Ukraine/Crimea K1 Fiancee & Political Mess

[RodIllinois 2]

In mid-February my fiancee received her packet from the US Embassy in Kiev. Unfortunately a couple of days later everything fell apart in Ukraine. My fiancee lives in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, which is now occupied by Russian troops.

She was in the process of renewing her domestic passport at the time so she could travel to Kiev. The police called her after that and told her to come in and pick up her old passport and photos because they could no longer renew a domestic Ukrainian passport. She already had an appointment for March 16 to pick up her police certificate for her K-1 visa, so we will see then if that is even possible.

Even if we get the police certificate, getting her to Kiev may be a problem. So we are stuck in limbo until the political situation is straightened out. In the meantime, our K-1 approval from USCIS technically expires on April 11th. I am fairly certain I will need to call the embassy before the end of March to see if we can get an extension.

Has any heard of anyone else in a similar situation and whether they have figured out a game plan for the current mess?

My fiancee is an ethnic Russian and worries about her safety even if she can manage to get out of the Crimea and go to Kiev. I was planning to take her to Kiev before all this happened, but now as an American it isn't safe for me to go to Crimea.

[Ilovemyman 147]

The embassy make an automatical extension , expiration date on noa2 it doesnt matter.

My petition says that expire on february 23 and my interview is on march 18,

No problem with the expiration date.

I hope that your fiancee be safe, and the situation become better at ucrain.

God protect everybody there

[Rwlaird 18]

My wife is from Nikolaev so we have been watching everything very close. I have no idea but would expect that the trains will still be running from Simferopol to Kiev. If you want to go to Kiev I have a good friend who can help you. He's a really good guy and can help you rent an apartment, translate, etc. He'll keep you safe. Good luck!

[RodIllinois 2]

Thanks for replying. The trains have not been running out of Crimea for at least a couple of days.

UIA was flying from Kiev to Simferopol until yesterday. But as of today all flights are cancelled through March 17th. It is posted on their web site. They think they will be able to resume on March 18th, but who knows if that will happen!

Turkish Airlines operates 2 flights daily between Simferopol and Istanbul, but the flights for this evening and tomorrow morning have been cancelled. They only say to check online for later flights before heading to the airport.

Even if flights are restored next week, the way the US Embassy in Kiev works right now is that they keep your international passport and send it to your home by courier. I do not think my fiancee will be able to return to Simferopol without her international passport since Crimea will probably consider Ukraine a foreign country starting next week. Maybe the embassy will make an exception and let her pick up her passport there. Have you ever heard of them doing that?

[Natalie and Bruce 18]

Thanks for replying. The trains have not been running out of Crimea for at least a couple of days.

UIA was flying from Kiev to Simferopol until yesterday. But as of today all flights are cancelled through March 17th. It is posted on their web site. They think they will be able to resume on March 18th, but who knows if that will happen!

Turkish Airlines operates 2 flights daily between Simferopol and Istanbul, but the flights for this evening and tomorrow morning have been cancelled. They only say to check online for later flights before heading to the airport.

Even if flights are restored next week, the way the US Embassy in Kiev works right now is that they keep your international passport and send it to your home by courier. I do not think my fiancee will be able to return to Simferopol without her international passport since Crimea will probably consider Ukraine a foreign country starting next week. Maybe the embassy will make an exception and let her pick up her passport there. Have you ever heard of them doing that?

My wife is in Nikolaev currently, as we wait through the NVC backup. So I've been watching this closely as well. Right now, it looks like only Aeroflot flights are going to Crimea. It might be worth sending an email to the Embassy in Kiev, and asking.

I hope she can get out of there without any hassle. I asked NVC about an expedite today, but they didn't sound real positive about it. Hopefully this all gets worked out in a peaceful way.

[cyclingguy 1]

It's such a small world - I'm also from Chicago and going through the K1 process and my fiancé is from Sevastopol. It's been several months and I'm hoping you guys got things worked out. I've felt the very same things you've mentioned in the thread.

Instead of starting a new thread I figured I'd piggy back on this one. We heard from the US Embassy via email that they received our paperwork and are ready to proceed. The first step involves making the visa payment. From what I read, this involves payment in hryvnia (Ukrainian) currency at a Ukrainian bank called Raiffeisen Bank Aval. From what I understand, the branches all throughout Crimea have closed. Does the state department expect us to travel to Kiev (36 hour round trip) or a neighboring city in the hot zone to simply make payment for the visa or are they making other accommodations? I emailed back to the embassy asking this question and have yet to hear anything. It really, really, would suck to have to take a roundtrip flight from the states just to pay the stupid visa fee - or have my fiancé take the train through a war zone for 36 hours to do the same. We don't have any friends in Kiev either who can help Any advice?

[Al&Da 5]

cyclinggu,

yes, your fiance will have to travel to the closest Ukrainian city to make a payment (many much closer than Kiev ). The US Embassy does not make exceptions. However, if she has relatives living in Ukraine, that solves it - she does not have to make that payment personally, she will only need a code from the pay stub they can text her. That's what I did, being in Donestk.

[RodIllinois 2]

I apologize for taking so long to respond.

Yes, your fiance must travel to Ukraine to pay at Raiffeisen Bank. However, there is not much of a wait these days for appointments. Once she pays for the visa, she can probably schedule the appointment within a day or 2. So she could travel to Kiev to pay for the visa, then immediately schedule the appointment a day or 2 later. That is what the embassy advised us to do, but my fiancee needed to go to Kiev anyway in June so I sent money to her by Western Union which she picked up at Raiffeisen Bank and paid for the visa while she was there. When she paid for the visa, we could have scheduled the interview 2 days later. We chose instead to wait for me to come to Kiev with her in July for her interview.

I would suggest sending an email to the embassy asking what they advise and how long the wait is for a fiancee visa appointment. Include the case number in the email subject, something like this:

Case Number: KEV 2014123456/ K-1 Visa Application

The email address is: KyivIV@state.gov

They are generally good about responding within a couple of business days.

Don't forget you will also need to schedule the medical exam in Kiev a couple of days before the interview.

By the way, the trains are running just fine between Crimea and Ukraine. They just tend to be 2 to 3 hours late because of the time required to clear Russian and Ukrainian passport control. They will totally search everything, so be prepared for that. My fiancee has travelled to Kiev 3 times this year by train since June.

Make sure your fiancee travels with her Ukrainian internal passport and keeps her Russian passport well hidden from the Ukrainian border guards, like inside her bra. It is illegal for Ukrainians to have dual citizenship, so having both passports could cause her big problems. But she will need her Russian passport at the Russian border crossing. The Russian border guards have no problem with her carrying both passports.

Edited December 10, 2014 by RodIllinois