Pinenut

I disagree, based on solely my experience, of course. Perhaps someone has priorly had a different experience at IOM, but my medical exam went really well.

I have a write-up of how things were on here somewhere, but in a nutshell - it was great. Everyone was rather polite and cordial and there wasn't even a hint of envy or rudeness in the air.

The doctor noticed my piercings and asked a few questions about those, as well as some of the scars and scoliosis that I've got, I never felt like I was being interrogated and she was very polite.

I don't know how you can disagree when all I did was describe our experience specifically about *men* going through the medical, because it is a completely different situation.

The point is, most people have a really easy time with the medical. Most people also have a fine time submitting documents, but you were stuck with some crazy woman. Submitting our documents before the interview was probably the easiest thing--they asked for the documents in the order on the website and just checked off each one without any questions at all. The woman who took out documents was very polite and rational. However, in the whole process I would rather err on the side of being prepared for one of the workers to be having a bad day. These people deal with hundreds of cases, and they don't have to be nice to everyone all the time.

If you are in Moscow, just go in and talk to them. They are really nice The only thing that could possibly be sped up, though, is the interview date. They may or may not be able to get you one sooner, but when we wanted to schedule ours, we could have gotten in the same week. We needed a later date so the visa wouldn't expire before our expected exit date.

I never had any luck calling them... they did personally answer an email within about a week or two (first you just get an automatic response). I think most effective would be just to go see them... just show your American passport and go in the Russian side and say you need to go to the Department of Homeland Security (that is where the USCIS office is).

Sorry about your condition! Hopefully you can get around Moscow, even though that isn't an easy feat even when healthy...

From the moscow embassy website:

Contact information, Location, and hours of operation:

The Moscow USCIS Field Office is located in the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy at Novinskiy Bulvar 19/23. Our reception window is open to the public on a walk-in basis Monday through Friday from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

The office is closed on weekends and American and Russian holidays.

General Email: moscow.dhs@dhs.gov

Adoptions Email: moscow.adoptions@dhs.gov

We will make every effort to respond to email inquiries within two working days.

Telephone: (7 495) 728-5550

Monday to Friday - 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Everything on the embassy site worked for us. If you are in doubt, go to the ZAGS where you want to get married and ask them, they will be the ones accepting your documents. You might want to check with them sooner rather than later as some places can have weird scheduling policies (we had to wait about a month between submitting the documents and our wedding date).

At the embassy or at the medical exam itself? The embassy only wants to know that you have passed the medical and have the sealed envelope! At the medical exam they will want all your vaccination records. Everything else will be just questions and the usual cold things, lights, turn and cough, whatever! They WILL be interested to know about all of your mental illnesses and psychiatric hospitalizations! JK

You really need not stress about this, it is actually difficult to fail this exam unless you have an active communicable disease like tuberculosis!

I think there is a big difference between how women go through the medical and how men do... Keep in mind that, like the OP's experience with the Russian woman taking her documents, a Russian clinic does the medical exam. Just like OP dealt with some woman's jealousy/ bad day issues, this can happen at the exam too.

Men are asked for their военный билет (military service record card). If he served in the army and was dismissed for any reason, or he didn't serve, this will be written as a code, A, B, etc. Some people got out of military service for having minor physical problems, others real or invented mental instability. My husband was asked in detail about why he didn't serve in the army (excused for university studies) but if there is a code written there, I would try to deal with it before the exam. He was also asked about every scar, with leading questions like, "oh you had surgery on your knee, didn't you?". I agree that it is hard to fail the exam though... just be ready.

Thanks much, Pinenut! The officer at USCIS said that they had a lot of people still OOTO from the New Year Holidays, so they would be a bit slower to review our case than usual (thus the two weeks she estimated). But we're hoping that the consulate will be back to full staffing once they receive our case next week.

I've collected all my financial docs already, but Natasha still needs to get her police record and will do it this week. So we'll be ready for the interview by next week at the latest.

I noticed that there are three months between receiving your letter and your interview. Was that your choice, or was it the soonest you could schedule it? Hoping it was the former...

No way, we just scheduled it that way out of convenience. The entry visa expires after 6 months and we are planning to be here until summer. I was also hoping tickets to Moscow from Irkutsk would be cheaper in Feb... but it doesn't look like that is happening.

We could've scheduled the interview within 3 days of getting our letter... we were quite tempted to just go then and forget about finishing my degree here! There are a lot of open interview dates, just barring some holidays and random weeks. I'm guessing they don't get too busy until people start applying for summer visas.

We just did DCF in Moscow a few months ago. A few weeks after I submitted I-130 my husband received a letter with his case number. We didn't get anything else, but all the information you need is on the embassy's website (where it says immigrant visas). You have to download a pdf called "interview preparation useful hints" available on the right side of this page: http://moscow.usembassy.gov/ivisas.html or the direct link is http://moscow.usembassy.gov/root/pdfs/iv-packet4-eng.pdf if that works.

Once you get the letter, it gives you the link to go online and schedule your interview with the case number. If you have all the docs ready, you should be able to schedule something right away. So no NOAs for us Good luck!

There is no internet access in Russian libraries!

And since she is a Russian teacher as well as an English teacher, I have to say it correctly, or say it over and over and over and over

She also corrects my English

Если так, Вам сегодня писать "сними обувь" 100 раз.

Russian is so hard... I remember making such awful mistakes when I first came here. Talking about preservatives in food, I thought preservative would be the same word in Russian, turns out it means condom!

Channel 1 in Russia isn't reporting any of this of course. It is kind of sickening to watch them showing the Nashi rally of support for the "clean elections" and tons of experts, including international, declaring that everything was done properly. Everyone on vkontakte (russian facebook) and live journal (the most popular blog site here) are sharing videos and photos of the ridiculousness.

The protests in Moscow are just a start... lots more are planned around the country for this weekend. My husband wanted to go to the protest planned in our city for Saturday... but we can't get arrested before our visa interview. Not that I think these protests are going to change much... I've heard a lot of Russians express the opinion that this "peaceful measures" thing just doesn't work for Russia.

My husband hasn't immigrated yet and we live together in Russia. We celebrate all the American holidays ex-pat style because I miss them and my husband is interested in the culture. Most traditional ingredients aren't available, but my mom sent me canned pumpkin around Halloween and it got here right in time for Thanksgiving! This year, we had turkey breast sandwiches as our main course since we couldn't find whole turkeys.

Russians celebrate Christmas on a different day (Jan. 7) and last year I had an exam on American Christmas... looking forward to this year since it falls on a Sunday. We are looking even more forward to celebrating in the US next year!

I have never seen anything like that in Siberia... When I asked my husband what it might be, he didn't know, but he said his grandmother told him that if you put a frog in milk it will keep it (the milk) from going sour.

My husband was also really worried about the police certificates. As soon as we submitted our petition, he went and made a request for his (luckily he has only lived in one oblast). They told him to come back in 30 days to pick it up, and of course he had a clean record. But it is Russia, so you never know what confusion can arise...

If she has a common name or doesn't feel like it is a big hassle, why not just get them now? They are free and you can always get new ones if you realize they are going to be too old. As far as I understand, the certificate is good for one year, but the interview should be no later than six months into that period, so that the visa doesn't expire before the certificate.

Yay! It is so annoying when our countries play visa retribution politics and we get caught in the middle, like a year or two ago when the US visa price went up and the Russian price went up the same amount right after... or the other way around, I don't know who was first.

This is a step in the right direction.

My Russian husband does almost everything. He washes the dishes by hand, washes all our clothes by hand, and washes the floor on his hands and knees. I just clean the kitchen and bathroom. Once we get to America, I think it will even out since I have no problem throwing clothes in a washer, vacuuming, or putting away dishes. Growing up with machines to do everything and coming somewhere without them is a lot harder than the other way around as far as I can tell.

For any Russian visa, you need an official invitation (confirmation and voucher). You can get this invitation and the reference numbers online or by fax through many tour agencies that work with Russia. You could use http://www.waytorussia.net/Travel/VisaSupport.html and click "get it online now". My friends have used that site and their visas went through just fine. If you don't live near a consulate or don't have time to stand around in Russian lines, you would probably benefit from using a tour agency for the visa anyway since you can't send applications to the consulate by post anymore.

Congrats! 11/11/11 good date

Except for the extra cost to mail things, I think you are very lucky to be with your wife while you get through all of this together. After the initial petition, a lot of the forms and payment can be submitted online. Good luck!

I am in the same situation; thank you for posting. I have read all the threads I could find on this topic, but everywhere there are different answers and I'm still not sure! What is clear is that just I-864A can only be used if the petitioner (your sister) lives with the person who is helping sponsor (your father). If they don't live together, use I-864.

DCF is what makes me confused, though, because I had to have residence here in Russia to file (I used my 2 year student visa), but my permanent residence is with my dad in usa. His is the address I will be using to prove domicile, with voting records and drivers license. So which form?! And if we do use 1-864A, how should we show that we have the same residence?

Your plans sound great, congratulations! I especially like the outdoor concert idea. Since I will have been out of the country without even a visit for two years, my plans are really about what I want to do when I get back, but I think the things I miss about America are the good, special things that he will love anyway! Since we will be coming into SFO, I want to eat for some Mexican food then go to the ocean on the way up to my family's place to have a quiet dinner at home. In the first week, we will go to Berkeley and San Francisco to see some friends and do touristy things like see the Golden Gate, and then head up to Lake Tahoe where we will be living. Our shopping adventure will probably be REI... he has never seen such a big store, let alone with his favorite hiking and sports gear. Walmart is also a must, as I am deciding what to bring over by whether the shipping cost/ overweight baggage charge is more than it would be to buy new at walmart. I know we will be tired and plans don't always work out, but its nice to dream, especially when you are going through the long visa journey. Can't wait!

Out here in Siberia, it is dark when I get to work and dark when I leave. In summer, it is light before I wake up and light after I am home for the night. DST can't change that It is just more confusing to figure out the time difference from USA.

Thank you for the detailed description! It was very helpful to me ))) I just wanted to update this info and add my experience of DCF in Moscow.

I was worried about the residency requirement because the new visa website says they don't consider "temporary" visas like tourist or students as residency. The people from the Embassy said if you have been in Russia for six months (legally) without leaving, you are fine. When I got there, they just glanced at my student visas and didn't give me any trouble. I also went without my foreign spouse. They accept payment in dollars, rubles, and credit card. They even take American Express. The fee is now $420. There is a citibank ATM in the waiting area. And water fountains, yay!

When I got to the consular section, I just told them I needed USCIS / DHS and they let me in. There wasn't anyone in line or waiting for visas when I went, so I didn't take a number I just walked through to the second floor (walk almost to the exit, then take a right and go upstairs where it says refugees). They have renamed Window 20, now it is room 255. For me they did the same, looked over all the documents and then the immigration officer looked over everything. She then asked me about all my different visas and about when I met my husband, and I had to remember the approximate dates of every time I had left and come back to Russia.

That's all, now we are waiting for approval!