Frequently asked questions about our service, Russia, travel, visas, etcIf you don't find an answer to your question on this page, do not hesitate to contact us with your question First time visitor (you haven't joined us yet)Who are we, pricing, what we do, why and how we do it...
You have joined usCorrespondence, support, your profile.
You are going to travel to RussiaWhat to expect on your trip, where and when to start, what to bring along...
Visas and ImmigrationHow to get Russian visa, how to bring your lady here, costs involved, how fast...
First time visitor (you haven't joined us yet)Q.How can you explain that joining your service is free? What's the point? A. Indeed, all our services are absolutely free for women. A lot of services are free for men as well. Thus, a male client can submit his profile for free, search our vast and constantly updated database and contact any number of women he wishes. There are several ways to contact the women. Sending messages and "smiles" is free. However, a man should pay to open a letter from a woman. So, if a man wants to read a woman's letter, he should buy credits. More details. A. Here you can find all our contacts including the email address. You can also forward all your correspondence to this address as well as orders, payments, inquiries. Q. If a profile has "a list of friends", what does that mean? A. The list of friends is not the list of people this member is having correspondence with. You can send an invitation to any member, and if he/she accepts it, you will be on his/hers list of friends, and he/she will automatically be on your list of friends. It will be the same if someone sends an invitation to you and you accept it. You can delete any person from your friend list whenever you want. To do that, you should enter your profile, go to "Communicator", then "Friend members", check those you wish to delete and click "Delete from Friend List". Those people who are on your list of friends may see your private photos which are protected by a password from all other members. Anyone visiting the site (be it a member or not) can view your list of friends. You may have a lot of friends or none at all - it is up to you. Remember that there are a lot of interpretations of the friend list. If you have listed a lot of people as your friends, it may mean that you are easy-going and communicative as well as popular. If you have not listed any friends, it may mean that you would not like everyone to see your relations, so you choose to keep them private. Some people mention just one friend indicating they are serious about him/her. You are free to interpret the list of friends up to your liking. Factor in the ratings of her pictures (the number of votes and the average rating), and her popularity (the more you pay to open a letter from her, the more popular she is). Q. I know that there are Russian scammers on the Internet. What measures do you take to prevent them from operating on your site? A. Unfortunately, such a problem exists in today's dating industry. A lot of scammers hide behind pictures of beautiful girls and make men believe they are their dreams. We try to keep our site clear from any suspicious activity, so when we notice that a member sends same letters to a lot of other members, we verify this member manually. Most of our women are represented by agencies, so they have to speak face-to-face to people who work for us very often. I can say that we do our best to protect our members, so our site is virtually scammer free. But still, forewarned is forearmed. Your best defense is your common sense. If you notice any scam attempts, do not hesitate to notify us. Here you will find more information about Russian bride scams. Q. When I dial your toll-free number, it does not work. Our toll-free main and fax numbers are only for those clients of ours who live in the USA. If you are outside the continental US, you will have to dial another number which is not toll-free. This may or may not include Canada, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Some people can call us toll-free from Canada, others cannot. If this is the problem, use our toll numbers (regular ones) or contact us via live chat 24 hours a day for free. Q. You show pictures of very beautiful girls. Do they exist in reality? A. Our women are real. Unfortunately, the problem of scammers exists in today's dating industry. A lot of scammers hide behind pictures of beautiful girls and make men believe they are their dreams. We try to keep our site clear from any suspicious activity, so when we notice that a member sends same letters to a lot of other members, we verify this member manually. Most of our women are represented by agencies, so they have to speak face-to-face to people who work for us very often. I can say that we do our best to protect our members, so our site is virtually scammer free. But still, forewarned is forearmed. Your best defense is your common sense. If you notice any scam attempts, do not hesitate to notify us. Our girls are very pretty, that's true. We work for you and select only the best girls. Our representatives do their best to choose nice-looking women. Q. I am afraid my wife will not stay with me after the marriage. She can use me to get out of her country, can't she? A. On the whole we can't guarantee that the ladies' expressed wishes are true. I just do not want to create any illusions. We are trying here to help people find their love, but we are not magicians. And nobody is. If some agency starts to assure you the lady will 100% stay with you - think twice before going there. Our representatives speak to these ladies face-to-face and do some basic checking and screening, but we cannot read people's intentions. Then, you can be sure of the following: a foreign woman must stay married to an American citizen for at least 2 years. This is the law. After that time she can get it unconditional permanent residency in the US. 2 years together with the processing time makes 3 years all in all. Actually, this term is quite enough to gain the lady's trust and love. Not so many Russian brides wish to marry a foreign man just to get out of Russia. In most cases single Russian women really want to create a strong and loving family. Probably, they have disappointed in Russian men or they may have their personal reasons, but in the end they are looking for their happiness, just like you. A decent woman will not leave her husband if he treats her well. It is another case if he is a jerk. Some guys like that try to take advantage of the situation and cry out loud how they have been deceived. Well, they got what they deserved. By the way, the statistics shows that the divorce rate between international regular American couples in the US is higher than the rate in international couples. Q. How can I contact the girl I liked? A. You should Join us (free), submit your profile (do not forget to upload your pictures - your chances to get a response will increase greatly). Then you can send a message to that member or just a "smile" (a short standard letter) - that will show your interest. All this is free of charge. When he/she receives, he/she will view your profile and send you a reply if they want to. All our services are free for women, so a woman can open a man's letter for free. A man should pay in credits to open a letter from a woman. Q. How can I get more information about a member of your service? A. We display all the information we have on the personal pages of our members. The only thing we do not publish is the contact information. However, some fields may have no information. For example, "Weight : Unknown", or "Education : Information not supplied" , that means that the person did not want to answer that question. If you are interested in more information, contact this member and ask him/her yourself! Q. What should I do if I don't want to pay by my credit card over the Internet? Are there any other payment methods? A. Of course, we have a lot of payment options. A member of our service can pay by credit cards, wire or bank transfers, cash, etc. To join us is free. You will only have to pay for letters from women. To be able to do that, you should buy credits. Q. How will my credit card statement indicate the charges from your company? A. In most cases it shows as "1st Int'l Marr NTWK". The full name is "1st International Marriage Network". 1st International Marriage Network is our parent company. Q. Do you accept wire transfers? A. We accept wire transfers. We have our payment options and instructions for them here. Q. There are a lot of young pretty women on your site who would like to find a man in his fifties. It looks suspicious. What if they just want to get out of Russia? A. First of all, let me say that it is not uncommon in Russia for a young girl to marry a man who is considerably older. It is a tradition, it is closely connected with Russian culture and way of thinking. The stereotypes which exist in American society make it difficult to understand another country's mentality. However, if you have decided to marry a Russian woman, you need to get rid of these stereotypes and try to see the world as she sees it. Of course, it is abnormal if a 50-year-old person marries an 18-year-old girl, but if the girl is about 25, it quite all right. Not all women are ok about the age difference, usually they indicate the age they are looking for in their profiles. Still, keep it in mind that people from other countries and especially from Russia where traditions are an integral part of life, have different opinions on many questions. Q. Do you publish printed catalogues ? A. We do not do that. We work for you, and we are trying to work well. We update our database daily, so if we decided to create printed catalogues, we would have to print new ones every day. That makes no sense at all. New members post their profiles every day. Some members ask for their profiles to be deleted, because they have already found their happiness. We have online catalogues which contain only fresh information. Some companies do have printed versions of their catalogues, but the information which is there is very old. These profiles may not already be active. So we decided not to waste your time and our money. You have joined usQ. I do not get responses to my email inquiries. A. The problem of spam is very big nowadays. The flow of spam-letters is huge. Most providers have to use anti-spam filters to protect their users. Our mail may also be blocked if such a filter considers it to be SPAM. Hotmail, yahoo, AOL block legitimate letters quite often on that ground. Anti-spam filters divide all letters into 3 types: the letters which must be delivered, the letters which must be deleted, the letters which are suspicious. The third category is usually called "Bulk mail", "Junk mail" or something along the line. Although we never send unsolicited messages to anyone, some of our emails to our customers get blocked. You may contact us by phone or online chat if you think the reason is different. We will try to help you. But first, check you "junk mail" folder. If you find our letter there, please click "It's not spam" or similar button in your email program. If you are a Hotmail or AOL user and you do not see our letter in the "Bulk mail" folder, please follow these instructions to unblock us. Q. I haven't had any responses from the ladies whom I tried to contact A. You should login to your account and check your messages. All the messages you should get are stored in your account. They do not go directly to your email address. We send notifications about every letter you receive, however. Make sure your email company is not blocking our letters. To find that out, read the information above. If nothing helps, check if you have uploaded your picture in your profile. See if it is displayed correctly. Your chances to get a response are next to zero if you do not have your picture in your profile. Women prefer to see whom they are corresponding with. If you do not get responses to more than 3 messages, or you belive those are not the problems, let us know and we will try to clarify the situation and solve your problem. You are going to travel to RussiaQ. How long does it take to get a visa to Russia or Ukraine? A. For Russian and Ukraine visas processing time is the same. If you already have a passport valid at least six months after the dates of your travel, the procedure becomes really easy. We can fax you the visa support documents within 1-2 business days. Then you need to apply to the consulate for the visa. It usually takes 2 weeks to get the visa, but they have express services, so if you throw money in the process, you can get the visa even the same business day. Visa processing to Russia takes about 2 weeks for standard processing, but you can pay extra money to have it ready even the same business day. Do not forget to add time needed for delivery of the documents. You can use express delivery (FedEx as well). Your documents will be delivered to you the same way if you prepay the service. You can go in person to a Russian Consulate in New York, San Francisco or Seattle and get the visa the same day. It will cost around $300. A. Russia and other CIS countries are quite safe. It may be a little frightening if you get lost alone. Like in any other country, you should not forget about basic safety rules. Do not go to dangerous areas, do not flash your cash, do not carry a lot of money with you. Remember, the less attention as a foreigner you attract, the better it is for you. You will be ok if you use your common sense and stay away from trouble. It is nice if the woman you are going to meets you at the airport and shows you around. Q. Will my laptop work in Russia? A. As for the customs, there are no restrictions on bringing your personal laptop in Russia. However, you may need a simple adaptеr. Actually, Russia uses the same electricity standard as Europe, so it is 220 volts (compare to 110 in the USA). For all electronic devices except laptops you will need a transformer if you do not want them to burn. Such a transformer changes voltage. It can be bought at Sears or Radioshack for $20-$30. Fortunately, laptops do not need transformers. Their chargers normally take in any voltage from 110 volts to 250 volts. Probably, some laptop chargers do not take 220 volts, but it will be a rare exception then. Anyway, you'd better check the charger before plugging the laptop in. You will see the acceptable voltage ("AC in") printed right on the charger. But even if your laptop takes in 220 volts, there is one more problem. Since Russian outlets have 2 round holes and American plugs have 2 flat prones, it is impossible to fit them. To be able to do that, you will need to buy a simple adapter which will cost a couple of bucks at Sears, Radioshack, Walmart. This adapter must have 2 holes for flat American prones, and 2 round prones on the other end, to plug into Russian outlet. Network and phone connectors are the same as in US. All of this applies to all other countries of CIS. Q. How can I connect to the Internet in Russia? A. Expensive hotels in big cities may have Wi Fi connection. You can find out about that beforehand. Wi Fi connection is the same in any country, so it will not present any difficulties to connect to the Internet. If there is no Wi Fi at your hotel or if you have to dial up, that's what you can do. 1. There are a lot of Internet cafes in every city. The hotel staff will tell you where they are or you can ask a taxi-driver. That's a good way out if you only need to check your email or to access Internet from a public computer. It will cost you about $1 per hour. 2. If you do not want to use a public computer and want to connect your own laptop instead, you will find out that there is no nationwide dial-up Internet provider (like AOL) in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. Thus, you will have to use the services of a local provider. The hotel staff can help you with that or you can find one via Internet beforehand. Local providers in Russia usually take only cash, so be ready to prepay in cash. Their rates are within $.50-$1.00 per hour. Or you can find out where the nearest Internet cafe is and bring your laptop there. You can ask the staff to connect it to the Internet. They usually do so at a regular hourly rate. Q. Will any electronics work in Russia? A. Of course, electronic devices will work in Russia, but you will need a transformer. The thing is that In Russia and in Europe the voltage is higher than in the USA. It is 220volts while in the States it is 110volts. So for all electronic devices except laptop you will need a transformer (an adapter that changes voltage). These transformers are also often called step down transformers. You can purchase them at Sears or Radioshack at $20-$30. We also sell them for $15 plus shipping. Contact us to order one. Q. Will my cell phone work in Russia ? A. European providers as well as Russian ones use GSM standard for cell phone communication. If you are from a European country, our phone will work in Russia, but you will have to pay really high roaming charges. You need to consult your provider about that and find out if they have some calling plan covering Russia, so that you didn't have to pay so big charges. Such American providers as Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint use the older proprietary CDMA standard. These phones DO NOT work in Russia at all. Other American providers (T-Mobile and Cingular) use the GSM standard which is used in Russia, so these phones will not have problems in Russia. Usually you do not need a quad-band "world phone" as they call it. In Russia the most widely used frequency is GSM 1800. Most GSM phones offered in US market can operate on this frequency. Sometimes, though rarely you may come across older GSM 900 standard. If your phone works on that frequency, it good. If not, you will not be able to get a signal. You may find out the frequencies your cell phone can operate on by calling your wireless service provider or by consulting the manual. Roaming charges are very high - $1.50 per minute with T-Mobile and Cingular. Zou will have to paz a considerable sum of money if you need to give a call from your US phone to a number in Russia while you are in Russia. In this case you will also incur international long distance charges. We offer you our calling card to at least save on that. If you have a GSM phone, there is a cheaper way out. You may buy a Russian SIM card and insert it in your existing US phone. Of course, you may buy a phone in Russia as well, but they are expensive there - not less than $100 even for a basic model. Buying a Russian SIM card will give you a number of advantages: you will get a unique Russian number as well as very low rates. Local calling rates ar every little, and there are various calling plans. You may choose any one you like. You can buy SIM cards at every wireless store - they cost only $5. There may be a problem, though, if you are using T-Mobile and Cingular. To prevent their customers from switching to another provider, these companies now "lock" their customer's phones. It means you will not be able to use a SIM card from a different provider unless you "unlock" the phone. Local cell phone repair shops usually have such service. You can also type "unlock phone" on eBay and get what you need. Since there are no monthly calling plans in Russia, you will have to use prepaid services. Actually, new calling plans emerge very often, so it is better to consult right on the spot what new offers they have. Airtime is more expensive than in America: 5 to 15 cents a minute for local calls,15-80 cents a minute for long distance calls. International calls can be as high as $3 per minute. Calls made at night (9 PM to 6 AM) are very cheap. You can prepay any amount at any wireless store or any bank. You can also use special machines which accept payments for cellular service. These machines are installed in big shops. They have English prompts as well. I do not want to advertise any specific Russian providers, but if you insist, I can recommend two:"MTS" and "Beeline". They provide the connection of high quality and have a wide range of calling plans. Their coverage areas are the greatest. These providers are not the cheapest ones, though. There Plus they also operate in Ukraine and other CIS countries. Q. What are the rates to call Russia and other CIS countries? How can I do that? A. Im the majority of cases the sequence is the following (from the US): you dial 011, country code, area code and phone number. Russian country code is 7, Ukrainian 380, Belarussian 375. Of course, you will have the best quality if you dial directly from your home or work number, but remember that the rates are going to be very high - $2 per minute or more. If you are using a calling card or a special calling plan covering Russia, it is another business. The dial-around calling cards that we offer give you very affordable rates to former USSR countries (as low as 4 cents per minute to Moscow, Russia). You can read more here to finв out more about the way to call, codes and the way to purchase our calling cards. Our bilingual operator/interpreter will help you if you dial our toll-free 1.866.974.6453. She will dial the number for you if you get stuck. The interpreter will stay online and interpret your conversation in real time if your lady needs help with English. Read more on it here A. Russia covers a great part of our planet, so naturally, its climate varies from one climatic zone to another climatic zone. It is impossible to answer briefly what Russian weather is like. On our site you will find a whole article about it. If you have never been to Russia, you may think this is the country of snow and ice. It is always shown like that in movies. In fact, it is not so, of course. The climate of the central parts of Russia where most our clients travel resembles American Midwest. It is a little colder, but not so windy, so it is easy to get used to the weather. Other countries of the former Soviet Union have their own climate. To learn about it, read on. Visas and ImmigrationQ. Can you help me with the documents to get a visa to Russia? A. Foreign citizens including US citizens need a visa to enter Russia. If you want to visit other CIS countries, such as Ukraine or Belarus, you will also need a visa. We can send you the official invitation that you need in order to obtain a visa to Russia, Belarus or Ukraine. This invitation and your passport, consulate fee and 2 passport-sized photos must be sent to the respective consulate in your country which has jurisdiction over your region. Q. How can I bring my future Russian wife to my country? A. If you are a US citizen and our client, we can give you advice and right direction. In the next answer we explain the way the process works and associated costs. We will help you with the forms. If you get stuck, contact us and we help you out. If you need an attorney, we will advise a good one to you. We do not have attorneys on our staff, but we know good ones who have been working with us for a long time. this will be a specialist in Immigration Law. Q. The process of bringing your lady to your country and the costs. A. Note. The process of immigration is the same in all Western countries, so the information below will show you the right direction. The prices mentioned, however, are only for the USA. IMPORTANT: Be careful. Do not send money to woman whom you have never met. Even if you have already had a personal meeting, think twice. Unfortunately, there exists the problem of scammers. Scammers are people who try to get a profit from your love. Russian bride scammers use different scenarios, but in the end they go down to getting a good sum out of your pocket. The visa and ticket scenarios are the most common ones. The lady may ask you to send her money for the visa, because the procedure costs so much or for her agency. She may say that you should send her money for the ticket, and usually it is $2000-4000. These claims are mostly fake. If you send this money, you will never see it or the woman. We have a special article about scams here. If you get a letter with a money request, remember it can be a scam attempt. Don't let them fool you around. Contact us and ask us for advice. There is the law that you should meet your lady in person if you want to bring her to the USA. Since it is practically impossible for Russian women to get a "tourist" or "guest" visa to the US, the more common practice is for the man to come to Russia or Ukraine. The best way to proceed is to apply for her "K" (fiancée) visa. The immigration law requires you to have met in person at least once before you apply for the "fiancee" visa. You must be able to prove that the meting did take place - you should have pictures of you together, tickets and so on. Although the best way is to go to her home country, some people would like to meet in some other country - Dominican Republic, Cyprus, etc (Russian citizens do not need a visa to go there). This is a romantic but dangerous variant, because most girls do not have enough money to pay for their tickets, so you may become an easy target for scammers. After you have met her in person, you need to file a petition with USCIS, known as form I-129F. You can do it yourself. We sell fiancée visa kits. In the kit you will find all necessary forms and instructions. You can contact us to order one. You need to file the included petition with the USCIS office having jurisdiction over your state. It costs $170, and it takes 2-3 months for USCIS to approve it. Then you send the approved petition to your lady and she takes it to the US Consulate in her home country and applies for the visa. All in all it will cost you about $350 (including the USCIS fee, postage, visa processing fee). It is not so difficult to get a "K" visa in comparison with tourists visas. Problems occur when the documents are filed improperly, or she has a police record, or you or her had violated an Immigration law provision in the past (i.e. overstayed a prior "K" visa). If you or her applied for "K" visa in the past, it may also be grounds for denial of the current application. Since tickets are really expensive for Russian women, you will need to pay for that. You may travel to her country and accompany her, although it is not necessary. It will show you as a very serious and caring person. however. The one way ticket could be around $600-$900. Your two way airfare could be anywhere between $800 and $1600. The prices depend on the season and the time when you buy the ticket. She can stay in the US for 3 months in the status of a "fiancee". Neither of you is obliged to get married during this time, but if you marry her, she will be able to stay in your country indefinitely. If you do not get married, she will have to go back home. You may have to pay for her return ticket. If you get married you will need to apply for a permanent resident status for her. There is a special form for that, and an application fee. I would recommend to consult us about that. If you decide to fill out the forms yourself, it is going to cost as much as $800, and you will need to go through some medical tests. Many of the immigration forms can be easily filled out and filed by yourself, but in more complicated matters you may need the assistance of an immigration attorney. We do not have an immigration attorney on staff; however, we can recommend a very experienced and knowledgeable one, who consults us on a regular basis and provides a superior service. His name is Gary Bala, his number is (610) 446-VISA. You can email him at garybala@VISA-Attorney.com Q. How long does it usually take to get a US visa? A. After she has got your petition and applied for the visa at the US Consulate in her home country, it is going to take about 2 weeks. (if there are no complications). However, remember that time to fill out and get the petition approved may be a little long. Q. Do they have express services? A. For a US citizen applying for a Russian visa - yes. You can throw money into the process and get the visa even the same business day. For a Russian citizen applying for a US visa - in most cases no. The waiting time is the same for everyone. Q. Where is it better to get married: in the States or in the lady's home country? A. It is far better to bring her in the US on a K (fiancée) visa and then marry her here.Thus, she will stay with you while waiting for her permanent residency papers. If the wedding takes place in Russia, she will have to wait for the papers there, and it may take a really long time - 6 or more months. Do not forget about that. If there are any complications, the time increases. |
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