Greetings all,
I'm new to this forum as I Googled the distance from Moscow to Cheboksary since no airline search had connections all the way (best deal I found was to Moscow for about a grand, which I thought very good). At a guess I'd estimate Moscow to Cheboksary at 300 miles or so. When this forum came up the thread said it was about a 12 hour train trip at a cost (in 2004) of about $40. If my guess as to the distance (from Google map) is correct and it is a straight shot down the M7 from Moscow to Cheboksary then it should be a ballpark drive of 5 hours assuming a speed limit of 100 klicks.
I met my girl via RussianEuro.com, are they a reputable site? It seems to me I get some "hits" there from "standard" members but when I click to check out the profile it's been deleted. But this girl had a paying membership (I believe a good sign) and immediately exchanged contact email so I didn't invest in a paying membership myself.
Too early to tell just yet whether she wants a ticket out of Russia or no, but she is saying the "right things" for me, at least, and some of them couldn't be guessed at beforehand. Any advice is welcomed and appreciated.
Try to Kazan airport, Kazan is a busy airport with direct international services as well as services from Moscow etc.
But be warned, that area is the Russia hotspot for scammers, run her name, her email address, her phone number, address or whatever thru google and also run a paragraph from her first letter thru google.
It seems to me I get some "hits" there from "standard" members but when I click to check out the profile it's been deleted.
How can you get a hit from a non-existant person? Only if the person never existed in the first place. Be careful.
Too early to tell just yet whether she wants a ticket out of Russia or no,
Why do you say this? Is there more that you are not telling? Big age difference? Photos are too hot? Are you serious about an international relationship? Are you ready to go there to meet?
but she is saying the "right things" for me, at least, and some of them couldn't be guessed at beforehand.
Don't know what the right things are. Does she answer your questions? Does she tell you about her everyday life? Has she sent you photos of her in her everyday life? Have you sent your photos? Getting her away from the agency is a good thing. Get to know her and tell all about yourself to her; no bragging just be honest and natural. Once your correspondence seems natural a next step would be to obtain a phone number and call her. Then a natural progression might be Skype or other video conferencing. The ultimate goal should be to have a personal meeting; this usually occurs about 3 months or so down the line.
Hmmm. It seems that if one misses the code you lose an entire post.
Smart Martin: Tried Kazan first, and the cost was prohibitively more expensive (nearly $2600). As long as the distance from Moscow is reasonable (under 600 miles) I'm good with driving or train or whatever. Ran her stuff as you suggested and nothing to raise an alarm came up. Thanks for the tip!
baron555: That issue was with the site and not the girl. Was wondering who had experience with RussianEuro.com.
I said that because after reading some of the horror stories on this site I was concerned. She hasn't said nor done anything to make me worry, but stumbling on this site and reading made me a bit nervous. She's 33, I'm 48 so age isn't a huge concern. Photos are very real, down-to-earth girl type and most are everyday life kind of shots. I am serious. There appears to be some difficulty I didn't expect with visas for her, but that doesn't deter me, just makes me adjust the plan. I will be ready in the 10 months or so that some on this site say it takes to get the visa to go.
She answers some of my questions and says that English is difficult for answering them all. She says a little about everyday life. She sends pics every letter and most seem to be everyday life pictures. I've sent a few photos (I don't have a lot). Agree that bragging has no place - whether a Russian girl or girl next door. I was wondering when would be a good time to broach a phone number, but it's only been a bit over a week so that's a bit early just yet. She writes from an internet cafe so Skype is probably out. We agree on the goal, we'll see if this goes in that direction over the next coupla months.
Martin: Thanks for the rusline site. I had Google translate the Cheboksary site and it does a good job.
Not knowing where you are from but if you're thinking of travelling with Aeroflop (Aeroflot) to Moscow then you might be able to book Aeroflot to Kazan (a single booking), via Moscow, for much the same fare.
Your calculation of road times is a bit off, I've never been to Moscow but it is notoriously heavy on traffic thus it could take an hour or two or indeed few to clear the Moscow area before hitting the open road.
Almost everyone that has written a long message has lost it because the "code" expires without warning. Now, I always copy my message and hit the refresh button (for a new code) just prior to sending my reply.
Many internet cafes now have skype... she should check around.
Another check you can perform is on the pictures she sends. Right click on the foto, choose details then look for any "copywrite" or suspiciopus "photoshop" entries. You can find out the date the foto was took on and the model of camera she is using and see if it changes from picture to picture.
Check her IP address and see if it originates from her city. To do this go to http://headertool.apelord.com/headers then copy and past the entire internet header (from her email) into headertool... it will usually tell you the city that the email originates from.
If you have known this lady for "a bit over a week " then it is too early to think about a fiance visa... get her phone number (digits for sm) first and afterwards start video calls on skype.
Do not anticipate the roads over there to compare to ours or to be able to make good time on them. The main road through Russia is not even surfaced when you get far enough East.
Also as smart as these women are they are very hesitant to learn new technology. So it can be very frustrating and difficult to get them on skype or live chat. On my phone plan sms costs the same to send to Ukraine as it does to the states which 1000 are included in my plan.
The only phone card I have found recently that works is Vigodnia and it charges a few more minutes than you use. If you are in the States the estimated processing time for an I129-F now is 5 months that is 2 less than it was a year ago. https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplay.do
if I miss the code on here I can use the back arrow and my text is still there. Even if my log in expires I can log back in then hit the back arrow enough times to get back to this page and the text remains. My browser settings may or may not be the same as yours. In fact it happened this time got invalid user name so I logged in hit the back arrow three times and added this sentence.
Thank you all. As my screen name might suggest I'm in southern Colorado. The air transport I'd found was actually a combination of United and Lufthansa (to Kazan) and I don't recall but it was an American carrier to Moscow. I knew that adding in time for Moscow traffic would be a factor, but having no idea where the airport was located in relation to the M7 (the main highway east) I was only trying to guesstimate the distance and as Land of oz suggests presuming decent, motorway-quality roads.
Mini Cooper: Yes, I copy the message and then re-paste if if I lose it now. Thanks for the tip! I'll ask her if her cafe has some sort of vid conference (I'm not fond of Skype, but if that's what they have I'll do it as I really like this girl so far). The pics appear to check out as they use a consistent code. I'm not finding the header info to plug into apelord though.
Oh heavens YES it's too early to think of a fiance visa! (laughs) That's why I came here when I did was to try and make sure that by that time I'd halfway know what I'm doing (plus learn a bit of Russian by then)! I'll keep the "digits" in the back of my head until it seems more or less right. I'm a bit slow on asking for stuff like that normally but we shall see.
Dude, I won't send money to her, to RussianEuro (the site where I connected w/her) or anywhere else. I'm transitioning betwixt jobs and enrolled in an MBA program, I don't have the money to burn.
Land of oz: So you're sayin' to expect Scottish back country roads where it's marked on the Google maps as motorways? (smile) That's helpful, thank you! If I can get a reasonable flight from Moscow to Cheboksary or Kazan then I'll fly, but when I checked fares there were none to Cheboksary and to Kazan was two and a half times what it was for Moscow is why I was contemplating a drive and/or train ride.
Not using my phone for anything except phone calls - what is 'sms' please-and-thank-you? Are phone cards necessary and useful? I've read on these forums that most of these girls have cell phones, not sure why a card would be necessary? I presume the I129F is a visa for the Russian Federation? 5 months? That would be Dec/Jan if applied for right now. Nice for the "romance" aspect, but just a tad early at this stage.
Just to make a slight correction to Oz, it is taking USCIS about 5 months to approve the K-1 or K-3 petitions, then add about 1 month at NVC and then about 2 months at the Embassy before her interview. That being said, our K-1 was approved at USCIS in 105 days, we spent three weeks at NVC, and are now waiting for our inteview date at the US Embassy in Moscow. So all total from initial filing to inteview for us will be about 6-7 months. Could take longer, especially if you have RFEs or get into AP.
For all things Immigration related, THE site is VisaJourney.com
I am over there with the same username.
Zoomie: Very little possibility that she will be able to travel here on a tourist visa; so yes you have to travel there.
The favourite scam from Cheboksary and surrounding area is the 'ticket and visa' scam.
This is where she (or he) will say all the right things, express her feelings towards you in letters etc. and then say that she wants to travel to visit you in your country and, often, that they know a travel agency that can organise everything for X amount.
This it total bullsh1t, they can't get the visa, the travel agency doesn't exist, and there can be several ways they will go about this scam. Some will declare their love for the guy very quickly and hit him with this travel scam and for him to send her X amount of dollars, others will take weeks or months before hitting him with it and others, whilst they may say they can pay for it themselves, there will be a trick in the tail whereas the price has gone up or they'll even pretend to get to the airport but the airline/airport won't allow her to travel without $500 or so.
But there are no set formulas to scams but, from past experiences, the Russian scammers have little imagination and tended to stick to this well worn formula, if you want to test it out, if you haven't already done so, then suggest to her that you travel to her and wait to see if she has a better idea that she travels to you.
Kazan is easy to get to from Moscow - I used S7 (Siberian Airlines) and the return flight only cost about $NZ 120 ($US 75-80). They have a great website (perfect English) at www.s7.ru. Unless you've experienced driving in India, Africa or somewhere equally frenetic (Rome on a bad day?), I wouldn't recommend driving long-distance on what I saw in Russia - the roads aren't great (motorways tend to end fairly soon after leaving big cities) and most drivers seem to have a death wish! There are plenty of ways to get from Kazan to Cheboksary.
I use an international phone card to call Alla; only 2.7 cents per minute to her mobile phone (all she has). Calling cards reduces your cost to call internationally. I use one from ClonCom.
The I-129F is one of the forms you send in with a K-1 or K-3 petition. I've given you the site to go to. Read the guides over there.
Thanks once again, gentlemen.
Baron555: Thanks for the clarification. I wrote her and mentioned the 5 months, she seems certain she can get something from Russia much faster so despite the good feelings this is the first “bad sign”. 6 – 7 is still better than ten and who knows? Perhaps she really doesn’t know. We’ll find out soon enough. Ummm, RFE’s? AP? “Oh man, what’s that?”
Bookmarked visajourney, thanks! Yes, I’ve been reading on this forum that her chances are small for getting a visa. She wrote me saying that she lived in a free country and that she could get the visa easily. I wrote back that it’s the United States that grants visas, not Russia and that while I was certain she could get a passport easily enough that it was MY country that likely would not grant her a visa but that hers would probably grant one to me. This may be a part of a scam, as Martin outlines, but it may simply be innocence on her part and I hope that such is the case. I wrote her that we both should try and see who got their visa first.
Smart Martin: scam won’t work for 2 reasons. 1) I’m a broke MBA student who really couldn’t get my hands on the money if I wanted to (going through divorce does that as well as being a student) and 2) I’m old enough to realize that while the heartstrings may tug, if I haven’t met her yet those strings aren’t really as binding as the spider-silk of actually having been in her arms.
See above for what has transpired for travel. I still think it very early, but she asked if I wanted to meet her and the conversation has gone as I outlined responding to baron555. So yes, it could be a scam or innocence but either way my eyes are open.
Aucklander: Just checked out S7. Still no flight to Cheboksary (it really DOES have an airport according to the city’s website! <chuckle>) but Kazan was only 1000 rubles, which the calculator I used to convert said $32.63 so that would definitely be the way to go if further research didn’t land a flight to Cheboksary proper. Some 73 miles or so isn’t bad at all.
Thanks again, all! Will keep you “posted”! <smile>
baron555: K1 and K3 are fiancee and marriage, are they not? That's a bit later for now! <laughs> Thanks for the edumucashun on texting and calling cards. Every way to save a penny is a GOOD thing!
There we go! Found a travel agency based in Virginia that lists the airline that connects Moscow with Cheboksary. The airline is Vnukovo and the price listed is $199. though it does not specifically say whether it is round trip or not I would suspect so given the cost of the flight to Kazan. So just based upon the price I got to Moscow (albeit I doubt I could really get one that cheap when I could go) that would make it about $1204. plus airport fees and airline surcharges and such. Not bad at all and finally it would get me right there instead of just a city nearby.
But you would need to transfer between one of the international, SVO or DME, Moscow airports to Vnuknova airport but that rusline website link I provided had something on it about booking tickets and one can always use babelfish to figure out what the hell it's talking about :)
I recall, in the old days, to book a domestic FSU ticket, via a western website, might have cost $200 but to book it via an FSU website might have cost $50.
But, have you suggested to the lady that you travel to her yet? Just curious what her reaction might be!
The easiest translater I have seen and I just found it a few months ago is at http://translate.google.com/translate_tools?hl=en. If you go to that page there are many languages listed there click your mouse and hold it down on the one you want and move it up directly under your address bar on your toolbar and release it. On your toolbar you will then have an icon and beside it it will say English or whatever you select. Go to a website in another laguage and click that icon and it will translate it into your language.
Sorry to say SoCo I agree with Martin that if she suggests she can get a visa and visit you the chances she is legitimate are pretty slim. There are niches visas can be obtained in such as fiance, school, agricultural worker, a pair, and maybe some others but not just because they want one. Russia is not a free country for US citizens to visit nor are their citizens openly welcomed to the US.
The fiance visa is probably the only way you can reliably invite a russian girl to visit the US.
Martin: I checked out Vnuknova's site and it gave me a flight for Cheboksary, but not the cost and I didn't stay long enough to figure out where it might be. Like you say, I was certain it would be far cheaper direct than through a VA travel agency as well!
Actually, she asked me in roundabout fashion saying, "would you like to meet with me once?" and I replied with what little I'd learnt via official channels of how long a visa would take and then she suggested without saying anything about how she would obtain a visa etc that she could get one faster. As you and oz and many here would say, that is an alarm bell, but it is still possible it's an innocent one so I'll file it away for if/when I need to remember it. Her reply was, "How do you take that I would be hard to get to you? We have a free country and is also, I can easily reach you. But from your letter I understood that you have the visa done about a year. This is a very long time for me so I can not wait. We in Russia over the short term, in order to obtain a visa. With no patience waiting for your reply." It could be scam-language (though no travel agency or anything else is mentioned) or it could be ignorance of the process. It sounds a bit like the latter because she doesn't appear to understand that the visa comes not from Russia but the U.S. government (a point I explained in my reply). The only red flag to it for me was only a letter or two ago she had said she did not want to rush into anything yet this is clearly rushing into something. No worries, mates! My eyes are wide open here.
Land of oz: I use the Google translator for websites. Wish I had something that would do longer than about 800 characters or so for document translation! <chuckle> I agree with all you wrote about visas and their availability and the telling point is that a fiance one won't be granted until after a fellow has met the girl - meaning as we have been saying all along here in this forum that I would have to go there first.
However, and I'm sure Ozzie meant this, the K-1 Fiance Visa is not a "come on over and see how you like it and if you don't then you can go back" visa.
You both have to submit a signed letter stating your intent to marry the other within 90 days of entry.
Please do not use this visa as a visitors visa. All that does is clog up the USCIS system with petitions that are not serious.
Plan to go meet her in her country or you two travel to another country that she can get a visa to.