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	Create New Topic   My Posts   My forum buddies   Invite friends   Private messages Russian brides > Main Forum > My K-1 Visa process thus far Author Post Frank Vans Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/18/2004 11:39:45 AM   To those who want to know about the K-1 visa timeline, here is my experience thus far. My Elena has her interview scheduled for Moscow on Feb. 24. Our Petition for the K-1 was first mailed to Vermont on 10/29, approved on 11/18 and mailed to NVC in Portsmouth. Portsmouth processed and sent the approved petition to Moscow the week of 12/6. My Elena received the visa packet today (12-18). So it sounds like 4 months to get the visa. We are being optimistic that her interview will successful so today I am purchasing plane tickets for her to come to Maine on April 11. We will see each other in Spain right after the New Year where we will practice interview questions. Just thought I would share my experience with you. To those who have responded to my previous posts, I thank you for your advice, support and help. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/18/2004 4:39:31 PM   I will also keep people informed here. I had the BEST of intentions to send my K-1 visa petition weeks ago - but since I did it entirely without the aid of an attorney I wanted to be sure that literally every "i" was dotted and every "t" crossed - so it took much longer than I expected. I also wanted (of course) to present the very best case. So i sent my k-1 petition TODAY. On the busiest day at the Post Office I have ever seen. If my application progresses anything like Franks - she will be scheduled for an interview in Bucharest in mid April. Frank Vans Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/18/2004 5:19:51 PM   Jetmba, If you or anyone else wants help on how to do this without an an attorney, feel free to contact me and I will let you know what I did. Also, Jetmba, the forms your fiance will recieve can be a litle tricky. I decided to complete them myself and FedEx them to her so she had all the forms completed before she received her appointment date and forms packet. It contributed to her self-confidence about the process and reduce the level of stress for her. I suggest you consider doing so too. Also, your fiance should begin to gather her documents and get translations too. She will find that she will not locate a certified translator in Russia because they do not certify their translators. I had Elena send her documents to me and I got them translated and notarized. You are correct about doing everything perfect! It is the most important part. I checked mine over for days before I sent them in and I'm glad I did because I located little mistakes I didn't see before. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/19/2004 1:16:36 AM   Frank: I'm using a book called "Fiance & Marriage Visas - A Couple's Guide to U.S. Immigration" put out by Nolo (a company that publishes self-help legal books for the mass market). There are a variety of books on the market on immigration - fewer specifically about the K-1 and fewer still (this is the only one I have seen) that includes the updated 2004 forms and changes in the law. This is the 2nd edition and copywrited June 2004. There is some very useful information in here - though it seems to be fluffed up and repeated a lot in order to make a full size impressive looking book - while not having a WHOLE LOT of substance. The 3 pages of government instruction that accompanied the K-1 are not very helpful accept to point out a few very specific things that you CAN'T do. They give little instruction on what you are SUPPOSED to do. The Nolo book at least does that, though a few things do leave me scatching my head. For instance, the Nolo book claims that a well kept secret is "direct consolate filing". The authors maintain that the time-wasting period of waiting for the district (formerly) INS office to process your petition, then send it on to the NVC, which will take a few more weeks, and then to send it to the visa-processing enbassy can all be avoided if you just FedEx your petition directly to the US Embassy you will be working with. But it says to check with the embassy to make sure that they allow such a thing. Everything that I have seen says that with the new Homeland Security changes - ONLY American citizens actualy living in a foreign country can qualify to send their fiance-visa petitions to the embassy directly. All others are strictly forbidden. This book also says that the packet my fiance gets - as round two of this process - varies from embassy to embassy - so it is impossible to list the specific forms for all embassies. The DS-156, however and the DS-156K will DFINITELY be among the forms that she will have to fill out. I will bring copies of those forms to Moldova in January when I visit her - well before she is likely to get the packet from the US Embassy and I will fill out these forms with her in advance. Thank you for the suggestion about having her forward certain documents to me in the US and having a certified translation done. I probably would not have thought tof that unteil or unless I discovered the difficulty in finding a "certified" translator in Moldova. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/19/2004 1:26:53 AM   Question to anyone - I am looking for anyone who reads this who has already dealt with the fiance-visa process regarding a girl from Moldova and the UD government. I know that tradman recently brought over a Moldovan - but of course he is from the UK. (and I think the British Embasy in Moldova does the visa directly - so his fiance did not have to travel to ANOTHER COUNTRY altogether like US citizens do). (* As an aside - there is tension between Russians and ethnic Moldovans in Moldova. She is not crazy about going to Romania (but of course she is anxious for the end result so she will do it) for that reason - it has to do with the language and her perception of the people - or their perception of her.) Several American's are now writing on this subject but they have fiance's in Russia. Any American who has gone through the US Embassy in Bucharest to bring his Moldovan home - please wite to me. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/19/2004 1:36:04 AM   Yeah - I admit it, I (love to) use parentheses (particularly (and especially) embedded parantheses). And did you notice I started out "Question to anyone" and then never actually got around to phrasing it as a question? You won't see ME on Jeopardy. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/19/2004 1:49:52 AM   And if you have dealt with the UD governement regarding immigration from Moldova - I would be glad to hear from you. However, I would especially appreciate hearing from someone who has dealt with the "US" government. That information would be probably even more helpful. (The only thing I know of that UD typically stands for is Interuterine Device (as in birth-control???). Not exactly the what I am dealing with here.) Frank Vans Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/19/2004 7:34:47 AM   Jetmba, Thanks for the book refrence.d I'll see if Borders has it and look it over in the store. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/23/2004 3:37:13 PM   Okay - Not Cool. Frank Van talked about when he submitted his K1 petition and how fast it was moving along. I just checked. Typical time for processing (first step) of the k1 in Vermont (where Frank lives) is 30 to 45 days. But eh Nebraska office, which services the area where I live takes FOUR TO SIX MONTHS. Gonna be a LLLOOONNNGGG WAIT. Thunderdome Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/23/2004 4:24:25 PM   Jet, what about a temporary relocation (on paper)? No idea what's involved for this, but hey, you COULD pass as a Nebraskan surely? nasfan6 Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/23/2004 11:33:27 PM   I have found a site www.usavisanow.com that offers both attorneys and a do it yourself visa application. The do it yourself is only 50 bucks plus consular fees and the attorney fees I have found pretty reasonable at around 700 dollars. I'm not an idiot but I think I'm going witht he attorney for the money. Less grief and legal representation. This process is a pain in the ass as it is and the less stress we both have the better. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/24/2004 12:04:40 AM   I have looked at that website and its not bad but I prefer to do the legal work myself. Interesting that you should be mentioning a website though - because that is exactly the reason that I just logged on to fiance.com. I just found an EXCELLENT website on k1 visa application. I was amazed that even a few insider tips I happen to be aware of are all covered here. MUCH more information (and its up tp date) than any BOOK I've found. It's http://www.visajourney.com/faq/index.htm#3.6 And its all FREE. Neonred Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/24/2004 7:17:53 AM   Jet Great link! Thanks. Haven't had time to really read it all yet, however. Just printed it so I can read it carefully. I am now packing as I leave to see my girl on Wednesday! We will sit down and go through all the forms and fill them out together with all her information. I have the visa kit from American Immigration Center, but have gone to the web and downloaded the most recent forms and info as some have changed. Sounds like processing at the Nebraska center really sucks. Anyone have any idea about the length of time for processing at the Texas center? That's the one I will have to use. With my luck it is probably two years! Neonred Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/24/2004 7:32:24 AM   Yes....I found the processing times for Texas and.......they ARE the longest in the country (of course) even longer than Nebraska. Ugh....oh ####! Not much I can do about it I guess. Neonred Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/24/2004 7:53:05 AM   Could be worse, however. They are just now processing K-3 applications (for those that got married over there) that were received at the national service center on June 2 this year! Wow...6 1/2 months just for processing the first step. Incredible. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/26/2004 11:33:19 AM   As of December 17th (the most recent information I checked) the Nebraska center was just then working on visa applications submited at the end of August. We are talking here about just starting the first step of THREE needed for a k1 visa. Thank god - I pay ridiculously high federal taxes. Its nice to know that my tax dollars are being used for WAREHOUSING the documents I so carefully prepared and so anxiously wait for results of. I've paid a lot of money for that table (or bin) that those papers will sit in for months before anyone even gets around to looking at them - while my fiance sits hopefully in Moldova and I do the same in the US. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/26/2004 11:45:07 AM   If whatever process was required - whatever investigation was necessary actually took months - I'd have no qualms. But people hurry and express mail these applications so that they can get there perhaps one day earlier and be date stamped so that they can wait, and wait, and wait and wait until someone even chooses to open them. If it was a problem of an unexpected increase that staffing just wasn't able to handle, that would be one thing. But this delay has gone on for years. The Vermont Center has people waiting 30 to 45 days. Nebraska and Texas have people waiting four to six months just to open the damn visa petiton. What asses. deanis Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/27/2004 12:50:04 AM   Guys you have to be crazy to waste $700 on an attorney. You don't need one! Everything you need to know can be found on the Net and/or the phone. Do it yourself. I did for my Russian girl and we used snail mail back in 2001 and it took us 6 months from petition to Interview. Unfortunately we both decided not to get married after all that work but my point is I did it all my self and it cost me about $100. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/27/2004 3:16:10 AM   Deanis - filing fees alone are now $165 - they jumped up from $95 in the last year. And 911 has made things a little more difficult. Still I am doing the entire thing without the aid of an attorney. But this waiting period.... unless you filed in Vermont or unless it was shorter in 2001, it is impossible to finish in six months (filing in Nebraska anyway) since they may not even OPEN my petition mailing and look at it within that time. jetmba. Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 12/27/2004 3:17:24 AM   Actually the filing fees were $90 last year. Your Reply: Your name:   New Registration Password:   Forgot password?   refresh Code:   Russian brides > Main Forum > My K-1 Visa process thus far
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