Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.
Jennifer Weiner
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Family Law: adoption, guardianship (Russia)
Karina,
Hope you are doing well.
My son Nicholas will be 18 years old in 3 weeks
and has been pressing me about his biological parents. When I asked you about potentially having you do some investigation for me on his biological parents - you cautioned me that I should reconsider doing this. I assume this was because he was under 18 years old. If he is now 18 years old - are there still concerns with Nicholas attempting to find out more information about his biological parents? I'd prefer to know so I can advise him properly. I suspect he will pursue doing this regardless of my help so I would prefer to help manage the process if there are limited or no risks to doing this. Thank you.

Family Law: divorce proceedings, conclusion of marriage (Russia)
Dear Karina,

I'd like to know how much would it cost to get a copy of my
divorce papers from Russia?

I divorced in 2015 in Russia, Crimea, the city of Yalta. The court sent the original of the divorce but somehow it was lost on the way. I talked to someone at the Russian Embassy in DC and it was unclear to me how to request this original copy.

What would be the cost and how long would it take?

Thank you so much!

Writing in English because no Russian keyboard at the moment.

International abduction of children (Russia)
Karina,

My son, Richard, is with me right now in the USA. He goes with his mom
every other weekend from Friday evening to Monday morning. My former wife has been in violation of the judges order whereas she moved 60 miles away from New York and now lives in New Jersey.

On April 2017, his mother against my full consent flew back to Russia and delivered our son there in Moscow on June 2017. I flew there directly after the birth. We went back as a family to the United States on September of 2017.

My ex has not taken our son back to Russia since that, and I want to prevent this from happening until Richard is 18 years old.

I have a lot of friends and contacts in Russia and I do want to take Richard back before he is a 18 yrs old but I am concerned that the Russian authorities or me ex family can cause a situation to have them take my son and deport me or through me in jail for kidnapping (heard horror stories).

If there was a way that I could still securely travel with my son at least once a year without issue, I would welcome that opportunity. The attorney that finished the custody litigation recently got all of Richard's Russian document finally from his mom and he is holding them due to COVID19 lockdown.

According to the custody order which I have send to you, neither parent shall relocate the residence of Richard outside a radius of 50 miles from his current residence, without prior order of the Court or the written consent of both parents. Neither parent shall remove Richard from the United States without prior consent of the Court or the written consent of both parents.

Is my ex in violation of those covenants as long as she lives in NJ outside the 50 miles radius and can I legally not give back the Russian documents to prevent her from traveling outside the country back to Russia with Richard until she is in compliance?

When I first found your website, I was impressed by your experience and knowledge. Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Immigration Law (Russia)
I was wondering if you might be able to give us information to point us in the right direction on a matter.

My husband is Russian. Recently his mother passed away. His father is experiencing dementia. Of late, he has been telling stories and my husband is not sure what is the truth. He claims my husband's mother was married twice before. We would like to find out if this is true but since my husband emigrated many years ago, he does not know where to start to look for records.

Is this a matter you might be able to help with? We do not know where marriage records can be found, or annulments (his father claims one marriage was annulled. His parents lived in Moscow.

Immigration Law (Russia)
Dear Ms Duvall,

My wife and I are fighting for a visa for my father-in-law who is
a Russian citizen that is currently living with us in the USA. We applied for a I-485, however, due to the lack of the government long form birth certificate, we were denied.

As you know as an Immigration specialist, we have 33 days to get the birth certificate to request a motion. We already applied thorough the Russian Consulate in New York, but due to Corona virus and systemic slowness with the Russian system we fear that the form will take months to be sent to us.

We kindly ask if you have the means and ability to expedite the process. My father-in-law is from Moscow.

If you have the ability we have the resources to pay for your services but please understand that time is of the essence.

Thank you for your time and feel free to call or your associates to call myself.

Much heartfelt gratitude for your time.

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