DaveAndAnastasia

There were a decent number of unattended buckets of candy around us (including at our place; as PRG and I were both accompanying mini-Dave). If we were somewhere that got more than a handful of trick or treaters, though, and I were handing out in person ... teenagers need to be in costume or accompanying costumed younger siblings to get candy.

While out with mini-Dave, PRG, and neighbors (have little girl nine months younger than mini-Dave and even littler girl who's like six months old now -- also, babies seem much lighter now than they were three years ago), overheard some older tricker-treaters complaining about getting too many Reese's. I was like "most people buy candy they like so the leftovers won't be wasted, and everyone without a peanut allergy likes Reese's". Of course, this year bought candy mini-Dave likes instead as Halloween candy is bad for my diet, man; last year regressed five or ten pounds (still, down over forty pounds from when I started this back in August 2022) over the holidays, trying to avoid repeat. At any rate, mini-Dave had a good time trick or treating; didn't get scared off by the slasher-movie-villain at the super-decorated home this year (last year, daddy having a lightsaber and mommy dressed as Captain Marvel was apparently insufficient reassurance).

Unless processing times change radically and K-1s become much faster to get to the US again, or Utah Zoom marriages go away, there's basically no upside to a K-1 for most people unless you're just really uncomfortable living apart for an extended period while married (there are some exceptions; children aged 18-21 can be derivatives on a K-1 but not on a CR-1/IR-1, and there may be other legal corner cases I'm unaware of). When we did one, K-1s were significantly faster to the US, and the only way to get around the difficulties in legally marrying a foreigner in Russia would have been to get married in a third country that we wouldn't have visited otherwise (surprisingly in a lot of major European tourist destinations, two foreigners cannot legally marry quickly and easily, and I hadn't been aware before I started looking in to this that in a lot of 'destination weddings' the couple legally marries in the US first to get around that). But now you can do a Utah Zoom wedding if your fiancée's home country is difficult to actually legally marry in, and K-1s are not faster in processing time. And even pre-Covid, if you were living with your partner outside the US then a CR-1 usually made more sense unless you could legally marry in the US but not in the country you were living in.

Now, I was aware of the latter; that's why when Anastasia and I met in October 2018 (last time before she got her K-1 and came here) we spent a couple nights in Riga (she'd gotten a Schengen visa from Latvia because at the time Latvia would issue one without having to go to a consulate in person if you'd had a Schengen visa previously) before going on to Vienna.

I thought it was a single entry into the Schengen zone too (and am pretty sure it is, in fact).

Unless your fiancé(e) actually has legal residency there, it will probably be impossible to move your case to Costa Rica. All mail goes to the petitioner. Back when my wife's was processed and when Moscow was still processing K-1s, all communication with my wife (my fiancée then) was electronic; the only thing ever actually physically sent to her was her passport with her visa in it (and presumably if you're interviewing in a country you don't live in, there wouldn't even be that as you'd pick it up in-person, I think). It's been a while since I was paying a lot of attention to this stuff, but it should be automatically renewed in most cases when there was no possible way you could have interviewed before the expiration. Still, confirm this with whichever embassy/consulate is handling your case.

It can make things more difficult. It's all but guaranteed that you will not get your 10-year green card before your 2-year green card expires, which means the only proof of legal residence you'll have will be the extension letter. Usually that's not a big deal, but that can sometimes cause inconvenience particularly when dealing with people or companies not experienced with immigration processes.

Yup. That's exactly what my wife had. You request an appointment somehow when they announce the dates. The event they had last fall in LA was at a hotel near LAX. She was in and out in less than half an hour; we had an 11 am appointment and were in Orange County by lunchtime (not all the way back to San Diego, though).

It probably helped with the pre-EAD/green card limbo period for us that 1) We were only about a mile from a plaza with a grocery store; my American-suburb-raised background said that's a long walk, but Anastasia (used to walking or taking transit everywhere in Russia) thought that was fine 2) The first couple months we had a ceremony-like thing to plan 3) not long after that we found out she was pregnant (not surprisingly) 4) she actually got her green card pretty quickly ... but she didn't actually get her driver's license until this year. But the basics are that ... back when K-1s were reliably significantly faster to get to the US, and there were no Utah online marriages to get around difficult home country marriage laws there were lots of cases where K-1s made sense, despite the hardships in the pre-green card period (and indeed, that's why we did one when we did). But that's basically not true today, so barring some oddball corner cases (children who would be between 18 and 21 by the end of the process and want to come to the US with their parent, maybe a few others) or just really not wanting to live apart while legally married, there's no reason to do a K-1 anymore.

Apparently she saw it on the Russian Embassy in DC's Facebook page, but here's the most recent update and links: https://washington.mid.ru/ru/consular-services/consulate/consul_sessions/?fbclid=IwAR3bj9qHE7OLpdXCr2dSAEWrk7ckBdIDZhk8oMJI1SArp1PYQtFh5D3wR0Q https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0QKSQmJSkgPmez5JqtTf49WNEZ2Fo94VrP6mFY1uBCfsojZEpNUokhT4LvYNC1Tryl&id=100069066524980&mibextid=Nif5oz

I think there's a mailing list or something; I'd need to ask Anastasia. After we skipped one in 2021 we were thinking we'd need to go to Houston or DC until the one we went to was scheduled.

To renew a Russian international passport, you're supposed to either need to go to a Russian consulate or embassy in person or the occasionally the embassy has an event in major US cities where they handle passport renewals and a few other things. My wife renewed hers when they came to LA last year (it had expired, but she had her green card and state ID by then and we didn't have plans to go outside the US). Only took about fifteen minutes (then waiting a couple months or so), so we were halfway back to San Diego by lunchtime. Though she got US citizenship a few months later, and her US passport a few months after that, so she probably won't use her new Russian passport until we can reasonably get back to Russia (between a new baby, Covid concerns, financial concerns, and side effects of the war in Ukraine, we haven't been to Russia since she came here in 2019).

We really need a groan emoji sometimes, si man.

PRG loves watching the dolphins, though. And there are plenty of places for mini-Dave to crawl around and have fun. I think Sea World San Diego has more rides than the other locations, though I was only to the Texas one on a high school band trip (so many years ago), don't remember ever being to the Orlando one, I can't even imagine why I'd ever be in Abu Dhabi (even getting to familia-PRG in Russia these days it'd be easier through Istanbul or Dubai), and the one in Cleveland closed a long time ago. Also, Sea World San Diego is cheaper than the San Diego Zoo. Granted, the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park (two parks, but run by the same people and one membership works for both, but the important thing for us is that the Safari Park is a short drive from casa-DA, not downtown) are the best zoos in the world.

Yes, but new job requires security clearance so waiting on that to start. Also, mini-Dave's daycare is closing; teacher expecting a baby. Found a new one that looks good, but they have a summer break in a few weeks so probably also waiting until after that to start my new job even if my security clearance is ready by then. Acquired Legoland passes (only the most expensive one really makes sense unless you're a stay out home parent or otherwise not working, man*; too many weekends blacked out on the lower levels) despite unemployment shortly after returning from mama-Dave and papa-Dave's 50th anniversary celebration because we were running out of things to do with him. Spent most of next two months going there on Saturday and Sunday, though have managed to dial things back some this month and go somewhere else one day a weekend. Also made a little trip up to LA-ish the weekend before the 4th. Went to the Aquarium of the Pacific (huge, and was fun) and a children's museum (was hot, so mini-Dave didn't play as much with the outdoor stuff as I'd expected but he still had fun), chose restaurant for lunch on first day by virtue of being next door and was actually a quite good seafood place (I had shrimp enchiladas, PRG had lobster mac and cheese); chose restaurant for dinner mostly by picking first open place that was listed as $$ instead of $$$ on Yelp by our hotel and was jam-packed little Italian place that was good too. Mini-Dave also approved of the hotel 🤣; asks when we can go again, man. * SeaWorld fun cards make basically no sense not to get unless you're visiting from out of town and won't be back; they're the same price as a list price ticket (though one person needs to get higher-level pass for the free parking or that adds up quickly) and the only blackout dates on Fun Cards are Saturdays in July and one day over Memorial Day weekend. San Diego Zoo + Safari park passes at the level we got (basically the lowest one that includes parking and doesn't have blackout dates) pay off after two visits even if grandma and grandpa don't come by to use the guest passes (which they did, though we've got some half-off tickets that almost certainly will go unused) and a kid's season pass is basically the same price as one ticket. But Legoland passes cost more than 3 tickets, kids over 1 are full price, and don't come with any free/discounted guest tickets even at the top level, though at least the 25% off food means eating at the park isn't silly🤣 so they need three visits to pay off.

Mini-Dave sometimes insists on choosing not only the flavor of ice cream he eats, but what mommy and/or daddy eat too. Generally partial to Tillamook's Monster Cookie (good, but prefer to mix things up occasionally). Sometimes gets upset if there's none left, so unless he's insisting (as per above), mommy and daddy get something else and leave that one for him. 🤣

It can in theory, but for most people it cannot in practice because short-notice international travel is in fact very expensive, and most employers frown on taking non-emergency time off on very short notice.

That works for "getting married". Doesn't help with the "being in the same place at the same time while married".

... well, 52 days plus however long it takes to get married as far as USCIS is concerned (aka legally married and have been together in-person while married) and have sufficient documentation of this to file the forms. With the possible exceptions of people in a literal cross-border romance with someone who either has a US tourist visa or doesn't need one people currently living together outside the US in a country where they can legally marry quickly people able to take international trips on very short notice (aka they have both the money and time for this) ... that's going to be a non-trivial amount of time.

I think you're well aware that as far as USCIS and the state department are concerned, showing you were in the same place at the same time while married is sufficient and they don't need or want any more details than that :D.

A spousal visa is definitely superior to a K-1, but with your petition already approved I probably wouldn't start over with a CR-1 as while you might be okay with, and even want, some delay, another two years or so is another matter. /also note that you need a marriage visa to come to the UK and get married even if you're not planning on staying, though my understanding is that's not too big of a deal to get and you could have a ceremony there but legally get married via a Utah online marriage, or you could marry in the US or a third country (back when we were considering our options -- marrying in Russia was out because I couldn't spend enough time in Russia or make multiple trips in a relatively short time -- Iceland and Denmark were the countries that most frequently came up for two foreigners marrying quickly in Europe-ish, but I don't know if that's still the case as that was in 2018; we ended up doing a K-1).

It's even perfectly legal to come on a visitor visa, get married, and adjust status and stay. It's just not legal to arrive in the US intending to do that.

Given the unpredictability of processing times, I'd suggest that if it's at all practical to either depart from a pre-clearance airport (only ones in the Eurozone are in Ireland) or have your POE be your final destination in the US, I'd probably try and do that. Though that depends a lot on where you're coming from and going to. In our case, back before Covid and Vlad's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow to LA was a daily flight so even though that was a two-hour or more drive to my place instead of the 30 minutes to San Diego airport, it was a lot simpler to do that. And given that Anastasia didn't get to me until about two hours after her plane landed (and there was no free WiFi in the line she was in), I'm very glad she didn't have to navigate a connection.

... and largely an artifact of it being somewhat complicated to legally change your name in those countries, particularly if you're not residing there. Although we ended up not traveling internationally between my wife arriving on a K-1 and naturalizing (between K-1 travel restrictions, pregnancy, having a small child, Covid, buying a home, Putin invading Ukraine, and me losing my job we never had a good opportunity).

Well, more that it's useless to apply for an EAD under that technicality, but being technically eligible for an EAD means someone who just arrived on a K-1 can apply for a Social Security Number and 100% should do that. So that technicality is not completely useless.