Evening. Thought it would help those who havent gone yet to hear from those world travelers of their pitfalls and good experiences traveling over to meet and returning... Shady travel agencies good agencies and links to them... Know many of you have been to Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Latvia, etc...
Personaly.. I got an inside advantage in that I work in the airline industry, but am always looking and listening for that person in.... who helped with this or that.... An example, I can give name and # of a great solid reliable driver in Kiev... and our Delta Airline office in Kiev will do everything to help you with travel, but guys dont expect free tickets from them and dont waste their time, and I know trustworthy person in Kharkov who will help you put a roof over you and anything else... I dont have many "good folks " I would say to use, but glad to help...
In return I really need a trustworthy person in Lugansk to do some checking for me....
New to this Forum, been watching and reading and just wanted to add direction for those that can use it... some good stuff amidst all the worries of scams, etc...
Like in anything do your research and you get your rewards... If not, well there is one born every second....
We also have a great office in Riga... when I say we... refering to Delta....
BB
Hey guys,
How many trips do you make over there and do you go it alone? Do most of you arrange apartments or stay right off the bat with "your hopeful future soulmate"?
In the near future Aeroflot will be accepted into the SkyTeam Alliance of Delta Air France Alitalia Czech.... will make it easier to ticket... Plan to see a lot more flights from the alliance accessing Russia and the CIS
A good site to find travel connections to distant points is:
It will get you those schedules that major airlines dont want to mess with
http://t ravel.ai rwise.co m/sched ules/
re. Experience
There was a Horror Story many pages back.
(He was less than well prepared...)
(if you want to read what not to do...)
(Now, who can find it again?)
Not getting the email addresses under member names when I am logged on the forum......
Thats ok I am sure its something with my pc... get me out of the cockpit away from the flight computers and I get behind the power curve all the time with personal pc use ...
I travel a lot over to Europe, and I have had my share of problems, mainly related to nonrev travel though...
Anyone flying to Kharkov can make life easier going thru Vienna on Austrian Airlines, especially if you dont want to deal with connecting between the 2 Kiev Airports...
And when somebody sends a reply to the post, then he has to be logged in otherwise the reply will not be displayed, but sometimes some problems may really happen...
How many make just one trip or repeated trips just to the same city in quest of their match? Curious what drives all of your parameters ... is it a city based on time /effort or cost to get there? Or simply because your "girl" you got interested in, lives there? Does location matter? Sounds like most everyone here has moderate incomes and watches the coins....
Looking at Novosibirsk its 12 time zones away for me and if I was not getting really reduced travel I could not imagine doing that more than twice, once if I was really really serious to meet her and then to go back to bring her home if it clicked and that was enough to form a decision.....
Trying to see if you really spend most of the search and bonding here on the net and do the 90 day fiance visa as your testing ground????
Well, if it is any help this is what I did. I spent nearly 8 months writing back and forth nearly every day. During that time I weeded out most of the girls I was not interested in. Finally I decided on the one that I was going to visit. We called each other nearly every day for the 2 months leading up to my visit to Kiev. I went there to see her and only her. She knew this. We spent two weeks together. Then we decided we were right for each other and I proposed and she accepted. Since then we have been writing and calling each other daily. She works in an office so has regular internet access through work. So we chat constantly when she is online using ICQ. It helps to take the edge off of the 4 month or longer wait period as we try and work through the fiancee visa process. Still though the wait is killing both of us. It is a lot harder than you would imagine to not see the girl you love that long. I was planning on being there during her Embassy interview but only two months have passed and we are still waiting on our paperwork. So I may be going back again to visit before then.
My lessons learned would be more specific to Kiev. One is to always negotiate a price before ever entering a taxi. Getting into a taxi already sitting at a curb is asking for trouble. They will rape you with their prices since no local would ever do this - so you are marked as a foreigner already. This is where you hear the horror stories of the $50 taxi rides comming from. So always use either a private car or a local taxi that has a meter fully running. If the meter doesn't work get out before he takes off unless he agreed to a much lower rate beforehand (some drivers will say sure, I can do that for 3 hravna - then turn off the meter so it is under the table). The Metro is your best friend. For a few dollars you can get enough tokens to take you anywhere in Kiev for nearly a week. Learn to use it. If you can't read cyrillic listen to the names of the stops as they announce them. Many will be familiar or your girl can tell you which stops to get out at, etc.
I would not suggest using the 90 day fiance visa as a testing ground. When your girl leaves the Ukraine she will more or less be burning all bridges and ties. She will have quit her job and maybe even given up her apartment and all belongings. She will be coming to you with everything she has in the world packed into a few suite cases. She is not thinking of the 90 days as any testing ground. So neither should you. If you think the 90 days is a testing ground then I can tell you that you already have the wrong attitude going into the relationship and I would personally question your committment to her and the entire idea of marriage. That is just me though.
I just wanted to add something else. If you are a penny pincher then the whole idea of marrying a girl from a foreign country may not be for you. The current estimates that I saw were about $10,000 (USD) to marry someone abroad after you factor in expenses. I would have to say that is extremely conservative and on the low side. Personally I would plan on more than this. This won't even cover the initial travel expenses and fees you will probably experience.
If you think marrying someone from the FSU is a way to save money you are dead wrong. It would be much easier to just find a girl domestically in your home country and marry - instead of bringing a girl from another country. She will be completely dependent on you for everything - including income. So anticipate this and definitely plan ahead. It could be much more of a financial strain than you can imagine if you already worry about bills and things. I am doing "ok" financially with a middle/upper middle class income. But still it can be trying at times.
If nothing else the Department of Homeland Security going through all of your tax returns and bank statements for the past 5 years or more would be enough to scare the bajeebuz out of most people. So if you are constantly worried about money already or have a really bad credit history this whole process may not be for you. Something to consider.
NoLimits
I think if you put a budget ceiling on the number of trips from the beginning, you are putting undue pressure on making a decision that may affect the rest of your life in a negative way.
There is plenty of reading you can do on numerous boards, if you go to visit one woman you can be lucky, I was on my second attempt, I'm now married very happily for nearly two years.
It is expensive as Brian says, but I think the heavy expenses occur after she arrives, one of the common misconceptions is the cost of visits there.
You can get a plethora of advice from fellow travellers about getting apartment deals for 30, 40 or 50 dollars per day, well few travellers like to be told that they can get deals on apartments for as little as 120 to 250 dollars per month in many cities ( not Kiev, St Pete or Moscow ) most will say well I'm only going for 2 weeks, well pay the monthly rate of 200 bucks and stay in it 2 weeks!! do the maths.
Most people are getting milked silly by agencies and interpreters, but don't like to admit it, I went to live there for 4 months, I never stopped learning and I only touched the tip of the iceberg.
Plan one trip, plan it well, know the lady you are meeting and get the best advice to make your money work for you, your second trip will cost less, and so on.
I made my first phone call today with the " interpreter " My girl sounded like she was in Moldova or something, I could barely hear her, hey but want can you expect for 100 bucks.
I will be getting a phone card and using Angelika the Young Russian waitress from the diner to tnterpret
Wess,
We have best phone equipment, but sometimes we can't do anything because this is not just our phone line involved in connection. Phone of the recepient may produece too much noise that is why we do not reccomend to place conference calls from cell phones or from the noisy places.
it was just a bad day I could not get through to you, the lines were jammed and then we could not get through to Moldova. The connection took 2hours and then it was very late in Moldova and the battery was going dead on my phone and I could not hear anything it was just abad experience all the way around and then having to pay 100.00 too sorta sad. Oksanna is great not her fault, just frustating and I was just venting is all!
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