Posted on June 04th, 2003 06:49 PM by admin

Written by Weston Rogers webmaster of ABC's of Russian Women (below hyperlinks only work on ABC's site)

Disclaimer, none of the information presented in this web site on obtaining a Russian fiancee visa should be construed as legal advice. The ABC's of Russian Women web site does assume any responsibility that the information presented relating to obtaining a fiancee visa is correct. Use this information at your own risk.

Your Russian friend can legally travel to the United States with any one of the following visas: tourist, fiancee, business, relative, student and employment. However, only the fiancee visa will be discussed since marriage is the focus of this web site. If you think you can bring your future wife to America via a tourist visa, you are playing Russian Roulette. It is next to impossible for a single Russian woman to obtain a visitor's visa to the United States (she must provide strong evidence for returning to Russia). If you are turned down for a visitor's visa by the American Embassy in Moscow, then you must confront the same people when reapplying for a fiancee visa. The American Embassy may simply deny the fiancee visa on the grounds you lied about your intentions regarding the visitor's visa.

If you want to retain an immigration attorney to help you obtain a fiancee visa two good sites to reference are American Immigration Lawyers Association and Immigration Lawyers on the Web. On a personal note, I used Larry Holmes to obtain my wife's visa and was pleased with his service.

Larry Holmes, immigration attorney, has obtained more Russian fiancee visas than any other attorney in the U.S. Mr. Holmes' service is geared toward the man who does not want to perform the leg work himself and wants the assurance (risk reduction) provided by an experienced immigration attorney. Regarding Larry’s success rate in obtaining fiancee visas, his literature states, "my success rate is 100%!". Larry does not charge for an initial telephone consultation, so you have nothing to lose. Some key points of the legal services provided by Larry are as follows:

Can obtain a Russian fiancee visa in approximately three months.

Travels to Moscow several times a year, allowing him to personally follow up on fiancee visa applications if there are unforeseen problems.

Maintains an assistant in Moscow, providing needed assistance for your fiancee.

An attorney is not required to obtain a fiancee visa. In short, you can personally handle the required paperwork, but the key is knowing the process. Also, be sure you can commit the needed time to handle all required paperwork on your own. Two good web sites to reference are the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. State Department Visa Services. The fiancee visa page at the U.S. State Department site is a must read. If you want to read a book on the subject, try the Citizenship & Immigration Bookstore. Or try the software package Immigration USA for Windows, used by immigration lawyers.

Sorry, Comments are not available for this article.