Surname, interview, and travel questions

[Mirage 0]

Hello everybody! After 6 months and a few bumps in the road, my wife finally has her K3 interview scheduled for August 8th in Moscow! I have a few questions about the final steps that I hope some people can help with.

First of all, our surname is Wilson, but in the Cyrillic alphabet there is no transliteration to "W", so in my wife's international passport her surname is transliterated as "Uilson". The embassy told me that all her documents and visa application have to reflect this spelling. Does anybody know if something can be done when she arrives in the US to fix her name? The Russian embassy probably won't do anything since there is technically no "W" in the alphabet. I hope it will be possible to obtain her driver's license and other US documents in the correct name. It wouldn't be very nice for my wife to be stuck having her last name mispelled forever!

I plan to travel to Moscow for my wife's intervew and travel back home with her. In Moscow you have to give them a pre-paid DHL airbill to have the passport returned after the interview. Normally this only takes a few days. I have heard that in some rare cases the embassy perfoms some additional "security" processing or something which can delay getting the visa for a few weeks. Does anyboy know what can trigger this to happen or how common it is? I am planning our return trip for one week after the interview.

Finally, not such an important question but something of interest... we will be arriving in San Francisco and as I recall there are seperate lines at passport control depending on your status. I think the lines are New Immigrants, US Citizens, and Visitors/Permanent Residents. On a K3, which is the appropriate line? And can I go in the same line with her even though I'm a citizen?

Thanks for the help!

[germangel 0]

I belive that you can change your wife's name in the US. It kinda depends on the state, but in many, it is no hassle at all.