Immigration Visas
- Australian Prospective Marriage Visa
- Canada Spouse Visa
- How to bring your Russian woman to the United States
- UK Fiancee Visa
Australian Prospective Marriage Visa
More and more Australian men find their life partners on the opposite corner of the earth proving that distance is no obstacle for a real love. There is special type of visa called prospective marriage visa for those who intend to marry and then live in Australia. This visa is valid for 9 months from the grant day within which your marriage must take place. Your wife will be able to apply for spouse visa immediately after your marriage and become a permanent resident after 2-year marriage anniversary. With prospective marriage visa, your fiancee will be able to enter and leave Australia as many times as she needs within visa validity period. Your marriage may take place either in or outside Australia, provided your fiancee has already entered Australia on this visa at least once before the marriage.
Application requirements:
1. You must be and an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen.
2. You both should be 18 or over.
3. You and you fiancee must have met in person at least once.
4. Your fiancee must have passed medical examination in one of the appropriate medical institutions in her country.
5. Your fiancee should provide duly completed document set.
The documents should be sent by your fiancee to the Australian embassy in her country
The set of documents shall include (all supplying documents shall be translated into English by a certified translator):
1. Form 47SP Application for migration to Australia by a partner completed by the applicant (fiancee).
2. Form 40SP sponsorship for a partner to migrate to Australia completed by the sponsor (you).
3. Form 47A Details of child or other dependent family member aged 18 years or over if your fiancee has children to take with her to Australia.
4. Evidence of your personal meeting.
5. Evidence of your relationship (includes written statements from you and your fiancee detailing the history of your relationship your plans for future as husband and wife, your photos together, telephone bills, etc.).
6. Certified copies of your sponsorship eligibility.
7. Your fiancee's medical exam document.
8. You fiancee's certificate of good conduct.
9. Certified copies of your personal documents (birth certificate, Australian passport, etc.).
10. Certified copies of your fiancee personal documents (birth certificate, passport and travel documents, etc.) and those of her children if any.
11. Passport style photographs of you, you fiancee and her children included to the application.
Please refer to Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship website (www.immi.gov.au) for details.
After consideration of documents, your fiancee will be invited to the embassy for personal interview. The visa process usually takes from 4 to 6 months.
Canadian immigration law is different from that of UK, USA or Australia. Particularly, it does not offer the benefit of a fianc?e visa category but recognizes the importance of uniting families. Therefore, the most certain way to bring your Russian women to Canada, though not the only one available, is spouse visa. Obviously, you will need to get married in Russia or elsewhere before the application. Once your spouse has entered Canada on this visa, she becomes permanent resident and after a minimum residency requirement of three years she will be able to apply for Canadian citizenship.
Application procedure
The first step is your application as a sponsor. To become a sponsor for your spouse, you need to be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada and meet certain income requirements. You should download sponsor application kit from Citizenship and Immigration Canada website (www.cic.gc.ca). The kit contains all the necessary instructions and the list of the required supporting documents. The person you are sponsoring then fills the immigration kit downloaded from the same site. Be sure to find and follow specific instructions for visa offices in each country of application. Your spouse should send her completed application and required supporting documents to and you will mail both your sponsorship application and her permanent resident application to Case Processing Centre (CPC) in Mississauga, Ontario. If you are approved as a sponsor, your spouse's permanent residence application will be sent to the appropriate Canadian visa office.
If both your applications are complete and accurate and contain no serious drawbacks, your spouse may be granted permanent residence without any interview. However, if the authorities are not satisfied with your petitions they may invite you and/or your spouse to the selection marriage visa interview to persuade the immigration department that your relationship is genuine and continuous. The final decision will be made by the immigration officer during interview.
If you need additional information, refer to Citizenship and Immigration Canada website (www.cic.gc.ca) or the Canadian Embassy web site in your spouse's country of residence.
How to bring your Russian woman to the United States
Dating a woman from a Russian speaking country can be really exciting. No matter that now you live far away from each other, if your have found a woman you were searching for and your feelings are mutual, you have all the chances to turn this distant love into a happy family life in your native country. However, you both should be prepared to pass through legal procedures that are necessary for all the couples where one person is a USA citizen and another is a foreigner. There is really a great amount of paperwork to be done, but it is not as difficult as may seem from the start. You can hire an immigration attorney or turn to a special agency providing immigration assistance services. However, we know many couples who did it without professional help. What is better in your case rather depends on your understanding of the process, time available and particular situation. This article is a brief outline of the things you should know and do when you want to marry a Russian woman and bring her to the USA. Let's suppose you have already traveled to meet your girlfriend in her country or elsewise came to that important decision. Well, that means the time has come to start immigration process. You will need to apply for fiancee visa. This type of visa is the best, if not the only suitable way if your intention is marriage.
fiancee visa vs. its alternatives
The fiancee visa, or K1 visa, is a special type of visa issued for those intending to enter the USA in order to get married. It allows your lady to stay in the USA for 90 days, within which your marriage must take place. If your do not marry within 90 days, she will be required to leave the USA. There is no way for a fianc? to obtain extension of the 90-day period. fiancee visa gives you a chance to live together in the United States to experience what it will be like before you have married. If your fiancee has unmarried children under 21, they can come to the USA with her using K2 Visa.
It often happens that US citizens engaged to Russian women make them apply for tourist visa to speed up the process. You should know that it is almost impossible for an unmarried Russian woman to receive a tourist visa. It will just create difficulties in obtaining the K-1 visa. End even if your lady somehow manages to obtain a tourist visa, it will create subsequent difficulties for you both. If a foreign woman comes to the USA on a tourist visa and gets married to an American citizen, the USA Citizenship and Immigration Services will most likely subject you to an investigation for a sham marriage. You wife can then be refused permanent resident status and even deported with no right to return.
Some couples are thinking about getting married in Russia and then applying for a K-3 spousal visa rather than a K-1 fiancee visa. The K-3 spousal visa process is as complicated as the one with K-1 fiancee visa, and CIS countries require almost as much paperwork for an American to get married in their country as the USA require for a Russian woman to get married in America. Obviously, the process will take much longer time than with a fiancee visa.
Who is eligible for fiancee visa
The following requirements are set to those applying for the fiancee visa:
1. You must be a U.S. citizen.
2. You and your fiancee must be legally able to marry. This means you are unmarried or you can provide divorce, annulment, or spouse's death certificates.
3. You and your fiancee should have met in person at least once during last 2 years. Be ready to demonstrate it via your photographs, airline tickets, etc. Though theoretically possible, waivers for this requirement are rarely granted.
4. Your fiancee must have no criminal records.
5. Your fiancee must have no violations of the U.S. immigration laws.
6. You should meet certain income requirements.
Application procedure
The procedure is initiated by the USA citizen, i.e. by you. You should go to US Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services website (http://www.uscis.gov) and download the following forms:
1. I-129F Petition for Alien fiancee
2. G-325A Biographic Information
Complete these forms. G-325A should be completed for both you and your fiancee. These form along with nice cover letter and all required supporting documents should be mailed to the USCIS Service Center serving your area of residence.
Supporting documents (all foreign documents must be translated into English):
1. Proof of your U.S. citizenship (copy of passport and/or birth certificate).
2. Copies of your and your fiancee's divorce, annulment, or spouse's death certificates.
3. Passport-style photographs of each of you.
4. Evidence that you and your fiancee met in person during last to years.
5. Evidence that your relationships are valid. You need to convince the USCIS that you are getting married not for immigration benefits of your fiancee. The evidence may include photos of you and your fianc? together and with family, telephone bills or emails showing that you stay in touch, evidence of time spent together like matching exit/entry stamps in passports, plane tickets, bills and statements for hotel stays, car rental, etc. The more evidence you provide the better.
6. The affidavit of support. It is a pledge on behalf of the USA citizen proving that if the fiancee is allowed entrance to the United States she will be financially supported and is unlikely to become a public charge. The affidavit of support itself requires supporting documentation.
After you have forwarded all the necessary documents to the USCIS Service Center, you will be waiting to receive a notice of action (I-797), which means that your petition has received conditional approval and your case will be further processed. Approval of the petition may take from several weeks to several months. The secret of success partially lies in the perfectly completed petition and case monitoring. Your fiancee will be notified about petition approval and the need to start gathering the necessary documents. She will need to complete and send the form stating that the documents have been requested. Your fiancee will be notified of her interview date and medical institutions where she can have her medical exam completed. She must have no serious mental illnesses or communication deficiencies.
Interview
The interview process usually doesn't take much time. It is important that your fiancee has all the necessary documents. The consulate officer will review the documents and ask questions to determine that your relations are non-fraudulent and that your fiancee will not become a public charge in the USA. If to the consulate officer's opinion the fiancee meets all of the requirements, she will be issued a K-1 visa that allows her one entry to the USA within next six months. Alternatively, the consulate officer can make a resolution that she has to apply for waiver of grounds of inadmissibility, request additional documents, or issue a denial. The denial reasons include but are not limited to arrests and criminal records, prior immigration violations, health related grounds, visa fraud.
What next
If you were lucky to get the visa and your marriage took place, your wife should apply for conditional permanent status based on marriage. She will receive conditional green card, which allows to receive social security card. Within 3 months after your second marriage anniversary you and your wife should apply for removal of the conditions of permanent residence based on marriage. The USCIS will invite you for the interview to determine if your marriage is a sham one or not. You should again be ready to provide the evidence: your children birth certificates, documents for joint-owned property, driver's licenses with the same address, joint bank accounts, wedding photos, etc. If you pass the interview successfully, your wife will become a permanent resident and receive permanent green card. 3 years after receiving permanent green card your wife may apply for USA citizenship. By that time she must be proficient in the English language and have the knowledge of the history and governmental structure of the United States to pass the necessary exam.
The only 99% failure-free way to bring your Russian woman to the United Kingdom is fiancee visa. Any other type of visa is a great risk, as it most probably will be denied. UK fiancee visa is valid for 6 months within which your marriage must take place. Once you have married, your spouse applies for marriage visa, which is valid for two years. At the end of this period, she can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) often known as UK permanent residency.
Application requirements:
1. You must be a British citizen or permanent resident.
2. You and your future spouse must be at least 21 years of age.
3. You and your future spouse must have met each other in person.
4. You and your future spouse must have sufficient means to live without access to public funds.
5. You must have suitable accommodation in the UK.
6. Your fiancee should provide duly completed document set.
Your fiancee will need to submit application in person to British Embassy in her country of residence. Documents are a crucial part of success as they are the basis for consideration. Therefore, the set should be complete and the documents should meet the requirements of British consulate department. If it is not possible for the officer to make a decision from the documents submitted, he will invite your lady for the interview.
The set of documents shall include (if it is impossible to provide original documents, you should provide their certified copies):
1. UK Visa application form (download from British Embassy site) completed by your fiancee.
2. Your birth certificate.
3. Your passport or registration certificate.
4. Your and your fiancee's divorce, annulment, or spouse's death certificates if you were previously married.
5. Your sponsorship eligibility documents (bank statements, certificate of employment, earnings record, etc.).
6. Documents for accommodation where you are going to live with your spouse (mortgage documents, ownership certificate, rental agreement, etc.).
7. Evidence of your relationship (letters, telephone bills, photos, visas and passport stamps proving that you visited each other or spent holiday together, etc.).
8. Your letter of intention to marry.
9. Your fiancee's foreign passport.
10. Your fiancee's color photos.
11. Your fiancee's birth certificate and those of her children if they accompany her.
12. If your fiancee is going to enter UK with a child under 18 she must provide notarized child exit permit from the child's father.
Note that application requirements may change from time to time; therefore, you should consult British Embassy prior to application. Additional information can be found at www.ukvisas.gov.uk or at the British Embassy web site.
