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Hello everyone,

I am a US citizen and my wife is a Russian citizen. We have been married and living in the USA for 10 years. She is a green card holder for about 9 years. Now she is thinking of applying for US Citizenship. After our marriage, she changed her last name and that required her to get a new domestic and a new international Russian passport, each of which took a lot of time and effort. Now she would like to change her first name when she applies for US Citizenship, but she is worried about all the implications and has several questions. We are hoping others in this forum have gone through similar experience and give us some guidance on this.

Here are her questions.

(1) Once she gets the US passport, can she still keep her Russian domestic and international passport? Are those still valid documents to travel to Russia?

(2) If she can still keep the Russian passports, does she have to change the names there as well? Her preference is not to change the names on those passports, if that is okay.

(3) When she travels out of USA, typically she will use her US passport. However, when she goes to Russia, can she use her Russian passport when entering in Russia or does she have to get a Russian Visa just like I do? She goes to Russia about once in two years. 

(4) Today, she can get special visa for me and our kids when we go to Russia. Can she continue to get us those special visas? 

Basically, she is trying to figure out all the problems she might face for changing her first name when applying for the US citizenship. Thanks to everyone in advance!

Just wanted to keep everyone informed that this was the right Police Report. My fiancee just finished her interview successfully! We prepared quite intensively, but the interview was quite easy! Thanks to everyone for their help.

My fiancee's interview is early next week and I am still not sure if the document she got is really the police certificate or something different altogether. My fiancee had to spend quite a bit of money under the table and a lot of visits to various offices to get to this point.

In any case, here are the two documents she has:

1. A request from local office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Police Colonel in the capital (Machachkala), saying "We are sending you Inquiry 159 for citizen G".

2. In response to that request, the Police Colonel from the capital sent a duly signed form called Inquiry 159 (ТРЕБОВАНИЕ 159), which is filled out with the following information:

- Her name, address, date and place of birth

- The reason for inquiry: trip abroad

- Certificate needed: Police record

Does anyone know if this is really the police clearance certificate or not? Thanks for your help!

Thanks, Slim. Dagestan is part of Russian Federation. My fiancee is now trying the Ministry of External Affiars (МВД) at the capital of Dagestan (Makhachkala) and we are waiting to see what happens there. I will post it here if anything happens.

Do you know how to get the "Russian police report" that you referred to? Does she still has to go to some police station in Dagestan for that?

Hello Everyone,

I have been a lurker for a while and found this forum to be highly informative. Thanks to everyone for their contribution.

I am an USC and my fiancee is Russian, awaiting her petition to be adjudicated by USCIS (Vermont). She lives in the Republic of Dagestan (North Caucasus region). She went to the police station recently to obtain her police clearance certificate. However, the police officer there told her that they will not be able to give her a police certificate. The request for a certificate has to come from US Embassy in Moscow and only then they can act on it.

I am very worried that waiting for US Embassy to make the request will take a very long time. They may not even do it. We are wondering if others on this forum had a similar experience. Would you have any suggestion for us on how to proceed now to get the police certificate? Does Russia have any "standard procedure" for issuing police certificate?

Thanks,

B&G