Moscow interview concern for k1

[yuliaandray 0]

I need your advice for the interview. Yulia and I communicate twice a day via messenger or icq. I think she reads and write near perfect english but she feels uncomfortable speaking english. I visited her twice and the first time she spoke really well with the help of a dictionary. On my second visit she hardly used the dictionary at all. We are really concerned that this might cause a problem if she doesnt understand a question from the CO or if she speaks the answer incorrectly. Is it unheard of if she asks to have the inteview in Russian?

Thanks

[Neonred 3,564]

She will be given a choice to have the interview in Russian or English. I am not sure about now, but a few years back it seemed the girls who spoke English during their interview had an easier and quicker interview. They asked my wife questions in Russian but she replied in English.

[norrin 3]

Neonred is correct she will be given a choice to have the interview done in English or Russian, however My Natasha told me that she noticed that the girls who got the least hassle and the least questions were the ones who spoke English at least well enough to answer the questions. A red flag goes up because they figure how can she communicate with him. Also the CO may start the interview in Russian and just start asking questions in English, not to trick anyone but it is their native language.

[baron555 934]

She will be given a choice to have the interview in Russian or English. I am not sure about now, but a few years back it seemed the girls who spoke English during their interview had an easier and quicker interview. They asked my wife questions in Russian but she replied in English.

She'll be asked "What language do you use when you two communicate?" If the answer is "English", then the interview will be conducted in that language. (Only makes sense.)

You two should be on the phone with each other, not chatting or texting, and you ask her all the questions and she should know the answers. Rehearse now.

[slim 1,525]

As the others have said, Russian is allowed.... but.......

Encourage her to do it in English. She'll be fine. Also, what Phil's talking about is having her practice the questions in English that could be asked at the interview. There's a thread on here somewhere in the RUB forum (one of these more tech-savvy and/or "I sit on VJ all day at work" guys can find it) about all the possible questions that she could face. They range from basic stuff like, "and where does he work? What does he do there?" to "why did he get divorced from his last wife?" and, always a favorite, "did you know he had a restraining order against him from one of his last girlfriends?"

That last one probably won't come up, especially if she does it in English and knows you have an ex-wife, got divroced 12 years ago, have two kids - ages 15 and 17 - work at a cotton gin, are the president of the company, have two cars, live in a yellow house, your parents are still living in their old house you grew up in, the walls of your bathroom are green.... etc., etc., etc.

Good luck!

Edited - Sweet wheels, Neon!

Edited March 8, 2010 by slim

[Neonred 3,564]

Thanks slim. It's my wife's car, but she is not allowed to drive it! LOL

[baron555 934]

As the others have said, Russian is allowed.... but.......

Encourage her to do it in English. She'll be fine. Also, what Phil's talking about is having her practice the questions in English that could be asked at the interview. There's a thread on here somewhere in the RUB forum (one of these more tech-savvy and/or "I sit on VJ all day at work" guys can find it) about all the possible questions that she could face. They range from basic stuff like, "and where does he work? What does he do there?" to "why did he get divorced from his last wife?" and, always a favorite, "did you know he had a restraining order against him from one of his last girlfriends?"

That last one probably won't come up, especially if she does it in English and knows you have an ex-wife, got divroced 12 years ago, have two kids - ages 15 and 17 - work at a cotton gin, are the president of the company, have two cars, live in a yellow house, your parents are still living in their old house you grew up in, the walls of your bathroom are green.... etc., etc., etc.

Good luck!

Edited - Sweet wheels, Neon!

Also how did you two meet? How many times have you been together in person?

We met via an online dating website and she was asked very pointed questions about it, including some questions that were posed purposefully wrong just to try to rattle the interviewee. Those who have had a long relationshiip with solid meetings and a number of meeting have not had any problems but she should be cautioned that the interviewer may ask off the wall questions or questions about details of your life that you two may not have talked too much about. Like, Did you know he has been married five times before? or How do you feel about living with his 12 children?

Being able to respond correctly, promptly and with knowledge will be key.

[mox 298]

One important note: if she translated her own documents, she will be required to do the interview in English.

[Turboguy 6]

You never know what you will get when you have an interview. I would agree with the suggestion to have her conduct it in English. It eliminates any concerns about how the two of you will communicate.

Sometimes the interview can be easy. I heard of one where the only question asked was "How are you today". There is a list of questions they are likely to ask here somewhere. I would highly recommend you get that list with any answers she wouldn't know before the interveiw.

Sometimes they can ask questions you might never think about. The interview for my first fiancee was a disaster. I will discuss it in some detail here but don't let this scare you. We had the C/O from hell and he is long gone. I printed out the list of questions and had planned on going over them with her the night before the interview. Someone on another forum suggested I don't do that. That after 4 trips and 7 weeks together she should know everything they would ask and if I have her cram with the answers it would just make her nervous and make it harder for her. I thought that sounded like good advice and followed it. Big mistake.

I went with my fiancee to the Embassy and was the only one there waiting for a fiancee. She went through the gates at 15 to 8 and I waited outside. They called her to the window and took her papers and asked if she wanted to have the interview in English or Russian. She said Russian and he said, I can do it in Russian but if I do, I will not give you the visa. She said English.

He asked how many times we had met. She answered 4.

He asked for the names of my children. She knew I had a son and a daughter but because of the langauge problems I just always had said my son did this or my daughter did this and like an idiot had never used their names thinking she could understand who I was talking about. Anyway, she didn't know, ( Missed question 1)

He then asked for my phone number. (She didn't know, missed question 2)

He then asked for my street address. (She didn't know, missed question 3) and end of interview. She got a 221-G (intent to deny) instead of the visa.

She came out with SpaDudes wife (a former poster here) and broke the bad news to me. I ended up flying home alone with an empty seat beside me that was intended and paid for her to be there. SpaDudes bride to be had much better luck.

We did end up getting the visa three weeks later after faxing a massive amount of proof and worrying endlessly during that time. It didn't work out anyway and she went back to Russia 89 days after she arrived.

My point in mentioning this is that you should make sure she knows your phone number, your mailing address, the names of any children, brothers, sisters, mom and dad and anyone else they might ask. Those are things some of us would never think of.

Another minus for us in their eyes was that we communicated mostly through SMS. Sometimes 10-15 a day and I had a print out showing that we had 2000 SMS messages back and forth. They didn't seem to put much stock in that so I might be a little concerned that most of your communicatins are IM. You should be ok though.

Fortunately my second fiancee's (my wife of 2 plus years now) interview went much smoother. Good Luck

[mox 298]

It definitely pays to be prepared. We went over the list of interview questions, although I thought as you did Turboguy, we'd been "together" long enough that it shouldn't be necessary. I'm glad we did though, they asked her a question that she didn't know before we went over the list (can't remember, it was something stupid like what kind of car I drive), and while I don't get the impression it would have made or broke the interview, it seems like it gave her a little shot of confidence to have answered such an obscure question.

Having said that, I really believe that unless you run into a situation like Turboguy's (where the interviewer was obviously just looking to deny due to sunspot activity or it was an odd-numbered Wednesday or something), the decision has been 90% made before the interview. If your "bona fides" are in order and you and your fiancee both know the relationship is real, then the visa is practically a given. It's when people start trying to game the system or think they have to lie when it gets complicated.

Nice to see you around again Turboguy!

[Turboguy 6]

Nice to see you around again Turboguy!

Thanks Mox

Most K-1's get approved with little difficulty. Just the same, it is better to be over prepared than to take chance on needing to rescue the situation.,

Edited March 10, 2010 by Turboguy

[yuliaandray 0]

Thanks everyone we've been been talking with Yahoo voip and she is doing great with english!!! She has been studying english and I am confident she will do great at the interview. We've also been going over possible questions and going over how everyone in my family fits in. I have one of those average american families with half siblings as well as step siblings.

Has anyone compiled a list of possible interview questions? I've seen many posts with almost duplicate questions but every once in a while I find a post that has a question I havent come across.

Thanks again.

[slim 1,525]

Do a search here in the RUB forum, it's out there somewhere. I'm a computer-fktard so I don't know how to do that kind of stuff.

[baron555 934]

Thanks everyone we've been been talking with Yahoo voip and she is doing great with english!!! She has been studying english and I am confident she will do great at the interview. We've also been going over possible questions and going over how everyone in my family fits in. I have one of those average american families with half siblings as well as step siblings.

Has anyone compiled a list of possible interview questions? I've seen many posts with almost duplicate questions but every once in a while I find a post that has a question I havent come across.

Thanks again.

Do a search for my posts at the end of November about Alla's interview and some of the posts around that time where the interviewee had some unusual questions.

Make sure she knows about your divorce, how many kids you have, maybe your phone number and address, maybe all about your criminal history, or about the dating web site you used. Also make sure she has adequate and various proofs of your ongoing relationship, copies of emails, chats, chat logs, etc. Also draft up a nice Summary of Our Relationship which describes your relationship, how you communicate, what you talk about, and include the lovey dovey stuff about how she is the perfect person and you two are destined to be together and that you both want to be together forever. Blah blah blah. We had to send extra documentation and I did this letter and I think that is what put us over the hump.

Others, have had very boring interviews and all went smooth.

Also have to prepared to be asked false questions just to get her reaction or to gauge her answers.

Example, "No that is not true. His Boy Scout Merit badge was for Sailing Knots, not Nooses!"