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.

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.

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?

Two weeks from now is our 6th wedding anniversary. Any changes I have seen would be very small. She still works hard to look good and is proud of being "hot" She eats a healthy diet (unlike me) with lots of fruits and vegies and exercises regularly.
My wife was never traditional. She never wanted kids and still doesn't. She wants a high paying career and is working hard towards that goal. She is in school with about a year to go and has a perfect 4.0 average with usually the highest grades in her class and a few times had the highest scores in the history of the class.
She is also very frugal. It drives me nuts to shop with her. She will go into a store and fill up a shopping cart with clothes, go to the dressing room, spend 45 minutes trying them all on and then put them all back. On a good day she may buy one thing, usually something very nice on a hot sale. She went out for Black Friday with a Ukrainian GF and spent 6 hours shopping and came back without a single purchase.
We live far cheaper than I lived alone but that too can drive me nuts sometimes. She will bring me a credit card bill with a 75 cent charge she didn't think should be on there and make me call the credit card company to have it removed. Personally I would not waste the time to save 75 cents. In addition to being a student she works 2 half days a week in my business. We can almost live on her pay and bank mine she is so frugal. Of course there is a bad side to that. Our house is freezing because she won't turn up the heat. We have whole house air that has been on once since she arrived.
Getting back on topic when she first arrived I offered to get Russian TV. She didn't want it. She said she wanted to immerse herself in English and her goal was to not be a Russian living in America but rather an American from Russia. She still doesn't want Russian TV (it costs extra) but does spend her time watching Russian movies on the internet, talking to her Russian friends in Russian and listening to Russian music. Of course her English is great now as it was when she arrived. She is still not comfortable with speaking English and I have to call to make DR or Dentist appointments for her and to talk to any strangers. People understand her fine but she isn't comfortable with it. That would be the one change I have noticed.
To the best of my knowledge she does not put me down with her friends. Rather from what she tells me she brags about me because I treat her so much better than do the husbands of her friends. For example she told me last night that her friends husband makes her pay for her own education and tells her not to shop so much. I told my wife before she went out on Black Friday to buy lots of stuff while it was cheap. My wife is much, much younger than I am and I do tend to dote over her a bit. To me it is a fun game and she enjoys it and I think considers it one of the perks of marrying an older guy. She is so frugal that we are able to bank 65% of our income. I had little savings when she arrived but now it is getting pretty substantial and that is all thanks to her so I certainly would not begrudge her spending some money on something she wants.
In a nutshell, very little change since we first married.

Great photos. It brought back a lot of memories from my two trips there. It is a great city to visit.

You do need to be aware that at the very least you should let the bank know you will be there or your card may not work. Some banks won't allow atm card use at all over there. I opened an acount just to give the ATM card to my fiancee and then found even with notice they would not allow use there.
One other thing, if you do take cash, make sure the bills are perfect. Even a crease from a fold or a mark from one of the pens they use to test a bill to see if it counterfit will make the bill virtually unusalble in the FSU. Sometimes you may find you can use it but won't get full value, other times you can't use them at all.