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| Ukraine |  Review on August 12, 2011: |
bxa
Rating:  | Review Topic: General Review
Our CR-1 and CR-2 interviews were scheduled for Thursday, August 4th. I traveled to Ukraine to join my wife and my stepson for the interview process. We left our bag at the privately operated storage place in the appartment building right next to the embassy. We arrived on time at 8am and went right in after displaying our letters of invitation and my passport to the man outside. Inside the security guard asked us to put everything we have on the table, including money, passports and documents. We went through the metal detector and then the security guard searched us with a handheld scanner. We went inside to the back room visa processing unit. We were the first ones in, then a few other people entered the room and sat down. We were called shortly and a ukrainian speaking embassy worker went over our documentation. Everything was fine, except for the wife's police certificate - not all of her prior names were listed. At this point we thought that we are in for a nightmare, since this certificate takes a few weeks to get. I flew to Ukraine for a couple of weeks and we were planning to return to US together after the successfully obtaining visas. After the documents were checked the embassy worker told us to sit down and wait for the fingerprints. They called my wife (but not stepson) for fingerprints some 20 minutes later and after another 20 minutes they called us to the window for the actual interview. Consul spoke nice ukrainian according to my wife. He asked me how long we were married, he asked my wife \'is this your husband\' and he asked my stepson \'how old are you\' (he is 12). That was about it, I\'ve figured they were satisfied looking at us and looking over our paperwork that we were not a fraud. He even told us that we don\'t have to submit my stepson\'s biological father\'s passport copy since the embassy was satisfied with the notarized permission from the father. Then I spoke with consul in English about our misfortune with the police certificate. He told me that if I figured a way to get this document to him in a short order, that the visa will be issued within 24 hours. It was midday Thursday and the race was on.
We went out of the main embassy building to the tent in order to pay FedEx fee. We told them that we don\'t want the visas shipped, but instead to be held at the FedEx office in Kiev. For some reason they were reluctant but finally agreed to that. Then we went outside of the embassy. We don\'t live in Kiev and don\'t know anything about it. But we faced the task of finding a way to obtain the proper police certificate ASAP. We went in to the place where we left our bags in storage and asked the workers there if they knew anything about obtaining documents (this place also doubles among other things as a translation agency). The woman there knew a man who was up to the task. After a short phone call, we walked a short distance away to another place on Artem street, that place also displayed the sign \'translation agency\'. A man came in and told us that he will get us whatever document we needed. The Next day by 12pm we had the original Ukrainian Ministry\'s of Police Certificate with all of my wife\'s prior names listed on our hands. But that was the next day, in the mean time we had to cancel our plans to return to Odessa in the evening and look for a suitable and inexpensive hotel in the city. It so happened that I went to Kiev with my wife a couple of times before - once before getting married and once for medical and we always used the same cab driver at the railway station. We found the cab driver and asked him for a recommendation about a hotel. He immediately told us that in order to save money and obtain decent room, we had to go across the river. There were a few hotels there and we settled on a hotel named \'Tourist\', it was right at the subway station \'levoberezhnaya\' and a short ride from the center of the city and the embassy. At this time we did not know how long we would stay there since it was Thursday and we had no idea how long it would take to get police certificate, submit to embassy and wait for a visa, so at this point we were planning to hang out till the middle of the next week. The room at the hotel was excellent even by US standards, clean and carpeted, two bathrooms, two rooms, both air conditioned, a large bed in the master bedroom and another in the living room. We payed roughly $120 a day for this. They require the payment upfront and we booked 2 days planning to continue if required.
The next day I brought the correct police certificate to the Embassy around 12pm. There were no people at the entrance and no in the Visa processing unit. An embassy worker took the document and I reiterated the urgency of the matter. Then all three of us went wondering site seeing in the city without much appetite, since we were worried about how everything would work out. Tired we returned to the hotel around 4:30. I got a phone call on my cell phone from the Embassy that our visa was ready and we should go to FedEx office before 6pm to pick it up. So we did and by Friday evening we were happy and in shock because our long visa journey ended so adventurously.
(updated on August 12, 2011)
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8107