How many family members can visit in one year?

[Bruce]

If I wanted my wife's mother to visit here this November / December / January 2006 time frame how do you guys recommend I go about doing this?   What type of visa would she even apply for?  My wife believes, after communicating with her friends here and in Russia that she could get a visa good for up to three months.  However, if her sister wanted to come on a work visa the following summer (June 2006) she would not be permitted into the USA because her mother was granted a visa, even if the mother goes home (which of course she will after a maximum of two months).  My wife seems to think that because the mother was here on a visa her sister could not come over on a visa later that year.  Keep in mind that her sister already was in the USA last summer on a work visa as a camp counselor.  She of course returned / was within proper terms of her visa.  Is there anything I can do to help the mother get a visa?  How should she go about getting a visa?  Will it affect her daughter getting a work visa provided the mother returns etc.   

[KenC]

Bruce,

I don't see how the two visas are related in any way.  You may be a victim of the babbushka grape vine here.  I know that everything some babushka once said was always more credible than the information I came up with from web sites and forums like this one.  Your sister in law will most certainly receive another work visa if she kept to the terms of the first.

You will have to write a letter on invitation to your MIL.  State that you are a US citizen and your ss#.  You should say the purpose of the visit (to visit her daughter) and the aprox length of the visit.  I always put in it that I would be financially responsible for my MIL's visit.  It will help if: Your MIL owns her flat, has a good job or any other good reason to return to Russia.  If you would like to have my MIL's number in Tver, for your MIL to speak to, let me know.

Ken