Went to NYC on Friday to the Russian Consulate. For those who's RW has an expired passport and wants to go back to Russia, the procedure is for her go to the consulate with jurisdiction over your state with her airline tickets. For a fee ($100), they will issue a letter to your wife that is good for 2 weeks from the date of issue for her to travel back to Russia (repatriation). Once there, she can renew her passport for the return trip. She must go to the consulate no sooner than 15 days before the trip, and then it takes about 5 business days for the consulate to Fedex the travel authorization to your home (the Fedex fee is $15).
While standing in line at the consulate (3-1/2 hours plus another 1/2 hour to process the forms), my wife had the opportunity to talk with several ladies.
One has been in the USA for 9 years. She divorced her Russian husband, hooked up with an American man via the MOB process, married him, got her citizenship, divorced her AH, then remarried her ex RH and brought him over...that's a new one for me. I guess the 'prove out' period is now citizenship, not just the green card!
Another lady is married to a guy from Missouri, but she spends around 4 to 5 months in NYC with her 'illegal' mother. She told my wife her 'life is in NYC' and that she didn't care if her husband complained about it. If he doesn't let her live in NYC part of the time, she'll just divorce him. Some life...
Interesting aside...AM who want a visa just ring the bell at the consulate and they are let in immediately. Russian citizens are made to wait outside...just opposite of what you would expect. One of the door guards told the Russian complaining outside (it was cold Friday) that just because they were living in America, they still weren't free of the Russian 'torture' system.
