![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Banking Victory!
Oct. 9th, 2018 03:53 pmYesterday, we finally went to the bank to get our new bank statements. Our lawyer had requested new ones, because the previous ones didn't have our names in Russian (and the immigration service wanted that). I had put this off for a week and a half, because I just couldn't deal with it, but finally I pulled myself together and off we went. Well, after waiting for about an hour and a half, we explained the situation. I then showed her the email from our lawyer (in Russian) saying that we needed the bank statements with our names in Russian. The bank teller asked if we wanted the whole bank statement in English. We explained that, no, we wanted the bank statement and our names in Russian. She printed out a bank statement, showed my name to me in English, and said that it can only be in English, because that is what is on our passport. Okay, that makes sense. So, we left. I don't know if I was as polite as I should have been, as we were both pretty frustrated. When we got home, I contacted the lawyer's office, and they said to go to Sberbank, as it is the simplest option.
The problem with Sberbank is that there are a lot of sanctions against them, which will make it hard to use them as our primary bank if we want to transfer money from the US. However, after a lot of fretting, I decided that I don't care. I'll deal with it when it comes up.
After having an anxiety attack today about dealing with banking, I pulled myself together, and we went out to Sberbank and opened an account. At the old bank, it took about 3.5 hours to open an account. At Sberbank, it took about ten minutes. We waited for about 2 minutes instead of hours. It was quite pleasant, and the woman who helped us understood what we needed, even though our Russian is still rough. That left us with enough time to go to the old bank and try to get our money. After waiting for a while, we were able to get two thirds of it, and we'll be able to get the rest tomorrow. So, progress was made! Yay! It is such a relief to have this partly done. On top of that, it is nice to have found a bank that is more pleasant to work with, since (if it works out) there is a lot of banking we would like to do.
The next stops are to get most of the money from the old bank into the new bank, get the bank statements, and bring the bank statements to the lawyer. Then, we need to contact the currency exchange people to find out how much they don't want to work with Sberbank. There are also some tax things that need to be done in the US, so that we are properly complying with all the American laws. Whee!
The problem with Sberbank is that there are a lot of sanctions against them, which will make it hard to use them as our primary bank if we want to transfer money from the US. However, after a lot of fretting, I decided that I don't care. I'll deal with it when it comes up.
After having an anxiety attack today about dealing with banking, I pulled myself together, and we went out to Sberbank and opened an account. At the old bank, it took about 3.5 hours to open an account. At Sberbank, it took about ten minutes. We waited for about 2 minutes instead of hours. It was quite pleasant, and the woman who helped us understood what we needed, even though our Russian is still rough. That left us with enough time to go to the old bank and try to get our money. After waiting for a while, we were able to get two thirds of it, and we'll be able to get the rest tomorrow. So, progress was made! Yay! It is such a relief to have this partly done. On top of that, it is nice to have found a bank that is more pleasant to work with, since (if it works out) there is a lot of banking we would like to do.
The next stops are to get most of the money from the old bank into the new bank, get the bank statements, and bring the bank statements to the lawyer. Then, we need to contact the currency exchange people to find out how much they don't want to work with Sberbank. There are also some tax things that need to be done in the US, so that we are properly complying with all the American laws. Whee!
