Jonathan Matthies

Cold Borsch was delicious

Blini (chopped liver in fried bread) was freaking amazing

Red Caviar was really, um, salty but I still enjoyed it

I guess that's all the strictly Russian food that I tried that I liked. Lots of other meals were 'generic' with salads, sausage, cheese, salmon, etc.

Finding fresh fish for Katya in Denver will be interesting. Not sure how she'll adjust to that.

Denver->LAX 2.5 hours

2 hour layover

LAX-ICH (Seoul)->13 freaking hours

2 hour layover

ICH->VVO Vladivostok -> 2.25

On the way back it was 2.25 again, 11 hours across the sea to LAX, and 2 more to Denver.

When Katya flies here, she'll go from VVO->Moscow for the interview and then, hopefully, Moscow->NY->Denver - or something similar

Thank you all. Now someone tell me how I JUST noticed that I misspelled question in my post title. I'm normally OCD about typos; going so far as to have Firefox underline any word it doesn't recognize. Oh well.

That rocks! Very happy for the both of you. I hope to be in your situation in a few months.

many people revert to a supplemetal sheet

Thanks. I've started preparing some notes for Katya on this process. I figured this was the route to go; but I also wanted peace of mind from the folks here. Thank you.

Katya recently sent me her 'final' version of the G-325A form. Adobe basically let her type in as much information as she wanted, and some fields show up truncated once the form is printed out. She hasn't signed these, she simply wanted me to double check everything before she did sign/mail it.

Her mother's City and Country of birth is very long. I do not know what information to delete, what's important or not. The information she put was "Ukraine, Ordzhonikidze, Dnepropetrovsky krai".

The "Full Name" and address of her employers. She wrote both English and Russian. should I have her truncate the entries down to just the Russian or just the English version of the employer?

Perhaps i add an additional blank sheet labeled G-25A info that details these extra long entries?

Thanks for any help you all can offer. We are *this* close to being able to start the K-1 process and I'm getting a bit antsy. I want to hurry up and submit this paperwork, so I can sit around and wait for months on end like everyone else.

The day I left VVO, Katya bought me an Orange Fanta from a vending machine; and it was chilled. She prohibited me from drinking it until it was warmed up. I was battling a bad could and cough at the time; so it made a bit of sense. But it still makes me giggle in hindsight.

My first night in Vladivostok, Katya made a wonderful meal of baked salmon topped with shredded carrots, caviar, Oliver's Salad, and calamari. She did not tell me what the calamari was, and I didn't recognize it. The dish looked like linguini, but tasted like um, something. Needless to say I did not care for the calamari; her mother had warned her that many Americans would not care for it. I enjoyed the Caviar, it was really good. I was suprised that I liked it right off the bat.

Katya and her friends all seemed to have this fish jerky thing. It was dried, salted, and cut into 1/4 inch wide strips. Everyone there treated it like we would beef jerky; but I never got used to the taste.

Finally, there was this horrible salted sea fish of some kind. i don't remember the name, but the taste was horrible. No one expected me to like it; and I fulfilled their wishes with gusto. We were at a beach at the time and I'd rather have eaten sand. That dish was the only one I will not give a second chance. I will try calamari again, and the fish strips; but not that devil fish.

Gravy fries are the best!

My buddy (who's from Maine and can get away with it) claimed us as Canadian once while abroad and the Scotsman we were talking to called me out immediately. Turning to my friend he said, "Nope. You may be Canadian, but your friend here, he's an American. I can always tell because they're always wearing the wrong shite." I was wearing a rugby jersey which I thought would be fashionable overseas but apparently it wasn't the right one. That's what I get for wearing an Irish jersey into a Scottish pub. Might as well have just worn a big American flag on my T-shirt.

During my week in Vladivostok, people kept trying to talk to me while I stared vacantly as if someone was blowing a dog whistle. Either I dressed neutral enough that they couldn't tell I was American; or it was the opposite was true and they knew I was American and they wanted to screw with my head.

Stop wasting your time learning words like dostoprimowhatever and start learning phrases like, "Dai mi peeva, sichas! Bistreeeeeeeeee!"

Is that "bring me a beer, now! somethiiiiiiiiiiiing (quickly?)?" Since it's transliterated I can't plop it into a translation service; so I have to rely on my unreliable Russian skills.

My wife is from VVO area also. We've been exploring the possibility of a trip there next year sometime. Talk about a logistical nightmare. When I met her in Russia to fulfill our two year meeting requirement (we hadn't seen each other in over five years) I flew to Moscow and then she flew to Moscow. Trying to line up a VVO trip was outrageously expensive compared to the "discount" Moscow trip. If you have any cost-saving advice for Far East travel, by all means, share it here!

Whenever I finally do head over there, I'll route through Korea, no doubt. I lived there for two years and I absolutley LOVE that country. I'm going to make sure I have at least a two day layover there before heading home. Wifey's talking about staying in the Far East for an extra month or two, and if I'm rolling solo on the way home, you better believe the layover's going to be, as they say in Korea, "Kraygeeeeee!"

I wish I had some magical cost saving magic. A friend from Texas said Aeroflot used to fly direct from Seattle to VVO; which isn't the case anymore;as best I could tell. I found nothing. I tried a gaggle of online and offline sites, AAA, orbitz, vlad-travel.com, brick and mortar travel agencies etc. and they all ended up being $1900-2100 depending on the time frame involved. I looked for 3 months and nothing cheap came up that didn't involve going to Moscow.

In a few months I (hopefully) get to coordinate a one way trip for 2 from VVO->Moscow as well as Moscow->Denver a few days later. I'm already in savings mode for when the day comes.

Katya and I both plan on returning to VVO as soon as possible. She has friends who constantly give her grief for not introducing us while I was there; but I was only there for a week. She has a solid support structure of friends and family in VVO; so I definitely wish to return to see all of them again.

Katya has never been to Moscow/St Pete, nor have I; so that is something we both want to do. Perhaps Fly to VVO and take the Trans Siberian Railway from VVO to Moscow. I read where it takes an entire week to make that journey by train.

Oh and patience is one thing I am not blessed with. "Hurry up and wait" both sucks and blows. Hurr up and gather forms and fill out paperwork, then wait for it to be mailed to me; then rush deliver it to the gov't, then wait for them to process it, blah blah blah. It's going to drive me batty. But it will be worth it.

Welcome!

how did u get to VVO? I am curious and have been wanting to go there. Did you transfer in Moscow or route through Korea?

DEN->LAX->Korea->VVO

DEN->BWI->MOSCOW->VVO was like 350 hours of something insane like that. No thank you. It was $300 cheaper for the longer flight through Moscow; but no. 18 hours is enough for me. Plus I would have had to switch Airports in Moscow, crossing the entire city North->South to catch the last leg to VVO. This was my first time ever having even a connecting flight, much less an overseas flight; I wanted a low-key flight plan.

Yes hello and welcome. My Alla and I are in a similar situation to yours.

But.....there is nothing she has to sign on the I-129F form. You do all that. She does have to sign the four pages of a G-325A and her letter of intent to marry. I hope that's what you meant to say.

Phil

I really should've consolidated my replies in a single post. But yeah, that's what I meant.

Welcome to the VJ Russia Forum, Johnathan. Now, let's get down to business!

First of all, stop wasting your time in other forums or other subforums on VJ. This Russia forum is the one place you need to be for all your answers. You'll find all the time you spend in the K-1 forum is misleading and also a little frustrating as you're an old fat bald guy who is just marrying a mail order bride because you're too old fat and bald to find a good wife here in the U.S. (Or from Canada or the U.K., either of which are acceptable places to order brides from. I don't make the rules...)

Secondly, we like guns and pie. Please state your preferences of both.

I'm not old, I'm 33! (bad Monty Python reference)

I like Pie. and thanks a lot, now I'm hungry. This banana for breakfast isn't cutting it. And damn, it's almost Noon.

Third..... How old is the boy? What's the status of his father (divorced, never married, alive, dead, wants custody, etc.) and has Katya gained permission of the father to leave Russia with the boy? Does the boy want to go?

He's 4, never married - only lived together, father is a deadbeat who Katya had to go to court to get Alimony from, father has said he will not oppose the move out of the country (because he won't have to pay anymore!), and Denis does indeed want to come over here. At least until he realizes he'll be surrounded by a bunch of Americans who go "Dude" a lot.

Did you know they can do their medical exam in Vladivostok but have to travel to Moscow for the interview? That's going to be later on down the road - On that note, the police certificate can be obtained from the Primorskiy Krai police office (whatever the heck that is.) Basically, they have to go to the "big police" place in Vlad, the one that has authority over the whole region, not just the city. Free takes a couple weeks, $100 could get it next day. But, you have other stuff to worry about first.

I wasn't certain about the medical exam, I hadn't bothered to look into it since it's down the road. Katya was aware that the interview HAS to be in Moscow, and must include her son Denis. She is prepared for that. We've only just started looking into the Police Certificate thing, she'll pay more attention to that after the I-129F stuff is sent to me. Baby steps.

The I-129F application process is amazingly simple. People want to try to make it hard but it's not. Follow the guides here on VJ in the Guides Section at the top of the intro page and you'll be fine. Include what they ask for, DON'T include anything else. There's a hoop USCIS wants you to jump through, anything more is just a waste of time. Have a "certified copy" of translations when sending in the packet to U.S. destinations (keep in mind "certified" just means someone says, "I translated this and I'm a translator.") and don't worry about translating every single little thing. A plane ticket is a plane ticket. You don't need someone to say, "this is a plane ticket."

We're almost done with the I-192F stuff. She should be mailing me her package next week if things go as planned.

Since we're on translations, start learning as much Russian as you can. Not because you'll really need it, (She's coming here, afterall) but because it'll make understanding all the rest of the stuff (and boy is there a lot!) somewhat easier. She'll naturally pick up more English than you will Russian so don't try to keep up. Simply learn what you can when you can and keep in mind the goal is communication, not fluency. Learn to read Cyrillic as soon as possible. Being able to read it will help about as much as anything.

I have Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, and a Penguin Coursebook to learn form. Katya and her friends and family were all impressed with what I did know (which really is not much); but were more impressed with my pronunciation. I guess those few words I did know, I spoke damn well.

I can read Cyrillic fairly well; though pronouncing unknown words is comical. I can go letter by letter figure out what it should be, but then stringing it all together to speak the word is an exercise in futility. I'm sure I'll get better with practice. Pimsleur helps with that, since it's a bunch of audio with real Russian speakers. The Penguin coursebook can explain how a word should be pronounced, but without hearing it I will still likely butcher the word.

PROMT does a descent enough job of translating back and forth. Sometimes it shits a brick and I have no clue what she just said. I will try google and bablefish translation to see if they offer a different context. Otherwise, I just say "Ne ponimau" and ask her to repeat. Katya's most often used phrase during my stay was "Laptop, Please"; as she needed to use PROMT to get a point across, or to ask a detailed question.

I have been very cautious with using idioms when talking with her. I try to keep my language as formal as possible to help PROMT do it's job. It can translate the words, but if the phrase is an American idiom she'll still be clueless as to what I really meant.

We both expect to be leaning on translation utilities for a while once she is here. She has a friend who went through a similar process a couple years ago; and they used a English:Russian phrasebook/dictionary for the first few months. She is prepared for a similar experience.

Hey!Welcome to the forum!

P.S.Go Broncos

My mom bought a Broncos outfit to give to Katya's son. I don't think he has a clue what american football is. Plus the colors are Orange and Blue. Poor kid. He better get used to it; all of the grandchildren are subjected to horribly color coordinated broncos outfits.

Greetings everyone,

I figured I'd introduce myself here in the Russia subforum as well as the general newbie area.

I'm Jonathan, 33, I live in Denver; and met my fiancee Katya a year ago on a russian bridal website. We only spent about a month communicating through that site before we moved onto emails. At first, she was paying someone in Vladivostok to translate our emails; and the communication process was slow as molasses. It would usually take a week between emails.

I decided early on that weekly emails were really annoying. I told her to send me her messages in Russian and I would use PROMT to both translate her messages to English and then translate my messages back to her in Russian; along with copying my original English response. The quality of the translation that came from PROMT was enough to get us communicating on Skype. She can type to me in Russian, I can copy/paste from Skype into PROMT, get the gist of the message; write my reply, translate it, and paste it back into Skype in a few seconds.

Neither of us speak the other's language well enough to speak to each other in a casual manner. We usually treat Skype as just another IM program; only occasionally turning on the video camera. Our initial attempts at verbal communication quickly devolved into guttural stammering in our native tongues, apologizing profusely for not being able to pronounce words properly.

With that said, when I finally flew over to Vladivostok to spend a week with Katya and her son; she was a walking translation machine. She is by no means fluent, but she was infinitely more knowledgeable of English than I of Russian. She was constantly translating between myself and her friends and family. I took a cheap Asus Eee Netbook with me; loaded with PROMT. We often used that to translate more intricate/difficult sentences and ideas to each other. I have a feeling we will be leveraging the translation software for many months once they finally arrive over here.

Which finally bring me to why I came to this site in the first place.

This site has been a godsend; quite a repository of information that is laid out in a thoughtful manner. Katya and I were quickly overwhelmed with what appeared to be a very daunting task. Forms filled out in quadruplicate (G325-a), a Police Certificate? - what the hell is that?, who do I send what to, what does Katya need, and when, what needs to be translated into Russian, or into English... so many questions.

I also really appreciate people's time line's in their signatures. The single most annoying aspect of my initial investigation was that no one would give me any sort of time line; at all. A year, 2? 6 months? nothing. I understand the unique nature of each case; but not knowing if it was going to be months or years was frustrating. Even if our case does not end up being typical; it is nice to know that there is a catalog of first-hand information on the subject.

I am still waiting for Katya to sign and mail me her part of the I-129F form. I hate the game of hurry up and wait; but that is our life for the next few months. Hurry up and fill out the paperwork then wait for a response. Repeat a few times until her VISA is in hand.

Good times.

Thanks for listening to me ramble. It is a slow day at work as I wait for UPS to deliver something.

Hello all,

I am very glad I found this site. I've first met my Fiancee, Katya, a year ago last Friday, through a Russian dating site. The first week of May I traveled over to Vladivostok; but I could only spend a week with her and her son. While far too short, it was still an incredible experience. We just started the VISA process; we are only on the I-129F part. She is having troubles remembering all of the places she's worked over the past 5 years.

I am very grateful for the sheer volume of guides, FAQs, and personal experiences on this site. It is very comforting to know so many have been through this same process. I wish I had found this website sooner, as I could have had Katya searching for the proper information weeks ago instead of just starting. I am quite anxious to have the first batch of paperwork submitted.