Agency Comments

[Oosik]

I just wanted to chime in with comments on the agencies and agency owners that I have met.

Russian-Women-Connections/Kievconnections

It makes me nervous when ppl operate under various names, but I used their matchmaker service to suit my particular needs.

I teach in rural Alaska, but that won't last forever. I did need to meet a particular type of woman, and learned this the hard way by wasting alot of money buying addresses from elenas, AFA etc. I decided that I needed to meet women prescreened for my lifestyle, who accepted my looks and my age before I showed up. Brett advised me right off the bat to go to a small town, not Kiev. He was dead right. I only met Brett briefly, but I assume that he holds to US business ethics, and with several opportunities for him and his staff to prove it, they did.

1. guarantee to have 5 introductions. Not bad, as I could have been 4'10", 300 pounds and 50 years old. Thank god I'm not, but mine is still a hard case. I got 6 scheduled intro dates, and only one cancellation. I probably picked 25 girls, age 20(only one) to 26. The cancellaton would have been a reschedule, but I was only in Kiev one day. The guy who only got 2 intro dates should have asked for his money back. The website says guarantee, always expect/demand that guarantee's be honored. I saw the word guarantee and I figured I could not lose, so I wrote my very long intro letter with the intent to screen out as many areas of incompatablity as possible. I painted no rosy picture, and explained clearly that I can offer no riches, that we must both work together to make our lives successful.
2. $7 per hour translations ($10 after 7pm). At no time did the Chernigov office try to stiff me or round up. Igor and Anna were great, and went above and beyond the call of duty. One date, the girl had a boyfriend and only met me to be polite. I told the interpreter that it was nice that she was polite, but I was wasting my time and money for no reason. She told me there would be no charge for the hour. Excellent ethics.
Igor took me out (for free) and helped me get a cell phone set up. He helped me find a conversion plug for my laptop, and promptly dealt with the landlord to fix the water heater in my apt. He scored me a taxi ride to the airport for much less than it cost to get to Chernigov.
3. Regarding the apartment, I had reserved with deposit in advance. When I got there, Igor told me that there was an additional $30 charge for New Years Eve. I told him I was not informed of that, and that it was not ethical to wait for me to get there to tell me. He looked in his emails, found that he had informed another prospective client, but not me, and faced me and apologized and told me there would be no additional charge. That's the sort of thing that makes me respect a business. The apartment rocked. True, $50/night is good money in Chernigov, but it was very nice, and there could not be a more conveniently located apartment in the city.
4. When my credit card was blocked, and I was cash poor for 2 days, the office still provided interpretation with no qualms, they trusted me to get the problem fixed and pay them in a few days.

RE: Jack Bragg
I met him in Kiev, and he was very blunt about my poor chances bringing a girl from the Ukraine to Alaska. He also told me not to waste any time at all in Kiev, as there was no chance. I also appreciate his honesty in telling me what he still thinks my odds are.

RE: DarinaElite
Met them by accident. The UK co-owner seems to be a bit of a horndog himself, but the agency seems legit. Nastya was happy to give me honest feedback on which girls she thought were too proud to be good wives for an Alaska man. They have a small list so far, but many very nice girls. They also have some good apartments close to the city center. I never gave them a penny but they treated me like a friend. That's always a good sign.

[TigerPaws]

[color="#0000ff"][size="4"]Oosik,[/size][/color]   [color="#0000ff"][size="4"] It sounds like you went into this  process (and believe me it is a process) with your eyes open and hopefully your  success will continue. As a suggestion when you are talking about an agency it  would be good for the men just starting out and for those who ghost the board to  provide links of the agencies you are talking about. [/size][/color]   [color="#0000ff"][size="4"] I will agree with Jack Bragg's  assessment that you are going to have a far more difficult time being from  Alaska but it is not impossible as I have met and come to know two couples from  Anchorage. You were right to look to the small towns and from what you have said  so far you have done well, as a suggestion if you are going to file for the K1  use the time between filing and receiveing an approval to spend as much time  with your lady as possible. 
[/size][/color]

[Oosik]

No chance to spend time with her, I'm on a teaching contract.

I would not have used RWC if I had been planning on writing for a while, BTW. De-linking the man from the woman with the translation and letter fees doesn't make sense to me. But then, my fiance did not have email to start with, and If I was going to do the long correspondence thing, I would have looked for women with email.

The end result is based on my wishes to meet first, write later, the agency was right for me.

For newbies, just slap a www. on front and a .com on the end. But really, anyone should be smart enough to put the names that I gave them on yahoo or google and found them.

[TigerPaws]

[color="blue"][size="4"]Oosik,

 Well good luck and I wish you the best because you are going to have a much longer and more difficult road ahead.
[/size][/color]

[Oosik]

Yeah, but I'm a true romantic, and if you knew what craziness I put up with my ex-wife, you would know that I have a lot of patience with the ones I love. And I really love this little sweetie.

[START2]

Oosik wrote:  For newbies, just slap a www. on front and a .com on the end. But really, anyone should be smart enough to put the names that I gave them on yahoo or google and found them.

Oosik, Seems you came here for alot of help yourself, so how would you have felt if everyone would have told you to go search the archives and you would find the info you need? Almost everything you've asked has been discussed here before, from calling cards to K-1 visas... NOONE here has told you that. Maybe you don't have time for the newbies or to take more time to check out your fiance and develop something more secure before you take the plunge, but we do tend to help each other here as much as we can.   I am normally an easy going laid back kind of guy but that statement you made was extremely selfish and uncalled for. I'm elated that not one poster ever came at me like that.

[Oosik]

Some folks prefer not to post full URL's because there are bots out there that skim for them and try to create havoc. When I spelled out the names of the 3 agencies, I intentionally spelled them the exact way that they appear as URL's, minus the www. and the .com so that they would be easy to find.

I didn't mean to be harsh, but anyone getting into this game who does not know how to search the internet when given the company name is in trouble, and probably never found this board to start with. How will they search for scammers? How can they look up radiation maps to see if their sweetie is from falloutville? Will they be able to shop around for the best airfares?

Tigerpaw is not a newbie, so please rest assured that I was not coming back on him or insulting him in any way.

[BC]

hey not too long ago someone was looking for forms..

[Oosik]

Yup, and I'll kiss the guy who gave me the link. I had very little time.

[catzenmouse]

Yup, and I'll kiss the guy who gave me the link. I had very little time.

I think your lady might not like that very much....:P;)

Ken