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....
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