PaulMK

You could also stay on the Israeli side of Jerusalem, it's a tad bit easier because you won't be caught up in their conflict between Palestine and Israel. It's expensive to live there, but again, no problems with crossing boarders and checkpoints. There is also a nice doctor in West Jerusalem, it's called Wolfson Medical, you can go there to do your medical exam.

As Rikko said, keep refreshing the page, appointments come up randomly. Keep in mind, you need to have a medical exam two weeks before the interview, and you should stay about 2-3 weeks after the interview as well. Stay on the Jerusalem side when picking a doctor. You can set an appointment before they physically receive your files. It takes them about a month for the physical files to show up in Jerusalem, and they will email you when it does, but again, make the appointment before that confirmation.

They certainly did not give my fiance the option. They need the passport because they physically put the visa inside (again, this is for K1 visa, however I knew a Russian American in Israel who had his mother immigrating to America and they held on to her passport untill the processing completed too.)

I would recommend transferring. My fiance and I had no choice. It was the only embassy that would take us. However, they are a great embassy, and get things done quickly. As for the border guard in Israel, have lots of proof for the reason you are visiting, and it should not be too much of a problem.

They have Russian speakers at the Embassy!

We had the choice of one, two, or three months. It was a pretty big range. We chose 2 months because we needed to schedule our medical exam and finish paperwork.

That's where it gets vague. I have no idea unfortunately. We brought our police document to the interview, but my case was slightly different, it is a K1 visa. We had to bring all our documents to the interview. There was no submission beforehand. As for quirks, they didn't ask for anything like that for my K1 case, but it may be different for you! The transfer was instant. I sent an email to U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and they replied within a couple days asking for us to confirm the transfer. We replied back, and then they sent us a link to the scheduler. After U.S. Embassy Jerusalem sent us the link to the interview scheduler, appointments became available that very day. I recommend paying the fee and refreshing the web page every once in a while. Did we just get lucky? Most likely.

Good questions. The 6 months is cumulative time in one country. For instance, you can do 5.9 months in Mexico, then 5.9 months in Albania, then 5.9 months in Costa Rica. Not all countries combined. Have you spent more than six months in a single country? Once you officially book an appointment with U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, you should immediately book a medical appointment too. There is only one doctors office that works with U.S. Embassy Jerusalem. They will probably tell you that you should have your medical appointment two weeks in advance to the interview. After that, the Embassy will hang on to your passport for 2-3 weeks. It took them 2.5 weeks to process our visa. Totaling to about 5 weeks in Israel. Yes you should have return tickets to show the border guard in Israel, yes, unfortunately you will probably have to change those tickets once you know the real date of which you can return home. It's very inconvenient and expensive. I cant think of any weird or quirky requirements. I am very fond of Israel and the U.S. Embassy there. They are very fast compared to other Embassies. Sometimes they even reply by email the very next day, and the interview was very straight forward for my fiance. Buy a SIM card when you arrive. Makes things much easier and they are dirt cheap. Plus, the doctors will want to contact you with an Israeli number once your medical report is ready. You need at least one police certificate, the place of your residence. In my Russian fiance's case, we needed a Russian Police Certificate.

My Russian fiance and I are in the USA right now, we will marry next week. We went through U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel. Ask me any questions you would like, I may have an answer. The police certificate requirements are very vague. It has added complexity due to Russia giving out electronic copies of police certificates instead of signed paper copies. It scares couples, including my fiance and I. I was so worried about this, I paid a lawyer to help me figure it out, due to the fact that we only had an electronic police certificate. The lawyer told me I would have to ask U.S. Embassy Jerusalem. I contacted the Embassy, and they gave me no straight answer either. In the end, we had to use the electronic police certificate, which was accepted as okay. I would be very careful with the police certificate, it is a hard requirement and I've heard about people having their cases be delayed until they showed the proper document. Here is the website that shows the exact requirement for police certificates, although it is still vague, it's the official instructions. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/RussianFederation.html Absolutely be careful about 6 months. Some people say it's cumulative, but I've never tested it. Nothing would be worse than needing a police document from a country that you are not a resident from. Please any experts correct me if I am wrong. Something you may have not considered, is that the Israeli Border Guard will absolutely be suspicious of your entry into the country. There is a lot of Ukrainian refugees going to Israel daily. I was absolutely held up in customs for hours and I had to have a one on one talk with a border guard where I had to prove the reason my Russian fiance was in Israel. Just show them the bunches of paperwork you'll be bringing as well as other proof that you're in Israel to visit the U.S Embassy, and everything should be fine.

We got our case approved today. To answer the question of receiving a Russian Police Certificate digitally outside of Russia, this document seemed to be good enough for the U.S. Embassy in Israel. Our document was stamped and signed electronically, and printed out by my Fiance and I.

My Fiance's appointment is the 13th of June. Yes entering Israel customs was brutal, but we had proof of the interview appointment, so they let us go. My Fiance got her Russian Police certificate from Gosuslugi too, but may I ask, did your husband receive his police certificate by mail, or electronically? I can't believe you two have been waiting since early May for the result

It looks like they will tell you when they receive your paperwork, such as your approved i129f, however, you can probably schedule an appointment for the future in the mean time. Ask them, they are very responsive on their emails. I hope I'm not too late to answer for you. I am in a similar situation as you.

It has been two months, how has it been for you? My Fiance and I are in a very similar situation, so we asked Jerusalem if we could transfer our case to them from Warsaw, and they are telling us they can accept our case too. Any other problems you have ran into?

Hello, I am rather new to this forum, and I hope I am doing this correctly. I am the U.S. Petitioner, and my Fiance is a Russian Citizen. We have received our NOA2 on the 31st of January 2023, and are awaiting the NVC to give us a case number. Due to the current situations in Russia, we decided it was best for my Fiance to move to Mexico, and live with some of my friends' family. We did this out of fear that the Russia would no longer allow their citizens to exit the country when they started conscripting their citizens to the war. She is currently in Mexico, on a 6 month tourist visa that will expire in the coming month. The problem is, that her tourist visa in Mexico is running out, and our immigration process is still months away from completion. We believe best option is to have her overstay her visa in Mexico, as the consequence for overstaying a Mexican visa is a small fee. We were thinking she could pay her fee for overstaying right before immigrating to the United States, but are worried this would cause an issue at the U.S. side of the border. Would the U.S. care that she overstayed her visa in another country?