Planet-Love.com Searchable Archives

Today my wife had to translate to a police officer the sad story of a very young and naive 19 y.o. Ukraine girl,I will not mention names so I will refer to her as Olga..here is her story:

Olga came here to California 2 weeks ago on a fiance visa, speaking very little english to a man she did not know very well at all. She is 19 and he is 42 y.o.(lets not discuss the age difference right now)
The man tells her he is an engineer, with a good income and contacted her through an agency in Sebastopol. Apparently this man has been married before to a Ukraine girl(she ran away also) and was able to get another k-1 visa for Olga. He arrived in Warsaw to escort her back to California, handling all the paperwork and plane tickets
through New York city port of entry.
After one week, Olga was not happy and wanted to return back home..she is not a runner, just unhappy with the living conditions and the fact the man was not employed and had hardly any money.
She asked for him to take her back to the airport...he tells her he has not any money to give her for return tickets.

Olga runs away, wanders the streets and finds a good samaratin who takes her to the local police station. There she finds a sympathetic female officer who takes her home and giver her refuge. The next day the female officer contacts the fiance and questions him, he gives the police all of Olga's luggage and tells them he wants nothing more to do with her.
The officer then takes her to the local INS office and they refer her to the Border Patrol for questioning,and due to a misunderstanding they handcuff her and lock her up in a cell with criminals. There is no one there to translate for Olga and the female officer learns that if they deport her, she will have it stamped in her passport and never be allowed back here in the States...so she takes Olga back home to sort things out.

Now this is where my wife and I get involved:

The female police officer contacts a travel agent to discuss the cost of the return flight, the travel agent (the one I use) remembers that my wife is Russian and calls me if we can help with translation...and of course we came as quickly as we could. After a three way translation....the police officer to me....me to my wife(for some reason she understands me better than others)....my wife to Olga...we were able to unravel the whole story. The expense of the return flight was too much for local help, so I am not sure how the money will be raised.

Now we need the advise from this board...

1. Is there a INS requirement that to obtain the fiance visa, the man must provide a return ticket within the 90 day window?

2. Is there a Ukraine Embassy in California to contact?

Rags..any help?

The final discussion was about what rights does Olga have? Not even the police have a clue, not sure if they need to contact the district attorney to file a charge against the fiance(he did not hurt her), or if INS needs to go after him for falsification of his petition....

apk

... in response to sad story (long), posted by Apk1 on May 29, 2002

The Ukrainian Embassy is located in Washington DC and there are two consulates located in New York and Chicago.  I noticed that paperwork for California seems to process through the Embassy itself.  Here's a link that may help clarify that: http://www.asststork.com/pages/ukrconsul.html

According to my wife, if you get in touch with the Embassy or one of the consulates, there's a better than good chance that the embassy will provide tickets for the girl to go home.  Their job, after all is to look after Ukrainian interests in the US, including their people.

Since you are in California, drop me a line.  Perhaps I can find out some more information for you.  My wife, Ukrainian as well, might be able to help her with something...

... in response to Ukrainian Embassy and consulates, posted by John K on May 30, 2002

I think the California INS would be highly interested in learning that someone lied in their affidavit of support.  I seem to recall that there were supposed to be supporting documents filed in addition to the affidavit, but I could be wrong.  Regardless, I'm pretty certain that there are legal liabilities involved in misrepresenting yourself, not to mention the financial liabilities of the affidavit itself...

... in response to sad story (long), posted by Apk1 on May 29, 2002

The nearest Consulate is in Chicago I think. Man this sucks! This lady is welcome to come live with us until things get sorted out and I will pony up some cash for a return ticket.

We need to get the INS's attention so that this jerk never gets another K1 approved.

... in response to Re: sad story (long), posted by Rags on May 30, 2002

i think i read somewhere that nobody gets the third
K-1 visa? two times and that's it..
is that true? maybe a third k-1 is possibal but with even
more red tape than usual?

... in response to Re: sad story (long), posted by Rags on May 30, 2002

Rags....do you think your new wife will want a young beautiful girl living with you? I know my wife wont! (smile)
I too would have offered to pony-up, but I chose to distance myself to what will probably be a big legal mess.

The female police officer told me that they were looking into options to getting her home, the first option was to contact the Ukraine embassy. The travel agent made me laugh, just to show how ignorant most of the world is of the FSU...she said she had the phone number of the Russian Embassy in San francisco...but I said she is from Ukraine!!, it is like sending an American to Canada for a SSN!

... in response to Re: Re: sad story (long), posted by Apk1 on May 30, 2002

Heck Dude I'm never home anyway. V's got my nose to the grindstone so much that all I can do when I do get home is the chores, my husbandly duties, and sleep a little :)

Besides, one Ukrainian hottie is all that I can handle anyway.

If there is anything that we can do to help out, please let us know.

Too bad the Embassies don't require R/T tickets for the K1 visas like the used to.

... in response to Re: offer to help, posted by Rags on May 30, 2002

I'm sure Tatyana wouldn't mind, LOL  Of course, I'd probably have to move out to make room.  Actually, when you get two of them together, they don't even notice that you're around.  :)

... in response to Re: sad story (long), posted by Rags on May 30, 2002

To cast the guy as a "jerk." We simply don't know enough to make that kind of judgement. Cheap-skate and summab1tch maybe - but "jerk" is a bit over-the-top -- don't you think? --smile--

- Dan

... in response to Don't Be So Quick . . ., posted by Dan on May 30, 2002

This is true. I may have overreacted a little there but the thought of a 19 Y.O. girl running scared in a strange land is a little too much for me. I know that there are two sides to every story and hopefully we can reach a happy ending here.