chili74

That is wonderful. Congratulations.

Yay! Congratulations to you both!

Dependence is dependence.

Right. Some of the posts here suggested she was at fault for staying with her abuser. Sadly, of course, a poor choice probably was made early on in the relationship and then finances make it hard for her to leave.

This entire discussion ignores the economic situation of many of these families. The fact is that often, a woman has no place to go and cannot make it financially on her own with children. If she changes cities, she has no propiska to get an apt and job there (assuming she can afford to leave) her city.

We know a woman who would call the police when beaten, they would say, 'ok, we can put your husband in jail' and she'd withdraw her complaint because without him, she could not make ends meet. I don't think musing about psychological dependence is as relevant here as other factors. It's a lot simpler.

Thanks, Amur. The rules are ALWAYS changing, which is why this board can be helpful.

Thanks, everyone. IF he does the name change it will be at the naturalization stage, not marriage, but anyway...

Thanks for this!

Thanks!

So we all know that anyone born in Russia must travel to Russia w/their Russian zagranpasport, not a US Passport w/Russian visa.

I will check the archives cause I know this has been asked: when Anna Smirnova becomes Anna Smith, does she buy her plane ticket for Russia under Anna Smith or Smirnova? My husband is contemplating a name change.

I just realized that they then want the name of my PRIOR spouse, which means I'll put 1 (times married) and leave the rest blank. Thanks, y'all.

Thanks. So then I put my husband's name, the date we married, and for date marriage ended, I put N/A

?

OK, people, at last we are working on the N-400 for my husband!! Yay!

For Question G, "How many times has your current spouse been married (including annulled marriages)?" __

I (the spouse of the immigrant) am currently in my first marriage, do I put 0 or 1?

I assume 1. If I put zero, it looks like I am single.

Thanks. Then we must write my husband's name, as he is my spouse, and the date we were married and the date the marriage ended, N/A.

OK, people, at last we are working on the N-400 for my husband!! Yay!

For Question G, "How many times has your current spouse been married (including annulled marriages)?" __

I (the spouse of the immigrant) am currently in my first marriage, do I put 0 or 1?

Hi Kate- I don't know, but good luck!! Keep us posted!

PS baby pic is adorable!

Hi everyone! just wanted to give you an update-- my husband, a Russian citizen, got the 10 year green card, at last! Yay! We have a 6-month-old son now.

Dear husband has not been home to the motherland yet and doesn't want to deal with all the red tape involved, but may go this year.

thanks to all for your help and support thru the YEARS and much sweat and photocopies this has taken and best wishes to all.

Withdrawn

Lovely!! Thanks for sharing these, Amber...wishing you all the happiness for your life together.

Hi Mike- good luck and please do keep us posted.

Look forward to hearing how it plays out, Don.

Happy_life: I assume you want to renew your international passport (заграничный), not the internal one (внутренний). The internal one must be done in Russia.

So, for your international passport, you can get a new one through your local Russia consulate (in Houston). You can still be registered in Russia and you don't have to be on the consulate's registry (на консульском учете). My husband got his new international passport via the consulate in SF and he is not on the consulate's registry.

Thank you novotul for updating. I am glad she was able to get her new international passport in one month while she was visiting her family.

I know I have brought this up before. My husband is turning 45 next summer and we would like to know how long it takes in Russia to renew the internal passport. If you have experience, please let us know. Thanks.

Hello Anka, it sounds like you are in great shape. I am sure you guys are gonna be fine. I honestly cannot remember if we'd done the joint account at the credit union by the time of our AOS interview. My husband was flagged for a name check or smth (profession-related, we think) at the AOS interview (we weren't separated) and did not receive the GC until 1.5 years later! but we also moved from TX to CA in there...anyway.

A much bigger hurdle it seems to me is trying to help the "alien spouse" build credit.

In this USCIS thing, we are so focused on showing merged everything that the need for them to have their name on stuff not based on the the USC is a bigger challenge.

Geat topic! The Big Lebowski was at the top of the list--makes life worth living...We bought it in Russia, but I seem to recall it was the Eng-lang version...we got it at Gorbushka market. You can watch a Russian-language version online at www.intv.ru (type in English title).

-Annie Hall, Manhattan,Airplane.

-Office Space and Casablanca were watched recently.

Now we have to watch Raising Arizona...don't think he's seen it...A Simple Plan is fun.

The Office (British) on DVD w/Eng subtitles is wonderful.

As far as Russian films...Autumn Marathon, Mimino, Samaya Oboyatelnaya i Privlekatelnaya.