#vaguebooking is over, I am in the process of getting married and working hard to bring my fiancée Anna and her son Yaroslav to America via our immigration system.
TLDR - I need help with legal and government filing fees now, I will need to find a bigger apartment, clothing, furniture, basics for 2 people who will be coming with very little.
Read further for the entire story!
A few years ago Anna and I met online, I was looking for people to practice Russian and Ukrainian languages with as I was attempting to learn to speak these and met a few people in a language forum, Anna was one of these people. We infrequently met for the first year via video calls over the Telegram app to practice, taking turns between English and Russian mostly.
Over time we just started talking about life in general and the calls started happening more often, we were getting to know each other and found we had much in common, interests in music, art, film, gaming, animation, similar political and family values. We also had very close feelings about love and relationships, at some point, it just clicked, our conversations became more clear we had feelings for each other.
I was heading to BOB in Bremen in April 2023 and decided a pit stop to visit my friend Dan and his family in Istanbul was long overdue, I invited Anna to meet me for this week in Istanbul, and she agreed. Our 1st date in Istanbul was perfect, her mom was worried I was going to sell her into sex slavery and my few friends who knew were worried she would stab me and take all my credit cards (good thing they are always maxed out!). But the reality was amazing, our interaction was totally organic and natural, we decided as challenging as this situation may be we wanted to be together.
Anna is Ukrainian but she was forced to flee with her mother when her city of Slovyansk in Donetsk was the powder keg that started the ongoing conflict back in 2014. They went to Russia where her grandparents lived, and unable to return to her hometown eventually had to give up her Ukrainian passport for a Russian one, as dual citizenship is not allowed. During this time she was married to another Ukrainian and they had a child, her son Yaroslav. She was separated from her husband for 5 years before I met her, upon returning from our 1st trip together she filed for divorce and I found an immigration attorney referred by friends down in LA.
If she still had her Ukraine citizenship she would be here in the Bay Area right now but a Russian passport is a whole other story, not sure how we would get her son here as he was born in Russia - we still have some ideas and are pursuing every possibility. Due to the sanctions and the war, there is little to no chance of her and her son coming here other than through the immigration process.
We were told recently by our lawyer that K1 fiancée visas are backlogged well over 2 years and he suggested we just go ahead and get married abroad, so this is what we will do and this is why I need your help.
I am trying to raise this specific amount to cover a few things, I have been paying installments to the lawyer since last year, and thanks to my great luck with dental issues and medical debt, I am running through my savings and soon will be completely tapped. I want to pay off the lawyer, and cover the filing fees for family visas for Anna and Yaroslav as well as green cards which the lawyer agreed to do as a package deal for a reasonable amount (I am told) of $8500.
Here is a breakdown of the help I need (maybe you have other ideas to help that are non-monetary, I am all ears)
I owe the lawyer $3250 out of $8500 total
To file with USCIS I-130 form $675-1350 + $325 for each person (Anna and Yaroslav)
We had to find a marriage organizer in Tbilisi, Georgia and were very fortunate to find a great person, this will cost us $650 including a notarized and translated to English marriage license that I will rush to my lawyer.
They will be coming with nothing, I am looking for $2000-3000 to get clothing, furniture, and basics along with finding a 2 BR apartment for us to live, I have time for this, just paying off the lawyer and filing fees will allow me to get back to covering my medical debt and start saving for when they arrive but if we raise some of this now it would help greatly.
By the time you have read all this knowing how Facebook works, we may be married already. We are meeting in Istanbul on July 17th and due to the restrictive and lame Turkish civil code, we will fly over to the country of Georgia and be married on July 18th, then return to Turkey to spend our impromptu honeymoon in Antalya for a few days.
So if you read this far, I appreciate it and I know this isn't life or death, there are many other worthy causes right now that deserve your money.
But if you feel like giving it as a wedding present maybe this is a better way to look at it? I tried to keep my expectations low, and if you can give great, if not whatever! This was extremely hard for me, actually embarrassing, I have never liked to ask for help and I have always preferred to help others, so I hope this is my karma rebate moment.
I am continuing to sell off most of my possessions that have any collectible value, I am looking to advance my career, expanding my Cybersecurity certifications and experience in hopes of a greater role with my current employer or elsewhere. All this will help with the future but right now we are on the precipice of failure and timing is critical to get our paperwork filed into the extremely sluggish immigration system.
I do hope you will consider it and as a veteran of years of fundraising in public radio, I am happy to say you can give $1, $5, or even $20, anything is going to help me and my new family, I will always be grateful and appreciate it.
Love to you all and thank you.
Sean / Naes, Anna, and Yaroslav
p.s. I will add more photos and updates as things progress.
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