Moscow Trip Report

[bainbridge558 0]

Okay,

So we arrived late Saturday night and spent Sunday scouting out locations relating to the interview. Olga's medical exam was scheduled for 8:30am Monday morning at IOM/MOM. The rest of this post is probably going to be boring, but I thought it was worth posting as much detail as I could in case it helps out someone else later on. I also add the disclaimer that I'm probably not transcribing all the Cyrillic-to-Latin stuff correctly, so pardon any mistakes I made there.

The building you go to first is on Zvenigorodskaya St. The closest Metro stop is "Ulitsa 1905 Goda" a couple of blocks away. The entrance is marked by a small blue flag hanging over the door. There's also a sign that says it doesn't open until 9am >shrug<.

When you walk in, you go through a metal detector that no one was monitoring on our arrival and it didn't look like anyone would have been required to empty their pockets or anything like that. You then go upstairs to a reception/administrator and give them your name and reason for being there. They then gave Olga a one-page form that is used by everyone planning to immigrate to the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, regardless of visa type.

After filling out the form, we got sent to another waiting area where they had two windows open. There were about five people ahead of us and we ended up waiting about a half hour. We only saw two other women there for K-1 reasons, but there were about 20 people there total for immigration-related exams. When you go to the window, they take your form, passport and pictures, give you another form, then send you to the cashier to pay. They take US or Russian currency, but most of these places seem to use their own currency conversion rates. In our case, it was $160 USD or 5,040 rubles.

After the cashier, you go back to the window and they hand you a pass (for the next building), a large white envelope (big enough to hold an x-ray) and then give you directions on where you need to go next. For a woman going through this alone, particularly if she's never been to Moscow before, this has to be incredibly exhausting and frustrating. While our original "appointment" was 8:30am, they actually set the real appointment at the window--they give you an hour to get to the second location. In our case, that was 10:20am, but they said you could get there as late as noon.

From IOM administrative area, you need to walk to the "Ulitsa 1905 Goda" Purple Line Metro stop to the "Kuznetsky Most" station. You then transfer to the Red Line "Lubyanka" track and take that to "Biblioteka" (which is also one of the Metro stops that takes you right to the entrance bridge to Red Square). Then you walk down Vozdvizhenka St., take a right on Romanov Lane to Building 2. I don't recall any obvious signs/flags indicating what the building was, so we relied on the address and a small sign that pointed to another door.

Once you get inside, you take the first right and there's a gentleman sitting by a turnstile. He takes the passes, looks at your passports, writes you into a logbook, then escorts you through the turnstile. However, he doesn't take you into a waiting area. He takes you back outside and points to yet a different building altogether that you cross a courtyard to get to. This was the nicest guy we met during the entire process--he took great pleasure at me saying "spacibo, da svidanya" in what was apparently a very strong American accent >sigh<.

In the third building, you go up the stairs to the second floor, take a right and enter what appears to be the actual doctor's office. You turn in your envelope and wait to be called. When it's your turn, you go into the office and a nurse hands you a form that explains what needs to be done next and in what order, and they ask you to verify the accuracy of some personal information (name, passport number, MOS number).

After that, you go a couple of doors down in the same office and have blood drawn (arm/vein, not fingertip). From there, you go to yet another building to have a chest x-ray done. Once the film is developed, they stick everything in your giant envelope and you wander back to the office you had the blood drawn at. After some waiting, you actually get to meet with the doctor. The doctor asks for weight, height, bad habits (smoking, for example), previous operations/severe sicknesses and listens to your chest--it takes maybe 10 minutes. When all that's done, you follow the maze back out of the building and come back around 4pm to pick up the exam results.

Since we had some time to kill, we went over to the mall next to the US Embassy ("Novinsky Passage", I think) and took care of the DHL label (which you also need your MOS number for, since that's used in the Shipper's Reference field). That cost 1,517 rubles (to Chelyabinsk). We had lunch at Il Patio again because it was decent and cheap, though the service wasn't particularly friendly or English-savvy.

We went back to the second IOM building (2 Romanov Lane), through the turnstile, into the courtyard and into the third building. We got there at 3:20pm, but the results were ready anyway. We got to take the giant envelope with the chest x-ray (I'm not sure what we're going to do with it--Olga won't let me hang it in the living room for some reason) and a "normal size" sealed white envelope with the exam results.

Some closing thoughts on medical exam day:

For the exam, you only need the money, international passport, two 3x4cm pictures, and MOS number. If you have your vaccination records, bring them with and they'll review/notate them on the record--but they aren't required.

At any one time during the whole process, we were waiting with maybe 10 other people. A bit of comraderie forms as you run into the same people at each building. One elderly woman came over and talked to Olga when she heard I was from Chicago. Apparently, her daughter was already in the US, lived in Illinois and petitioned for her parents to come join her. Very nice woman and I hope everything went well for her. The "K-1 Crew" also chatted at each office--one of the women had her daughter with, though they didn't really do anything with the child except make sure the paperwork was filled out.

So--apologies if this was dull. While the exam process itself was convoluted, everything went off pretty smoothly.

Will post about the actual interview next. Sorry this post was so dry.

Excellent report again Chuck !!

My Olga did not go into the details ... but whenI called her she was " in between " buildings .. for the second time

I've gotten a few details from her interview ( I'll get more when I talk to her in an hour or so )... I guess she had to wait for about 3 hours because they only had 2 guys working the interviews. The actual interview itself was about 15 minutes total time and she was very surprised when he did not want to see any of the photos or 90% of the documents I had sent to her ( the only thing he wanted to see was my tax returns and W-2's ) .... after carrying all that stuff around Moscow, I guess she " volunteered " to show him and he smiled and said that it wasn't necessary

One thing I am a little panicked about tho' ....... I was under the impression that once her interview was over the officer would pack all of the papers in the big " DO NOT OPEN " envelope and give it to her ........ PLEASE tell me this " AIN'T " the case !!!!

I talk to her this morning and was in the process of telling her how important it was NOT to open the envelope ..... when she asked " WHAT ENVELOPE ? " The officer told her Congratulations, the K-1 is good for 90 days, ... and have a nice day !

The envelope will be sent to her address along with the passport .... right ????? anybody ... right ????????

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

That's because most Russian "taxis" are gypsy cabs.

I was thinking the same thing. There are tons of private drivers. Alla's phones were full of phone numbers for private drivers in every city she went to for business. We were never more than 5 minutes from curb service if we needed it. (usually if it was raining) and for about 1/3 the price of official cabs.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Excellent report again Chuck !!

My Olga did not go into the details ... but whenI called her she was " in between " buildings .. for the second time

I've gotten a few details from her interview ( I'll get more when I talk to her in an hour or so )... I guess she had to wait for about 3 hours because they only had 2 guys working the interviews. The actual interview itself was about 15 minutes total time and she was very surprised when he did not want to see any of the photos or 90% of the documents I had sent to her ( the only thing he wanted to see was my tax returns and W-2's ) .... after carrying all that stuff around Moscow, I guess she " volunteered " to show him and he smiled and said that it wasn't necessary

One thing I am a little panicked about tho' ....... I was under the impression that once her interview was over the officer would pack all of the papers in the big " DO NOT OPEN " envelope and give it to her ........ PLEASE tell me this " AIN'T " the case !!!!

I talk to her this morning and was in the process of telling her how important it was NOT to open the envelope ..... when she asked " WHAT ENVELOPE ? " The officer told her Congratulations, the K-1 is good for 90 days, ... and have a nice day !

The envelope will be sent to her address along with the passport .... right ????? anybody ... right ????????

Right. But the K-1 is good for 6 months for entry into the US. When she enters it will be cancelled and replaced with the I-94 which repalces it and THAT is good for 90 days. You need to get married before the I-94 expires.

Congratulations

[bainbridge558 0]

Right. But the K-1 is good for 6 months for entry into the US. When she enters it will be cancelled and replaced with the I-94 which repalces it and THAT is good for 90 days. You need to get married before the I-94 expires.

Congratulations

Yep, that one I knew and was getting ready to explain to her about the I-94 when I mentioned the do not open envelope. Thanks !

[Salsa Shark 0]

Can you advise me about the interval between the Interview, and when you received the DHL envelope with the visa?

Interview was on Tuesday, 8 Jun 2010. The first tracking entry on the DHL web site was around 8pm on Friday, 11 Jun 2010. We were thinking the visa+passport would be delivered to Chelyabinsk on Tuesday, but then we realized there is yet another Russian holiday (Independence Day) and that may push things out to Wednesday instead.

Here's what the DHL web site currently shows for our envelope:

Saturday, June 12, 2010 Location Time

7 Departed Facility in South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 08:17

6 Processed at South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 08:09

Friday, June 11, 2010 Location Time

5 Shipment on hold South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:43

4 Arrived at Sort Facility South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:41

3 Departed Facility in North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:16

2 Processed at North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:16

1 Shipment picked up North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 19:51

Edited June 12, 2010 by Salsa Shark

[Salsa Shark 0]

One thing I am a little panicked about tho' ....... I was under the impression that once her interview was over the officer would pack all of the papers in the big " DO NOT OPEN " envelope and give it to her ........ PLEASE tell me this " AIN'T " the case !!!!

I talk to her this morning and was in the process of telling her how important it was NOT to open the envelope ..... when she asked " WHAT ENVELOPE ? " The officer told her Congratulations, the K-1 is good for 90 days, ... and have a nice day !

The envelope will be sent to her address along with the passport .... right ????? anybody ... right ????????

The envelope will be sent in the DHL package along with the passport and visa. According to our tracking info, the package is .5kg.

I'll confirm when we have it in our hands (hopefully Tuesday).

[Advanced Aardvark 82]

Interview was on Tuesday, 8 Jun 2010. The first tracking entry on the DHL web site was around 8pm on Friday, 11 Jun 2010. We were thinking the visa+passport would be delivered to Chelyabinsk on Tuesday, but then we realized there is yet another Russian holiday (Independence Day) and that may push things out to Wednesday instead.

Here's what the DHL web site currently shows for our envelope:

Saturday, June 12, 2010 Location Time

7 Departed Facility in South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 08:17

6 Processed at South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 08:09

Friday, June 11, 2010 Location Time

5 Shipment on hold South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:43

4 Arrived at Sort Facility South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The South of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:41

3 Departed Facility in North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:16

2 Processed at North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 22:16

1 Shipment picked up North of Moscow - Russian Federation, The 19:51

Thanks. We are about a month behind you in the process. Interview will be July 6th. Our package only has to go 300 km north of Moscow, so we are guessing a couple of days after the Embassy sends the package. Right now, am probably doing the calculations you were doing a few weeks ago.

By the time our package leaves the Embassy, you and the boss will already be having a cold one on Navy Pier.

Edited June 12, 2010 by Tim & Olga

[slim 1,530]

Each document translation was about 700 rubles. So, we were able to have three documents translated (next day service), for about the same cost as one document at a company I used here.

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.

[Advanced Aardvark 82]

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 руб 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.

[slim 1,530]

700 руб 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.

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.

[Advanced Aardvark 82]

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.

[slim 1,530]

It sounds like $22 - $23 is worth a lot more to you than it is to me.

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.

[Advanced Aardvark 82]

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 Дом Книги, 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 Дом Книги 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.

[Terry&Tigger 4]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/258039-russian-english-english-russian-translations/

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

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.

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)