OK, this is probably a long shot, and I may be the best-qualified person on this board to answer this question (which is to say not at all, except for wild guesses), but what the heck.
A good friend of mine is in the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan. She just e-mailed me and said that she met some guy, and is madly in love (I knew this would happen!), and wants to bring him to the States and get married (not necessarily in that order).
Now I can help her with the U.S. immigration side of things, but she says locals need a Turkmen exit visa to emigrate permanently from Turkmenistan, and that obtaining an exit visa is a very difficult and arduous process (and if anecdotal experience on similar bureaucratic fronts holds true here as well, probably involving payment of large bribes). So she wants to get him a visitor visa to the U.S., get married, and file for a green card later.
Her plan is probably a bad idea from a legal/practical standpoint, because a visitor visa does not allow for the intent to remain permanently in the U.S., so it would essentially involve lying to the U.S. government, for which they could theoretically deny him this visa and any future ones and/or deny the eventual green card application.
However, all immigrant visas (including fiance visas) for Turkmenistan are processed in Moscow. So it’s conceivable that he could do everything required to immigrate to the U.S. in Moscow without anyone in Turkmenistan getting wind of the idea that he is leaving permanently.
So has anyone done this before, or does anyone know anyone who has dealt with this or a similar situation before? How hard is it, really, to get permission to emigrate permanently from Turkmenistan? Is it likely that a sympathetic U.S. consular staff person would issue my friend’s fiance a visitor visa, knowing upfront what his intent was? Brainstorming/other ideas highly appreciated.
I say go the Moscow route. From what little I know of all this. Best to try the Moscow route. Will it be easy? doubtful but is the correct thing to do. Much better than entering the country under a visitors VISA knowing otherwise.
9-11 has made such things highly frowned upon.
Your friend sounds to be deeply infatuated. Unfortunately she should take the longer, yet proper route in obtaining the proper exit visa and such. I think Mosocw will be the better place to file the paper work if at all possible.
sorry for the rambling, tis early and I suffered last night. hope you got something out of all that.
Thanks, Osip; that’s pretty much what I told her. But upon further questioning, she seems genuinely concerned for his safety. She is normally a very by-the-book person, and has a year left on her Peace Corps term, so unless she is quitting early I don’t think she would be in such a hurry if there weren’t genuine concern. After all, they could always get married there. But she is even concerned about his ability to leave for Russia for a brief trip, let alone for the U.S. permanently.
Admittedly I don’t know all the details; I’m extrapolating from a couple of e-mails. I’m trying to work a couple of immigration angles, because she will need both some competent legal advice (this is not my area of expertise, immigration-wise), some luck, and a sympathetic person or two at Homeland Security.
And sorry you suffered last night. What’s that all about? Anything we can do to help?
P.S. If my friend ends up with some guy who is trying to use her for a green card, I will be really pissed off. She usually has a good head on her shoulders, but she also tends to fall for people deeply, sometimes ones who don’t deserve it.
Sorry for being so nosy, Eva Luna, but why does Turkmenistan care whether or not its citizens emigrates? Does this man have special skills that are needed in the country or does Turkmenistan want to present themselves to the world as a country where none of its citizens wants to leave? What’s the rationale here?
medstar, I have no idea. Some theories, but no idea.
In the Soviet Union, people who had held positions which were of strategic military importance were frequently not allowed to leave until they had been out of those positions for a certain length of time. This frequently extended to many types of scientific research, or even ordinary military service in an ongoing conflict (such as Afghanistan; my ex-boyfriend theoretically wasn’t supposed to be allowed out to see me, but by 1990, nobody cared).
Another reason is that Soviet citizens were supposed to have covered certain legal obligations, such as support of minor children or elderly parents, before being allowed to leave. One former friend of mine had to pay child support through his daughter’s 18th birthday before being allowed to emigrate. A former client of mine had a wife who was not allowed to leave; she was not Jewish and he was, and her parents had disapproved of their marriage to such an extent that they refused to discharge her from her (then) legal obligation to support them in their old age, and so she was not granted an exit visa. However, back then at least the restrictions on leaving temporarily were different than the ones for leaving permanently, and some U.S. consular official took pity on her and granted her a tourist visa, in spite of her husband residing in the U.S. as a refugee.
I don’t know exactly what the issue is with my friend’s fiance (I’m extrapolating from a couple of e-mails here, and I’m not sure how much detail she wants to discuss in that format). It could be anything. But I trust my friend’s judgement that the issue is serious.
Hello, Eva Luna, I am back in the USA! Your friend may be in for a lot of grief - many of the NIS want to hold on to all the expertise that their citizens may offer. Is there a US Embassy or US Consulate there in Turkmenistan? How tied down in your friend to her work there? Could she and her new friend take a “sight-seeing tour” to a neighboring country that has a US Embassy or Consulate? I think the fellow could apply for political asylum, but I don’t know the procedure or time frame that would apply. If your friend has a year left in Turkmenistan, that would be a shaky way to start a new relationship - him in the US fighting the legal battle and her in Turkmenistan having to deal with the inevitable enmity of the local government. If she quits early, are there consequences concerning future job search? You know, I have been fortunate to see lots of the world, and I see this situation developing time and time again. Many times, these relationships work out real well, but usually the differences in culture, religion, and other backgrounds are just too overwhelming for the two people to handle. Sorry to sound so callous, but that’s just the way things are. I hope your friend will step back for a moment and take a long, hard look at what she and her new paramour are in for. If he has some contacts in the US, that’s one thing; but asking him to move to the US with no support base would be a big challenge for both of them.
Well, this intercultural stuff is not a new concept for my friend; she has spent significant periods abroad in the FSU before (although not in Central Asia), and honestly feels more at home in several other cultures than she does in her own. She should have a pretty darn good idea what she (and he) are facing. She also has an excellent support network and some great job contacts back here.
My friend is a pretty neat person, and very extroverted, one of the types who can come away from a party or conference with a dozen new friends. The ultimate choice for a Peace Corps volunteer. And honestly, I don’t know whether she’s dated a guy from her own ethnic background since high school, or maybe college at the latest. She’s a true internationalist. I just hope she’s not looking at this particular guy through rose-colored glasses, or wanting to rescue him from an icky political situation.
There is an Embassy in Ashgabat, but they only do nonimmigrant visa processing. I have a sneaking suspicion she may know someone there who is willing to help (it’s got to be an awfully small American expat community over there), but this person would not have jurisdiction to issue an immigrant visa, just a tourist visa. That may be why she’s asking me about potential legal consequences on this end.
Your friend is asking for a lot of grie. She may think she is madly in love, when in fact she is just mad. Marrying a foreign national has resulted in untold greif for the sweet youg American maiden when the novelty wears off and the ‘fn’ decides he has had what he wanted.
Most assuredly I would not be a party to facilitating such a deal. If she really wants to bring him to US she should do so on her own.
The only advice I would give her is to wait till her contractual time has expired and then see if she still wants to do it on her own.
I’ve asked her some very specific questions, which she hasn’t answered directly or completely. I’m assuming there is a reason why she hasn’t. She is probably nervous about drawing attention to herself, and to him. I don’t know to what extent e-mail traffic there is monitored, but it’s a wacky, wacky country with a megalomaniac Dictator for Life. Google “Saparmurad Niyazov,” or check out www.rferl.org, and you’ll see what I mean. These are not people, or issues, with which one wants to monkey around.
I’ve put her in touch with a couple of experienced and reputable immigration lawyers, which is probably the most helpful thing I can do for her at the moment. She knows her situation, and his, better than anyone else I know who could possibly provide advice other than U.S. immigration advice. I was hoping beyond hope that I might fond someone here who had dealt with something similar.
My friend is not stupid, nor is she a naive fresh college grad who has never set foot outside the U.S. or known a foreigner. She is in her late 20’s and has had her share of relationships and heartbreaks. She speaks four languages and has lived in three foreign countries. She is many things, but “naive maiden” is not one of them. And I believe in helping my friends to the best of my abilities. (And believe me, as a former Immigration Court interpreter, I’ve seen the gamut of fraudulent marriages for immigration purposes.)
She has been there for more than a year now, and has known him since shortly after her arrival. And having identical backgrounds is no guarantee of having a successful relationship; just ask my parents. They both grew up less than 100 miles from each other, in nearly identical educational, religious, and socioeconomic circumstances, divorced after 12 years of marriage and 2 kids, and now can’t even manage to be in the same room with each other without lawyers present, more than 20 years after their divorce.
Sometimes good things only come if you take a chance. Sometimes bad things happen, too, but I firmly believe that all you can do is make sure you are going in with your eyes open. So barring evidence that this guy is a violent criminal or abusive or something of that nature, I am inclined to provide my friend all the assistance I am able. At some point, she has to trust her own judgement, and I have to trust her judgement as well.
OK, silly goose, I hope I don’t regret posting my e-mail here for all to see, but if I don’t then my comments about “sometimes good things will never happen if you don’t take a chance” would be a bunch of hypocritical BS, now wouldn’t they?
Ah, don’t worry about it. There are worse things that can happen to a person than receiving a couple of e-mails. If they are awful or something, I can always delete them and block the sender. No worries.
It’s a bigger community than it was a few years ago with the recent expansion of the oil/gas fields. I was there in '98 and the number of expats was under 100 :eek: It’s probably under a thousand now, but still growing. I can’t offer any advice, but if your friend is the greagarious type, then maybe she could get in touch with an oilfiels service comapany such as Halliburton. Those guys have lots of experience with sending people around the world. They might be able to set her in the right direction (and they throw ace parties).
The Halliburton Office is located in the MIZAN BUSINESS CENTER at NOVOFIRUZINSKOE SHOSSE in BERZENGI, ASHGABAT; TEL: (993)(12) 51-80-95 OR 51-80-50; FAX: (993)(12) 51-80-33.
If she knows anything about Ahsghabat at all, she doesn’t need directions, as it’s impossible to miss Berzhengi. It’s the last building before the desert.
The American Embassy has it’s own website, which I’m sure you know about
Age, degrees, etc. have nothing to do with the matter. I have personally known such people who would stand in the rain with a closed umbrella in their hand.
I would have no part is facilitating such an arrangement. If she can pull it off fine. If you assist and it fails she will blame you. and the chances arr not as good as 50-50!