Non-Immigrant Visas

Fiancé(e) Visas

By Law

By law, a fiancé(e) petition can only be filed in the United States at an office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The petitioner must be a U.S. Citizen. However, U.S. citizens may submit petitions abroad (as opposed to filing with the INS in the U.S.) for the following immediate relatives: spouses, minor unmarried children, and parents.

Submitting

Submitting a petition is the first step to receiving a visa for your fiancé(e). The Fiancé Petition (form I-129-F) can be obtained from the INS Regional Service Center in the U.S. closest to your residence. When the INS office sends you the petition, they will also include two G-325-A biographic information forms. You must fill out completely both the petition and biographic information forms. Please note that failure to mention any previous marriages on these forms will result in the petition being returned to INS from the relevant Embassy for readjudication. You should also receive an affidavit of support (I-864) form from INS. If you do not, you may request one from them. Your fiancé(e) can also forward to you the one he/she will receive from the Embassy once her/his case is being processed.

I-129-F Form:

When submitting the I-129-F form for approval, be sure to include all of the following documents: a photocopy of your U.S. passport identification page (plus a copy of your naturalization document if you are a naturalized citizen); a photocopy of your fiancé(e)'s birth certificate with a translation; photocopies of any death certificates of a previous spouse that you or your fiancé(e) may have and photocopies of any divorce decrees terminating a previous marriage that you and your fiancé(e) may have, with translations; two passport-size photographs of both yourself and your fiancé(e), attached to the bottom of the G-325 biographic forms; a photograph of the two of you together to prove you have met; and copies of birth certificates of any minor children your fiancé(e) may have, with translations. Question 14 on the I-129F asks you to list the names and dates of birth of any children your fiancé(e) may have. Children up to the age of 21 may accompany their parent to the U.S., or may follow-to-join at any time up to one year after the parent receives his/her visa.

You may wish to enclose the affidavit of support with your petition. You will also need to send INS a check for $95 for the petition adjudication fee. For an additional fee, the INS adjudicating office will send a cable notification of the petition's approval, called a "Visas 71", to the designated Embassy overseas, cutting down waiting time by about three weeks.

The Embassy understands that INS will accept uncertified photocopies of documents. Please do not take your fiancé(e)'s original birth certificate or proof of termination of any prior marriages (divorce decrees or death certificates) back to the U.S. with you. Your fiancé(e) will need to present them to the consular officer at the time of the visa interview.

Once Approved

Once the petition has been approved, INS will notify you and forward the petition to Moscow for all fiancé(e)s residing in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. For residents of Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia, the petitions will be forwarded to the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki.

Once the Embassy in Moscow receives an approved fiancé(e) petition or cable notification of an approved petition, they immediately send a set of biographic instructions and applications known as "Packet Three" to your fiancé(e). When your fiancé(e)returns the required form in Packet Three back to the Embassy in Moscow, they then schedule him or her for an appointment and mail him/her the appointment letter and another set of documents known as "Packet Four".

Packet Four

Packet Four includes documents regarding the required medical exam, a police certificate request form, and an affidavit of support. You will need to fill out the affidavit of support in order to show that your fiancé(e) will not become a public charge in the U.S. Please include copies of your most recent tax returns or a letter from your employer noting your current salary and length of employment. If you are still attending college or for some other reason cannot fill out an affidavit for your fiancé(e), parents or siblings may do so for you. Attached you will find an affidavit and the Embassy's addresses for mailing the affidavits directly to the Embassy in Moscow. Please note that the affidavit itself must be notarized. For that reason, faxed copies of that document are not acceptable.

The actual timing for a fiancé(e) visa interview will depend on how quickly your fiancé(e) is able to respond to the Packet Three notification. Given the uncertainties of the post-Soviet mail system, many applicants find it easier to come straight to Moscow once they know their approved petitions have been received.

Applicants who live outside of Moscow and decide to come to Moscow to complete the visa process all in one trip need to bring their original birth certificate, a statement from the police showing whether or not they have a criminal record, proof of termination of previous marriages, plus the birth certificates of any minor children who plan to go to the United States. If your fiancé(e) was previously married and has any minor children, it is also necessary to provide a written statement of consent from the prior spouse for the children to permanently move to the U.S. fiancé(e)s may come to the Embassy in Moscow any afternoon between two and four o'clock p.m. to pick up and fill out Packet Three, schedule their interviews and pick up Packet Four. Since it takes about one week for the Embassy to receive the results of the medical examination, some fiancé(e)s choose to remain in Moscow from the time they take their medical exam until the date of their interview at the Embassy in Moscow. The fee for the medical exam is $100.00 for adults, and 75 for children.

Once Qualified

Once found qualified for visa issuance, your fiancé(e) will receive a non-immigrant visa in his/her passport, valid for one entry into the U.S. at any time within the next 6 months. He/she will also receive a separate immigrant visa packet to present to the immigration officials at the U.S. border. If you decide that you do not wish to marry within the 90 days for which your fiancé(e) will be admitted to the U.S., you are obliged to ensure that your fiancé(e) does not remain in the United States. At this time there is no fee for a K-1 visa.

Following are the addresses you may use to send information to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

The Immigrant Visa Section direct line is (495) 258-2525 (between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 a.m.)

For regular mail, which takes about three weeks, use the following address:

U.S. Embassy Moscow
PSC 77 - (Consular)
APO AE 09721
Attn: Immigrant Visa Unit

For faster service (approximately one week), using international courier services such as DHL or Federal Express, the following address should be used:

121099 Moskva, Rossiya
Novinsky Bulvar, 19/23
Posolstvo CSHA (USA)
Konsulskiy Otdel