Russian Military Certificate--please help!

[sashitaski 3]

Hello! We are currently preparing for my husband's interview for a IR-1/CR-1 visa at the consulate in Moscow. We have already obtained the police certificate, and now we are trying to figure out how to get the military certificate we need (since my husband served in the military).

This is the requirement "If the applicant was on military service, he/she should bring the certificate from the local draft board."

In the Russian version this document is called "справка об отсутствии судимости из военного комиссариата по месту жительства"

Has anyone obtained one of these before? If so, how? Yesteraday my husband called his local draft board, where he was told that he should come today and just bring his 'военный билет' with him. So he did that, but when he got there, they told him he also needed to bring some documents proving his employment, plus some sort of special form that they need in order to issue his document. He asked them where to obtain this form and what is was, and nobody would tell him. So later today he called the office again, asking what he needed to bring, and (not so surprising for Russia) the person on the phone said they do not and WILL NOT issue him any such certificate. (by the way, his local draft board is Люблинский округ)

So what to do now? He plans to call back again and hope that someone else will answer the phone....Everything was going so smoothly up till this point! Now we are at a loss.

How have others obtained this military certificate? Do they ask for it at the interview?

If I don't get any answers here and we can't work something out with the draft board I guess I will e-mail the U.S. embassy and ask them.

Any help will be appreciated!

Alexandra

[Satellite 1]

Unfortunately most people on here are bringing over the ladies. None of the ladies have served in the military. You might want to try to get something in writing that they won't issue a certificate and bring that instead.

[eekee 182]

Were the instructions for all countries or just Russia? I would call the embassy, because perhaps his военный билет and the stamp in his internal passport will be enough to prove he served.

[sashitaski 3]

Were the instructions for all countries or just Russia? I would call the embassy, because perhaps his военный билет and the stamp in his internal passport will be enough to prove he served.

These are instructions specifially from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. We actually just talked to a (male) friend who recently went throught the same process, and he said he just got a document from his local военкомат stating that he served in the army, and when. It didn't say anything about convictions on it, but they accepted it at his interview. We should be able to get a similar document, I think. I also e-mailed the consulate here in Moscow to ask if this certificate is really necessary, but I am still waiting for an answer.

[sashitaski 3]

A quick update, in case this information may be useful to future VJers!

I finally got a reply to my e-mail from the consulate in Moscow about the military certificate. They said that since my husband is a Muscovite (never lived anywhere else his whole life) and served in Moscow, he does not need the military certificate (what a relief!). It seems to me (although they didn't specifically say this) that if you had served somewhere else in Russia, i.e. not in your home city, instead of getting a police certificate for the time you lived (served) in that city, you could INSTEAD of that get an army certificate stating that you weren't convicted of anything while you served in the army. This also makes sense if you carefully read the instructions pertaining to this certificate, which say "should" ("mozhet" in Russian) instead of "must" obtain. So since my husband had been in Moscow all along, his police certificate will suffice.