'Very bad dream': as a child with US citizenship did not want to let out of Russia

Our flight 102 to 14: 15 from Sheremetyevo Airport was 4 on September. We arrived in advance, for 4 hours, because in addition to Dani’s son, I transported a ten-year-old child of my Facebook friend to New York.

Фото: Depositphotos

We checked in our luggage, said goodbye to the boy's relatives, and went to passport control. The iron lady in the window said in an iron voice that Dani’s Russian visa expired yesterday, September 3, and today is September 4 and we are still trampling sacred ground,” says Ekaterina Ryumina on her page in Facebook.

Then a very bad and very terrible dream began.

I could not even imagine that such a monstrous mistake could happen. Yes, it’s my fault that I did not check the dates, but I was sure that this was a normal process: the expiration of the 3 visa in September and the departure of 4. It seemed to me that if professionals gave me such a document, then it should be so.

I hoped that I would just pay a fine on the spot and there would be nothing wrong. We don’t fly in. We are flying out ...

But we were told to step aside. We moved away. Two minutes later, two came for us and asked which of us was Daniel. Danya, frightened, said that he. I said that I am a mother.

“There are no questions for you. You and this boy (pointing to his girlfriend’s son) can fly. The same one (he poked at my son with a passport) will pass with us ”

I decided that they were making a movie and we accidentally got into the frame. She told him to repeat because I didn’t hear.

“How long ago have you stopped understanding Russian?” the man in uniform raised his voice.

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I said that I understand the language better than others, but I do not understand the meaning of his proposal to take my child.

“Then let’s all go through together,” he replied.

We were taken to a separate room. I think this is what is called a monkey. They took all the documents and boarding passes. They kept it for an hour and a half. In the end, they stopped by again and said that Danila could not leave the Russian Federation, since he had violated the law (!).

I asked what to do. Tomorrow (that is, today) the children go to school.

They began to laugh: “Look. They go to school! ”

Фото: Depositphotos

I frantically started calling New York everyone I know. It was 6 in the morning. Nobody answered me, except for one friend, who later was continuously in touch with me.

Further I can describe a very long process of humiliation and bullying. 10 hours I was driven with two children and a huge carry-on baggage from Terminal D to Terminal E, where, according to some, the consul was supposed to be, and in fact a telephone receiver hung on the wall to connect to the consul, who did not answer and did not connect.

My girlfriend in Moscow called the American embassy (within 2 minutes, the American ambassador contacted the Foreign Ministry and sent a request for a transit visa for a day. The Foreign Ministry said to wait).

At some point, running between the phone, the ticket office (I was told that I had half an hour to change my ticket for tomorrow's quota flight - that is, only $1000 for three tickets) and the children, I just sat down on the floor and began yell.

Security came up to me and said that they would arrest me.

At that moment, God sent us a woman, Tatyana, who subsequently did not leave us for even a minute and helped both me with the children and the mother of the child stuck with us, torn to pieces on the other side of the planet.

If the Foreign Ministry did everything as fast as the American embassy, ​​we would certainly have time for the flight. But no. The consul was apparently very busy, and we waited 4 hours at the handset.

After 4 hours, the consul came out from behind the iron door and began to report to me that I was a terrible mother and did not make the unfortunate child magical and such necessary Russian citizenship. At that moment, I already cried out all the tears, I did not have the strength to even answer him. I just nodded my head and agreed.

Фото: Depositphotos

When the consul scolded me, he asked if I had paid the fine. I said I didn’t know about the fine. He said: “Oh, well, what are you. You need this at Sberbank. ”

Search for Sberbank at the airport, the queue at the bank, payment of a fine, a new visa took another hour.

The consul was unhappy that I kept him waiting, but issued a transit visa and said that we should leave the country before 00: 00, that is, we had a little more than seven hours.

We ran to the Aeroflot ticket office. It turned out that the flight at 19:20 was full, but please, there is a business class for only 700 rubles. I took out a calculator and did the math. That's $000! (I was later told that there is also a “comfort” class, but they don’t mention it until the “business” class is sold out).

A new wave of tears came over me, and no one (except Tatyana, who was with us) came up, asked if I could help with something. By this moment, everything was already known to us by Sheremetyevo. They went out to see us as monkeys from America.

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Time already passed for minutes, it was necessary to run and request luggage back, since it did not fly away. Of course, payment of my excess baggage was lost. Nobody returned the money, and no need (twice for 125 euros).

At the same time, we were looking for at least some tickets to fly from Moscow. Though through Chukotka.

Let me remind you that with me there is another little boy, he is scared, he wants to see his mother. Mom in New York also cries, not fully understanding what is happening.

At some point, I realized that I was losing consciousness, and then a complete stranger, Tatyana, grabbed me by the arms and said: “Katya! Get your act together! You can't give up now!"

Money on the card - 200 dollars. The suitcases, thank God, were returned. We found a flight via Helsinki. A friend transferred money and bought tickets.

Then everything began to level off. We again passed passport control. At that time, all the employees of the checkpoints already knew us. There were those who looked with regret.

10 hours and 3000 dollars later we boarded the Moscow-Helsinki plane. They rented a hotel, washed, slept, and flew to New York at one o'clock in the afternoon.

I finished writing this text 10 minutes ago when the chassis touched American soil.

Passing passport control at JFK, I can’t even wait for their “Welcome Home”. I will cry again and say, “It's so good to be home!” Let them smile at me with plastic smiles, even if we don’t have beautiful breakfasts, like in Moscow, let rats fly into the subway, let Brighton stink, let slops from all over the city pour out under my feet.

I am ready for all the cracks and rifts of America, because this is my country and its citizens in power will not think of telling me: "You can fly away, and your child will come with us."

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