When I'm in Sochi, so many of the women have questions about life in the USA and other western countries. They are often concerned with what their status in society will be? In my case I'm asked if Americans like Russians, and if she (our woman client) will have a legal right to be there. In Sochi your future wife understands where she fits in. The rest of the world is a big question mark. There is no substitute for living through it, and I have personally gone through every step of the process and know what each moment of the last five years has felt like.

Part of the work I do in Sochi is to help them understand life and the process of becoming a citizen here in America. Men also ask me about the transition process and the stress on the women. I have written about that here!

Every day I speak with my successful women clients who have married and are living now in the USA. They trust me because I like them was a Russian bride coming to a great unknown future.

So below you'll find my immigration timeline. Of course in the last five years things have changed somewhat -we have had the awful day of September 11th, for instance. However, the process for your future bride remains much the same as the one I experienced.

My Timeline:

May, 1998 -We applied for the K1 visa for me, and automatically for Sveta my daughter (who was 13 at the time).

August 17, 1998 - Entered the USA on a K1 Visa

August 29, 1998 - Married and filed the I-485 change of status application with the INS. Also filed for a travel permit and work permit at the same time.

February 2000 - I-485 interview, Sveta and I receive our two year conditional Green Cards.

November 2001 - applied to the INS for the removal of conditions on the Green card for both Sveta and myself.

February 2002 - Conditional Green card status is removed without an interview and 6 weeks later our permanent Green cards arrive in the mail

November 23 - File the N-400 to become a citizen.

May 21, 2003 - I pass the citizenship test at 8:50am and I'm asked to come back at 1:50 PM, the same day, to take the oath of citizenship.

May 21, 2003 - 2:07pm - I'm an American citizen with my voter registration card in hand.

K1 visa's take longer because of additional CIA and FBI checks, but the time to interview is much shorter. Your wife should be holding her citizenship at least 1 year earlier than I did.

My personal experience of the whole process is that the people I dealt with in the Portland INS office were very good at every step of the way, however the inefficiency of the big district offices is discouraging. They are hopelessly understaffed and slow. On the positive side for a man thinking about a Sochi Russian wife, we spent nothing on lawyers and were able to do all the paperwork without problems. We never had a form returned or any problem with information we provided. As a client you'll have access to our experience.

We did learn a few ways to accelerate the process, and we share them with every full member client, counseling them on the K1 paperwork when they are ready to apply.