IrinaNMike

If you want the 5-year-old son to come you should get him added to his father's petition. He does have derivative status and can accompany his father as long as he's under 21.

Marrying his partner would increase your stepson's chances of getting a tourist visa so he could get here most quickly, but if he doesn't want to marry then you should just continue with the GC application. If they go back to Russia with the GCs and abandon their residency, explaining that they just want visitor visas to see the parents, they will probably get 10-year multiple-entry visitor visas so they'll be all set to visit you whenever they want.

It is very ironic that someone has to get a GC and give it up just to prove that they don't want to live in the US. Just one of the many problems in the US immigration system. I agree with you though- even if all else fails (which it won't), at least he will have gotten to visit the USA once!

Thanks to you we have a plan now. He will marry after he gets the Green Card but before he applies for a Tourist Visa. A multiple-entry visa would be perfect, but we won't pin our hopes on it.

I understand your problem entirely as it is a very common one faced by many people (including us) who never wanted to emigrate, but were also unable to get tourist visas to visit.

Let me offer you a perfectly easy solution: After he gets his green card he can simply go back to Russia and exchange his green card for a tourist visa. Once he's a permanent resident it won't be a problem getting a tourist visa because they'll believe he's not trying to emigrate. He will have to get a tourist visa appointment at the US embassy in Russia and when the interview begins, explain that he wants to abandon his LPR status, hand over the abandonment of residence form, and the officer will grant his tourist visa. This is the way it works in India and I'm sure the same thing will work in Russia. It's a perfectly legal way of accomplishing what you need. True, the time and money invested in getting the GC will be wasted but this is the best option given the circumstances you've described. It's better then using the GC as a tourist visa and having to constantly worry about revocation whenever you enter.

Thanks for this! It's a great idea, and one that had never occurred to me.

Your stepson has been given the incredible opportunity to live in the United States. Not thousands, not ten-thousands, not hundred-thousands, but millions among the roughly 6,800,000,000 people on this planet would cut off one of their limbs for this opportunity. If your stepson wants to stay in Russia, he has the right to do so. It's his life. But if he wants to p*ss it away and abuse his Green Card in a way not intended, he has to walk this walk alone.

Basically, you are asking for advice on how and on how long he will be able to circumvent US immigration law. VJ's rules do explicitly prohibit members to give advice on that.

I don't wish to circumvent US immigration laws, but I see nothing wrong with using the Green Card "in a way not intended" provided nothing illegal is done. From the answers other people have given, I gather that he would have to spend six months out of every year here to keep his Green Card. That is probably more than he wants to do, but that gives us something to use for planning purposes.

My wife has a friend who does qualify for a tourist visa (50's, owns property) and after she had gone through the process 10 times, to visit her daughter in the US ten times, the Consul told her if she wanted to go to the US again, she would have to get a Green Card. So, I don't think we are doing anything shady by taking this route.

Her son has not applied for a Green Card because everyone we have spoken to has warned us that it would be a waste of time and money (over $1000 factoring in plane flight to Moscow and hotel stay). My wife has researched this on several Russian-language forums as well as this one. We have been told that once he is past 45 years of age (about 10 years from now), the rules will be relaxed and he may be able to get a Tourist Visa.

Using a green-card like a tourist visa WILL lead to its revocation.

That's unfortunate, but we really don't have any other options available to us. For Russians like my stepson (single, 35, Russian, doesn't own any property, self-employed), we know of a dozen cases where someone has been turned down for a tourist visa, and only one where someone was granted one. So our only chance is for him to use the Green Card as long as he can. He doesn't want to live in the US, and my wife's health will, in a few years, preclude her from visiting him. If the Green Card eventually gets revoked, we're still better off than we were before, because he at least got to visit us once!

Do you have any insight into how and under what circumstances it will be revoked? Is it better for him to make one long visit or several short visits, spaced out over a long amount of time or a short amount of time?

My stepson doesn't wish to emigrate to the US, but my wife and I would like him to be able to visit us occasionally, to see the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, etc.and, should anything happen to us (we're getting older like everyone else) to help out in case of a medical emergency. Because he is single, 35 years old, and Russian, he is not eligible for a tourist visa. We are instead sponsoring him for a Green Card. Our application to sponsor him was approved last year, and we anticipate that in another three years or so he will finally be able to visit us in the US. We will take him on a driving tour of the US and help him get his Green Card. Then, he will return to Russia.

Now, here's my question: what does he need to do to keep his Green Card once he gets it? Does he have to file a tax return? Spend a minimum amount of time in this country each year? Or is just using our home as his mailing address going to be enough? We want him to be able to visit us more than once, without going through the six-year application process each time.

And a related question: he has a young son by his longtime but unmarried partner. Can he bring the son (will be 5 years old) and get a Green Card for him too? (His partner would give written permission) The son also would not be staying in the US, but it would be nice if he could have the option of coming over here for a longer stay when he gets older.

Our primary goal is just to allow my wife's son a chance to see the US, and we are going to achieve that; but if it is at all possible, we would like son, and grandson when older, to be able to visit us more than once. Of course, if the US policy on granting tourist visas to unmarried Russians should change, all this would be moot, but we're not counting on that.

Any advice will appreciated. Thank you!

Taking it with you on the plane is by far the cheapest and fastest way to move things.

Furniture presents a problem of size more than weight, but small pieces, such as chairs and wooden chests, could probably be crated and taken onto the plane as excess baggage.

In Irina's case, it was her treasured collection of Soviet-era phonograph records. I carried them back myself, in two suitcases (50 lbs each) and the carry-on (40 lb weight limit at that time), along with her complete sets of Tolstoy, Lermontov, Pushkin, etc., while she carried her coats and shoes (another 140 lbs).

Get your wife a really nice one from Williams-sonoma, maybe with lots of different cool functions, and maybe she'll forget about her Ukrainian one

That's exactly what I'm going to do. She left the 'waffle maker' in Russia after I promised that there would be a pizzelle maker under the Christmas tree this year. I will let her choose the one she wants, and if she wants an ice cream 'waffle cone' maker she can have that as well. She will be happy, and that is what counts.

Thanks everyone for some really valuable feedback.

Once I accidentally plugged a 110V battery charger into a 220V outlet. It fried itself and the battery, but what a great Sound and Light Show!

Have her find one in Russia that will connect her appliance to your standard American wall outlet. Most 220V appliances like that will run off 110V power sources provided you can make them fit into the wall outlet.

If that doesn't work you could try your local Asian shop. Often they have 220V appliances and the gadgets to make them go. You can buy a generic adapter at Radio Shack for $20 or you can buy one at the Asian shop for $2. A converter will be slightly more, but shouldn't cost you an arm and a leg.

Don't make her cook blini in the laundry room, it'll taste like dryer lint!

If all else fails.... E-Bay!

I was actually not intending to plug it into a 110V outlet at all because I didn't want to damage it. I haven't been able to find anything equivalent to it over here. I don't think it's a blini maker; the end result is crispy, like a cannelloni, but with a pattern, like a waffle. I'll try 110V outlet now, though; the worst that can happen is that I'll have to go back to Russia to get another one.

Asian store for $2 or Radio Shack for $20. I'll need to think about that.

Thanks everyone!

Has anyone done this? Irina is returning from Russia on Wednesday, and she wants to bring a small kitchen appliance with her. She calls it her 'waffle maker', but from the photo she showed me, it looks more like an ice cream cone maker or an Italian pizzelle maker. She spreads out some very thin dough in it, cooks it into a rectangle, and rolls it onto a tube to cool, and then serves it with fillings.

I found that 220 to 110 transformers for 1000W+ appliances are pricey, but I was thinking that she could use it in the laundry room by plugging into the 220 outlet that the clothes dryer uses. That takes a standard US grounded three-prong plug. I haven't had any luck googling for a Russian 220 to American 110 plug adapter, however. I told her to look for one in Russia.

Does anyone have any better ideas on how to do this? I don't want her to be disappointed if I can help it.

Thanks, and I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

OK, here's mine (so far):

Showers before bed (and men make sure you shave at this time because you don't want your stubble to be irritating.....)

Room temp juice (cold is bad for your health)

Yep, using the plastic bag from the market for covering food (well in Kiev one had to pay for these; Honey they are free here in the US, great for use at the dog show!!)

Shoes off at the door and silly slippers on.

Makes coffee by boiling the ground up coffee in a pot of water.

Tea, all the time.

When eating jam, heaping teaspoons used.

Yes, that's Irina at home. The basement is gradually filling up with boxes of jars, plastic bags, and plastic yogurt containers that are too valuable to throw away; the hallway is full of plastic slippers; and the juice is always room temperature.

Irina and I have traveled a lot over the past four years - seven foreign countries and a dozen states -- and last weekend when we were in a nice hotel she made the bed in the morning, cleaned the bathroom, and arranged all the handouts neatly on the desk, just the way we found them. The maid probably thought the room was unoccupied.

Irina used a professional translator for USCIS and the Embassy interview, but she knows of other people who translated their own documents and experienced no problems. Professional translators in Russia have a seal that they affix to the translation stating that they are certified by the Russian government to translate documents, but that is for the Russian court system and is not what USCIS or the Embassy is looking for. In other words, the requirement is that the translator certify that he or she is competent, not for some special agency to certify that the translator is competent.

For keyboard, Irina uses the transparent overlay and the dual language feature, so that I can switch to English if I want to do something on her computer.

I started out with four Russian-language channels on DISH (I think there are six available now), but Irina found a free service on the Internet that she liked better, and after a while, whe stopped watching DISH. The URL is http://www.russianinternet.com/. Her favorite station, which she watches several hours a day, is RTR Planeta. This station is also available on DirecTV, but with high-speed DSL and a 25-inch monitor, she is satisfied with watching on her PC.

Irina is now a US citizen, and she will be traveling to Russia in three weeks under her married name. I will make certain she follows another piece of advice from akdiver by carrying an apostille'd copy of our marriage certificate with her, just in case this weird situation happens to her

I never would have guessed that someone with a valid Russian passport could be denied permission to fly to Russia on the grounds that they didn't have a visa. Maybe someone was just having a bad day. I have seen some pretty erratic behavior on the part of TSA's at times. I remember one at the DFW airport who kept yelling "FREEZE", at which point everyone, passengers and the other TSA"s, would have to remain motionless until he yelled "ALL CLEAR". He called it a drill; I call it a nervous breakdown.

Like others have said, both documents are valid IDs. One is recognized by Russia and the other by the US. Your biggest problem is the airline ticket if she flew in on Tatyana and returns on Tatiana. Since she is departing Russia, which will recognize a Russian passport over the US green card which is not a passport.

Hoping the flight out won't be a problem -- she flying Aeroflot. I'll ask her to talk with them. Good catch, Satellite.

Irina was in a similar position last fall --- flew to Novosibirsk, got a new passport, with 'Irina' spelled the same way but only with her maiden name (the San Francisco Consulate had added her married name to the old passport). Her e-ticket was issued under her married name, so it didn't match the new passport. Aerolflot had told us that as long as the Green Card matched the ticket she would be OK. At each stage on her return journey (Novosibrksk, Moscow, Amsterdam, Portland), she showed the GC and her old and new passports. She had no problems anywhere. She says everyone was primarily interested in the name on the Green Card.

Now we're trying to figure out how to sponsor her son Sergei into the US -- the Russian Federation spells his name as 'Serguei', but I don't want to have to introduce him to people as "my stepson Sir Gooey, from Russia.'

Irina bacame an American citizen on June 22, by the way, and now we are looking forward to traveling together with two US passports, one for each of us.

Don't assume that she has five months to learn the answers. As you can see in my timeline, my wife's interview was scheduled only three months after we mailed our application.

I agree with the others, however, that if she hasn't got too much difficulty with English, the questions should be easy to learn.

Thanks to everyone for responding so quickly. We were really nervous last night because we thought Irina might have to get an Oregon driving license. Now, we are on our way to DMV to get at least a temporary state id. It was especially cool to hear back so quickly from someone else who lives in Oregon and has been through the process. Thanks, MsAnn!

In case anyone is interested, the form we received is called N-659.

Irina received her interview I-797C Notice of Action (interview for the Application for Naturalization) in the mail today. We were very pleased that it arrived only three months after we applied, but the Document Check List has me worried. Here is how it begins:

You must be properly attired and bring ... Your Permanent Resident card ... and Government issued photo identification and All passports and travel documents (including expired and current) issued to you by any government ...

Irina has only two government-iissued photo id's besides her Green Card and her passport. They are her Russian driving license (she doesn't drive in the US) and her Russian internal passport.

Does anyone know whether USCIS accepts either of these as a government id?

Irina hasn't driven in three years, and I don't think it is very likely that she will be able to obtain an Oregon driving license by June 17. Oregon DMV does issue an alternative called an "Oregon id', but I don't know whether it has a photo on it, and I'm also concerned that she may not receive it by June 17 even if she applies immediately, because local DMV offices only issue 'temporary' cards.

Those are the only options I can come up with -- I hadn't heard of this requirement before, and it has really surprised me. Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated.

She went on to tell me if they do return the passport, (at your request) they'll put a hole in it so everyone knows it's invalid. I hadn't previously known that, but I wasn't going to let her on the base with a passport that had a big hole in it.

An expired passport is still valid ID. Sometmes, various forms that ask for ID will specifically list an expired passport. After all, you identity has not expired, just the passport (:

FWIW, my wife's old Russian passports are NOT punched with a hole (:

Sorry I confused everyone. I misunderstood Irina. She was talking about some bad experiences people in her hometown had had when they applied for the new biometric passports and did not get their old ones back. Apparently biometric passport applications are sent to Moscow and the old passports were being lost in the shuffle, but that 'loophole' allowed the local office to retain the old one.

Why did she want a biometric passport? Because the lines are shorter. Why are the lines shorter? (See above)

She had already decided to get the old-style non-biometric passport instead, but I hadn't realized that when I made my post.

I'm gong to do the apostille process on Monday. In my state, Oregon, it's so easy ... about 20 minutes in one office, 10 minutes in another (about 1 hour total) and fees totaling about $20.

Irina has discovered a nice loophole, by the way. If a Russian passport has an unexpired visa and is surrendered with an application for a new one, the passport authorities can return the old one to her when the new one is issued. She checked with the local passport office in her hometown (friend of a friend, of course), and given her situation, they are willing to return the old one to her, with its "maiden name -- also known as (married name)" stamp. That, added to the comment entry in her e-ticket and her apostilled marriage certificate, should be enough to satisfy Aeroflot, in the event that she gets the passport in her maiden name, which I think is what she has decided to do.

Thanks, everyone, for your help, once again!

Thanks very much for that thread about apostile translation. I read it a long time ago but I had forgotten about it.

I would really like her to use the facilities of the San Francisco Consulate to renew her passport. It doeen't expire until March, 2009 so she has plenty of time. Her issue is that she doesn't want to be forced into changing her domestic registration. She has an apartment in Russia that she wants to keep, and that's where she wants her registration. I think she is partly paranoid because of the anti-American rhetoric she's hearing from Russia right now. Her father was deported from Poland in 1939 and his brothers were shot; and her grandmother was a fugitive from the NKVD/KGB until the end of her life. She is afraid it could happen again; and so she doesn't want the Russian government to know that ahe has emigrated.

....used her international passport for two different internal flights (Moscow to Kazan, Ufa to Moscow) when we were there in April.

Irina says that both these cities are international destinations for passport purposes, even though the flights are routed through the domestic terminal in Moscow. I put this question to Aeroflot this morning, however, and they said that her international passport will be acceptabe as id on domestic flights, "no problem".

Aeroflot was less sanguine about the changes that the travel agent made to her ticket. They said that it's just a comment that will show up in the computer but not on the boarding pass where it really needs to be.

Irina returns to Russia in three weeks to visit her family and wants to renew her passport. We planned this for over a year, but now we're hearing about some potential probems. For one thing, she had intended changing the passport to her married name, but now she has been told, on various Russian bulletin boards, that it will take half a year through the courts to do a legal name change, and that her marriage certificate won't be accepted as proof because it was issued in the US. For another, she has been told that the 'also known as (married name)' stamp that is in her passport now, which allows her to travel under her married name, can only be placed there by Consulates in the US, not when the new passport is issued in Russia. So, it sounds like the only way she can get a new passport in Russia is to have it issued only in her maiden name

Not knowing any of this until tonight, I had already purchased the whole roundtrip ticket in her married name. The travel agent says her married name must stay on the ticket, but he can add an 'also known as (maiden name)' to her ticket, so both married and maiden names will be there. I am still worried that the dual names might not be accepted in Russia when she tries to return using her new passport. I really would prefer that she return on her old passport in December and renew it through the Consulate in San Francisco, but she wants to do it in Russia.

Has anyone had any experience with a) traveling on a ticket that has two names on it, B) renewing a passport in Russia under a married name acquired in the US or c) having an 'also known as (married name)' added to a new passport issued in Russia?

P.S. Irina has just thought of another problem. The last leg of her trip is an e-ticket on an internal flight, and she thinks that only her internal passport (maiden name of course), not her international passport, will be accepted as identification. Now she's wondering if she will get back to her hometown at all. The travel agent has already told her not to worry, because her maiden name will also be on the ticket, but he's never been to Russia, so what does he know. Right now I am in big trouble for having put that ticket in her married name.

The Italian consulate in Miami requires a personal appearance, and charges more for the visa for a Russian than the French consulate.

Now we are spending time reading and preparing for next months adventure. Hope I can recall a little of that French I studied in high school and college.

You're right; I'd forgotten that the Consulates can follow different rules. My comment should only apply to the San Francisco Consulates.

We prepared by playing some beginning conversational French CD's (Pimsleur in this case) in the car. I also took French in college, but I decided it would be more useful to focus on my pronunciation, because primarily I wanted people to understand me; whether I understood them was secondary, because I could always repeat what I thought they had said.

I seldom was able to speak in complete sentences, but I think my pronunciation was acceptable, and I never, in 2 1/2 weeks, experienced any rudeness from any of the French I spoke to. In fact, most people in France went out of their way to be nice to us, which is pretty amazing to me, because there are so many tourists that even other tourists sometimes find them irritating.

Irina, and this is just her personal opinion, thinks that it is much easier for a Russian speaker to learn to pronounce Italian than to learn to pronounce French. Last year in Italy she was comfortable pronouncing Italian words, although she can't speak the language, but this year in France she basically pretended to be mute with French people who couldn't speak English.

Iriina also carried her own guidebooks in Russian. It wasn't really necessary, because my English-language guidebooks (Blue Guides and (Michelin) Green Guides) were much more detailed, and she can understand more than half of what she reads in English, but she enjoyed looking things up for herself in Russian and studying her own books ahead of time.

I've been to Europe before, but it was like a first trip for me, because I was seeing everything again through Irina's eyes, and she enjoyed every minute of every day.

Enjoy your trip!

Paris is an awesome city, probably one of the most interesting places in the world to visit on a vacation.

Wouldn't want to live there though as even a bottle of water and small snack will run you about 5 Euros.

Yes, but it's a really great snack! We spent the last two weeks of March in France, and Irina was snatching real estate newsletters from the kiosks, asking 'can we afford this?" 'Maybe we will sell our house and buy that?'

We stayed in the Hotel Sevigne for a week, in the Marais, wiithin walking distance of two wine shops, two mini-marts, a cheese shop, four bakeries, and two butchers, and then rented a car and drove through Burgundy and the Loire Valley. After two nights of eating over-priced, obviously pre-cooked gunk in restaurants, we decided to shop for meals for the rest of our stay in France. Our experience:

The same bottle of wine cost about the same in Paris as it did in my local wineshop, but there were lots of inexpensive good wines that aren't available over here, so generally we drank quite well for an average of $10 - $15 a bottle, or sometimes less.

Bread and pastry cost maybe twice as much as in our hometown bakeries, but were much, much better and worth every cent and more.

Pate was maybe 50% higher than in the butcher shops here, but better also.

Cheese prices were about the same as in the US, based on some popular cheeses that we buy locally and could also buy in Paris (aged Manchego, Tomme de Savoie). Outside of Paris specialty cheeses were harder to find, but the more popular French 'soft' cheeses were everywhere and cost no more than in the US.

Fruits and vegetables were more or less than in the US, depending on what was in season.

For us, the huge difference in quality of the 'snacks' we were eating was a main reason why Irina would like to move to Paris. (Not going to happen though)

We went to Italy in 2007, by the way, and had a much easier time getting a visa, because unlike the French Consulate, the Italian Consulate did not require a personal appearance, and we were able to do the entire transaction by mail.

It may also depends on the consulate. I've heard that the Russian consulate in NY is more hardcore than the one in DC, for example, and are more difficult to deal with and more specific in their protocol.

That's a good point.