Neo Returns

[neo]

Hi Everyone.

I was a long time member since about 2001 on RWG forum before it all got moved.

I'm quite an old hand at dating in the FSU. i have been going for about 8 years now and have visited the country 100+ times, lived in both UKraine and Russia.

My first relationship with a UW lasted for 4-5 years before we broke up. then i met a RW and we got married, we had our fair share of bad luck and problems and the marriage ended after 18 months and we got divorced.

I'm currently writing to a new UW and we are getting on very well so far.

I have seen it all in my time, i have been through several agencies, used a lot of the others, dated lots of FSU women both there and at home, and have met my fair share of scammers, prodaters, hoodlums, crazy's and genuine nice people. Met a lot of guys also on their way in person and shared a lot of experiences.

Hoping to come and share some of my hard one experience with the guys starting out and chat about my various exploits over the years.

[catzenmouse]

Welcome Neo!

 Hope you enjoy our little dysfunctional part of the world. I'll look forward to hearing about some of your adventures.

Ken

[Gator]

Welcome back Neo!

I seem to recall you from RWG.

Your 8 years with RW/UW has been very eventful.  In fact, you may have twice the experiences to share, both good and bad, as some men with 8 years of marriage.  Maybe more than twice. 

In any event, I look forward to your contributions.

You definitely seemed hooked on these wonderful, interesting creatures.  I am also a member of that club.

[neo]

Hi Gator,

Yes i remember you from RWG, i can't believe sometimes we are still going....

I think hooked is right, not just on the girls. So much of what this is all about makes the adventure fo rme, from the 1920's tenemant apartments with their simply dreadful "the owner may be dead in a wardrobe" furnishing style, to the awe inspiring first visits to the prospekts, those james bond esque adventures when you go on a first date on the metro/trolleybus/maniac taxi to a soviet era ice rink or cinema - they all make it special. And the best bit is always how thrilled the girl is you are meeting tht you flew half way round the world to go out to dinner with her.

People ask me if i care about the whole MOB prejudice BS and agency money robbing, and TBH i don't even think about it. because i haven't had a dull day in 8 years - trudging through the snow in -18 kharkov, to running to catch the last night train out of kiev whilst drunk on Stella and and the first time a girl asks to come round to your apartment to "have a bath"

[Bruce]

Good to see you back old friend.  Sorry your marriage ended in divorce.  If I remember your wife was from Kharkov, but I might have forgotten from now.  Any pointers now that you are back in the hunt again???

[Ste]

I remember Neo! You were a right cocky bastard ISTR! Confident u'd cracked it  - this this bird was spesh and thee and her would last forever....

Nae mind, shït happens just goes to show, even the best of us get it wrong, except me of course and everyone else here

Sorry mate, any road, no-one likes to see a fellow Brit fall on his arse, French is ok, maybe German after tonights result.

At least she didn't get ILR, right? Sorry......

[neo]

Hiya Bruce, Glad to see you are still around? Hows it all going for you? seems a long time since we spoke.

My relationship with the Kharkov girl didn't work out, we were together apart from a couple of break ups from shortly after you had been to Kharkov until a couple of years ago. I moved to Kharkov to give things a try but her dad was so set against her marrying a westerner he just wasn't having any of it so i got a bit tired of waiting for her to "rebel agains the old man" and quit - i met my wife on the rebound of that and she was from Russia.

Ste, i'll agree i am a cocky SOB, and i had cracked it = at least if at that pojnt the quest to find my perfect girl. After i left RWG we went on and got married in the Seychelles and had a dream wedding on the beach, as for the honeymoon lets just say i could walk for a week and had to have a bath full of ice cubes the morning aftter the wedding night.....

Things were going fine for us, she went back to russia after our wedding for us to prep her visa app, we did all the paperwork and got called to interview, unfortunately we were unlucky enough to get the worst SOB ECO you have ever met, he just had it in for us the minute we sat down and spent 1 hour tearing my wife to pieces virtually accusing her of being everything from a hooker to a fraudster. She was completely shredded by him, i was there and had a full blown row with him aftewards and demanded the transcript, i could hear him for the next 10 minutes busily "editing" it and lets just say it bore no relation to what he actually said to my wife. I complained and we spent 18 months fighting the embassy, homeoffice and went through maybe 20K in legal bills before the strain finally got to us.

What happens is you stand strong at first, then after 18 months the blame and recrimination starts and you've nobody left to attack but each other.

i think we had the perfect start to a really wonderful marriage and the whole thing was utterly destroyed by the visa process, something i will be writing more on no doubt on the forums.

You learn from it. What i learnt was you can be hte zen master of the RW dating scene and know everything you can about the whole shebang, and win yourself a gold medal trophy wife and have the whole thing and all the years of searching wrecked by penpushing government officials.

I've since quit the UK to live in the south of france and L.A and TBH ste, it will be cold day in hell before the UK government sees another tax £ off me.

Anyway, im with another girl now who is even better than my wife, so im sure people will still think im that cocky SOB  who lands on his feet like a cat with nine lives and i probably am but just older, wiser and more experienced and i dare say calmer.

[Ste]

Good man, Neo, stick at it!

I'm quitting this dump of a country asap too, prolly Germany for me.

Good news is if ur working/studying/living in another EU state than ur own u can use EEA immigration routes which are loads easier - and cheaper - ie free!

[jb]

Neo,

I suspect I should remember you,,, but alas, I've slept since then.  Old age, ya know...

Welcome back.

[neo]

Hi Ste,

I spent a lot of the process living in Munich and TBH the biggest mistake i ever made was coming back to the UK and trying to take on the system. There is a great EU rule that says your partner can be with your with the same level of residency and work permit in any EU member state, but the UK didnt include it for their own residents - TBH you know the score with teh news, the home office is a fiasco and they simply make the rules up as they go along, you never know where you stand with them.

The thing i learnt from that was not to get married first, its ismply too much strain for a new marriage to cope with the time apart and visa stress, you need to get it out of the way much earlier or live together while you go through the process. I stayed in russia a lot with my wife working to support me and to be fair to her she didnt care about living in england and wanted me just to move to russia so we could be together, but i have spent a long time building up my business and wasn't ready to give up my decadent western lifestyle for something as trivial as the love of a good woman

I wish i hadn't have carried on fighting, it exhausted me, destroyed my health and hers, she had anasty cancer scare in the middle of it and i was ready to start blowing government buildings up i got so angry over it.

RW get far too much criticism for being GCG in my book, i think the minority who do that have really caused a bad rep for the majorty of decent girls, just as the few guys who are 50 and trying to get a 9 year old a fiancee visa have made it difficult for normal guys.

But you know, what doesnt kill you makes you strong,

[Ste]

Hence we did the student visa thing - coming up to three years now, still no marriage.....

She's doing German, hence the Germany thing.

WRT to the EU thing, UK does the same, it's a EEA Family Permit and to be fair the UK is one of the best at implementing it. The Irish aren't...

The key is, and it's the same in every EU state, u have to be Exercising Your Treaty Rights, ie not living in ur own EU state. So a German living in London gets free and equal residency for his Japanese 'Family Member' under EU rules The A8 States and Bulgaria and Romania can't tho - they're not equal enough yet!!

I know this fecking law (well, EU Directive) inside out!

UK isn't in shengen tho - and there's funny doings with that.

[KenC]

Welcome Neo,
It sounds as if you have plenty of war stories to share.  I for one am looking forward to them.
KenC

[BillyB]

Welcome Neo,
 I remember you and you're the only man on the forums that has married a Hot Russian Bride girl. Any palns on using them again? I think you should tell your story as it would be a good learning experience to newbies. but I can't help but feel there was not enough bond between you and your ex since forces outside of your marriage was able to break it up.
Hope you find success on your next go around.

[Rvrwind]

Hi Neo & Welcome.
I remember some of your posts from RWG.
Dang, that seems like a humdred years ago!!!

[neo]

Hi RvrWind, good to hear from you again, yes it seems a long whole a go now doesn't it?

BillyB, you are correct, we hadn't been together long enough then a really long time apart meant we simply didn't bond as much as we needed to in order to stay strong. Thats always the risk in a long distance relationship, and i spent too much time working all hours and i had the wrong priorities. Fofr a lot of my life i have been too business focused and spent too much of my work life balance at work and it just kilsl relationships. I quit my old work after we split up and have started a new business enterprise that will give me more quality time in my personal life. One thing i know all about is RW don't like to be neglected!!!!

Yes i met her through HRB, that was before the whole XXXXstorm over the changes in their T and C's. Someone namechecked me on your HRB thread wrt what my wife had to say about them.

I'll probably start a survivors guide to HRB on the newbies thread, seems a lot of guys are coming unstuck with them. Would i use them again? I think if you can possibly find the girls personal contact info directly then thats the way forward, if she is decent, and honest then she won't mind you writing you directly - if she accuses you or being a stalker or something then its obvious that shes one of the "phantoms" if you get my meaning.

[Mir]

Anyway, im with another girl now who is even better than my wife

Shows it is always possible to find something better so keep looking

just as the few guys who are 50 and trying to get a 9 year old a fiancee visa have made it difficult for normal guys

Don't they go to jail for this?

[Bruce]

Neo, still married to my lovely wife from Tver, Russia.  No green card yet and we are approaching three years married.  Yep, I know exactly how the utter incompetence of the BCINS can force your wife to think that our country does not want her etc.  You just have to inform your wife to be that patience is of paramount importance when dealing with the BCINS.

Best of luck and good to see you back telling us about your travails.  If there is one person we married guys can live vicariously through it is you!

[Rvrwind]

I'll probably start a survivors guide to HRB on the newbies thread, seems a lot of guys are coming unstuck with them. Would i use them again? I think if you can possibly find the girls personal contact info directly then thats the way forward, if she is decent, and honest then she won't mind you writing you directly - if she accuses you or being a stalker or something then its obvious that shes one of the "phantoms" if you get my meaning.

And therein lays the answer to the question why I even bother :noidea:. No matter what I do or what I offer or how much i try, guys are going to keep using the bad guys even when they know they are bad.
Ever heard "Ya dance with the Devil & ya get your due?"
Well ya' got it & now your complaining about it & whining to the cheerleaders.
Sorry Neo, but I can't seem to garner up any sympathy at this point.
And to come on here to teach others how to use them & succeed just seems all wrong to me. You want to beat companies like them the road is simple "DON"T GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY" they will soon go broke & out of business & those that are real & honest will pick up the slack & everybody will be better off.
JMHO of course but also quite logical!

[William3rd]

Uhhhh, guys- Neo seems to be talking about the Brits and not our own beloved immigration service.

Richard, you are right on the mark with your posts on the issue. Neo had a failure for whatever reason but he used an agency with a high level of ethical issues and a low success rate.

[BillyB]

Ever heard "Ya dance with the Devil & ya get your due?"

Never hear of that one but I heard the one "If you sleep with the devil, you're going to get f@cked.

[Jumper]

Hey NEO!
 Sorry to hear that it ended so quickly, but good to see you're  back on your feet quickly,  as usual!

[Turboguy]

But you know, what doesnt kill you makes you strong,

Don't leave us in suspense Neo.   Which way did it end up.  Did you end up killed or strong?   If you ended up dead you type darn good.  If you ended up the other way then your typing is just so-so.