General Experiences Marrying a Foreigner

[turveydrop 4]

So, I met Katya online about a year and a half ago. I visited her in Tashkent and then spent some time at her family's house in Urgench and went with them to Khiva. We had a great time. There was intense chemistry, and we had a lot of fun. The trip really couldn't have gone better. We filed an I-129F not long after I got back. After a few months, she started having doubts, and I honestly can't blame her. We hadn't known each other all that long, and she's never even been here. That's a pretty big leap of faith. I'm not sure I could commit to moving to another country to get married after six months and a two-week endorphin high, and her entire family is there. So, we canceled the application, and we've kept in touch. She wants to come here and check it out for a few weeks now. Neither us us can imagine anyone we would rather be with. Anyway, I've already posted about the tourist visa thing, and I think she has a decent chance because of her job and apartment. In this post, I'm looking ahead to when she moves here.

I like to think New York is above average in terms of places a Russian-speaking immigrant could start acclimating to the U.S. I can get her an unlimited Metrocard, and she can go all over the five boroughs all day, to parks and museums and libraries, seek out volunteer opportunities, etc. I also know Russian people I could introduce her to, etc. So, I think the environment is pretty solid.

What I'm more interested in is how some of your personal relationships have developed after finally ending up together in the U.S. After all the visits, the Skype sessions, and the emails, you're still getting to know this person on many levels once they arrive. To be perfectly honest, if most other people I know told me they were marrying someone under those circumstances, my attitude would probably be, "Yeah. Well, hmm. Good luck." All told, we will probably have spent 4-6 weeks together in person (though of course we will have seen each other for hours every day during those weeks, which would take a lot longer on a usual relationship timeline.) But of course I think I have better judgment than most people, just like everyone else. Ha.

So, I'm most interested in people who are done with the visa process. How and why did things end up working or not working?

Edited January 29, 2012 by turveydrop