What Would You Do?

[amberdima 6]

A relative wants to help me with plane tickets to Belarus to meet my fiance's family; however, today I thought it might be better to fly his mother here for our wedding. What would you do? Go there or bring her here for her only son's wedding?

Edited March 16, 2009 by amberdima

[kaffy 2]

I think you should fly there to meet his family first

You can always fly her over after you are more settled

[trinket 30]

I think you should bring her over for the wedding. As you said you husband is the only son, so it sure is really important and something she might have dreamt all her life while raising her son to be at his wedding.

[Scott & Lai 12]

Your future MIL has only one opportunity to be at her son's wedding. You can meet the rest of the family any time.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

How about, "do civil wedding here, wait till you have AP and do 'real' wedding in Belarus"?

(noted from the fact that the OP's petition is K-1 which precludes doing civil wedding in Belarus)

[Nessa 23]

bring her.

[*julez* 124]

Ask her what she would like better.

[Nessa 23]

i bet she'd like to be at the wedding. i wish i could have my family on my wedding.

[chri'stina 190]

Is getting a visa going to be an issue? That is a major issue to consider. I wouldn't have counted on Sujeet's family getting a visa for our wedding, so it would have been ideal to go meet them. Our story was completely different however so neither situation happened before marriage. I just met my in-laws after many years of marriage.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Is getting a visa going to be an issue? That is a major issue to consider.

accurate, especially due to the wait-times at some US consulates, especially if non-English-language interview.

I wouldn't have counted on Sujeet's family getting a visa for our wedding, so it would have been ideal to go meet them. Our story was completely different however so neither situation happened before marriage. I just met my in-laws after many years of marriage.

We actually tried to get my then prospective MIL here for the wedding, even going so far as to petition an MD Congressman (admittedly, I should have sent the petition in January instead of early March)--his letter that an interview had been arranged for 2006/04/12 arrived in my mailbox on....2006/04/12.

However, she got a visa last year, and has been visiting us since 2008/11/08; we are scheduled to fly with her to Chennai on 2009/05/04 (Pras and I will return 2009/05/23 after LEF's Annual Retreat).

Edit: so you had not met your prospective in-laws prior?

[chri'stina 190]

Is getting a visa going to be an issue? That is a major issue to consider.

accurate, especially due to the wait-times at some US consulates, especially if non-English-language interview.

I wouldn't have counted on Sujeet's family getting a visa for our wedding, so it would have been ideal to go meet them. Our story was completely different however so neither situation happened before marriage. I just met my in-laws after many years of marriage.

We actually tried to get my then prospective MIL here for the wedding, even going so far as to petition an MD Congressman (admittedly, I should have sent the petition in January instead of early March)--his letter that an interview had been arranged for 2006/04/12 arrived in my mailbox on....2006/04/12.

However, she got a visa last year, and has been visiting us since 2008/11/08; we are scheduled to fly with her to Chennai on 2009/05/04 (Pras and I will return 2009/05/23 after LEF's Annual Retreat).

Edit: so you had not met your prospective in-laws prior?

Nahin...

[amberdima 6]

thanks for all the responses. turns out it will be hard for her to get a visa and she knows 0 english, which will prove difficult during international travel. she also is afraid to fly. therefore, we've decided that i will go there. does anyone know how to get a roundtrip ticket, but from a different return location? i would like to fly to poland for the interview and then travel to belarus to meet the in-laws. i can't see going back to poland to fly home.

[~Jess~ 0]

Expedia has multi stop/route options.......goodluck!

[aliska 0]

Hi amber,

I've made the trip to the US from Belarus several times now. There are only a few airlines that work directly out of Minsk - Belavia, LOT (Polish), Austrian, Lufthansa are the ones I remember. You can also travel by bus to Vilnius, Lithuania from Minsk (about 3.5 - 4 hours) and use Lithuanian airlines (FlyLAL) as they are sometimes much cheaper than the options from Minsk. Since you want to fly to Poland, maybe you should call LOT and ask about an "open-jaw" round trip ticket - for instance fly into Warsaw, then maybe get a train to Belarus (if your fiance lives in Minsk, it's cheaper to take a train to Brest and then catch another one from Brest to Minsk than to buy a train ticket going directly to Minsk from Warsaw - or so I've heard), and then maybe you can use LOT from Minsk back to the US. I have never used LOT, I usually take the Lufthansa-Frankfurt-US route, because it is most convenient (time of day, less layover time) but not always cheapest. I have also done the bus to Vilnius route a couple of times (long boring bus ride, and a little bit scary for me when I first went alone and didn't know any Russian!).

But yes, you should come here (I say here since I'm actually in Belarus right now with my husband while we wait for his appointment), because it can be SO difficult for anyone here to get visas and I know they would be very happy to meet you!!! I am assuming that even though he's an only son, there are probably plenty of other relatives and friends to meet. And they will ALL want to celebrate your engagement - I think you'll have a great time here!

-aliska

[amberdima 6]

Hi amber,

I've made the trip to the US from Belarus several times now. There are only a few airlines that work directly out of Minsk - Belavia, LOT (Polish), Austrian, Lufthansa are the ones I remember. You can also travel by bus to Vilnius, Lithuania from Minsk (about 3.5 - 4 hours) and use Lithuanian airlines (FlyLAL) as they are sometimes much cheaper than the options from Minsk. Since you want to fly to Poland, maybe you should call LOT and ask about an "open-jaw" round trip ticket - for instance fly into Warsaw, then maybe get a train to Belarus (if your fiance lives in Minsk, it's cheaper to take a train to Brest and then catch another one from Brest to Minsk than to buy a train ticket going directly to Minsk from Warsaw - or so I've heard), and then maybe you can use LOT from Minsk back to the US. I have never used LOT, I usually take the Lufthansa-Frankfurt-US route, because it is most convenient (time of day, less layover time) but not always cheapest. I have also done the bus to Vilnius route a couple of times (long boring bus ride, and a little bit scary for me when I first went alone and didn't know any Russian!).

But yes, you should come here (I say here since I'm actually in Belarus right now with my husband while we wait for his appointment), because it can be SO difficult for anyone here to get visas and I know they would be very happy to meet you!!! I am assuming that even though he's an only son, there are probably plenty of other relatives and friends to meet. And they will ALL want to celebrate your engagement - I think you'll have a great time here!

-aliska

wow! wonderful advice and nice to hear from someone in BY! i just emailed the BY embassy in the US to see how quickly i can get a visitor visa because i have a week off for easter vacation. his family lives in Brest and he currently lives in Minsk. maybe we will cross paths! thank you!