and yours the very best of luck!

True. What Ilya needs to do is basically apply the "Fastest. Cheapest. Safest. Pick two" rule.

Fastest and cheapest: buy tickets now for 1.5-2 weeks after the interview.

Fastest and safest: Buy tickets now for 1.5-2 weeks after the interview, but buy not economy class tickets that have rescheduling fee but more expensive ones that allow you to change the date without paying $200.

Cheapest and safest: wait until you have visa then buy cheapest tickets for after new Years.

Considering the odds of getting into KGs' situation and price and availability of tickets in December and their desire to get to the US as soon as possible I think the fastest and cheapest approach would work best.

I am so depressed. I haven't seen my wife in 4 months. My I130 was received on Sept. 2/08 by the Vermont center and since then I haven't heard anything and my status is unchanged. I am a US citizen and my wife is Taiwanese. I checked the status online and found that for Vermont they are still just processing up until February 26, 2008. I can't believe this. How can they be so far behind?!?!?! How long can I expect to wait for this to be processed? I don't know what to do, I cant take being apart forever.

We submitted our K3/CR1 paperwork to VSC on Jan 28th. The receipt dates are Feb 16th and 28th.

Both cases were approved by USCIS on Aug 11th, and our interview was on Oct 29th. That should give you some indication of the time you'll have to wait.

DHL is fairly reliable in Russia (packages from Kursk to Austin take 4 days, Austin to Kursk take 6). I've gone ahead and bought the tickets anyway, with the holiday season coming up. Lena's flying out on Nov. 15th, and the interview was done on Oct. 29th.

In your situation, I would suggest that you buy tickets now for 2 weeks after the interview. This is mainly because Dec is always a busy traveling season and you may not actually be able to find tickets at any kind of reasonable price if you wait until after interview is done, unless you want her to leave after New Years. And if the worst comes to worst and her visa is delayed more than 2 weeks due to administrative processing...fine, you can pay extra $150-$300 to reschedule.

Btw, Singapore Airlines is currently selling Moscow-Houston tickets (one way) at $850, hell of a deal.

P.S. I remember flying in Dec and there were no tickets left for the standard Frankfurt connections, so I had to fly from SpB to Moscow to Italy to the US, except of course that in Moscow I arrived in SVO1 and was flying out of SVO2...you can imagine my surprise.

hey AIS,

after your wife's interview how long did it take to receive visa?

Thanks

Interview was Wed morning, by Saturday she had it (and she lives in Kursk).

Thank you

did she go to DHL to pick it up or delivered?

I just checked, and DHL delivered the passport + immigration POE packet on Sat, so basically we got ours within 3 days.

And she did not have to present any copies at the interview.

Hello to all, I am not a russian nor a fiance of a russian. But I have a a question if anybody here know this russian dating website called http://www.hotrussianbrides.com/ a legit one. My friend is currently dating and emailing this girl from Ukraine and he met her in that website.

But the thing is, why can't he call her through phone, chat her live with web cam, and know her exact address.? My husband and I are really concern about him dating this girl, and we don't want him to fall with somebody who isn't for real.

I heard about dating agencies, can somebody enlighten us?

Have you seen your girl on webcam before you flew to russia, what did you do?

My only question to your coworker would be...they call this dating now?

DHL is fairly reliable in Russia (packages from Kursk to Austin take 4 days, Austin to Kursk take 6). I've gone ahead and bought the tickets anyway, with the holiday season coming up. Lena's flying out on Nov. 15th, and the interview was done on Oct. 29th.

In your situation, I would suggest that you buy tickets now for 2 weeks after the interview. This is mainly because Dec is always a busy traveling season and you may not actually be able to find tickets at any kind of reasonable price if you wait until after interview is done, unless you want her to leave after New Years. And if the worst comes to worst and her visa is delayed more than 2 weeks due to administrative processing...fine, you can pay extra $150-$300 to reschedule.

Btw, Singapore Airlines is currently selling Moscow-Houston tickets (one way) at $850, hell of a deal.

P.S. I remember flying in Dec and there were no tickets left for the standard Frankfurt connections, so I had to fly from SpB to Moscow to Italy to the US, except of course that in Moscow I arrived in SVO1 and was flying out of SVO2...you can imagine my surprise.

hey AIS,

after your wife's interview how long did it take to receive visa?

Thanks

Interview was Wed morning, by Saturday she had it (and she lives in Kursk).

yeah I found some nice deals 670$ to Newark!! from St. Petes.

So I'll prolly order tickets for 16th, and hope for the best.

Is there anything else she needs but visa before she leaves?

Pack her bags.

Consider doing some dental work/medical work at home, because it's quite often cheaper even if you go to a decent doctor. Well, maybe not in Moscow/SPb but it never hurts to check up on that.

Congradulations!

That is what I am hoping to due too. My husband's K3 interview date should be sometime end of NOV. Should get his letter tomorrow and just waiting on the NVC to complete the case and send paperwork to embassey. Good to see that it can work.

The way the embassy works is that as soon as the case is scheduled for interview by NVC they get an electronic case file.

However, the embassy can not reschedule the interview until they have the actual paper file on hand. So you need to wait for interview to be scheduled, case mailed out and case received.

1. Dont trust the AVR. We passed the interview already, and our AVR still gives "NVC has reviewed your packet of forms and found information missing" false RFE message. Talk to operators directly and ask them when case was sent to India.

2. As soon as the case is mailed out, write the email to your embassy requesting change from K3 to CR1 on the K3 date.

3. It will take the embassy about a week to look at it By the time they do the embassy should have the case received.

4. Once the embassy looks at the email you get assigned a liason officer. You'll see that because the reply to your email will come not from consulXX@state, but from consulXXN@state where N is a number. At that point they will reply every day.

5. Avoid the embassy phone operators. Those guys are reading off of a screen and can not actually assist you in converting the interview (and in Moscow they dont know the difference between K3 and CR1, but they think they know what they're talking about). Avoid the "expedite" word, as soon as they hear it the conversation effectively ends because they'll tell you that they only expedite for medical reasons, and you will not be able to explain that it's not expedite. Better call back and try to get a different operator.

6. All the operator will be able to do is "send a request to the consular division" which has the same effect as sending email, but it's a lot cheaper. Our "request" was supposed to be replied by the next day (or by closing of the same day), and it took 3 days. So it cost us around $40, at which point I was already talking to the liason over the email.

That's basically it.

Congratulation A_I_S and Good Luck!

Did you submit any forms related to K-3 to the embassy?

No, we completely put K3 on hold. The embassy sent us the Packet 3 and an interview date, but we ignored it, primarily because we had no document originals left (all was in NVC).

Finally the wait is over. Lena had her interview on Oct 29th, got the tickets in hand now for Nov 15th flight.

No catch questions, no extra docs needed, in at 8am, out before 11.

Since we were originally a K3 visa filer, we were able to take advantage of K3 interview date that was scheduled for Oct 29th and CR1 interview that was scheduled for Nov 18th. As long as the embassy has the actual case at the embassy you can contact them (email actually works best, not the phones) and expedite the CR1 interview to K3 date (I rescheduled ours 5 days before the interview)

DHL is fairly reliable in Russia (packages from Kursk to Austin take 4 days, Austin to Kursk take 6). I've gone ahead and bought the tickets anyway, with the holiday season coming up. Lena's flying out on Nov. 15th, and the interview was done on Oct. 29th.

In your situation, I would suggest that you buy tickets now for 2 weeks after the interview. This is mainly because Dec is always a busy traveling season and you may not actually be able to find tickets at any kind of reasonable price if you wait until after interview is done, unless you want her to leave after New Years. And if the worst comes to worst and her visa is delayed more than 2 weeks due to administrative processing...fine, you can pay extra $150-$300 to reschedule.

Btw, Singapore Airlines is currently selling Moscow-Houston tickets (one way) at $850, hell of a deal.

P.S. I remember flying in Dec and there were no tickets left for the standard Frankfurt connections, so I had to fly from SpB to Moscow to Italy to the US, except of course that in Moscow I arrived in SVO1 and was flying out of SVO2...you can imagine my surprise.

Lena passed the interview yesterday. Was in at 8am, out before 11. This was a CR1 interview rescheduled to an earlier K3 date. The CO had only 3-4 standard questions (where we met, etc etc), no docs needed or anything.

So we're waiting for DHL visa, I've already bought tickets for Nov 15th.

So me and the wife are going to visit family near Ufa, in Russia, I have gotten Russian visas before but not since the rules changed. I know how to get a visa I just don't understand how to register it once we get to our destination which is kind of rural. So how do I register my visa once I arrive? I used Google but I got some conflicting answers and people hear always seem to know more any way.

Thanks for the help!

Have the family check with the local MVD office. Even rural areas are under jurisdiction of some kind of office of militia. Basically, have them call the local MVD and ask where should a foreign visitor go to register.

Typically, there are 3 places:

1. OVIR. Really long and painful, drop papers off one day, pick up another.

2. Hotel. Obviously you gotta stay at least one night.

3. If OVIR is not an option, MVD office should do it.

I was able to get the K3 interview converted to CR1 5 days before the interview. Counting down to 8am on 29th..

I know that cruises require US passports for USCs...how do the rules apply to CR1 holders?

In the worst case scenario my wife will be flying into the US on Nov 29th. I was thinking of getting us a cruise in the middle of December to the Caribbean.

Would she have to meet the visa requirements of all ports of entry while on the cruise?

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks.

How does one get those transcripts from the Russian University? My Husband got his diploma form MGU back in 1975, the USSR days. He said there were never any transcripts or actual diplomas but a document that certified the graduate as a "specialist" in his field. His classes included Marxist economics and Lenin /Marx Theory, etc, which don't have any value or equivalent in the US. Also if we actually can get transcripts do they have to be in a sealed university envelope to be turned in to the American university? How about the translation?

On top of all the immigration paperwork this overwhelming to my brain!

I don't know...the Marx/Lenin theory of economics couldn't do any worse than Bush/McCain theory of Economics.

As far as degree transcripts go...I am a firm believer that college transcripts are only applicable to your first 3 years of employment or improve your chances of landing your first job, but not much after that. Given that, your husband should compile his resume/CV and have a professional correct it (or yourself if you are up to it). I believe that it will count for more than his 33 year old MGU diploma.

If you still want the diploma then you need to write to MGU and request the transcripts. My mom did that when she needed her papers (although that was only 13 years ago).

Once you have the transcript you need to pay a company that specializes in college degree translations. You basically send them your transcript and they convert all the courses and grades from USSR/Russia style into US-accepted (and understood) style and basically assign you a US-equivalent degree. A graduate of USSR/Russia university more or less always gets a Bachelors, and sometimes even a Masters (even if he just did a regular 5 year Bachelors in USSR).

We're planning on doing that once Lena gets here (since she just graduated last year). I can't tell you right now what those companies are called but my family has friends in DC who work with them, so I've been putting that off. I can find out if you are really interested.

Maybe they may not agree with you in person, but they will surely tell you that they issue CR visas rather than k3 if the I-130 arrives at the consulate by the time of our k3 appointment. Phone operators will often just assume that you are confused (because many people are) and will lecture you on all kinds of stuff you already know.

Well, our papers were sent to Moscow on Oct 10th, so the paperwork is there already. Anyway...if that doesn't work then we'll simply wait 3 more weeks until our CR1 interview. Paying $400 more just to get converted is not cost effective in this case, and anyway...we don't have the docs, other than the copies, and we haven't mailed anything in for K3. So if they can't help us now we'll have to wait.

I don't think that it's a culture shock, as some posters have mentioned.

My step father had a culture shock when he moved from Moscow to the States...that was in 93, before Moscow streets were full of Benzes, Jeep Cherokees and everything else. The main reason here is simple boredom because she is not doing anything. My first reaction, when I read your post, was "what a hell took you so long to file for EAD" (more or less literally...it's already almost November, and you got married in July...your EAD paperwork should have been sent in months ago). Anyway, that issue aside, it's basically the main problem for K1/K3 wives. Got an older gentleman at work who overheard me and my brother in law speak Russian at work, he stopped by...he brought his fiancee here, now she's miserable because she doesn't speak English and can't work. We sent him all the invitations to all the Russian outings, to get her acclimitised.

1. Get her volunteering and taking English classes. She should not be sitting around at home while you're at work, watching TV/worrying/being bored. She should be leaving the house same time you do and coming back home around the same time.

2. Get her involved in local Russian community, but it's a fine balance line. A lot of people, when faced with situation like hers, will simply find a rut they're comfortable in and just stay there. You see this with Chinese students at US colleges who live in all-Chinese dorms or floors, and in the Little Russia in major metropolitan areas. Store clerks in the Russian store...those ladies simply picked up their stuff at the local Russian bazaar, got on the airplane, came here and came to the local Russian bazaar in the US, it's like they never left Russia. I'd say don't let her get involved all the way, at least not until she's comfortable with her life in the US. If you just tell her to go spend time with the Russians she could simply end up spending all her time there and not going anywhere.

3. Converting her diploma. There are companies that do this, we'll need to do this as well (I got contacts in DC that do this, Lena will be here in about a month so we'll do it then). A BS from Russian university typically translates into something like BS + halfway to Masters in the US.

Get her volunteering. Given her education in Russia she'll start networking with people almost instinctively and before you know it she'll be back on her feet.

Here's a quick update.

I was able to talk to the embassy and have my request forwarded to the consular division, instead of being outright told to ....f-off.

1. Phone operators at the embassy don't know anything. Telling them that you have 2 interview dates, one for K3, one for CR1, confuses the hell out of them.

2. Do not mention the word "expedite". They are looking for some key words that would allow them to resolve the situation on the phone, and word expedite means "We dont provide expedites unless there are medical reasons".

3. If you do mention expedite you will not be able to explain to them that K3 and CR1 require the same paperwork. Like I said, they don't know the difference.

Best you can do is say something like "We have 2 interview dates setup, for 2 cases, we would like to convert the earlier interview into the later visa type". At this point they'll put a request in to the consular division.

I called Tuesday morning, was told to call back in the evening. In the evening I was told to call back on Wednesday or Thursday. Called Wednesday evening (just now), told to call back before close or tomorrow. The interview is in a fricken week, and the calls are paid...

This seems to be the best chance, at least for me.

Hope your mileage varies for the better.

Well...while John Cornyn is on the list his office is as useless as any other office out there. His solution to immigration problem is to install more lanes at the airport because it's bad for people who received visas to stand in line at the US border...somehow that makes US look bad (and not all the other policies).

I'd like to wish you luck, I know that I've mailed John Cornyn's office and got the canned reply. The liason WAS nice enough to converse with me over email, but it was clear from the beginning that they were following the USCIS policy on wait times and they had no way to change it.

Hmm...since you're all easily confused by the train idiom, what would you then make out of "Hold the watermelon"?

Ilya it actually might take two months from the date your case was complete till the interview for the IR/CR visa. Our case was completed in mid August and I had interview on October 12th, look at my timeline.

Ilya, dont panic.

We had our case finished in Sept 20s, interview scheduled on Oct 6th for November 18th.

So it's not 2-3 months.

So does anyone have any ideas how to sweettalk the embassy into converting K3 interview into a CR1?

The interviews for IR/CR visas and k3 visas are essentially the same. If the I-130 paperwork is at or on it's way to the consulate, the CO will usually agree to grant a IR/CR visa rather than a k3.

Officially, they don't "convert interviews from k3 to CR/IR" so to speak. This causes some confusion I think, which is why some people have been told "no" by the consulate or NVC. You still need to prepare everything that's required for the k3 interview (e.g. pay visa fee, prepare I-134), even if the CO will agree to grant a CR/IR visa in the end.

We have not followed up with the K3 process at all...so that could potentially be a problem. Basically we haven't mailed any of the K3 packets back to the embassy and instead have put all work into CR1. Think the email NVC trick would still work?