Masha276

I am a Ukrainian citizen, and married an U.S. Citizen. Right now, I am in the process of adjusting my status, and me and my husband thought it was a good time to travel to Kiev to visit my family. (I used my travel permit). Travel permit was in my married name, and passport - in maiden. I HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH IT!

My recommendations:

Book the ticket in the name your wife's passport is in! (Because in the U.S. you will have no problem with a certified marriage license, but in Russia they might not accept this document as a proof of a name change.)

When the tickets are in the maiden name, the only time your wife will need the marriage certificate is when she will be coming back to the U.S. at the passport control.

So no worries, she will be ok!

Another thing I would recommend though, which I did myself as well:

Once she is at home, dedicate some time to making the marriage certificate official in Russia. It was not hard to do at all for me. I went to a company that does translations and gave them my marriage certificate. For about 20 dollars person that is licensed to make translations, translated the document into Ukrainian and then for additional 10 dollars they notarized my translation with a local notary. I then took the notarized translation into my passport office and they had no problem accepting it - I got a stamp in my Ukrainian passport that I am married and got a new passport issued under my married name.

Good luck!

Did you have any trouble on leaving Ukraine with the name on the ticket not corresponding to your new name in your passport?

"we have gone through exactly the same except we caught it before anything expired. I strongly suggest ALL children ahve their own passports and keep them current, it really is a pain unless you do.

Sounds like your wife is registered in Ukraine as a US permanent resident? Is this so? If so, she can get a travel document through the Ukraine consulate in the USA fairly easily and quickly. They will need to know exact dates of travel. There are Ukrainian consulates in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, they handle particular states and these are listed in their website. He could also renew his passport there but it takes longer.

If she is not registered in Ukraine as a US permanent resident then he must renew his passport in Ukraine or take REALLY long to do it through a consulate here (6 months +).

There is a very good possibility he could be admitted to Ukraine with the expired passport and paying a fee (this is a bribe, there is no other word for it) Expect to pay $50 to $100. Trying to play "poor" when getting off a plane from the USA will not work. They will shake you down for as much as they can so don't have a lot of cash with you. Ukraine has implemented a new passport system that gets you a passport in as little as 3 days by paying an addtional (legitimate) fee. This is been implemented so far in the larger populated Oblasts. The fees range from $20-$50 (approx. in grivnya) in additio to the normal passport fee, and you receive the passport in 3-30 days depending on which fee you pay. I am also told you should expect to pay a bribe to the clerk in order to "really" get the expedited service. The government clerks are not too happy about the government horning in on their "expedite" action with legitimate fees and so tend to still shake you down for something for them in order to put the papers through.

Alla, what is your experience with entering Ukraine on a valid Ukrainian passport without a stamp of registration as a US permanent resident? The name in my GC and passport are differnet (married vs. maiden), but I'm not sure if the problems others have faced have to do with the name discrepancy or with not having a stamp (not being "registered in Ukraine as a US permanent resident," like you said). You said the passport can be renewed in Ukraine. Can the registration be done in Ukraine as well?

Hello, My wife changed her name to my name (US) when we got married. So her green card has her married name, and her Ukrainian passport still has her Family name. When we traveled to Ukraine, the passport control in Ukraine, gave us big problems when returning to the US. They said the names did not match, even after we showed him a copy of the marriage certificate. It was a big problem, and he said something about a "stamp" that was supposed to be in her Ukrainian passport. So when we got back, we figured it would be easier to change her green card name back to her family name so it will match her Ukrainian passport. It has been almost 6 months and were still waiting to get the new green card with her family name (we already went to court to legally change her name back, and had biometrics and everything).. Anyone know how long it could take, and what is the "stamp" the Ukrainian passport control was talking about ???

Thankyou very much !!

This stamp is to show that your wife has been legally "approved" to live outside Ukraine as a permanent resident. A bunch of BS. You can get this stamp at the Ukrainian consulate, but it's very complicated. My husband and I have chosen to wait till I become naturalized (less than 3 years!) and then just travel on a US passport.

If you do chose to get this stamp, here are the instructions (from the Consulate in DC): http://www.mfa.gov.ua/usa/ua/1597.htm