davidked

How do I handle this crazy situation?

We have our AOS in a week. My wife was driving tonight with her daughter and the police turned on their lights. My wife didn't quite understand what to do and she didn't pull over and then I think she just kinda froze and drove straight for 5 minutes at the speed limit. The cops rightly didn't like this and they ended up pulling guns on her and her daughter and placed them in handcuffs. Once they understood that their was a language barrier they relaxed. They ended giving her an arrest and release and brought her home to me. They gave her 4 tickets - driving without a valid license (which I believe is not true because she had a russian license that is valid), failure to have insurance (which will be erased because she had valid insurance), failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, and impending traffic. The police were very cool about the situation as they could have really thrown her in jail and charged her with much worse things. But, now we have a small mess on our hands.

She has to go to court to deal with this in 3 weeks but our AOS interview is in 1 week. How do we handle this since now she has been officially arrested? Will this cause any problems?

Thanks.

David

Ughhh. I just submitted all the OAS documentation but I forgot to put a date on the I-131 AP form and I forgot to include a separate page for an explanation as required.

Is there anyway to correct this error? Can I just send a follow-up properly completed I-131?

Thanks

We are about to file AOS.

While in Russia, my wife worked in a prison and received basic weapons training. So, on form I-485 she had to say yes to question 15B (Served in any prison, jail, prison camp....) and yes to 18 (Have you ever received any type of military, paramilitary, or weapons training).

Does this cause any problems and should we include an explanation with our application? I didn't see anything in the instructions about this.

Thanks

I searched both visajourney and the web and I couldn't find the answer..

My fiancee and her daughter arrived about a month ago on a k1. We are in Minnesota and her 17 year old daughter has a friend just over the border that she wants to visit. Her mom and I are getting married in 2 weeks and then sending in all the paperwork.

When is the soonest her daughter can visit canada and what documentation is required?

Thanks

To my understanding, Moscow is an "easy" embassy, si man.

I can't speak to that. It is possible it is easy and I can only speak from what I heard from Olga. I just talked to her about this and she told me that on Tuesday that she had to wait for her interview and the woman interviewer spent much time on all the other women who went before her. Then, she only spent 3 minutes on Olga. She only asked how we met and how we plan on communicating. She also said she said many women crying who were rejected.

All I can say for sure is that it is possible to get by with very little evidence. Although, that certainly doesn't make it smart to try.

I know very little about what is correct and the experts here can answer that. However, we were just approved this week in Moscow and I submitted almost next to nothing. I simply had the pictures and travel docs from the times we were together and I think I had a phone bill or something. But, nothing more. I think I did write a very good story about our relationship that made a lot of sense and showed a nice progression. For the interview we added nothing more than photos and travel docs from our trip together between approval and the interview. I have no idea if what we did was smart. It is quite possible we were just very lucky. Since the relationship seemed so legit to me I guess I never really considered submitting more.

Please tell me you didn't transfer $500k via Moneygram. That's $10k in fees. Next time let me know--I'll do it for $9k, and hand carry for you.

lol. yep. It is only 2% and it is nothing for a business. There is no method cheaper for tons of small transactions and there is certainly nothing more convenient and under the radar. Just walk into a walmart and the money is available across the world in a few minutes.

Carrying is a way too dangerous game. I saw too many things when I lived there. When I go for pleasure I prefer mostly credit card and just take out money when I need to (which I am sure the bank is charging me more than 2% on the exchange rate). I took $3k in travelers checks last year when I partied in St. Petersburg for New Years but they were worthless to use.

The only time I carried was when I met my developer and that was because if I sent it to Minsk he would immediately pay 30% in taxes.

I transfer a decent amount of money around the world. I have probably transferred $500,000 the last couple of years and a big portion of that to Russia. There is nothing better than moneygram. You can send it from almost any walmart and the fee is so much lower than WU. The fee is $40 for $2000 and the money is available in minutes. I have also never had a problem. I just looked on their site and there is 185 send locations in Moscow to send money from moscow and 35 send locations in my beloved city of Novosibirsk. Unless you are dealing with very big transactions there is no better way to go.

I also took $10,000 cash into Moscow in September to pay one of my Minsk software developers who met me there. I was pretty nervous as I didn't declare it. I didn't get searched on arrival and everything was successful but I was searched very carefully on the way out.

Approved. Olga arrives on the 27th of January (as we foolishy purchased the plane tickets before approval).

Yesterday was complete contrast with the day before. Her interview was less than 3 minutes. Olga said she was interviewed by a very nice American woman who smiled immediately, asked 2-3 super simple questions, and then said congratulations.

The wait over the last 6 months was so agonizing. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

My fiancee and her daughter just had their medical exam in Moscow today and it did not go well. The exam took the entire day and the doctor was asking for money the whole time. Apparently, the doctor said they both had some blood condition on their hands and that her daughter has some mental deviation. My fiancee thinks everything is probably fine and the doctor was just trying to extract money. But, we cannot be sure. She has her embassy interview tomorrow.

At the end of the exam the doctor gave them the sealed envelope.

Are you safe once you receive the sealed envelope or will the sealed envelope possibly contain reasons to reject you? I can't find anywhere where such medical issues would cause a visa to be rejected but I really have no idea.

Is there anything we can do at this point other than worry and pray? We have been waiting for 18 months and it would be an unbearable disaster to have it all crash down because of a corrupt doctor.

Thanks for any advice.

Hi,

I did a search but didn't find an answer. I apologize if this is something easily knowable.

I am lucky that I have a very good salary and I will have no problems with any qualifications regarding income amounts. However, I have few assets (basically some money in the bank and that is it). Also, I have only been employed at my current job for 3 months (was a consultant at same place the prior 3 months but not an employee).

Will either of these 2 issues cause me any problems? If so, what is the best way to address them?

Thanks!

David

Thanks! It was driving me insane. I completed that form forever ago so I don't even have the instructions anymore and I didn't remember seeing it.

Cool. I am off to file. So much work. Now I get to start waiting

Is the cost of filing a K1 and who I write the check to some closely guarded government secret?

I have spent forever getting all the paperwork. I spent all day assembling the packet. All I need to do now is write a check and send. But, I cannot because I don't know the cost or who to write the check to. I have checked everywhere I can think of. I have checked everywhere I could on this site - guides, forums, etc. I have checked all the government sites. I have searched the internet. I can find nothing. My head is now going to fall off )))

I would be eternally grateful if someone can simply tell me how much and who I write the check too. And, just out of curiosity, I would also be grateful is someone could point me to where I can see this info just because after hours of searching I am very curious.

Thanks

I just received the documents I need from my fiancee. It was expensive to ship and took a week. I notice an error on the form. She did not complete the "Applicant's last address outside the United States of more than one year.".

Can I just write this in or will it cause problems?

Thanks

You can write it in. You can also make corrections. The only thing that matters is that it is true and correct when you submit it. FWIW my wife never put a pencil or pen to any forms except to sign them, she gave me TWO blank, signed G-325a's and I filled them in

For corrections you can use white out or just draw line through it and right the correct information. I usually initial the change when I do this.

Thanks for the reply. I am getting very close to being ready to submit. I have 2 remaining issues.

1) Given that I lived for many months in the same city with my fiance and given I have traveled to see her 4 times in the last year (with verifying documents) - do I still need to submit correspondence? We talked mostly on skype and in Russian. I would have to take some conversations and have them officially translated. Do I need to do this? If so, how much do I need to send? We have talked and chatted pretty much every day for the last year on skype.

2) Also, I have a few documents from her to translate - divorce certificate, tickets, and itineraries. Is there someone here that offers this service? I go to a russian language school for training and I am sure I can find someone who can translate but maybe they would not word things geared towards a visa application.

Thanks

I just received the documents I need from my fiancee. It was expensive to ship and took a week. I notice an error on the form. She did not complete the "Applicant's last address outside the United States of more than one year.".

Can I just write this in or will it cause problems?

Thanks

Hi,

I am new to the forum and I am trying to complete all the paperwork for the K1 and it is a bit overwhelming. My fiancee is in Siberia, Russia and we shouldn't have any problems I am aware of. I lived in Siberia last year and dated her for many months. Since I have left Siberia we have gotten together 4 times for over 40 days in 3 different countries. So proof of relationship should be easy. However, I want to make sure I submit the packet correctly. This site and forum has already been a great help. However, I am hoping someone can help me with the following questions:

1) She lives in the city of Novosibirsk but her registered address is not the address she lives at. Also, last year her registered address was in a different city. Do we use her actual physical address or her registered address?

2) Do the passport photos have to be in color. Olga thinks that most places in Novo can only make black and white.

3) Does she need her birth certificate for the initial submission? I didn't see it listed but I want to make sure we don't miss anything

4) My address is going to change in 2 months as I have to move but I don't know what my new address will be. Is it okay to still use my current address? Will this cause future problems?

5) I was recently divorced and received a document in the mail saying it was final. Is this sufficient or do I need to go to the courthouse and get some official stamped document?

Thanks!!