Met with Immigration Lawyer
Aug. 20th, 2018 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillilahWe just got back from meeting with the immigration lawyer about getting permanent residency. It went quite well. It seems that we screwed up one step in the last batch of paperwork we were supposed to do (and I was pretty sure that we had, but I just could not figure out what needed to be done nor could I cope with it), so the lawyer is going to resolve that issue also. We'll pay a fine, but that's what happens when you screw up your paperwork.
The best news is that we don't need to have all the paperwork from the US that we needed previously. I expected that we would need everything all over again, but we don't. That means we don't need to deal with getting fingerprinted or getting the papers from the FBI that say we aren't criminals. Thank goodness! That part was an expensive pain in the ass.
The paperwork for getting our temporary residency said that we needed to prove we had income, but we never had to do that. I've been confused about this. Well, we were supposed to have done this, so (as mentioned above) we'll have to pay a fine. We'll need to do it for getting permanent residency, anyway. What we need to do is put the minimum amount of money that the Russian government thinks you need to live for a year in a Russian bank account, and then get a letter from the bank saying that the money is there. It is about $2000 each, which is kind of a lot, but we aren't spending it, just putting it in the bank. Thankfully, we are conservative in our spending. Also, right now, the dollar is doing pretty well against the ruble, so it is definitely the time to spend money. Six months ago, this would have been noticeably more expensive.
We also need to get medical exams, as we did previously, and take a Russian language exam. The lawyer said that it isn't hard, but we're going to hold off until we've had a couple of weeks of classes to get us back into the swing of speaking Russian. It looks like we will also be tested on Russian history and laws. I did okay in the online tests, but I'll need to do some studying before I'm confident. That's fine. All the study materials are online.
I still need to find a psychologist, but hopefully progress will be made on that soon.
The best news is that we don't need to have all the paperwork from the US that we needed previously. I expected that we would need everything all over again, but we don't. That means we don't need to deal with getting fingerprinted or getting the papers from the FBI that say we aren't criminals. Thank goodness! That part was an expensive pain in the ass.
The paperwork for getting our temporary residency said that we needed to prove we had income, but we never had to do that. I've been confused about this. Well, we were supposed to have done this, so (as mentioned above) we'll have to pay a fine. We'll need to do it for getting permanent residency, anyway. What we need to do is put the minimum amount of money that the Russian government thinks you need to live for a year in a Russian bank account, and then get a letter from the bank saying that the money is there. It is about $2000 each, which is kind of a lot, but we aren't spending it, just putting it in the bank. Thankfully, we are conservative in our spending. Also, right now, the dollar is doing pretty well against the ruble, so it is definitely the time to spend money. Six months ago, this would have been noticeably more expensive.
We also need to get medical exams, as we did previously, and take a Russian language exam. The lawyer said that it isn't hard, but we're going to hold off until we've had a couple of weeks of classes to get us back into the swing of speaking Russian. It looks like we will also be tested on Russian history and laws. I did okay in the online tests, but I'll need to do some studying before I'm confident. That's fine. All the study materials are online.
I still need to find a psychologist, but hopefully progress will be made on that soon.
