How to Bring Russian Wife Home!!

Getting your Russian woman home to the USA is a very important and involved question. Before I start I want to tell you: YOU can do this! And you can do this successfully without spending thousands of dollars on an immigration attorney!.

By the way, all an immigration attorney usually does is download the forms and then give them to a JUNIOR-level paralegal! The paralegal will complete the forms and file them! That’s it! You can do as much yourself.

The only real benefit of an attorney is that they can—PERHAPS—give you a level of understanding about the process that maybe you did not have when you started. I say PERHAPS because after talking with and consulting with a number of immigration attorneys (I see a lot in this business) I am convinced that many do not know a great deal about this process. They may be able to tell you about how to help a relative from Mexico or Canada (or another western country) come to the USA; but they know next to nothing about the various types of visas or options available to a woman from the FSU.

Do you want a cookie cutter solution? One that may or may not work for your specific situation and circumstances? If not, click here.

I can help you. Why? Simply because I have done it! I have been through the process. I have friends and clients that have done this as well. I have lived in Ukraine for a while and have contacts at the embassies and consulates in Moscow and Kiev (Russia and Ukraine).

Most agencies and web sites will tell you only one way to go about obtaining a visa for your fiancée or wife. In reality you actually have three choices. However, they will only make money on one option. Gee, guess which path they are going to push you down? I am the only one that will tell about ALL of your options. Then—and only then—can you make an educated decision.

As you can see, there are many variables when discussing the best, easiest or fastest way to get your Russian woman home with you. For the purposes of this overview, we will make several assumptions. We will assume that you are a US Citizen, over 21 years of age. We will also assume that you are interested in bringing your fiancée over here and that you are interested more in safety than in speed. I will also assume that you do not really want to go back to the FSU to do more paperwork.

With all this in mind, your best bet is doing what is called a K1 visa. When the process has been successfully completed, your fiancée will have a visa that will allow her 1 entry into the USA within a period of 6 months from the date the visa is issued. If she does not enter within this time period (usually this is not a problem!) the visa expires. Should you desire to still bring her over here at that point you will have to start at the beginning again. Once she is here, the two of you will have 90 days to decide whether you wish to marry or not.

If you do not get married by this time, she must return home. You are responsible for giving her the means to return home—normally this means providing her with a plane ticket (make copies)!

Here is the process in a nutshell:

First, go to the US Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the INS) website and download the following forms:

I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancee

G-325A Biographic Information

Complete the paperwork. This means that you will have to fill out 4 copies of the G-325A for YOU and 4 copies for HER. Make sure they are all signed!

Gather together your evidence: passport and or birth certificate to prove your US Citizenship, any documentation of yours (if previously married) proving that your prior marriage(s) have been legally terminated, any documentation from her showing that prior marriages have been terminated, a passport-style photograph of each of you (lightly write the name of the person in pencil on the back of each photo), evidence to show that you have met each other within the last 2 years (best accomplished by photographs of the two of you together in the FSU).

Type up a nice cover letter specifying what you are including, why, and which supporting documentation you are providing. Include the appropriate fee ($165 at the time this was written), and mail these to the appropriate Service Center, as determined by your state of residence—you can find out the addresses by reading the instructions on the form.

Now you play the waiting game. You wait for your receipt. Then you will receive either a notice of action (I-797), which hopefully will tell you your petition has received conditional approval. This does not mean she will get a visa! It simply means that your information will continue to be processed.

The next step is receipt of "packet 3." This will be sent to you and your fiancée in her native language. It basically says that your petition has been approved and she needs to start gathering the documents which will need to be presented at her interview. These include passports, birth certificate, divorce decree (if she has any previous marriages), police report, photographs (3-4 more, passport style), consent document (if she has a child and the father’s name is listed on the birth certificate), and evidence of support—this could be the Affidavit of Support (I-134) or any other kind of documentation proving that you will be able to support your new wife. You will need to get this to your fiancée in time for her to bring to the interview. There will also be a form in this packet for her to complete and send back to the Consulate via email or mail stating that she has all of the documents requested.

The home stretch—Packet 4 is then sent to your fiancée. This will include the date of her interview and instructions on where to have her medical exam completed.

Interview—the final step! If you come with her to this it will prevent her from waiting in a long (sometimes VERY long) line. Usually these interviews are anti-climatic. Sometimes the Consular officer will ask her a few questions, sometimes not. If you have come this far, it is basically just a formality. So, unless she says something very stupid, there is not much to worry about at this stage. Depending on the country she may receive her visa immediately on the spot, be required to come back at the end of the day or the next day, or have it mailed to her (insist on Fed Ex or some other method of insured and traceable delivery, even if you must pay extra for it).

Make your travel arrangements and go home together! Marry within 90 days, or give her a plane ticket home and inform the USCIS of your actions.



That is a basic, quick and dirty overview of the process of obtaining a K1 fiancee visa. If there are any minor children involved, they will receive a K2 visa at the same time as their mother. You will probably have to pay a $100 visa issuance fee for each one, in cash only, US currency only. The actual amount may vary according to the individual consulate.

There is much more that can be said about this process. This is simply a very quick overview to give you some idea of what you are in for! By the way, the K1 visa process can only be started from the USA. Also, please bear in mind that some of the steps listed here are over-generalized. Different countries have different rules and regulations which may involve extra steps (or even doing something in a slightly different way).

If you are seriously considering taking these steps, I urge to use my consulting services. It is possible that another option may work best for your specific situation. If you are interested in spending some more time in the FSU and actually getting married over there, I can show you a way to have your wife home in 1-2 months. The normal processing times for doing a K1 visa is 6-9 months, depending on which service center you must use. Having said that, getting married in the FSU is not something I would recommend. You must be even more sure that the two of you are right for each other.

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