US Immigration from Russia

I see Korea now has an optional ETA if entering on a US passport. I have not been there since 2019, so this is new for me. I was wondering if anyone thought it was worth getting the ETA? Does it help with getting through passport control faster?

My wife, stepdaughter and I are currently in Bangkok, waiting for the Embassy to deliver their passports with their CR1 & CR2 visas. They are very very slow. Their visa status went to "issued" last Friday and we got an email today that it could be another week to 10 days before we receive their passports at the agreed on postal location. Very very frustrating that the simple process of mailing and delivering our passports can take up to 2 weeks. That's not my question, though.

We are looking at travel options and short notice tickets from Bangkok to Dallas ain't cheap. We are considering flying separately to save money because I can buy my flights with credit card points. The challenge is, the flight that is best to be purchased with CC points, is the not the best flight to buy for $$. Hence, the idea of traveling separately.

My question is about my wife and stepdaughter entering the US without me. It is my understanding that as long as I enter the US before them, they can enter. They just can't enter before me.

What if we are traveling on the same day, through different US cities? For example, say I enter the US in Los Angeles 6am and they enter the US in San Francisco at 10am on the same day. Will that work? I assume when I arrive my status will be updated showing I am in the US and when my wife presents her visas, everything will be ok. Is that how it works? If not, how does it actually work?

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

I am a USC and my wife is LPR and has her 10y GC.

On August 15th we can submit her N-400 application for naturalization (90 day early filing).

I have a few questions about N-400 Part 6: Information About Your Children.

I have two children from a previous marriage. I don't have much interaction with them, and they live full-time with my ex-wife. As part of the divorce decree, and as I should, I pay monthly child support payments to my ex-wife. My current wife has basically no interaction with them.
My questions:
Are my two children considered my wife's stepchildren, and as per the N-400 instructions should they be listed in the Part 6 'About Your Children' section?

If yes, then how about the question 'are you providing support for this child?': I am paying support out of my own money, and my wife is not involved in these child support payments. Or since we are married is she considered to be providing support, and do we need to include proof of my child support payments?

Thanks,

Wouter

My wife s visa is now issued . We selected a post office for delivery but we have no other information about how to pick them up. Are we supposed to have a code or other identifying information to pick up our passports? How do they prevent someone from taking their passports from the post office?

My Russian wife had her interview on July 19th in Bangkok Thailand. At first, they asked us to provide marriage certificates from all our previous marriages. We had never seen a request to send marriage certificates from previous marriages. We uploaded our certified divorce decrees as requested. They wanted to cancel her interview and have us reschedule the interview in the future, which would mean we would have to go back home to Russia and America and spend the $$ to come back to Bangkok at a future date.

We were devastated. We were thorough. We were careful. We worked with a very experienced advisor. We were very confident that we had done everything required and that we had uploaded all required docs. Our advisor helps 75 cases per year and she hadn't seen a situation where they wanted the marriage certs, in addition to divorce documents.

My wife pleaded with the COs and they eventually relented. They allow my wife and stepdaughter to sit for the interview. The usual questions were asked. There was only one missing piece which was my wife's old passport which had her active B1 visa in it. She had a new passport with her new name, but she kept her old passport because of the tourist visa. Unfortunately, she didn't bring it to the interview with her.

They told her they needed the passport with the tourist visa so it could be cancelled which would allow them to issue her a CR1 visa.

They wouldn't let us go to our Airbnb and get her passport and bring it back the same day. They would only let us mail it to them, which we did that day.

So, the result of the interview, as we understood it was she and her daughter would get their passports back in 7-10 days with their CR1/CR2 visas.

Now it's August 7th and we haven't heard anything. We contacted them to confirm they received the passport we mailed to them and their form letter kinda said they received it, but it is written with some ambiguity.

We asked about the status of their cases a week ago and got a form email back that our case is in Administrative Processing and they'll let us know when they either issue the visa or need anything else from us.

The problem is, we have no clue whether it will be 1 week, 1 month or 3 months. How do we deal with such uncertainty. We're in a timezone 12 hours away from my home in Texas which makes it very difficult to work remotely. Today is the first day of school in Texas so we've missed that. It's all very depressing.

We contacted our US Senator and they were zero help. They just told us what we already know.

Is there anything we can do? Does a consulate ever give an indication as to how long the wait is going to be? We don't know if the wait is due to an issue with our case or due to a backlog. As I mentioned the CO said they would send their passports in 7-10 days and that timeframe has come and past.

What can we do?

Thanks.