Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Medical Exams - 2010	There used to be complaints about IOM but that was a long time ago. Recently things seem OK there and you get the results the same day assuming your lady doesn't have to run around Moscow getting additional tests which is very unlikely. The Filatov clinic used to be hardly used due to limited hours, being hard to reach, and I think more expensive. But recently a third clinic. MOM, was taken off the approved list for some reason. It used to be one of the main clinics. So Filatov has become more used. I'd probably use IOM but I'm not up on recent experiences there and no one has posted much about medical experiences lately. I hope those with recent interviews will share about the clinics they used. Good luck. I think there was a post on VJ (somewhere) that MOM is the Russian acronym for IOM. So, possibly it was just the acronym that was removed. The US Embassy web site (Moscow) lists three clinics, but the third one is for another geographic region. I also hope that there are some postings about recent experiences with these clinics. Olga's stress level about the interview is ramping up, so if I can reduce anxiety about the medical exam, it would be good. Thank you for the reply.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-05-09 14:32:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Medical Exams - 2010	Soon, Olga and her son will need to schedule medical exams in Moscow. Can anyone share current experiences with the Filatov or IOM clinics in Moscow? Thanks, Tim	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-05-08 23:39:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian-English, English -Russian Translations	Thanks for the head-up I haven't read any of his books yet, they must be fun Green Eggs & Ham is a classic. It uses about 200 vocabulary words and ensures that you will NEVER forget the words "Sam I am."	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-15 22:26:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian-English, English -Russian Translations	Thanks a lot, I'll keep that in mind as for the 'Tigger', it's from Winnie-the-Pooh books, Terry says I am as springy and jumpy and energetic and all...so , there we go... not a huge story This makes me smile. I started Olga and Kirill on Dr. Seuss books. The naming possibilities are nearly endless.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 08:46:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Russian-English, English -Russian Translations	Hi everyone, feel free to contact me if you need any K-1-related papers translated from Russian into English or vice versa - FREE I am a certified translator and would love something to keep me busy while waiting for my own I-129F petition approval...as well as to help people who are in the same situation. Have a smooth and fast visa journey. Thank you for the generous offer! This will be very helpful for people on the 'nose end' of the process.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 08:42:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	I defintely think you would not fit. I am 5' 11" and 180 (ish) and my leg hits a place where it doesn't want to go any further in and I am kind of "stuck", after some pain and unusual bending, I get in and then it is OK. The car is fun to drive, really. It reminds me of a go-kart in handling and Alla much prefers that to the minivan which she says is like "floating", not driving. Comparatively, yes, that is true. But there is little room for all her "stuff", extra pair of heels, make up, shoe polish...you know, essentials. I always wanted to drive a Mazda Miata too. That is the modern day MGB. No luck with the fit either. Leg, head and shoulder room limit how small I can go with cars. This is why I pretty much collect 1960s and earlier cars. In 50s -60s sports cars, the floor pan is much lower than the door sill, and this gives me the extra room I need. My 68 MGB-GT is probably the best fit for me, followed by the 66 Porsche. It sounds like Alla likes the way a sports car grips the road. Let her drive one with soft tires, someting with a B or C wear rating, and see how she likes it. Those tires do not last long, but they sure do grip the road.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-18 20:31:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	I was never too worried about Anna getting here, getting her license and then driving as she drives all over the place in Russia. Until she mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, "We can just get me a cheap car because I will be crashing it a lot".... Her new Schwin is awaiting her arrival. he he he... Olga has had her license for years, but she does not like to drive. She offered to take a bike as a substitute. I plan on easing her into driving here. Northern NJ is like a combat driving environment. So, this is going to be exciting. I wonder if anyone makes a car with Nerf fenders?	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-18 16:34:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	GHreat car! I bought a car for Alla to smash up at an auction and that was her practice car. She started driving right away, 2nd day here on rural roads near our house, or anyway, mostly on the rural roads...sometimes she felt like a little off-raoding. Happens. So when she got better I bought her another Mini-van but this oine new and deluxe and a few months in she decides she needs a sports car, a Pontiac Solstice. Cool little car, I like to drive it, I do not like to "put it on" (one "puts it on", rather than "gets in") It is not a good winter car. So far she has actually not crashed with any other vehicles, YES she has hit all sorts of stationary objects that "should not be there" but with her practice car, so who cares? She drove her sports car off the road into a cranberry swamp in January but did remarkably no damage that was visible, messed up the front end steering mechanisms to the tune of $1000, but the outside looked great after a cleaning. So your MG will probably interest her, but I cannot recommend them as Vermont "winter cars" or for off-road driving. I am prepared, in case Olga takes a liking to the TD. I also have a kit car, that has a 52 MG-TD fiberglass body sitting on VW Bug running gear. This is lighter than the TD, and a lot faster too. Plus, if you crash it, just remember to pick up all the fiberglass pieces, and it can be 'glued' back together. The kit car is due for a carburation upgrade. Later this summer, I will put the pair of Solex P40-II carbs from the Porsche into the kit car. Going from one barrel of carburation to four will provide a majpr boost in power. The Porsche received a pair of Webber carbs when I rebuild th engine. I suspect that Olga will say ?? to driving, after a few trips to the many malls within a 20 mile radius. The Solstice is a nice car! Unfortunately, I can not fit into the car. I am 6' 04" and a tad north of 275lb;. It would take major surgery (me or the car) to get me into a Solstice. When I get out of the TD, it looks like the car is giving birth!	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-18 14:36:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	A few years back some guy wrote on the old RWL Russian-Womens List proudly proclaiming that his Russian wife had just received her drivers license .... " at only the cost of 2 garage doors, several trash cans, 1 parked car, and a very unfortunate stray dog that was at the wrong place at the wrong time " .... this guy had a gift at telling a story ! ( All completely true I am sure ! ) ... one of the funniest " short stories " I have ever read ..... but it DID get me to thinking ! Funny! Learning to drive in Northern NJ will be an exciting proposition for Olga. She says that she does not want to drive. But I have a feeling, after a romp or two in my '53 MG-TD, she may change her mind.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-18 09:15:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	Alla could also break an anvil. No thanks. I didn't have a problem when she was steering the plane at 3500 ft. Nothing around for her to hit and I trust my brother could pull the thing out of a dive (I hope anyway) if needed. Hey! Ukrainian girls are tough! You can't really blame her, if she is juggling anvils and occasionally drops one!	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-17 09:28:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	The USC speaks English and the FSU citizen speaks Russian and they are somehow communicating. I would think that they aught to be able to come up with a translation for a birth certificate or police certificate. It doesn't need to be notarized. As far as coming in ahead of schedule and under budget, a lot of that depends on what you schedule and budget are and whether or not they were realistic. Peace of mind has a certain intangible value, of course. If you would worry otherwise, I can understand going the official route. For a Moscow K1, documents in the Russian language do not need to be notarized, but a certification that the translation was performed by someone who is fluent in English and Russian is required. Even though Olga and I communicate well, I am not fluent in Russian (I speak Russian with a Martian accent), and Olga is not yet fluent in English. This necessitated hiring a certified translator. Much of the recent discussion thread covered what was a good price, factors influencing translation rates, and which resources were available to perform translations. I certainly became aware of translator talents within the VJ community which were previously unknown to me. The 'official' requirements referenced earlier in the thread were the US Department of State specifications for documents that must be provided at the interview, and which document must be translated. I am sure that I could cobble together translations of basic documents, but it really is not worth attempting to game the system for a net savings of $100 or so.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-15 16:52:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	My first car was a VW Bug. It was all I could afford after saving my own money after getting a job shagging carts at the A&P two days after my 16th birthday ("If you want your own car you buy it with your own money.", said my parents). Buddies of mine had Mustangs, Corvairs, a Road Runner, a Challenger, Camaros. I remember (living in the Chicago south suburbs) having "Tune-up Parties" where we would get together at someone's garage and help tune up each others' cars (I'll bring the strobe gun you bring the tach you bring the beer you bring the 8 track). My first car was a "Frankenstein" '63 Chevy Impala convertible. I bought the body with a blown engine, went to the junk yard with the wrecker from the gas station at which I worked, and literally picked up another chevy small block (283) and a two speed power glide trans. (I really wanted the corvette 327 engine they had, but there was no budget for that little upgrade!) I installed the engine and trans on a Saturday night at the gas station. The interior came out of a 64 Impala SS convertible. After another car wiped out the nose of my car, while I was sitting at a stop sign, I added the nose off another 63 Impala coupe. The junk yard called me when they received a '69 Camaro that rolled over on the highway. I got the Edelbrock 4 barrel aluminum manifold and Quadrajet carb from that car. I did buy a spanking new Mallory dual point distributor and Super Coil for the car. Ah, and the final touch was a new convertible top kit I bought from JC Whitney in Chicago-land. I put over 100,000 miles on that car (the engine had about 85,000 on it when installed), before the car was stolen. I still miss that car - it had my bloody nuckle marks on it from one end to the other. We had tune up parties too. We also had oil change parties, after we built a waste oil heater from plans in Mother Earth News. That heater worked great! Plans are still available on their web site. Those were days of self reliance and making do with what was available. Edited by Tim & Olga, 15 June 2010 - 10:30 AM.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-15 10:29:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	Wow. Hey when you want to talk color case-hardening restoration on a M1886 Winchester Lightweight , I will be all over it. Doug Turnbull is your man! Does this mean vintage cars are getting added to the mix of guns and pie. Ummm, OK. My first car was a 1965 Corvair...unsafe at any speed but only because I was driving! I have a brother who is a doctor and worked as a mechanic as a young man and during college. He now has a barn and auto shop to die for and restores older cars and builds airplanes for a hobby. He likes Porsches and Mercedes I have done some case hardening of auto parts, but I would not trust myself to tinker with an M1886 Winchester. (See also Murphy's Law...) I used a product called Kasenit to do the case hardening. It worked as advertised. Ah, I like Corvairs. I have a weakness for vehicles that are aircooled or British. It took me years to understand that the British vehicles were not leaking: They were simply marking their terrotory. I also worked my way through the University doing mechanical work. Now, tinkering with vintage cars is simply fun. I am on the tail end of restoring a 1926 Franklin Model 11A. It has an enormous inline aircooled six cylinder engine that produces a whopping 26 horsepower. The girls should NOT read the following: The difference between men and boys is the price of the toys. It sounds like your brother has a true "man cave". he he he...	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-15 00:19:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	I too, like the idea of supporting VJ members when possible. That said, and before I knew about VJ, Diana was taking her documents to the English school where she was studing in Donetsk (UA) for translation. I don't know what she paid but I believe it was a very reasonable price. (They also provided the certification and stamp.) It was convenient for her drop off and pick up the documents because she was already at the school for her English classses. It sounds like that was a very convenient arrangement, especially since it eliminated the need to mail the translations. I there is an opportunity to send some translations to a member of the VJ community, I will likely do that in the future.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 17:55:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	Financial pain aside, I'm wondering why you had to translate documents in the first place. This is what seemed odd to me. Typically, there's no more translation required after the I-129F packet is sent. They can speak and read Russian at the Russian embassy. When you posted that you'd paid somewhere around $75 to have three documents translated in Moscow it kind of baffled me that not only did you have documents translated at that point but also that you paid so highly to have it done. While I understand you and Gary are rich old guys who have a budget for your import "project" it just seems weird to me that even in Russia you're paying American business prices instead of typical Russian prices. I have a nasty habit of reading official instructions. On occasion, official instructions provide helpful insight into requirements for a process. Here is a cut and paste from the US Embassy in Moscow web site, pertaining to documents required at the Embassy interview: "Copies and translations of each document into English are required. Translations must be notarized only when the original is in a language OTHER than Russian. (e.g. a translation from Ukrainian into English must be notarized, translation from Russian into English does not need to be notarized). " Given a choice between following your "guestimate" of the translation requirements, and the actual translation requirements, I'll go with the official requirements. I suspect that you are baffled due to a lack of familiarity with the current official requirements. This will help to get you up to speed: http://moscow.usemba...ov/fiancee.html While I do not hold your youth and inexperience against you, (Gary probably does not either...), it does become a tad tiring when you continue to shoot from the hip, and miss, and miss and miss.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 17:39:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	I'm not really sure how that's relevant as the poster said he paid that amount in Russia. I was also wondering why he was paying for documents to be translated at the medical interview stage. I understand that, which is why it seemed quite absurd that someone would pay "US rates" in Russia. That would be the RUB wife's fault. This is what got me started on all this. Why would a guy in America pay someone $110 to translate a single document from Russian to English when it can be done in Russia for literally pennies on that dollar? The initial US translation was done to get the I-129F out the door. The price was not a factor. Time and dollars are often two interrelated variables in a process. I wanted this done quickly and accurately, and that is what I got. My financial threshold of pain is different from yours. When I rebuilt the engine in my 1966 Porsche, I could have had the heads ported, polished and resurfaced, 30 miles from my home for a reasonable price. A guy I know in CA has a track record for excellence with vintage Porsche engine machining, so he got the work. Price was not a factor there either. Price is certainly a consideration, but it is not necessarily the dominant factor in a decision. The documents translated in Russia, were done about one month before they were required for the interview. Olga was going to be in Moscow anyway, so it made sense to have the documents done there. From the perspective of the "project", the documents were translated ahead of schedule and under budget. (This is often a good thing... )	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 15:03:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	Yes, I understood the price was per document, and that is a good deal. Thanks for the wishes of good luck, I think I am already there. I more or less retired at at age 49. I work part time and get paid an obscene amount of money for what I do. But they will pay me, or I won't do it because I really don't give a #### if I make another nickle or not. I actually did retire, but then was "hired back" by the company that had been my best client and they keep me busy 20-25 hours per week and THAT IS ALL. I do not want more, refuse to start work before 10 am and refuse to work past 3pm. Alla's earnings go into her desk for fun money. It is used to buy extravagant stuff we have no need for, new furniture on a whim, write checks for sports cars, pay for European vacations (2-3 per year if I don't have heart attacks and by-pass surgery) Once Alla gets her citizenship and masters degree in teaching English it is our plan to live in exotic foreign countries where she will earn big bucks teaching English (other countries actually pay teachers of English lots of money) provide a home for us, a living expense stipend and I can sit on the beach at Impanema and NOT look at other women while Alla teaches 4 hours per day. We will come back to the US whenever we want and visit our children who will be working...too bad, so sad. I will collect my retirment in US dollars and live where the costs of living are 1/10th what they are here. We will keep our homes in Vermont and Ukraine, why not? I fully subscribe to the 'work hard - play hard' philosophy. After retiring, I dedicated myself to playing hard: It is challenging; but someone has to do it!	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 10:00:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	Please, Slim. $25 for a document translation...or $23 or whatever. Are you kidding? In what part of the United States do you get an hours service, copy costs and mailing fees for $23 per hour? That is the self employed rate, you know, which means we must pay 15.65% self employment, have the equipment to do the work and the knowledge to translate in 2 other languages, Ukrainian and Russian. And you begrudge someone $23 for that? How much does a plumber cost you where you live? It is $80 per hour here. Alla wouldn't even go near your document for $23, sorry, her rate is $40 for one, $100 for 3 and that is less than a third what the big city translators cost. The above member got a great deal for $23 each And YES there are defective translations, Alla has done several "re-translations" because they were rejected by the consulate and/or USCIS. An additional data point: I used a CA company to translate Olga's divorce decree for the I-129F filing. That was $80 for a single document and $30 for Express Mail delivery. The entire transaction was very professional, including a review of draft translations. But as indicated above, this is a rate that reflects all the overhead of a business. It was a premium price for a premium service. Olga was travelling to Moscow for the medical exams and recreation, so the cost to drop off documents and collect translations was four Metro rides (Her son just loves the Metro...). This was a good deal, especially since this agency has previously done translations that were accepted at the US Embassy. These translations were in hand about one month before they were required. It is good that this site does not permit advertisements. However, providing a mechanism to advise 'newbies' that other members are certified translators, is very helpful too. As I indicated in an earlier post, I would certainly have preferred that someone from the VJ community receive this business, rather than sending it to an unknown business in CA.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 09:52:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	You must be in the wrong line of work. 700 rubles x 3 documents divided by the exchange rate is $70. Alla's fee for 3 documents IF she does them at the same time is $100. (Note to moderators, thei is NOT an advertisement, it is a response of Slim's offer for my wife to do this for less than 700 rubles per document) Her rates ($40 for one, $100 for 3) is FAR less than many translation agencies, FAR LESS. Some in the larger cities charge as much as $250 for a simple document. 700 rubles each is a good deal BUT (the evil Butt Monkey...) Alla has had to "re-translate" some foreign documents because they were rejected at the consulate or by the USCIS because, despite all the official stamps, apostiles, etc. (NONE of which are required) they did not have a "Certification" by the translator. No amount of extraneous BS will make up for something which is needed but absent. Make SURE no matter what else they put on the translation, that is has a "certifcation" by the translator. A personal statement that "I,________________ certify I am competent...." Then, yes, a college student can do this. In fact their is a small business set up at Alla's college called "RussoTrans" in which students there do translations for practice in English and have the translations checked by an instructor. Alla uses their same fee schedule for her work. For any RUB wives/fiancees interested, if you are adept at English there is a fairly lucrative market for your skills. Alla earns $30-50/hour (minimum one hour) plus mileage payment, for interpretation work and gets enough requests that, with her school schedule, she turns down work in a small city of 50,000...100,000 people in the region. Send your resumes to hospitals, government agencies, refugee organizations, attorneys, law enforcement, etc. One will refer you to another. $40-100 per document/page for translations, depending on type of document (most of her work is for foreign businesses she established before coming to the USA, she has about 12 foreign businesses she still does translations for...payment by cash in advance, Western Union) The 700 ??? rate was per document. A closer reading of the message thread notes that the conversation changed from three documents to pricing for a single document. You do make a good point about the translator certification: Each of our documents includes this certification. In addition, Olga requested, and received a separate certification letter. As for my line of work, I retired from the private sector at the ripe old age of 46. I wish you the same level of success.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-14 09:26:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	Yeah, I probably should've rememebered anyone who has the cash to make an unnecessary trip probably has cash for unnecessary fees too. My bad. But seriously, next time send them to Alla. Hell, I'll do them for $20 per document. I actually did not go over for the medical exams. The extra trip to Moscow for the medical exams, was an opportunity for the Princess to visit ??? ?????, and for her son to have some fun at Gorky Park. I will go over when she has the interview in July. The expenses for this stuff are part of a budget. I usually assemble a fairly conservative budget, then add 20% for contingencies. Document translations were budgeted with a US company's rates, so the Moscow translator was a significant savings. The savings are instantly vaporized, because Olga WILL go to ??? ????? again before we come to the US. On a serious note, if I has been aware that there was "In House" talent for doing translations here in the VJ community, I would have routed the business here. So, it might be a good idea for the Translators to start a separate discussion thread here.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-13 18:41:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	This ranks right up there with the "It's so worth the $1500 I paid to my attorney to handle everything for me. I mean, he did it all. The only thing I had to do was have her fill out some papers and then I filled out some papers and then we sent them to him and he sent them in. I feel so much better knowing that he's handling it all for me." Defective translation? I'm pretty sure my kid brother could translate a birth certificate. It sounds like $22 - $23 is worth a lot more to you than it is to me.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-12 23:10:00
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus	Moscow Trip Report	Next time, scan them and e-mail them to Gary's wife Alla. She'll do it for WAY LESS money than what you paid. Also, any college kid taking English class could do it to. I can't believe people actually make 700 rubles to translate one document. I'm in the wrong line of work. 700 ??? is about $22 - $23. It is not much money for using a service that successfully translated documents for K1 applications in the past. This is one of those cases where it is better to err on the side of caution. It would really be nasty to have a flawed interview, due to a defective translation by a college kid. This price is a fraction of the cost of using a US based service. Maybe there should be a new thread for Russian document translations? This info would have helped me a month ago, now, the translations are water under the bridge.	Tim & Olga	Male	Russia	2010-06-12 18:11:00