My sweetheart is finally in the US

[vbtwo 54]

Yay!!! We came in last Thursday, and I had my share of firsts on the trip to go get her!

Came in to Dnipropetrovsk through Moscow, had customs shake me down for a bribe (they x-ray all luggage there to find anything they can to shake you down. You can't bring in food to Ukraine, once I gave her $20 then magically you're allowed to bring it in now!).

On the way out, they rescanned our luggage again because they were trying to find some long metal objects that aren't there (probably wanted a bribe again, but we came in with plenty of time and weren't in danger of missing the plane, so we just let them recheck the luggage however long they wanted, they couldn't hold up the line for too long anyways as there were more people coming and they only have one x-ray machine and very few workers there). On rechecking, the long metal objects that aren't there magically disappeared from our luggage and they let us go.

On the other hand, had the best experience going through immigration at JFK ever. We came in, I asked the person directing people which line to go to (citizen or visitor) and he said: "no, don't go to any lines, see that office over there with security written on it, just go there", and he just sent us straight to secondary without waiting in the regular line. There was nobody else in the office in front of us, so they took our passports, the envelope from the embassy, asked us to sit and wait. Two minutes later called her up and took fingerprints and photo, then called me up, asked when our wedding will be, put stamps in passports and told us to go out to collect luggage. We were out of there in less than 5 minutes and were one of the first people from the plane to pass through passport control. The customs guy also gave us no trouble whatsoever, just looked at the customs form, put a stamp on it and told us to go.

[jandp2013 1]

Congrats enjoy the new chapter

[losornio 0]

Congrats

[Hollyday 122]

Congrats!

[Hin-d 16]

Did you tell the person, who directed you, that you were there with a K-1 visa? or,simply, just asked which line was appropriate?

[southernman 29]

Congrats!!

[vbtwo 54]

Did you tell the person, who directed you, that you were there with a K-1 visa? or,simply, just asked which line was appropriate?

Yes, asked which line to get into with a K1 visa, and he just told us to go to secondary.

[Snipe 21]

congrats!!

your adventure is inspirational and gives me hope! thats cool about jfk actually being a functional airport and them knowing what to do and that fast!!!!!

by the way,

I keep reading about all this shakedown at customs in russia but when I went to russia I passed customs on the green ine and they didnt even check my bags

also late to a flight from moscow to st petersburg. we passed security in like 2 seconds as we ran infront of everyone put bags passed. got bags alarms rang from metal detd tor but they saw us sweaty and in a rush and said nothing and we ran to gate we had liquids, laptop in bag, practically all the no nos yet not a word

[vbtwo 54]

by the way,

I keep reading about all this shakedown at customs in russia but when I went to russia I passed customs on the green ine and they didnt even check my bags

Yes, if you come in to a major airport like Moscow, they will not shake you down. Most of the time they won't even check you at all if you walk confidently through the green line. My uncle once came to Kiev with 3 huge bags and they only asked him how much cash he had and didn't bother to check the bags at all.

It's when you come in to a smaller regional airport is where they are really corrupt and will shake you down. In Dnipropetrovsk every single piece of luggage goes through x-ray through customs, even on the "green" line, so you can't just get lucky that they won't check you. Anything that they find that might require declaration they will stop you and shake you down for a bribe.

I heard stories from someone who came in to Odessa, you had to put a bribe in your passport when passing through passport control or they will find "something wrong with your documents" and waste lots of time trying to clear it up. One time they put like $10 in there and then the passport officer kept looking at the passport and back at them for a while. They asked "what's wrong?" and he said: "you gave too little". After giving another $10, they let them through.

[P A U L 14]

congrats!

(when i first read the title of this thread, i thought it said "sweater" for some reason)