Turboguy

interesting username you have there.....

Yes, it sort of reminds me of another AK....like AKDiver whom used to post on this forum until the Feds came to his door to arrest him. Because his wife stole money in Russia...... maybe I am wrong and it really did happen////

Voyager, are you serious? I remember AKDiver was talking about his wife bringing $ 50,000 in cash with her. You shocked me a bit with that one. Why would they arrest him if she stole the money?

I have always traveled on the exact dates on my visa, but actually as long as the travel is within the time specified in the visa I would not expect a problem. Lets say you wanted to travel from June 1 to 10, If you did the visa for June 1 to 30 it should cover you.

The other option would be the expidited service available at some of the companies doing visa. They can do a visa for you in 24 hours. You do pay extra though.

Yes, within 25 miles of the Embassy it would make a lot of sense just to do it yourself. Way back I tried to do one myself and it was a nightmare. That was back before so many people went and there were fewer agencies and no internet at the time. I did find an agency that rescued me in more ways than one. Yes, go there and do it.

I believe the format that use is day first, month second, year third. for example 23/10/06 I would suggest you list it that way. I would suggest circling the proper answer on the Yes no questions unless they give you a box for an x.

My vote goes with centurian, It is a lot easier to use an agency. gotoRussia is good. The one I really like is www.russia-visa.com. I have used them about 8 times. You can apply online (you still have to send the passport and photo) they have online tracking and are really good at keeping you posted when things will be happening. I have recommended them to some friends and the only one who ever had problems was screw up by FedEX who sent it to the wrong distribution center and Russia-visa worked hard to fix the mess up that was not thier fault and made sure he had it in time. GoToRussia is good for not only visas but for apartments, airport transfers and airfares.

The Ukraina is within walking distance of the embassy if anyone prefers a hotel. That is first hand experience. Just cross the bridge, walk past the right side of the white house, and make a right about a block up and there is the embassy.

I am looking at this a little differently than everyone else and perhaps I am all wet but to me, what they are going to look at hardest is your previous years tax return and your w-2's. I don't know the timeline on your visa plans but if you are "going to get a job" that pays you the money you need to support a spouce You are not going to have either of these. Next they will look at your last three pay stubs to know that your income is still in place and finally they will look at the letter from your employer to know the likleyhood of your income continuing into the future.

My recommondation is to look for a co-sponsor. Remember the I-134 is not enforced so someone co-sponsering is risking nothing. Of course the truth and convincing someone of the truth are two different things. Good luck

Did you call them today so that you know that it is still there? If not, maybe your petition is already on its way to Frankfurt and you'll get your packet 3 soon. If I remember correctly, they don't send you an email/letter to let you know they processed and forwarded it. (I might be wrong though - it's still early for me, haha ).

After all, it's only there since march 22, that is not THAT long... . Hang in there, I bet your packet 3 will be on its way soon.

Unless they have changed the program since last year they do send you a notice from NVC that tells you it has been sent to the embassy and giving you the case number it has been assigned so you can track it there. Usually the embassy has it about the time you get your notice. Good Luck

The one he is talking about also was a little cheaper, last year anyway. The other with Medic in their name has the results the following morning. The gals like the Medic one better. Last year it was $ 100 vs $ 75 for the MOM one.

They will give her a sealed envelope. Make sure she does not open it out of curiosity. You will have to do it over if she does.

Don't forget they will use the address you give for her to send her packet 3. It is better to get it as close as you can. I think some of those formats could confuse them. I would put the Ulitsa part on but it would probably get there anyway.

the correct format is

ул. Заслонова, 20-18

That is the street, the building, the apartment. You might confuse them with anything else.

You are free to send more returns if you want. I sent two to be safe, but if your returns are complicated (like mine) this can be a lot of paper ( a few hundred pages in my case for 3 years). If I had three handy and they weren't too long, I'd probably send them all.

I ordered tax transcripts and fortunately they are condensed to just a few pages. My very thick return for 2004 ended up on four double sided pages.

They only ask for the schedul 1040 and w-2's Mine are close to 100 pages also. I gave her the 1040's for one year and since I was in Moscow I had with me two more years and one complete set of the full return just to be on the safe side. If they are in the mood if you are self emplyed they can ask for three years. I am an employee but also own 100% of the company I work for so I wanted to be safe. They were happy with one year.

Anyone know if that is still by Novinskiy in the western neighborhood near Arabat? Just curious about apartments for rent in the area. Thanks.

I have spent a lot of time on Arabat and a lot of time in front of the Embassy as well as walking all around the area and the Embassy and I don't think the two are that close. I never tried walking from one to the other. I would say it is better to take the metro from Arabat.

I will be spending 10 days in Moscow starting next week. I am not going to the Embassy this time but I will try to see how far apart they really are.

No the old one is history. We almost got back together. She decided she wanted to play around while she was waiting to come back. Three days after she returned to russia she decided she made the biggest mistake of her life and wanted to do another visa. She was writing me all these stories about her keyboard was covered with tears and before the tears dried she was telling some guy in Germany to do a visa for her so she could come and visit him for two weeks. I did not need that.

I have a new one. I am heading for Moscow next Tuesday to spend another 10 days with her and taking the paperwork along. I think I picked a much better one this time. Actually she is from Ukraine but we are tourning Moscow together.

Stay far away from Moscow Rick. I have heard nothing but bad about his apartments. You could stay at the Ukraina hotel for about the same price as an apartment and it is an easy walk to the embassy. I know that first hand. I did it last year. Should run you just a bit over $ 100.00 a night. Sometimes I can get in there under $ 100 sometimes it is as hight as $ 128.00

I like the Rosetta stone and can learn words faster with it than most other ways. I think my brain processes what it sees faster than what it hears. The big problem is you have to devote speical time for it.

Pimsleur for me is a very slow way to learn. I have to I learn words with it at about the rate of one every 4 hours. The nice thing is you can do it while you drive and not have to devote special time. I think if you check your prices a little closer you will find full list on the pimsleur set is more in the $ 300.00 range. You are right about Ebay. You can save some money. I just bougth Pimsleur Russian 3 for $ 125.00. Usually on Ebay it goes for $ 175 or so. There is also a place called Cheap Pimsleur that sometimes advertises on Ebay and otherwise has on online store.

Another thing I really like is a book called Berlitz Essential Russian. I can learn more, faster with it than anything. It only sells for $ 10.95 and you could get it cheaper on Amazon. I would not recommend it if someone was starting with absolutly no knowledge. Perhaps about the time you finish Pimsler 1 or the equivilent.

There was and probably still is a tape/book set in the book stores called Russian Fast and Easy. It is not too bad and is only something like $ 39.00 It was the first thing I tried. You do need to use the book with the tapes or you will get nowhere.

Slim--- I love the Russian Phrasebook by lonley planet. It does not help me learn Russian. I do like it as sort of a joke. Did you ever notice the strange phrases in there. It is full of them. I was killing time in a book store and laughed so hard I had to buy it.

A few of the milder examples. yazykom use your tongue

ni astanvlivaysa Don't stop

aden prezervativ Use a condom

Klakkssnaya popka Nice behind

That is enough to give you the idea.

One of the problems with the round trip ticket is that most of the airlines when I tried would only let you book the return within 30 days of the first leg without a hefty price.

If you want a good site to do one way tickets try www.kayak.com I could have saved a fair number of bucks had I know that last year.

Glad there is no restocking fee. I had to send mine back. It was expensive enough as it was. I started with the round trip ticket with the intention of throwing away the other half which I did and ended up sending her back in 89 days but did buy the one way ticket that time at half the price of the first.

Hopefully Aeroflot is not too too bad. I will be on it in 10 days going to Moscow.

Also hopefully in a few weeks I get to start this whole process over.

You definately need a tax return for the most recent year along with a w-2. If you are self employed you need 3 years returns. You need a letter from your bank or the last 12 months statements. You need three consecutive pay stubs. You need the I-134 of course. I would not worry about assets. They don't look at those very hard unless you don't have the required income.

Some things they never look at. As far as the relationship goes they seem to look at phone records very closely. You might want to include those, along with some e-mails. You never know what you will run into in the interview. They may ask no more than how are you today and they may want her to tell them your great grandmothers middle name. Well that might be a little extreme but sometimes they do get very detailed.

As much as you have riding on this I would not send her unprepaired.