Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Why do they live in different communities?	D@mn Brad, you were all over the place. What business are you in ? If I told you, I'd have to kill you	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-31 20:25:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Why do they live in different communities?	Vika was asked if she spoke English, and that was the only question for her. The CO then asked me a number of questions about the stamps/visas in MY passport. Things like "Belarussian business visas, huh? We don't see many of those here.", and "how many times were you in Bulgaria before it was EU?". They did not look at (or even take) 90% of the reams of evidence Vika brought.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-31 19:50:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	AOS Approved	Thanks again to all. Green Card received yesterday 03-31-11. I told Tanya she could leave me know. She proceeded to chase me around the kitchen and spank me about the buttocks. Ain't love grand.... Good deal. I mean the GC - not the thrashing	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-01 08:34:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	AOS Approved	Congratulations	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-31 20:13:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	NOA 2 next stop Kev	Awesome!!!	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-06 21:05:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Any Ideas	Topic closed at OP request.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-09 13:49:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Picture album or just separate photos at interview?	We took probably an albums worth in a big stack. If I recall, the Kiev CO took four or five of them showing us with her family, or maybe those were attached to the application. I can't remember. They looked at tax returns and not much else though. Vika had a truckload of proof that they were absolutely not interested in.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-10 08:06:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	polish visa for belarussian wife for interview in warsaw	Hit the reply button at the bottom of the post - then add your response under the quote	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-16 20:14:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	polish visa for belarussian wife for interview in warsaw	I would say apply for a tourist visa ASAP, and say nothing about the interview. My ex did the same, and got a visa without a problem. As was posted above, the Polish authorities do not care that she is in Poland for a visa interview - so threatening them is likely to backfire, since the Embassy could care less if she shows or not.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-16 19:43:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	K1 from Ukraine	Hello everyone. I have applied for a K1 Visa for my fiance in Ukraine. I have followed the time lines on this forum and this website since the early summer when she and I began talking about doing this. Since then I found the Ukraine section of this forum and read the time lines of the most recent couples who have been approved either for an interview at the Embassy in Kyiv or have finished and been approved. It seems that once everything is approved and the Embassy interview is set by date, it is over 200 days in most all cases. Is this just the process or something unusual in Kyiv? Some people have over 300 days before the interview! This doesn't seem too far out of whack. Even though I "only" had to wait 6 months, I remember thinking it was "too fast". There was SO much to do to prepare for her and the children and I was not ready (completely) As hard as I tried and as much as we had prepared, there was a LOT more to do when she got here. I forgot about the waiting almost immediately. I can also say it has been at the top of great things in my life and I never look back. I guess I am lucky I am able to travel and see my lady. we are at NVC now For a number of reasons, I think traveling to spend time with your SO/spouse and family during the process is a great idea.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-17 03:58:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Visa finally	Congratulations!	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-19 17:47:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?	Some of her answers would get me suspended. Sorry, I have to call bullsh1t there. Don't blame Alla	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-01 20:59:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?	I used to ride the bus by there. Just so long as you weren't walking.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-31 19:35:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?	There's gotta be a Subway (sandwich shop) nearby :-) If not, there should be and they should serve kulbasa subs on wheat with lite mayonazz! Vika's favorite restaurant at the center was Planeta Sushi. OMG! There was a horrible prison in Odessa, not far from the train station. Just a horrible place. DO NOT get sent there. I think you can get TB, typhoid and lockjaw just walking past the place. You know this how?	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-31 17:16:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?	All In One Washer & Dryer http://www.homedepot...catalogId=10053 No Home Depot there either	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-20 19:01:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?	They especially notice it after they have been here a while and go back to visit. Alla has very little tolerance for these things now. She gets very upset at no hot water or power outages. She also has alomost no tolerance for buses and trolleys anymore. I told her she would not have to iron everything when she lived here because we wouldhave the dryer. She said she would iron everything anyway. No she doesn't. She hasn't used her iron in months that I know of. Definitely a different attitude towards moving around Ukraine and basic conveniences. When you have no choice but the bus, it tends, I think, to make you a bit fatalistic about it. When every one around you dries clothes on a rack and irons, why would you think you need a "dry machine"?	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-20 10:10:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?	somehow this got posted in the other thread and doesn't make sense there... but yes I did threaten to bite my friend yesterday, if he climbed on top of the piano. (???? WHY WOULD YOU EVEN WANT TO DO THAT.) I saw that - and wondered	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-03-19 17:56:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	How much money do I need...	Forget the pictures...we already know everyone basically looks like Gollum. How about a website advertising green cards with men's profiles attached to them? Profiles would look as follows: 1 to 5 bottles depending on how much he drinks, 1 to 5 piles of gold being dug up depending on how rich he is, 1 to 5 babies depending on whether he's ready for a family, etc.. Funny. Not very marketable though. hot rubbers Double secret reported Be careful Charles. That is much worse than what Brad said and the "pro choice" women (as long as you choose American women for your wife) went nuts and tried to make him walk the plank. They are watching And Charles IS a mod You are one of the few domestic women that "get it" Julianna. Women rate men not by their appearance (so much) but, I believe are much more "biological" and are looking for the good husband/father (especially father for their children) They will gladly trade hair for the ability to build and fix something, trade six-pack abs for a stable lifestyle, even if it is not wealthy...adequate and stable is all that is needed. Men, being far more shallow (why fight it?) are looking for much more in women...good looks, intelligence, good looks, good cooking (fresh borscht tonight!), sex, good looks...see. Fortunately this works out well for both, which makes sense when you think about it. Thats it - Union Card revoked.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-23 12:44:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Things you will not see (or hear) in the USA	Ya the house there is fine when they are stealing your money, but when you get one over them they can't handle it. I hoped you took them good. If you've been in the casino, you know that the roulette tables have betting on two layouts - one on either side of the wheel. I cashed in with USD, at the cage with the sign that they pay USD/EURO if you start with USD/EURO. In violation of the dress code, I was wearing a Bart Simpson T-shirt, so I think they were assuming my money would vanish in short order. At one end of the roulette table, there were probabley a dozen Russians and their girlfriends betting altogether maybe $1,000US each turn, basically on the bottom 2/3 of the layout. They seemed to be losing every time. I watched the dealers carefully, and figured they must be mechanics, and timing the spin somehow to beat the customers 90% of the time when they were covering 66% of the layout. It just statistically didn't seem likely they could do that for an hour without some big swings. I started betting the top of the layout on the other side, thinking that if the other customers couldn't see it, no one would get excited. I was wrong and should have stood right in the middle of that group. As I was betting by myself, it was easy to figure out what I was doing. I won about $400-$500US, and looked around to see two HUGE suited glopniki with crew cuts standing behind me silently. Expertly reading the sub-text I gathered my chips and hustled over to the cage to cash out. The large gentlemen stood behind me while the cage refused to give me dollars or explain why for about 30 minutes. I spoke no Russian at the time. Finally a kid from Czech in the next line told me that they were saying that they would not give me anything but rubles because I won, and he thought I should take the rainbow stack they were offering and get out of there. The hotel had an exchange that was 24 hours, but there was a fee and I had to show my passport to get the dollars. On the way out one of the suits told me "you don't come back here". I never did	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-24 07:36:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Things you will not see (or hear) in the USA	Those McDonalds are still there...and the downtown one is always packed. Near the Hotel Planeta in Nemega district there is a sad attempt on an old west looking type restaurant called "The Saloon". Worst ribs you will ever have, ####### service, but the waitresses are totally hot and there's two casino's right around the corner, a night club across the bridge (West World @ Hotel Belarus), and three strip joints all within walking distance. I was asked to leave West World once. I won a few hundred at roulette. Apparently that isn't allowed.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-23 10:48:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Things you will not see (or hear) in the USA	I seem to remember the six McDonalds in Minsk were the only American fast food that was allowed. The franchisor was a Greek company, and Uncle Sasha decided that foreign fast food was a bad idea. There was a Mcds at the center (that my partners called the American Embassy ), and the power kept "failing" there, causing the food to spoil. The other stores in that building were always fine, with no outages. A Russian company did come up with what they called Belarussian fast food - something like a Picadilly's here. The Mcdonalds in Odessa Ukraine seems very popular with kids and people who panhandle foreigners. Right above the McDs on Deribasovkaya is a Ukrainian fast food joint called Puzata Xata (Big/Full Belly House I think). Better food, but the same chain anywhere in Kiev is much better. We can't figure that out.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-23 03:46:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	She's has questions about her medical next Tuesday	I looked some more, and I can't find the information or forms in Russian, although I sent the entire Russian language packet to Vika. It looks like Ukrainian is it now.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-23 12:05:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	She's has questions about her medical next Tuesday	Also - If I recall, the NVC can give you the KEV number.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-23 11:57:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	She's has questions about her medical next Tuesday	The information comes in Russian, Ukrainian, or English. If you look at the web site here Ukraine Embassy you can see at the top left the word Ukrainskaya (I think). That will change the site into Ukrainian language. If that doesn't work, I know the infomation itself also comes in Russian. Try here Ukrainian language visa info.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-23 11:53:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Belarusian Name	Thanks for posting this Reyan. We have transliteration questions/issues appear here periodically, but I have never seen this one. I understand that it is normally best to use the same spelling you see on a document (my wife's Ukrainian passport has both cyrillic and english spelling in it I think), but there do seem to be loads of different ways of spelling names. Best of luck, and I hope you stick around.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-19 18:36:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Last Name Change	Brad, how can she have a Russian marriage certificate if she got married in the US? Speaking from the personal experience, if the Russian Embassy in DC refused to put a stamp in her passport "the matrimonial name of the holder of the passport is...", then all she needs is her US marriage cert to cross the border (in addition to the Rus passport, ticket and GC). I also recommend to put an Apostile to make it internationally recognizable. It was a general comment about any document in Russian, or any other language. Again, I am relating our experience only with different last names in Heathrow. Vika had no trouble with a ticket in maiden name and Ukrainian passport getting into Ukraine (or out of the US), but she did have a problem with the ticket agents and passport control in London. Problem solved by providing a copy of our marriage certificate showing why her Green Card did not match passport, etc. It seems like no trouble to take along one more piece of paper.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-30 12:25:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Last Name Change	?????, ????? ??????? ? ??????, ?????? ? ????? ???-?? ? ?????, ?????????? ?? ??????? ?????? ?? ????. ?????????? ??????? ?? ???-?? ???????? (Apostile) ? ????????? ?????. ????? ????? ???????? ?? ????? ???????. ? ? ???? ????? ???????? ?? ???????, ????? ????????? ? ???. ?????????. ?????! As I said above - the problem may be getting back into America through an EU POE. Based on our experience it makes things easier if you take a marriage certificate when the ticket and passport do not match - just so the POE officers can connect the dots easier. Edited to say that a translation of a Russian marraige certificate would just make it a faster process if there are questions. No requirement at all, but if they have to go find an employee who can translate it seems to me you could miss a flight. Edited by Brad and Vika, 30 April 2011 - 12:05 PM.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-30 12:03:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Last Name Change	Thanks for the response! Did you guys translate the marriage certificate into ukrainian? We got married here, so that wasn't an issue. I would say yes, get the translation done - see below. Mariya, glad to hear everything is going well for you guys! Please say hello to Corey for me. My wife changed her name to mine and hasn't changed anything at all on her Russian passports. About a year ago she got a new zagran through Washington and didn't change her name. For all intents and purposes, Russian documents are Russian documents and they could care less what your American documents say. Right, but the problem isn't getting into Russia with them. The thing to be careful about is getting back into America if the last names don't match. Usually not a problem at US point-of-entry (once you show the GC you are fine there), but we did have an issue in London last year. BA was checking documents, and noticed that Vika's GC and passport had different names in them. Fortunately we had a copy of our marraige certificate to show the connection. The ticket agent actually copied the certificate for CYA before giving her a boarding pass. We haven't had that problem anywhere else.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-17 03:41:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Last Name Change	I have never been to Russia (so I will defer to those with experience), but my wife has the same situation with her Ukrainian credentials. She leaves the US with her Ukrainian passport (internal matches external). When she returns, she shows her Ukrainian passport (matching the name on her ticket), and her green card and marraige certificate (showing her new last name, and how she got from point A to B). Six trips to Europe so far - no problems. Edited by Brad and Vika, 16 April 2011 - 08:10 PM.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-16 20:10:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Sending a laptop to my Fiancee in Ukraine	I have been told Foxtrot (but have not seen them myself). I have seen several "stores" in the central market (not the clothing area but the general merchandise area) that sell electrical items as well as the market near where our flat was (near Supermarket Ukraine) We have seen the shops also, but when Vika (and BFF for her parents laptop) looked specifically for these things, and couldn't find them. I assume they looked in the central market. Vika also said that you could probably find them in Kiev. Her cousins all live there, and say so (via skype two days ago), but never had to find the item.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-02 07:40:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Sending a laptop to my Fiancee in Ukraine	quite to the contrary.... easy find even in Kherson That is good news. PM me with location. My wife and BFF are here telling me they are tough to find in Kherson (plug adaptors). She is taking an eloectronic picture frame with her for her parents. We will send the adaptor too, but just in case MIL needs one - let me know where.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-30 12:18:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Sending a laptop to my Fiancee in Ukraine	An adaptor will be necessary, and they are tougher to find in Ukraine than here. More importantly, unless her English is VERY fluent, using the comuter (English DOS and keyboard) may be very frustrating for her. I like the posts above that talk about buying a Ukrainian notebook, but since you have apparently already bought the mini - remember to send the adaptor too.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-28 18:55:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian stores in America	For the last few days I haven't opened the refrigerator. Garlic carrot salad time. FOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-02 17:09:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian stores in America	Bad news...she didn't cover the stinky stuff (PS a 2 quart jar of milk, unpastuerized, fresh from the cow, was left on the kitchen counter. YES, I am SURE my wife is from the FSU!) Just the membership dues Gary. All of us are periodically driven to our knees by the deadly aroma of, fishy, garlicky, onion funk wafting silently through the house. It is good when the concoction o'the day is confined to the relative cool, airtight fridge - but that just doubles your fun when you wonder next week why that bologna sandwich tastes like fish.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-01 13:06:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian stores in America	Brad! Have you gone over to the dark side? Did she "flip" you? Fish is a good point? These clever Bolsheviks know how to persuade you. Be careful Brad, put the fish down and step away! Fish is a positive for Vika, not me.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-01 07:58:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian stores in America	You are saying that American men can't bake and that only American women bake? The nerve... reported All credentials revoked and confiscated until you pick a country flag for your profile	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-30 11:58:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian stores in America	Good points include fish eggs, fish with head and tail attached, river fish (carp), salty fish, and preserved salty fish. Bad points include lots of exposure to the Russian community and loads of drama. Vika tends to ignore the drama, but the fish....	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-04-28 18:50:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	MONEY TRANSFER FROM UKRAINE TO USA	$10k at a time each. That is the safest way, starting when Babushka visits her daughter for the first time!	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-06 20:31:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	MONEY TRANSFER FROM UKRAINE TO USA	Doh! I will find out. Next time I skype with Sergey I will tell him to send ME $300. I will get back to you.	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-04 20:26:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	MONEY TRANSFER FROM UKRAINE TO USA	Before Sergey opened his account here and had his debit card, I used to send $300 per month by Moneygram for $9.99. If I am not mistaken (and maybe it changed) you could send up to $500 for that amount. I never paid $31. WU charges in the neighborhood of 10% and that is just crazy. $8-10 is the price at WallMart, but maybe the price FROM Ukraine is different?	Brad and Vika	Male	Ukraine	2011-05-04 19:49:00