Turboguy

I have never tried shipping furniture but we do a lot of international shipping with my business. I am looking out the window at a container we are loading up to ship to Belgium right now. Talk to a customs broker and they can arrange a 20' Container that will be brought to your door in Ukraine. You will have 2 hours to load it and then they will ship it to your door in the USA and you will have 2 hours to unload it. You can take longer but they charge you for it. I would guess the cost to ship a 20' container at about $ 2500- $ 3000.00 and if you need more room a 40' container won't cost much more.

You might want to ask about the furniture. It could end up quarantined since some could contain insects and sometimes they are very funny about things that have that potential. We have to use special pallets when we ship for just that reason. They won't let us use regular wood pallets they need to be plastic or specially treated ones.

Well don't feel bad about the waste of time. There was one poor sucker who made the papers who fell for similar scams three times sending around $ 20,000.00 and going to the airport three times with flowers in hand only be see that she never arrived.

I have heard of this scam hundreds of times. The only good side is that it often gets men interested in Russian women and they go on to more reputable sites and find a real woman and live happily ever after.

There absolutely is no requirement to have any set amount of money to leave the country. Sometimes they do ask you to show your money but only to make sure you have no more than 5 grand which is the limit you are allowed to take out of the country. I have brought girls over from Russia and know what I am talking about.

Usually once you send that amount there is a last minute emergency and you need to send more. Have you talked to her on Skype? There is a good chance she isn't even a woman and if she is it could be a 350 pound 50 year old woman with a good voice. The photos are most likely stolen or a model. Have you done a photo search?

This is a really common scam. Most often it starts on Match.com but it can happen from other sites.

Find a good way to meet Russian women and there are lots of ways and find a real woman.

The question has been answered well but I will just add that my wife and I made a trip to Aruba (while she still had her green card) I booked the tickets with her married name and they would not let her board the plane. Fortunately they did re ticket her in her maiden name but everyone is correct. The ticket must match the name in the passport. Now she is a citizen and has a blue passport in her married name.

Well I have been to the FSU about 25 times starting around 1993 or 4 and with the last trip in 2006. I have been to perhaps 20-30 different cities in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Azerbaijan. All of the trips were great. I will agree with the others that Sochi is beautiful with great weather. St Petersburg during the white nights was also cool. For a tourist St Petersburg is hard to beat. In my early trips it was interesting to see how fast life in Russia changed. I have also been to a lot of countries in the rest of Europe, England, France, Spain, Italy, Monaco, Belgium, Holland, Germany and a few other places such as Thailand, Japan, Egypt and more.

I would disagree with your statement that the TSA wants the ticket in the same name as the green card. They don't. If she has her ticket in her maiden name and shows her ticket and passport she won't have a bit of problem. She will use her green card when she reenters the USA.

We have been married for 6 1/2 years. My wife is in Russia right now visiting her family. This is her third trip back. The only time we have had a problem with airlines was the one time we booked the ticket in her married name. They would not let her board but did change the name of the ticket to her maiden name so we could make the trip. That one was to Aruba.

Book the ticket in the name that matches the passport. Take a copy of the marriage license just to be safe. We have always taken it but never needed it. The only place she will use her married name is coming through customs on the way back with the green card. The will understand and see this all the time. Don't worry about this problem. It won't be a problem.

My wife has her application in for citizenship so traveling should be easier soon.

Congratulations on being approved for the K-1. That is great news and thanks for the update about the apartment.

I was always under the impression that you could request an interview at any embassy that you want as long as they do that kind of interview. Am I wrong about this? As an example my son married a gal from the Philippines who is working in Hong Kong. They are requesting the interview in Hong Kong. I think she could request the interview to be in Moscow even though her citizenship is Ukrainian. If the situation resolves itself and Kiev is the better choice she could ask to have it there.

Hi Moose,

We did a K-1 so the process was different and had some problems with spending about 4-5 months in A/R so ours took quite a while. I never went back to Barnaul to see her but we spent a lot of time together while we waited for our visa. I didn't see much sense to go to Barnaul in the Winter and so we spent time in Egypt (not so sure I would go there now) and Thailand. Then when we were in A/R and it looked like we might get stuck there forever (I talked to people who spent years (up to 7 years) in A/R we started to look at alternate places to live if we didn't get a visa. We went to Sochi as one possibility (didn't like it that well) and then spend the summer together in Grenada and Barbados. If we would have had to pick a place to live it would have been Grenada. Toward the end of our stay in Grenada we came out of A/R. Three months later she arrived here and that was 6 1/2 years ago.

My suggestion would be to either visit as much as you can (understanding constraints of time and money) or to go someplace you can be together such as the Caribbean or Thailand.

My MIL is from Russia not Belarus but we have brought her here a few times with little difficulty. Most of the application process can be done online and then they set up an interview and that is pretty much it. I am sure this isn't of much help but the process is pretty straight forward and once you get the first visa you can get future ones without an interview.

Yes, I stayed at the Rossiya as well for about the same price. My room at the most beautiful view of the Kremlin and Red Square. I liked that hotel and was sad to see it close.

I also stayed there before the renovation. It is now the Radisson Royal Hotel.

I hope they did a great job on the renovation. I think I paid around 80 bucks to stay there. Now that it is the Radisson they want $ 438.00 per night.

Speaking of that Is Valentines day celebrated in Ukraine ???

At one point in time I would have answered that no with little thought. It is starting to change a bit but still not celebrated there very much but is starting to get a foothold. Woman's day is the big one there and one you definitely don't want to forget about.

I have stayed at the Cosmos probably 6-8 times for a total of 6-8 weeks worth of nights. I is my favorite but is far from the Embassy. Of course the metro is right across the street and it is easy to get anywhere. The other hotel I stayed at a lot seems to be gone. That was the Ukraina which was within walking distance of the Embassy. If I do a search for Moscow hotels it no longer shows up. The Cosmos seems to run about $ 115.00 a night.

An apartment might be a good choice. Moscow Rick has a good reputation but I have never used him.

So, we were married end of September in 2013. My husband just got his EAD/AP card and DL and is now looking for work but did no work in 2013 in the US. I was planning on filing just for me as normal since he did not work last year, but can I claim him as a dependent for part of the year?

I think you mean "Exemptions" not dependent. Yes you can take two exemptions. There was some discussion about the W-7 and getting a Taxpayer Identification number which is one good option if the new spouse doesn't have a social security number yet. Other options that might work depending on the time frame is to file for an extension which can get you as late as Oct 15 to file your return if the spouse would have the social security number by that time. The other option is to file as single and then when the spouse has the SS # file an amended return.

I just asked my wife if there were any superstitions about giving a watch. At first thought she said no, she had not heard of any. Then she thought about it and said yes, it is not that common but some believe that when you give a watch you are putting a time limit on your time together and if the watch ever stops working the relationship will too.

Personally I think it is a minor one and I would give her the watch.

I have never heard that it was bad luck to give a watch as a gift. I can ask my wife's opinion on that one but it is news to me. There are some superstition about gifts such as if you ever give flowers make it an odd number. A dozen roses as we would do here is a major no-no. Even numbers are for funerals only. Give one, three, thirteen, eleven or any odd number.

Potter County. I could say you are really in the middle of no where but you are no where. I have been up through Potter county and the Coudersport area some. It is pretty country with Kinzu dam and lake, lots and lots of trees. Do they still have the ice mine in that area? I recall visiting it as a kid but that was ages and ages ago. I am older than dirt. I am from Beaver Co myself. Lots of trees but we mix it in with a couple of people as well.

My last trip to Ukraine took me to both the city your gal is from and the one she lives in now. I liked Kharkov. Actually I have been there twice. Zaporyhze is ok. I could stand in my hotel room and watch a long row of steel mills pumping thick smoke into the air. It reminded my of my area back 40 years ago. Both cities have wonderful women and I am sure your gal is wonderful as well. I had one wonderful woman from each of those cities I met but a few weeks after I was there I made a trip to Barnaul Russia and met my wife for the first time and dropped any plans to go back.

Skype is a great way to go. You can build some nice rapport before you even meet face to face and the language problems are not that big a deal.

Highlander, I am assuming you have not traveled to Ukraine yet. Don't worry about anything but do read up on it and ask questions as you have been. Ukraine is a great country to visit. The people are friendly and helpful, it is safe unless you go looking for trouble. There are lots of really interesting things to see there. Getting buy without a lot of knowledge of the language is not really very bad or much of a problem.

It sounds like you have a good prospect. My suggestion is to not wait too long to visit her. Spring is a nice time. The weather isn't bad and the airfare is reasonable. I notice we are both from PA. What part of PA are you from? How did you meet the woman you are interested in?

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and input.. just more reason I am glad I decided to look In FSU. Anybody heard about the revolution in Ukraine. ??

I was there twice during the "Orange Revolution" That one was pretty peaceful and an interesting time to be there. This one seems to not be quite as calm.

During the Orange Revolution that was about people feeling the election had been unfair and wanting Yushchenk to be president instead of Yanukovich. There was Orange everywhere. Orange flags, orange coats, orange hats, orange scarfs. The internet cafe I used dailiy was on the second floor of a building. On the first floor was an area that was used to feed the members of the Orange Revolution and to let them get out of the cold. I noticed whenever I entered they gave me a bit of a hard time. I asked the girl I had been seeing if the one side was represented by Orange, did the other side have colors. She said yes, blue and white. I looked down at what I was wearing, a blue and white coat and blue jeans and a blue scarf. Then I figured out why everyone looked at me funny and gave me a bit of a hard time when I went in that building.

Highlander, as far as your question about the Russian reputation for having a temper my experience is that it isn't much different from Americans. Russians tend to be more direct and to speak their mind but I don't see them as flying off the handle. My wife gets upset sometimes. She just tells me what she is upset about and unlike some American women once she has spoken her mind she seems to forget about it and not drag the same thing up over and over for the next 20 years.

As far as the new bills, my experience is that it is correct. When you go you need absolutely pristine bills. Bills that have any kind of mark on them, even the pen that we check to see if a bill is real here or if there are folds in the bill, especially if the folds leave a faint white mark then the bill either won't be accepted or will be taken at less than face value.

As far as credit cards, it is getting better. Still many places won't take them or will take AE only but credit cards are gaining acceptance. You can generally use a debit card to get cash but you do need to let your bank know that you will be traveling there or the fraud dept may deny the withdrawal. I never used debit cards much myself but do know many that did. Actually I haven't used my debit card in 10 years even here but that is just my choice. I always took cash and put it in several different places including a "sock safe" to make sure if it was stolen that they didn't get it all, but in 25 trips never had anything stolen.

When it comes to Travelers checks, I would avoid them. My experience isn't recent but the one trip I took them the only way to cash them was to go to the Amex office. I would suggest not taking travelers checks. That time I did I ended up bringing them back with me because they were so hard to use. That was back a ways and it could be better now.

The government doesn't do anything fast. There isn't a lot of difference in the processing time between a K-1 and IR-1 or CR-1 and yes the K-3 is history. If you are married now the K-1 isn't an option. It is only for people engaged to be married to bring her here to marry. The IR-1 and CR-1 are very similar. One applies if you have been married less than 2 years and the other is if you have been married more than two years. The paperwork is pretty much the same. There is nothing you can do to expedite things.

I don't think you have a lot of options. Going home might be the best choice. Most here feel you are not being abused. To me there is some emotional abuse which is sometimes worse than physical abuse. But still the only other options you have are to go home or to say and live with the life you have with him or to leave and file for a green card under VAWA. With a good lawyer you would have some chance of success however the legal fight would go on for a year or more, The legal fees would run $ 3-5,000 and you would have to find some way to live while that was all going on. It doesn't seem like a choice that could work for you. I don't see you ever being happy in the life you have with your husband. I do wish you the best and am really sorry to hear of your plight.

For what it is worth I am 37 years older than my wife and we were approved for her visa without any problems. When we had an interview for AOS they seemed to grill us non stop but the interview for her visa was not a problem.

Theoretically they can't really pass judgement on who can fall in love and marry (within legal limits) but if the couple seems to have something questionable such as age difference they might look a little closer.

What are you talking about? The OP used a fiance visa for HIS fiancee (now wife) and is now asking about his son's wife.

Thanks everyone. NLR is correct. I am asking about my son's wife. They were married in the Philippines on Dec 28th. I know a lot about K-1's having done one with my wife 7 years ago and we have been married now for just over 6 years but I have no experience with an IR-1 and am trying to help my son out with some good advice. Sorry if my post was confusing.

It sounds to me like if it is taking nearly a year they should get busy and file and as long as they have 6 months to use it then there should not be a problem with her work contract.

I have a quick question about the IR-1. How long is it good for or in other words how quickly must it be used? Here is the background. My son just married a woman from the Philippines. She is under a work contract in Hong Kong and won't be able to join him in the USA until the contract expires at the end of 2014. I have done a K-1 with my wife and when the visa was issued it was good for 6 months. In other words she could come anytime within 6 months of issue. Is it the same for an IR-1?

If it is the same it would give them a little more leeway in when they apply. I think they would like her to be able to come as soon as her contract is completed but don't want the visa to expire before she is able to come here.

Thanks,

Well you are almost finished with this part of the process. To be honest I would be surprised if you were not nervous. In the long scheme of a life spent together a few days here and there won't even be remembered but going through the process they can seem like a lifetime.

She should have her visa soon and be with you before you know it.