American boy loves Ukrainian girl..looking for advice

[Nick_Moscow 2]

Just a few more points on this that the OP should find useful:

1. Yes, with a US passport most of these Eastern European countries can be visited visa-free. BUT YOUR TRIP IS LIMITED TO 30 DAYS OR LESS.

2. Your lady probably won't like the idea of having to get a visa just to visit her home country for more than 30 days (I wouldn't).

3. Therefore, it is very important that your lady keep her internal passport current. Plus the US is one of a few countries that allows (well, actually it just doesn't prohibit) dual citizenship. Why not take advantage of it?

4. My wife kept her maiden name since we both know how much fun Russian bureaucrats in the passport offices have with their power, making the people jump through hoops. Can't say whether the name change will make these kinds of procedures more difficult in Ukraine, but I can easily see how it would. So put some thought into this decision before you just get the driver's license/social security card/other document in a new name. May the lord help us if US bureaucrats get as bad as the Russian ones!

5. Everyone's right that bringing your lady here on a K1 visa is not like taking that first vacation with a US girlfriend stateside- it's a much bigger step! Think Meet the Parents with a thick accent, almost-offensive straightforward character, and lots of shoe shopping.

6. Therefore I think you'll like the idea of living with her in Ukraine a little longer before you take the marriage plunge. It sounds like your financial and career situation allow for this. The business visa dance I did with English schools in Russia in 2007 was difficult then and it sounds like it's not even possible now. Once I found a better school and got a long term visa it was much easier. Just find a legitimate ESOL school in Ukraine that can give you a work or teacher's visa - a Russian one is good for a year. If you find private clients on the side while in Ukraine you'll make even more money per academic hour. You'll be making money and letting your relationship "blossom" without being stuck in marriage too soon.

7. Even if you do go the fiance visa route you should be OK. It's not like international couples are the only ones who marry early in the relationship - how many US couples do you know who got married "too soon" b/c of pregnancy or other reasons?

Best of Luck to you and your lady~

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Just a few more points on this that the OP should find useful:

1. Yes, with a US passport most of these Eastern European countries can be visited visa-free. BUT YOUR TRIP IS LIMITED TO 30 DAYS OR LESS.

2. Your lady probably won't like the idea of having to get a visa just to visit her home country for more than 30 days (I wouldn't).

3. Therefore, it is very important that your lady keep her internal passport current. Plus the US is one of a few countries that allows (well, actually it just doesn't prohibit) dual citizenship. Why not take advantage of it?

4. My wife kept her maiden name since we both know how much fun Russian bureaucrats in the passport offices have with their power, making the people jump through hoops. Can't say whether the name change will make these kinds of procedures more difficult in Ukraine, but I can easily see how it would. So put some thought into this decision before you just get the driver's license/social security card/other document in a new name. May the lord help us if US bureaucrats get as bad as the Russian ones!

5. Everyone's right that bringing your lady here on a K1 visa is not like taking that first vacation with a US girlfriend stateside- it's a much bigger step! Think Meet the Parents with a thick accent, almost-offensive straightforward character, and lots of shoe shopping.

6. Therefore I think you'll like the idea of living with her in Ukraine a little longer before you take the marriage plunge. It sounds like your financial and career situation allow for this. The business visa dance I did with English schools in Russia in 2007 was difficult then and it sounds like it's not even possible now. Once I found a better school and got a long term visa it was much easier. Just find a legitimate ESOL school in Ukraine that can give you a work or teacher's visa - a Russian one is good for a year. If you find private clients on the side while in Ukraine you'll make even more money per academic hour. You'll be making money and letting your relationship "blossom" without being stuck in marriage too soon.

7. Even if you do go the fiance visa route you should be OK. It's not like international couples are the only ones who marry early in the relationship - how many US couples do you know who got married "too soon" b/c of pregnancy or other reasons?

Best of Luck to you and your lady~

1. Ukraine allows 90 days, not sure about other countries

2. She won't need to

3. Good advice. Alla also keeps her international passport current

4. Shoe shopping never ends. Build more closets

5. Not necessarily, he has to have a job to support her in the US, a job in Ukraine will not qualify

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I guess what kind of visa you go for might make a difference. We went the CR1 route so obviously Belarus recognizes our marriage there. She will soon have her US visa while keeping her Belarus visa for when she travels to Belarus. On the up side of her getting a new visa in Belarus with her new married name right after we got married there, people her aren't confused by seeing her with a different last name on her passport. That passport was used for ID for a bank account and obtaining a drivers license. All in her married last name...the same last name as mine. It makes it simple and again if we still went the CR1 route all over again tomorrow and she refused to take my last name I wouldn't marry her. She's either in with both feet or not in at all. Iv'e seen a few threads on here where the wife had trouble with something if it be travelling or another process and she had trouble because her passport was in another name than her married name.

That of course is in regards to the CR1 visa where the couple gets married in her country and not here. You get married over there and I see no reason not to change that visa to the new married name in order to simplify things over here.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Visa should have read "passport" up above as she will soon have her US passport while keeping her Belarus passport.

[Dave&Roza 748]

Maybe she was looking for a document that had a picture of a president on it!

Actually, I have found that the preferred document has a picture of the Ambassator to France and inventor. He was never president.

[Martyshk 137]

Visa should have read "passport" up above as she will soon have her US passport while keeping her Belarus passport.

Guy's lady is from Ukraine. All that information is not really pertinent (pretty much everything you wrote).

Just like Gary (and I) said - you don't need a damn visa or any other "complications" when the country is Ukraine.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Guy's lady is from Ukraine. All that information is not really pertinent (pretty much everything you wrote).

Just like Gary (and I) said - you don't need a damn visa or any other "complications" when the country is Ukraine.

With a CR1 visa what would be the benefit of the Ukrainian wife not getting a new passport with her American husbands name before she leaves to the US?

[Martyshk 137]

With a CR1 visa what would be the benefit of the Ukrainian wife not getting a new passport with her American husbands name before she leaves to the US?

The benefit would be not having a headache.

There's no requirement to change your name after marriage.

It's your personal preference, stop pushing it onto others and especially the OP.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

The benefit would be not having a headache.

There's no requirement to change your name after marriage.

It's your personal preference, stop pushing it onto others and especially the OP.

So in other words there is no benefit to not getting a new Ukrainian passport with her new married name in regards to a CR1 visa other than not having to file the paper work.

[Dave&Roza 748]

With a CR1 visa what would be the benefit of the Ukrainian wife not getting a new passport with her American husbands name before she leaves to the US?

If the Ukrainian process is anything like it is in Kazakhstan, then you will save a lot of standing in line waiting for the person to give you a document so you can fill it out and then stand in another line to get yet another document that has to be given to someone in a building half way across the city that is only open from 1300-1500 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After that you get yet another document, but wait you do not have what they need so it is back across the city and then hope you can make it before they close for the day or wait until next week. What a royal PITA just to change the last name on a passport. My wife had to go thru all of this just to get a new passport in her maiden name that was compliant with some new regulation and all passports issued before 2009 had to be changed. At least her passport now is good until 2020. The entire process of submitting the forms and all that took about 3 WEEKS.

As stated above by everyone else, changing the last name is a personal choice and I think we all know where you stand on this issue--it is so important to you that you would not marry your wife if she did not change her name. I believe the other way, but I also believe it is up to the people involved to decide for themselves.

Dave

Edited December 6, 2012 by Dave&Roza

[baron555 934]

So in other words there is no benefit to not getting a new Ukrainian passport with her new married name in regards to a CR1 visa other than not having to file the paper work.

IF....my wife was to change her Russian passport to take my last name.....AND...the internal Russian Adoption Agency found about it....and if they concluded she took him out of the country....not that anything wrong was done....they could decide, as they have the power to make their own rules.....they could take him away from his adopting mother.

We are married to each other, with different last names.....as indicated on our marriage certificate and that is all that matters to us. Yes, like my Mother, please stop trying to foist your views that the woman must assume the man's last name upon others. It is not legally necessary and also in God's eyes also.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I guess what kind of visa you go for might make a difference. We went the CR1 route so obviously Belarus recognizes our marriage there. She will soon have her US visa while keeping her Belarus visa for when she travels to Belarus. On the up side of her getting a new visa in Belarus with her new married name right after we got married there, people her aren't confused by seeing her with a different last name on her passport. That passport was used for ID for a bank account and obtaining a drivers license. All in her married last name...the same last name as mine. It makes it simple and again if we still went the CR1 route all over again tomorrow and she refused to take my last name I wouldn't marry her. She's either in with both feet or not in at all. Iv'e seen a few threads on here where the wife had trouble with something if it be travelling or another process and she had trouble because her passport was in another name than her married name.

That of course is in regards to the CR1 visa where the couple gets married in her country and not here. You get married over there and I see no reason not to change that visa to the new married name in order to simplify things over here.

I guess you did not understand. Alla did not change her name on anything after we were married. She would not have if we had been married in Ukraine. AT ALL TIMES all her ID, passport, green card, drivers license, eveything was in her maiden name. Bank account, credit cards, vehicle registration, everything. There was never any situation of having "two names".

When she became a citizen she legally changed her name and we then changed her DL, SSN and she received her US passport in her new "married" name. She has now changed the bank account, credit cards etc. All the things you did, just 4 years later. Her Ukrainian passport is still in her maiden name and will stay that way. She enters Ukraine as a US citizen in her married name and has 90 days to stay, that seems to be plenty so far. If she had to stay longer she has her Ukrainian passport to cover the "overstay" and at least one other VJ member has done exactly that.

When entering Russia (or Belarus if she were to go there) she uses either her internal or international Ukrainian passport.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Gary and Alla

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

IF....my wife was to change her Russian passport to take my last name.....AND...the internal Russian Adoption Agency found about it....and if they concluded she took him out of the country....not that anything wrong was done....they could decide, as they have the power to make their own rules.....they could take him away from his adopting mother.

We are married to each other, with different last names.....as indicated on our marriage certificate and that is all that matters to us. Yes, like my Mother, please stop trying to foist your views that the woman must assume the man's last name upon others. It is not legally necessary and also in God's eyes also.

Everyone does their own thing for their own reasons and names don't matter a bit. Not a bit.

I am with you Baron.

If Kip and Kira want to do that, that is fine by me. I make no case either way and couldn't possibly care less what others decide or for what reason. But there is no practical or useful reason to change a name, trying to invent one or imagine one is just silly.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

If the Ukrainian process is anything like it is in Kazakhstan, then you will save a lot of standing in line waiting for the person to give you a document so you can fill it out and then stand in another line to get yet another document that has to be given to someone in a building half way across the city that is only open from 1300-1500 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After that you get yet another document, but wait you do not have what they need so it is back across the city and then hope you can make it before they close for the day or wait until next week. What a royal PITA just to change the last name on a passport. My wife had to go thru all of this just to get a new passport in her maiden name that was compliant with some new regulation and all passports issued before 2009 had to be changed. At least her passport now is good until 2020. The entire process of submitting the forms and all that took about 3 WEEKS.

As stated above by everyone else, changing the last name is a personal choice and I think we all know where you stand on this issue--it is so important to you that you would not marry your wife if she did not change her name. I believe the other way, but I also believe it is up to the people involved to decide for themselves.

Dave

Yes, Ukraine is like Kazakhstan.

The ritual that always amazed me the most was standing in line to find out whcih line to stand in. It took us a FULL DAY just to get the application in for Alla's Police Certificate.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

So in other words there is no benefit to not getting a new Ukrainian passport with her new married name in regards to a CR1 visa other than not having to file the paper work.

Not necessarily. For one thing the paperwork can be a nightmare, but that is usually fixed by a bribe.

But the bottom line is, it has nothing to do with being easy or anything else, it is just a choice made by that couple.

Alla has changed her name now and I can tell you that she is no more "my wife" now than she was 7 months ago. Nothing changed.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Gary and Alla