Trying to price the entire process...

[sea-monkey 13]

Hi folks! New guy in town here.

I've read hours and hours through the boards and downloaded all of the forms. I think I’ve got a little grasp of the process, but I’m still very green on this subject…

I’m trying to get a ballpark figure on what people spent on the ordeal to get their ladies here. Filing fees, medical checks, plane trips to E. Europe for the interviews, postage for documents, etc. $5k? $10k?

I’m trying to balance and juggle saving for the filing process (documents, plane, etc), car for her, small Vegas/Hawaii type wedding and paying off my own stuff like credit cards and car note. I’m well above the 125% poverty rate. How much money are they going to want to see in the bank from me from on the I-134 form? The only real asset I have is a car. Towards the end of the process, I might just end up with a few grand left. Would this meet the requirements for the process?

Thanks in advanced.

Edited September 22, 2010 by sea-monkey

[baron555 934]

Hi folks! New guy in town here.

I've read hours and hours through the boards and downloaded all of the forms. I think I’ve got a little grasp of the process, but I’m still very green on this subject…

I’m trying to get a ballpark figure on what people spent on the ordeal to get their ladies here. Filing fees, medical checks, plane trips to E. Europe for the interviews, postage for documents, etc. $5k? $10k?

I’m trying to balance and juggle saving for the filing process (documents, plane, etc), car for her, small Vegas/Hawaii type wedding and paying off my own stuff like credit cards and car note. I’m well above the 125% poverty rate. How much money are they going to want to see in the bank from me from on the I-134 form? The only real asset I have is a car. Towards the end of the process, I might just end up with a few grand left. Would this meet the requirements for the process?

Thanks in advanced.

If you income is above the level, then you don't need any assets.

Figure about $20K to get her here and then about the same in clothes, language classes, extra expenses, etc.

[sea-monkey 13]

$20k is a little more than I imagined

I guess it will be about 2 years till I start the process. As for language/schooling, she holds a college degree and can read/write in English well. No extra schooling needed after arrival thankfully

Edited September 22, 2010 by sea-monkey

[AKguy 1]

I'm at around the 10K mark, figuring in the upcoming AOS we'll be doing soon.

That's with visiting there twice and having her come here once, well twice with the last time being more that just to visit.

[easyukraine 1]

I probably spent 16k before I even met my lady. I must admit some of the trips were just for vacation with friends but still, now I have her and son to bring after I go see her in 5 days.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

How much do you have? Send it in.

Joking. No, the fees will not be $5k. For one person. Multiply the same for each child, if any. More like $2k per person right now (they tend to go up...can you imagine?) Your travel and other expenses are on top of that but you can decide how much. My total expenses would probably scare the bejeezus out of me if I ever added them but I visited a LOT during the process, that was my own decision and don't regret it.

We are about to send in another $1100 for the Removal of Conditions for two of the three immigrants in our family. The other one is next spring.

Add to that tripling the utilities, food bill, buy another car, more than double the insurance, quadruple the medical insurance, yada yada, but you would get that even with a domestic wife and they are no where near the value.

You do not have to give up all the rest of your money until she arrives.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hi folks! New guy in town here.

I've read hours and hours through the boards and downloaded all of the forms. I think I’ve got a little grasp of the process, but I’m still very green on this subject…

I’m trying to get a ballpark figure on what people spent on the ordeal to get their ladies here. Filing fees, medical checks, plane trips to E. Europe for the interviews, postage for documents, etc. $5k? $10k?

I’m trying to balance and juggle saving for the filing process (documents, plane, etc), car for her, small Vegas/Hawaii type wedding and paying off my own stuff like credit cards and car note. I’m well above the 125% poverty rate. How much money are they going to want to see in the bank from me from on the I-134 form? The only real asset I have is a car. Towards the end of the process, I might just end up with a few grand left. Would this meet the requirements for the process?

Thanks in advanced.

FYI, they could not possibly care less if you have any money in the bank. They do not even care if you know what a bank is. If your GROSS income exceeds the guidelines, you are fine. No need to have, mention, list assets or cash. Feel free to spend ALL of it.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

$20k is a little more than I imagined

I guess it will be about 2 years till I start the process. As for language/schooling, she holds a college degree and can read/write in English well. No extra schooling needed after arrival thankfully

20k is light. Have you figured a car for her? Teaching her to drive? Have you figured for her 2nd car (she will crash the first one within 6 months) New "stuff" (they leave a lot behind and then need to replace it) In a way, I was joking when I said "How much do you have?" but in another, it is not a joke at all. I can also add that we have almost all new furniture and appliances since Alla has arrived. These are all things you decide together

Phil had a child in the mix, I had two...double or triple everything. Alla was working as an interpreter in Ukraine and Russia, translating/interpreting English/Russian for international business interests...so yes, she spoke English. She is now working on a Masters degree in English and a teaching certificate in English from an expensive private University and one of our sons is in the top Physics school in Russia. The problem with educated Russians/Ukrainians that speak "good English" is that when they arrive here they are not going to be content to be your housewife, they want to DO something in addition. They quickly learn that even though they speak "real good English" they are qualified to wash dishes or clean toilets unless they speak much better English, so they want education. Big surprise. Alla is now TEACHING English in her practicum II. Were I you, I would not try to imagine she will not want some education when she arrives. The level you indicate she speaks will rule out the free ESL classes. Check the prices of tuition for local university "AEP" or "IEP" classes or college English courses.

More good news. Since she already has a college degree, she will not qualify for any government grants, Pell grants, etc. While a private university is more expensive on the surface, Alla was able to get a grant that she could otherwise not have received for 50% of her tuition. We pay the rest, but it is actually less than what we would pay at the University of Vermont, for example.

Figure for travel back to Russia at least once per year...for us it is for four people, plus our son who comes back and forth on school holidays.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

$20k is a little more than I imagined

I guess it will be about 2 years till I start the process. As for language/schooling, she holds a college degree and can read/write in English well. No extra schooling needed after arrival thankfully

Trying to save up enough before you start the process will never work. You will never save enough in two years and the price will just double by then anyway.

You do not pay all this at one time, it is spread out over time. It never ends until you die (so I am told)

[SMR 368]

$20k is a little more than I imagined

I guess it will be about 2 years till I start the process. As for language/schooling, she holds a college degree and can read/write in English well. No extra schooling needed after arrival thankfully

You certainly can spend $20k. But you don't have to if you don't have it. Fees are $450 for the K-1 application and $131 for the visa application (I think it may have gone up to $350). AOS is another $1080 after you are married. Add expenses for copying and gathering the documents and you will be around $2k per person. In a couple years you will need to file removal of conditions. I'm not sure how much it is but you'll have a chance to save up.

Everything else is up to you. You need to consider travel expenses to visit each other and wedding and honeymoon expenses. You'll need to work out with her what she expects when she gets here. You can spend some thousands on a wedding and the same on a honeymoon. A couple thousand for rings. A thousand for every time someone makes the flight from US to Russia (or vice-versa). If she expects a car, you'll have to figure out what you are going to spend. You'll need to compensate for increased living expenses, especially if she isn't planning to work (and she won't be able to for the first couple months). On the other hand, you can visit once (some here swear by going to the interview but I didn't, it didn't really occur to me and never came up), marry at a courthouse, honeymoon on the cheap, get some gold wedding bands for a few hundred(or skip rings altogether), and get her working as soon as possible.

In short, figure out what the two of you want to do. The only thing set is the fees (and make sure you have the AOS fee in the bank waiting). Everything else is up to you. And as has been said, they don't care about assets at all on the I-134 and I-864 so long as you have the income. Assets are a possible replacement for income but not necessary in addition to it. On a side note, you can't count a single car as an asset unless you can prove that selling it won't affect your income (ie. you walk or take the bus to work). A second car could be an asset.

Edited September 23, 2010 by SMR

[1HappyGuy 45]

Sea-monkey,

You've gotten lots of good advice. Now the question is, do you really want to wait? Why? The costs involved are much less than the benefits you will receive in return. Don't wait, get the process going. You are going to have on-going costs as returns to her country will almost always be in your future. Some of the costs mentioned are costs of adjusting to a new wife and all that entails. There will certainly be higher costs at home like utilities, food, clothes, entertainment, etc. Possibly another car for her, driving lessons, English lessons if needed and a whole list of other things we don't even begin to think about.

In the long run, you will end up with a loving wife that will make your life so much happier that it can't be measured in money.

If I add up the entire costs that I have incurred since I began my journey in 2003 it will probably exceed $50,000. But that includes multiple trips to Ukraine, some failures along the way, USCIS fees (which end up being the least amount), cars, clothes, gifts, lessons and trips to show your new spouse America. Most of those you would incur with a wife from this country but in all likelihood you would not end up as happy.

So, get your butt in gear and start the process. The sooner you start, the sooner your life begins.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Sea-monkey,

You've gotten lots of good advice. Now the question is, do you really want to wait? Why? The costs involved are much less than the benefits you will receive in return. Don't wait, get the process going. You are going to have on-going costs as returns to her country will almost always be in your future. Some of the costs mentioned are costs of adjusting to a new wife and all that entails. There will certainly be higher costs at home like utilities, food, clothes, entertainment, etc. Possibly another car for her, driving lessons, English lessons if needed and a whole list of other things we don't even begin to think about.

In the long run, you will end up with a loving wife that will make your life so much happier that it can't be measured in money.

If I add up the entire costs that I have incurred since I began my journey in 2003 it will probably exceed $50,000. But that includes multiple trips to Ukraine, some failures along the way, USCIS fees (which end up being the least amount), cars, clothes, gifts, lessons and trips to show your new spouse America. Most of those you would incur with a wife from this country but in all likelihood you would not end up as happy.

So, get your butt in gear and start the process. The sooner you start, the sooner your life begins.

The main difference in cost between a foreign wife and a domestic one is the government fees, about $2k right now, but spread over about 6-9 months. Travel costs are your own to calculate. The expenses of adding people to a household are to be expected if you marry anyone, nothing really unusual about that.

I agree, it is cheap at twoce the price.

[slim 1,525]

I'm a cheapskate and constantly reminding my wife that she didn't win a jackpot or a scholarship. She joined me here to get married, not to live on easy street.

I met her in Moscow (she's from the Far East - she flew to Moscow on her dime) once to satisfy the 2 year requirement. She flew here to enter the country on a K-1 visa. Neither of us have been back there in the last four years. She pays for her own car and insurance and helps out with the bills. The only thing she "won" (other than me, of course) was the opportunity to earn more money here in America. She paid (and continues to pay) for a significant portion of all this herself.

Your VJ can cost as much or as little as you offer to pay. I would ballpark 5 grand to get it done on a budget. It's more dependent on flights and vacation trips than anything. The good thing with that 5 grand is it's split up. Two grand for the trip to see her, a grand for filing, two grand for final expenses of the trip to get her here and getting everything filed after and settled in.

Keep in mind... there's no law against her paying for stuff too.

As others have hinted at, file as soon as possible. There's no incentive to waiting unless you want to pay more when the fees go up again. Good luck, have fun, and don't hesitate to ask any questions at all here in the RUB forum. We're here to help.

[sea-monkey 13]

Some good insight here, thanks.

For a car, I’m planning on buying a cheapo. I figure she’ll use it for a year or until she crashes it. Whichever comes first. I know she won’t like the idea of such a cheap car. Oh well. She has her own car in Moscow now. If she wants a late model car, she’ll have to wait and land a job first. I make enough to cover all living expenses for 2 people. That’s calculating a late model car payment for her, insurance, extra mobile phone, additional food, etc but not much money thereafter. She does plan on working here thankfully. I already have a woman in my life that I have to contribute financially each month to, my mother And no I don't live with her I’m not going to cover for someone 100%. I’d rather stay single and live comfortably than married and semi broke each month. $1k is pretty much all I have left over each month to work with after all my expenses are paid for and after my car note will be paid off in a handful of payments. I’m cutting expenses like crazy now.

2 people on 1 income, no so happy. 2 people, 2 incomes would make life comfortable.

She works for a foreign company in Moscow and uses English on a daily basis, well at least M-F. I guess I should see about some cultural assimilation courses. I’m not really factoring in trips back to Russia for her after she comes here, if she wants out of RU so much, why would she want to take trips back That’s my logic, but I don’t think that’s going to apply. She’s also saving up on her end to cover for personal items once she gets here.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'm a cheapskate and constantly reminding my wife that she didn't win a jackpot or a scholarship. She joined me here to get married, not to live on easy street.

I met her in Moscow (she's from the Far East - she flew to Moscow on her dime) once to satisfy the 2 year requirement. She flew here to enter the country on a K-1 visa. Neither of us have been back there in the last four years. She pays for her own car and insurance and helps out with the bills. The only thing she "won" (other than me, of course) was the opportunity to earn more money here in America. She paid (and continues to pay) for a significant portion of all this herself.

Your VJ can cost as much or as little as you offer to pay. I would ballpark 5 grand to get it done on a budget. It's more dependent on flights and vacation trips than anything. The good thing with that 5 grand is it's split up. Two grand for the trip to see her, a grand for filing, two grand for final expenses of the trip to get her here and getting everything filed after and settled in.

Keep in mind... there's no law against her paying for stuff too.

As others have hinted at, file as soon as possible. There's no incentive to waiting unless you want to pay more when the fees go up again. Good luck, have fun, and don't hesitate to ask any questions at all here in the RUB forum. We're here to help.

I think we will agree that Slim represents the bottom end of the price you can expect to pay.

Keep in mind, a K-1 will not be able to work for some months after arrival, until they have an EAD or Green Card. Your university educated wife may be disappointed with the job opportunities available for her without further education. Alla has done pretty well with some freelance modeling/translating/interpretting work while she goes to school. Taking an educated woman and putting her in a position of "have to" wipe tables or clean hotel rooms will not contribute to marital bliss. Marital bliss is high on my list of priorities, otherwise, why get married?

Slim's wife seems to accept not returning to Russia for four years. Mine will accept not returning for four months, and I can stretch it to 6 months. Slim does not have children, either before or since. Most Russian/Ukrainian women will either have children or want them, be prepared for that.

As Slim says, we are here to help but you will find us to be a diverse bunch and you can take it all in and decide for yourself.