A_I_S

The cynical part of me hopes that Ilya does it since then the Murphy's law would kick in and VSC would switch from K1s to K3s. The humanitarian part of me wishes that he wouldn't do it because the Murphy's law would kick in.

I don't think this was a scam. What probably happened is that she got tired of waiting, met someone else and decided to stay. You got off too light if it was a scam. Commodity prices in Russia are the same as they are in the US (and I'm not talking about just Moscow or StP) so $600 buys you almost nothing.

As for political correctness police...so you don't like that someone said what they thought? So Satelite is not a sensitive person, there's no laws against that. Do you people honestly believe random strangers / coworkers / someone you barely know care about your day or what's up? At least his was an honest, although insensitive, remark. Don't get all bent out of shape.

A few American movies with some "good" Russian characters:

Reds

Dr. Zhivago

Red Heat (Arnold as Russian cop)

Hunt for Red October (Sean Connery as Russian hero)

Anna Karenina

Also, famous ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov has been on Sex in the City and some other TV and movies. Alexander Godunov, another famous ballet dancer who, like Baryshnikov, defected to the west was featured in Witness and other films before his death from alcoholism and hepatitis. Both actors played "good" Russians.

Interesting links:

http://badrussians.com/

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/wendys-c...heme/2583647379

Is it a surprise that Hollywood makes movies where Russians are bad guys? We (I am Russian, naturalized USC though) have been the boogey-man for the last 50 years during Cold War.

The movies in this list, though...Red Heat is just a Hollywood representation of what they think a Russian cop is...the reality is much much more corrupt. The Hunt for Red October...yeah, Sean Connery as an American hero.

Hollywood can't make good movies about Russia since it would be impossible to describe to general public why "this Russian is good", you guys don't quite understand us. When you're with your Russian wives, watch "Brother 2" or "Брат 2" and see if you can tell if this movie is about a good Russian or a bad Russian...after all, the main hero breaks a bunch of US laws and kills quite a few people in Russia AND in USA. We have very flexible morality

Well, I just got a reply from my senator...same predictable lines of

- All service centers are supposed to share the same workload and timetables but unfortunately blah blah blah some are faster than others blah blah blah.

- The USCIS timelines are set by USCIS and USCIS only, and there is no legal precedent to change those. Technically USCIS can tell everyone to wait 2 years because USCIS has set the timeframe to 2 years. And there isn't anything anyone can do about it.

All in all, the Senator has been completely useless, but his webpage does say "Cares about immigration". Looks good on paper.

I believe they go by whatever they feel like going by.

Ежу понятно.

last time, wait 60 days and then file complaint...

today 60 days later... wait 3 months then call and file service request, BUT they MAY decide to change timelines and GO BACKWARDS again with processing dates and therefore may tell me the same farquing ballshut again 3 months later... lets see.. July, August, September...

SO do we know which dates USCIS goes by? Is it the "received date" or "notice date"?

Hello everybody!

Our expedite request for I-130 processing has been granted. Do you know whether this approval means that the rest of the process (NVC/consulate) will be put on the fast track as well?

Any expirience?

If it's not a secret, what were the expedite reasons? My wife is also in Russia.

Hello, multiple posts...

Doh...

hello Guys!!!!!

Finally after 10months AAAAPPPROOOOOOOOOVEEED!!!!!!

:dance:

i can feel my heart... Thank God really...

after receiving a letter last May 28,2008 telling us to wait 180days more.. i really don't expect this good news that my hubby told me just now..

but... please help don't know what to do first I will go for the I-129F what should I do...

thanks a lot...

for those who are still pending... hang on.. pray to God...

Depends on how long it takes for your embassy to setup an interview.

Given that your 129F was approved, it will be sent to NVC and then immediately to your embassy which will mail you a packet of forms. Once you fill those out and mail them back you'll get an interview date.

At the same time your 130 will be processed in NVC. Or should be. Work on the I130 in parallel. If you are lucky and your I130 gets approved by NVC and arrives at the embassy before your interview date for I129F then the interview will be automatically substituted for a CR1 visa, not the K3. And CR1 is much better since you get the work authorization upon entering the country, etc. With K3 you'll end up waiting for 2-3 months.

Extenuating circumstances suck for those who don't fall under the criteria, aka people who are not movie stars, don't have a suitcase full of $100 bills to "wink wink nudge nudge" or citizens of "Country the US has bombed recently".

As far as hating the system, we have a full right to do that, especially since the system is messed up. K1s done in 1 month, H1Bs being ahead of K3/CR1, VSC and CSC being on different work loads...yeah. I'm tired of telling my wife, her family and my family and my friends "Nothing yet, I already sent everything to our Senator, haven't heard from him yet".

Except that USCIS has the perfect excuse...the "180 days plus 30", and every Senators' office knows that rule, and have it on their webpage. "If your case is within the normal processing timeframe do not contact us. We can not help you". So...we can curse and yell and argue all we want but it's not going to change the fact that for 7 months after receipt date we're stuck AND US GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS THAT TO BE ACCEPTABLE.

I've actually spoken to a lawyer before we applied and asked him "Would it be faster if I used your services?". He honestly replied that it would not be.

Another lawyer I spoke to recently (I'm pissed off and desperate) suggested that sometimes lawyers can look at the extenuating circumstances and make a case for expedite so my advise (I'm not a lawyer) might be to see if you have any (pregnancy, for example, which doesn't qualify you for an expedite, but a good lawyer could attach "financial hardship" and "health risks" and make it into an expedite) and do a consultation with a lawyer. An extra $100 isn't gonna ruin you (and if it does you're making a huge mistake right now) but could lead to better results.

who cares? How is this any different than people who use matchmakers or belong to the website where they can meet a millionaire??

All that matters if the relationship is real no matter what it's based on. Why is it ok for a rich old coot to marry a young woman who clearly only married him for his money but god forbid someone wants to marry person in a country they want to live. If they are good to each other who cares. Even if they don't last they have the right to have a failed marriage like the rest of the people in the country.

Well, I care. I did not meet my wife through a matchmaker site or at an immigration party. And we're both Russians. And because at our wedding in Russia we had her family, my family that's still in Russia and my parents/sisters who flew in from the US.

So when I hear the "This girl/guy was paid $$$ to marry someone so they can come to this country" I say "Why should my case be stalled by all these people?"

Excellent points made by the last two posters. We must exercise patience and bring in other positive aspects of life in play. This, certainly, was my first and last call. I've got other things to worry about...like the Wall Street. ;-)

Let's see how patient you'll be after 4 months of waiting for NOA2 while looking at "I got approved in 1 month at CSC" messages every week.

I wish I could just say #### it and move to Russia, this bullshit is puting my wife in so many problems.

Ilya, I wish I could do the same, but Lena wants to move here, at least for now. This would not have been a problem back in Russia...pay the right people and problems are solved.

To be honest you should not count on new president changing anything. Those changes (if any) are so far out into the future it's not even funny...remember, this is US government where you can't buy your way out of being treated like everyone else (Something I'm wishing I could do right now, but I don't have that kind of cash).

Folks, don't call VSC phone support. Save yourself the time on the phone.

"We're processing I129F from November 17, 2007 so it will be 3 more months until we get to you, that's the fastest" Ok...I've mailed my I130 in Jan of this year. "Oh, I-130s are still on July 2007".

In a way, I sort of understand WHY they're saying what they're saying. That's unfortunately how ANY large business operates, if you ever had to call tech support. Those folks can't just go and make up stories or do the "wink wink, fill out this form", they have to follow the "party line" so that everything operates consistently otherwise there's no accountability. Of course, unlike any large business, USCIS is not a business but unaccountable governmental monopoly so they get away with anything they want.

The only part of the K3 that was faster was the NVC stage, that is where you would save those 2 months, but now with the online system up there is not a big difference. Before July both the I-129f and the I-130 would be approved at about the same time, you can ask your lawyer about it and I am sure he will tell you the same thing, I didnt use a lawyer for mine but i called a ton of them before i filed to get a good idea of what is what. If you are ready for the NVC part of things you could expect to be done with NVC in about a month. The only thing that stops me from being ready is my wifes police reports, in Brazil they are only good for 3 months and take 1 month to get. Since I am on month 6 of waiting I cant really say that I will be done with USCIS in the next 4 months. So I lose a month even when my petition is approved because I cant ask her to get her police reports now to have them ready because i fear that USCIS VSC is not making any progress. Ive pretty much given up on America though, my wife is getting ready to open her own Pharmacy and I agreed that it was a good idea so if she gets everything in order I will be moving there within the next 4 months or so.

Quoted for truth...

I'm Russian living in the states, my wife is Russian but she wants to come here right now, hence why we're going through this nightmare. If I get anymore BS from the government or economy tanks even further so that I get laid off I'm gonna seriously consider selling off what I got (or renting out the house) and moving back. I'm one of those lucky people who don't live in McMansion, don't have 3 mortgages and whose house actually went UP in value instead of down.

Regarding your police cert...my answer to your situation is:

- order police cert right now.

- Get it a month later.

- If, 2 months from now you don't have a NOA2 yet, you order another one a month before it expires.

Based on some information received from these posts, I started getting nervous about the VSC not handling K3 cases any longer. I sent a message to my attorney concerning this. I got the following response:

"We have had some I129F petitions that were administratively closed. It basically means that we have to process it as a CR-1 visa if that happens. We need to wait to get your approval notice before we can determine which way the case will proceed. I will let you know the details as we progress. Thanks."

Not good news. I was then informed by my attorney that a CR-1 will take approx. 4 months longer, but I wouldn't have to file AOS and would be $500 cheaper (I guess this would be saving the AOS Perm. residence fee.)

So apparently all of the posts about K3 petitions at VSC have some merit. Not real sure why VSC just closed up shop on K3 petitions.

Sference, others on this forum had been hearing the same thing lately, which had us all on edge.

But today we saw an approval of I-129F for K-3 at Vermont!!

So let's wait and see, but maybe in the next weeks we might start seeing some of those petitions approved again?

It's an interesting development, to say the least though!

What I'm not clear on is why is a CR1 going to take 4 months longer.

It seems that before it used to take a while because of all the mail back and forth that was required. What's the process now? I see CR1 timelines that say "Yesterday I paid this bill. Today they generated something else, etc"...so what is it at NVC that takes a long time to do? With electronic billpay what's a reasonable timeline for NVC now?

I just spoke with someone at Vermont, and she acted like I was from Mars. She was very polite and helpful. She said that she didn't know anything about converting K3 to CR-1 at Vermont, which really confuses me now, since my lawyer sent me the email referenced above. Anyway, I'm going to take the lady at VSC's word for it, until they tell me something different.

As far as the CR-1 taking longer, I'm not an expert, but the way I read it, is that the K3 was invented because the CR1 (immigrant visa) takes so long. Thinking being, that you can enter the US on K3, and then file AOS to permanent residence.... but that's my 2 cents... take it for what it's worth.

The way I understand it this was the case in the past, CR-1 was taking a while. My analysis of the timeframes for CR1 goes kind of like this:

2 months or so to get out of USCIS and get to NVC.

4-5 months to get through NVC.

But didn't NVC just introduce electronic billpay and doc printing? I see timelines in the CR1 thread and you can see that at the beginning of this year people took something like 4 months to go NOA2->NVC Case Complete. Now it's down to 40-50 days...

I'm trying to prepare for all eventualities. And most certainly, IF we were to get both NOA2s on the same day like they do now, I'd go NVC route (embassy in Moscow is running pretty high volume on interviews so they are usually 2 months out) just in case we can do the ol' "switch to CR1 at the last minute" trick.

And if we don't get the 129F NOA2 then we're stuck with just CR1...I still want to know how long it'll take.

We got married in December of 2007. I'd hate to tell my wife that the family vacation to Hawaii that we're right now planning for this Xmas will be ...postponed due to buerocratic BS that happens in this country.

Based on some information received from these posts, I started getting nervous about the VSC not handling K3 cases any longer. I sent a message to my attorney concerning this. I got the following response:

"We have had some I129F petitions that were administratively closed. It basically means that we have to process it as a CR-1 visa if that happens. We need to wait to get your approval notice before we can determine which way the case will proceed. I will let you know the details as we progress. Thanks."

Not good news. I was then informed by my attorney that a CR-1 will take approx. 4 months longer, but I wouldn't have to file AOS and would be $500 cheaper (I guess this would be saving the AOS Perm. residence fee.)

So apparently all of the posts about K3 petitions at VSC have some merit. Not real sure why VSC just closed up shop on K3 petitions.

Sference, others on this forum had been hearing the same thing lately, which had us all on edge.

But today we saw an approval of I-129F for K-3 at Vermont!!

So let's wait and see, but maybe in the next weeks we might start seeing some of those petitions approved again?

It's an interesting development, to say the least though!

What I'm not clear on is why is a CR1 going to take 4 months longer.

It seems that before it used to take a while because of all the mail back and forth that was required. What's the process now? I see CR1 timelines that say "Yesterday I paid this bill. Today they generated something else, etc"...so what is it at NVC that takes a long time to do? With electronic billpay what's a reasonable timeline for NVC now?

Our original application was filed for K-3 since back when we got married the processing times for CR-1 were still 3-4 months longer than K-3 (I originally made that decision late last year, we filed in Jan of this year).

Our visa is being processed in Vermont, so I'd like to prepare for any circumstances we might encounter, esp with all the rumors flying around regarding K-3 processing (I'm going to call VSC tomorrow).

The original plan was kind of like this:

Get 129F approved. Have the case moved to Moscow. Have my wife fill out all the paperwork. That I figure would take about a month and then Moscow will assign the interview date which is about 2 months right now (or whatever). So 3 months after 129F approval we'd have our interview.

Assuming that we get approval for I-130, what is the timeframe to get the application move through NVC?

I see quite a lot of people timelines say "week for this, paid this bill, week for that" but then the timelines are something like 4 months, etc. Why is that?

Ballpark numbers...what would it take now:

Case moved to NVC.

We do all the filing/applications as soon as they become available.

NVC approves application and moves case to Moscow, which should then schedule an interview. Let's assume the interview is still 2 months off.

How long would all this take?

It sucks, plain and simple. It sucks even worse that last year, around this time I spoke to an immigration lawyer and he said "You got two options, either a K-1 or a K-3. You can generally get approved in as little as 3 months, average around 4-5", so we decided to get married back home in Russia. Funny how paperpushers can throw a monkeywrench into your plans.

At least in Russia we don't have this problem since you can always do it two ways: follow the standard process or, if you want your case expedited, you pay the right people off. Pretty capitalistic if you ask me.

Thanks,

Andrei.

Mine did NOT!! I had hoped it would, since I had got the same touches on the I-129 as you guys!

Oh well, at least someone is moving!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Hang in there Charisma, its not over with yet!!!!!!

Paris Heart

Paris ...did you check status after touch ? you may have been already approved mine had 2 touches sunday and yesterday ....but still pending status?

When does status change ? usu ally

Our I-130 also got touched Sunday and Monday. I called today and once again heard the so familiar "On February 14th we have received..." message.

This was a first touch since NOA1 in Feb...I129 was touched on 3/20 and nothing since then.

We're in the process of getting our K3 (just got a touch on Sunday 5/3). My wife already has SSN back from when she was in the States on Work & Travel program (J1 visa).

What restrictions will be applying to us once she gets into the US?

With the SSN she should be able to get the drivers license immediately, open bank accounts, etc...

Can she work, though, or do employers ask for EAD? Will it take less time to get EAD ifi she already has SSN and has in fact already filed taxes in the states (back when she worked, and she's on my joint tax return for last year when we got married).

Thanks.

Andrei