Is marrying a woman from a FSU country difficult?

[Dolmetscher007]

I'm from the USA, but in 1999, I moved to Germany. While there I met a German girl (go figure), and we ended up being together for 10 years. She moved with me back to the US, and we got married at the court house, back in 2006. I remember the process being pretty damn simple. We did not hire a lawyer or anything. We just... did all the checklists... finger prints, etc etc... and poof... marriage license, and Bob's your uncle.  We divorced 4 years later, just for typical reasons, unrelated to nationality etc. She's now remarried to another American guy, and she actually became a US citizen with that guy.

What I took for granted at the time was that she could enter the US, just with her German Passport. No worries. She came here... and we had 90 days with just her Passport Visa. Then we applied for a 90 day extension so she could stay a little bit longer. As the second 90 days period dried up, we decided to go ahead and get married. We were going to do it anyway, so might as well just do it.

With a woman from a FSU country, she can't even come to the US. She'd have to apply for a Visitor's Visa just to even come here to hang out. What do people do? I know that there are "Fiance visas," but are those things easy to get, or is it absolutely possible to meet a woman in... Uzbekistan (or wherever)... fall in love with her enough to want to get married. And the US Gov't might just say... "Nope. Sorry." ???

[rwd123]

Consider moving abroad (if practical).

[krimster2]

I’ve done 3 K-1 VISAS, one for my wife, one each for my children, who married Russian men
I’d recommend getting an immigration attorney, who will do 90% of the work for you
with an attorney submitting everything from their office
the only thing you need to do is provide financial data, like tax returns, proof of income, etc
you could probably do everything on your end over a weekend or 2…

they will also coordinate all the K1 visa stuff for your fiancee, like medical and background check

this is how I do it

google K1 visa timeline to get latest info on delays
also a chance you COULD get a 1 year visa for someone from Ukraine, displaced by the war, google is your friend

[Goombah]

Married my wife via a K1 Visa back in 2005.  If you can do your own taxes, you can do your own K1 Visa paperwork - no lawyer involved.  Just be 100% truthful.  Be prepared to share all receipts, e-mails, photographs of the two of you together in front of known landmarks, etc.


There is a site called Visajourney that tracks how long each step is currently taking.  For us, it was about 8 months after I traveled to her.  About mid-way through I took her an her 10 yo daughter to Jamaica for 10 days.  A few months later, lots of paperwork and government fees later, the two of them showed up in Chicago holding each others hands and two suitcases between them.  Like many, we lived together for about 60 days before getting married.  Know that a K1 Visa (and a K2 for any kids) requires her to marry you within 90 days.  You... and just you...  Green card came shortly after, with more paperwork and fees.  She became a USA citizen a couple of years ago (more paperwork and fees). 


But again, nothing horrendous - just don't try to be tricky or to shortcut the process - that will cause you (possibly irredeemably) problems.


I think Visajourney even has samples of the key docs, but I could be mistaken.  Remember, lawyers still have to collect all the same information from you that the forms require.


Kinda related recently story:  I was helping a lady get an EID (company equivalent to a SSN) for her new company.  I have done this many times for various LLCs I've run over the years.  Its simple, takes about 15 minutes if that, and is free.  Made the mistake of Googling "Federal EID", got what looked right, answered all the expected questions, and was told I needed to remit $269.  Double checked everything, yep, $269.  Where upon I noticed I was not on a .gov website.  Went back to Google, and sure enough it was some "agency".  4 hits down (3 ads before real hits) and there was the government website.  Clicked there, answered the exact same questions on forms that looked almost the same style wise, got to the end, got the EID and it cost nothing.

[2tallbill]

With a woman from a FSU country, she can't even come to the US. She'd have to apply for a Visitor's Visa just to even come here to hang out. What do people do? I know that there are "Fiance visas," but are those things easy to get, or is it absolutely possible to meet a woman in... Uzbekistan (or wherever)... fall in love with her enough to want to get married. And the US Gov't might just say... "Nope. Sorry." ???

You are at step number one on a journey of 10 thousand steps and are asking
about step number 8,862.

The short answer is that if you find a good girl, that has never been a criminal
or something bad like that, and if you are both determined to get married and
live together then the US Gov't isn't going to stop you at step number 8,862.

You have to spend serious resources of money, time, emotions and energy to
get through this. It's not for everyone. There are a lot of resources at this forum
that can help you each step of the way.

I would advise doing a lot of research, basically read until your eyes bleed
Here are a few links

How to get started
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=14615.0

RWD 'Ten Commandments'
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=1740.0

The Free Ebook
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?action=ezportal;sa=page;p=47

How I did it
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=3432.0

As you read and research you will have questions you can use the search
feature or you can come back to this thread and post your questions here.
When you ask a question, all the answers are given for free.

Some of the answers you get will be insightful, accurate and helpful. Some
of the answers you get will be more dubious in value. Above all don't get
offended, you are getting what you pay for.

Only you know your true goals and situation, so your job is to sift through
all the advice you get, keep the good stuff and ignore the rest. Don't take
take anything personally, nobody actually knows you here.

Udachi! (means good luck in Russian)

Bill

[ML]

I’ve done 3 K-1 VISAS, one for my wife, one each for my children, who married Russian men
I’d recommend getting an immigration attorney, who will do 90% of the work for you
with an attorney submitting everything from their office
the only thing you need to do is provide financial data, like tax returns, proof of income, etc
you could probably do everything on your end over a weekend or 2…

they will also coordinate all the K1 visa stuff for your fiancee, like medical and background check

Very bad advice.

The immigration attorneys will only serve and overpaid secretaries, who will make many clerical errors.

The individual will still have to do all the hard work of gathering and presenting the required numbers, pictures, documents and other evidence.

No attorney or their helpers will take as much care and provide as much precision in filling out the forms as will the individuals themselves.

If a person cannot or will not do this themselves . . . then they should not even think of getting married . . . especially to a non-citizen of their country.

Furthermore . . . I strongly believe there should be some basic intelligence tests that people must pass before being allowed to enter into such marriages . . . and even stronger tests before ANYONE should be allowed to produce children.

[krimster2]

here's a test!
how much is YOUR TIME worth?
if it's not worth VERY MUCH, then sure fiddle around with the forms and coordinate getting x-rays and police, marriage records in another country as well as your own...

OTOH, if your time is WORTH SOMETHING
then you pretty much already got the evidentiary material on hand
just spend a little time collecting/copying it and scheduling a UPS pickup
attorney even handles setting up embassy interview

obviously, if you gave an IQ test to someone who wanted to marry a Ukrainian woman, some subjects are gonna fall on the low end of the intelligence scale
but those in this group ARE REAL EASY TO SPOT!!!
and I am always gratified whenever one of them announces himself here...

[Goombah]

here's a test!
how much is YOUR TIME worth?
if it's not worth VERY MUCH, then sure fiddle around with the forms and coordinate getting x-rays and police, marriage records in another country as well as your own...

OTOH, if your time is WORTH SOMETHING
then you pretty much already got the evidentiary material on hand
just spend a little time collecting/copying it and scheduling a UPS pickup
attorney even handles setting up embassy interview

obviously, if you gave an IQ test to someone who wanted to marry a Ukrainian woman, some subjects are gonna fall on the low end of the intelligence scale
but those in this group ARE REAL EASY TO SPOT!!!
and I am always gratified when one of them announces himself here...

I agree with ML on this one - this is bad advice.  Attorneys will NOT save you time.  Instead you will have to collect ALL the same information to feed them, then check their work - because in the end its your signature on the forms.

[krimster2]

not quite...
how would YOU coordinate medical, legal records and embassy interview in Ukraine, especially now?
immigration attorneys have Ukrainian contacts to do ALL THIS FOR THEM!  I farm out to them, and they farm out to someone in Ukraine
how much time would you spend JUST RESEARCHING THIS?
money is NOT an issue for ME, but TIME and RELIABILTY ARE!!

I took maybe an hour for copying all my records and put them in a package to send UPS to the immigration attorney
and attorney submitted EVERYTHING and sheduled embassy interview
and they and their Ukrainian contacts handled getting police, medical records, etc, etc  from Ukraine and sent it via DHL when it was ready
and then they submiited everything to THEIR CONTACT person in the embassy

when you pay, you get faster processing, because of these contacts
my wife got her embassy interview appointment in 3 months from application!!!

same principle applies to getting a multi-year, multi-entry business VISA to Russia
I COULD apply myself, but a visa expediter service, will get it MUCH QUICKER and more reliably than me doing it on my own

you have your way, I have mine
I've succesfully obtained 3 K-1 visas this way, it's pretty routine stuff, you can argue with success if you want
but I will just laugh back at you, LOL!!
other than the cost (that I don't care about), I see NO DISADVANTAGE to this approach AT ALL!
and if you're so poor, that you gotta worry about the cost, then why the hell are you doing this in the first place, cuz this is NOTHING compared to what youu're GONNA BE SPENDING IN THE FUTURE on your Ukrainian wife!
horrosho?

[Trenchcoat]

I'm from the USA, but in 1999, I moved to Germany. While there I met a German girl (go figure), and we ended up being together for 10 years. She moved with me back to the US, and we got married at the court house, back in 2006. I remember the process being pretty damn simple. We did not hire a lawyer or anything. We just... did all the checklists... finger prints, etc etc... and poof... marriage license, and Bob's your uncle.  We divorced 4 years later, just for typical reasons, unrelated to nationality etc. She's now remarried to another American guy, and she actually became a US citizen with that guy.

What I took for granted at the time was that she could enter the US, just with her German Passport. No worries. She came here... and we had 90 days with just her Passport Visa. Then we applied for a 90 day extension so she could stay a little bit longer. As the second 90 days period dried up, we decided to go ahead and get married. We were going to do it anyway, so might as well just do it.

With a woman from a FSU country, she can't even come to the US. She'd have to apply for a Visitor's Visa just to even come here to hang out. What do people do? I know that there are "Fiance visas," but are those things easy to get, or is it absolutely possible to meet a woman in... Uzbekistan (or wherever)... fall in love with her enough to want to get married. And the US Gov't might just say... "Nope. Sorry." ???

I'm a UK guy so US Fiance Visa isn't really my area of interest. I can however tell you about the early stages of this search since I've been there. As yet I've not gotten to the marriage stage but I reckon I could now from what I've learnt depending on the girl. I started my search back at the beginning of 2016.

So what I would say is that if you're looking for a sure thing, a woman who just wants to get down to business, wants a guy and to get married, etc then your odds are best with women that aren't that good looking. They don't have to be real ugly but we're really talking about everyday average looking girls at best, just below average on looks should be an easy goer most of the time. Myself I just get drawn to the pretty girls, it's just me, but that's where the trouble usually starts.

Main thing you've got to bear in mind is that with FSW most of them are brought up to want a man, family, children and so half the job is done for you as they are already geared that way to wanting to get with a dude. If you were to go for girl that is not all that great looking then she will likely have been passed over by all the local dudes - that's good steady relationship territory to be in, means she is unlikely to cheat and will value you taking her on. So long as you don't come across as naive and easily taken then she'll likely be decent to you. If you're not god's gift in terms of looks etc yourself then it'll likely be the quickest and easiest way about it all

I get the impression from your post that you seem to want to just bus girls to you from the FSU using a fiance visa maybe? I'm not saying it couldn't work all sorts can happen but I'm not sure if it's a good idea really or a goer to do that. Normally guys either go over their to visit the girl or go over there to live. That all really is how it suits the guy, myself I'm swaying towards living over there but travelling back every so often as the UK is not that far away.

I would also think about what country you are looking at? Russia requires a visa and I wouldn't tend to go there at the moment as issues may occur. Ukraine isn't operating flights and will be an absolute pain in the arse to cross the land border so I wouldn't suggest that either. Moldova is my bet and probably not a bad one. Belarus again is difficult at the moment. Eastern EU countries, Poland etc might have some Ukrainian girls there so might be a possibility. Serbia etc might be worth a thought also. So choice is yours, what are your thoughts on how to proceed?

[Trenchcoat]

You are at step number one on a journey of 10 thousand steps and are asking
about step number 8,862.

The short answer is that if you find a good girl, that has never been a criminal
or something bad like that, and if you are both determined to get married and
live together then the US Gov't isn't going to stop you at step number 8,862.

You have to spend serious resources of money, time, emotions and energy to
get through this. It's not for everyone. There are a lot of resources at this forum
that can help you each step of the way.

I would advise doing a lot of research, basically read until your eyes bleed
Here are a few links

How to get started
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=14615.0

RWD 'Ten Commandments'
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=1740.0

The Free Ebook
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?action=ezportal;sa=page;p=47

How I did it
http://www.russianwomendiscussion.com/index.php?topic=3432.0

As you read and research you will have questions you can use the search
feature or you can come back to this thread and post your questions here.
When you ask a question, all the answers are given for free.

Some of the answers you get will be insightful, accurate and helpful. Some
of the answers you get will be more dubious in value. Above all don't get
offended, you are getting what you pay for.

Only you know your true goals and situation, so your job is to sift through
all the advice you get, keep the good stuff and ignore the rest. Don't take
take anything personally, nobody actually knows you here.

Udachi! (means good luck in Russian)

Bill

I think the 'Love Me' 2014 documentary is another good source for an early starter. It gives a good idea of the sort of stuff that can crop up with a FSW and the different outcomes that may come out of it both good and bad. The whole thing can be bought on YouTube for a few quid or snippets seen for free. Topically the NRA gun nut on it who found someone looks like he was from Uvalde seen of the recent shooting, nothing to do with him of course but guessing the area is very gun orientated. Anyhow I think it's a good one if someone wants a break from the reading, some streaming channels like Netflix may have on it an on off basis as well also. Also not saying I recommend the tours on that documentary or AFA as is known they are PPL (Pay Per Letter) and usually best avoided.

Surprised that the free ebook is still not too bad even though a fair while has passed, kind of a little long winded maybe. If you like I could do a briefer version, could go in with Krim on it and do a nice three pager

[krimster2]

Trench, really?
You want to write a “how to” book for picking up girls in Ukraine?
Do you see any potential problems you may have related to this endeavor?
Hmmm?

No, of course not…
sigh…

[Trenchcoat]

Trench, really?
You want to write a “how to” book for picking up girls in Ukraine?
Do you see any potential problems you may have related to this endeavor?
Hmmm?

No, of course not…
sigh…

I'm not talking about picking up a real hottie here, that's a much more difficult task. I'm talking about picking up some minger, that I can accomplish already if I so wished but choose not to. For other guys though they may be happy to find anyone just so long as they can go home with a woman and say they've been successful

[John Gaunt]

I'm not talking about picking up a real hottie here, that's a much more difficult task. I'm talking about picking up some minger, that I can accomplish already if I so wished but choose not to. For other guys though they may be happy to find anyone just so long as they can go home with a woman and say they've been successful

Trench is a real catch for hottie fsuw, didn’t you know?
They’re lining up by the dozen to get with him and share his wealth western utopia minimum wage existence.