From Russia, with love
Published: January 2, 2006
If all went according to plan, Scott Nelson and Irina Balagurova are formally engaged this morning.
Scott planned to propose to Irina last night at Yakima’s first-ever downtown New Year’s Eve party. The Millennium Plaza proposal comes nearly two years and thousands of miles from Siberia, where the two met.
Scott always thought of Siberia as a frigid, faraway land — the place where his parents threatened to send him for misbehaving as a child.
He never dreamed it would be the home of his future wife.
“I fell in love with her the moment I met her,” he said. “It’s funny to fall in love with someone long distance. And I fell in love with someone halfway around the world.”
Earlier in the week, he was nervous about the surprise proposal.
“I wanted to do it right this time and do it big,” said Scott, 44. “It’s been a bad year for me. I am ready for a new year and a new beginning.”
A district manager for Rex TV, Scott manages 10 retail stores in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho.
Managing that many stores across such a wide area requires a lot of traveling. That made it especially hard this year when his mother and grandmother fell ill and passed away. Then he lost his 17-year companion, a black Labrador named Tabby. On top of that, there was the enormously long and frustrating process of obtaining a visa for Irina.
Scott first heard about Irina from her sister, Ella Cosgrove, who has lived in Yakima for about 10 years. Like Scott, Irina was recently divorced. The two began exchanging e-mails and discovered they had more in common than most would think, considering their different backgrounds and cultures.
The two finally met in the fall of 2004, when Scott traveled to Russia with Ella and her husband, Mike.
Until the eighth grade, Irina and Ella lived in Kirovo-Chepestk, which was then a city about the size of Yakima. The family later moved to Irkutsk, which is in Siberia near the Russia-Mongolia border.
After high school, the two sisters split up. Ella came to Yakima to be married. Irina stayed, became a nurse, married and had a daughter, Sveta, now 22.
For years, Ella pleaded with Irina and their mother to visit her in Yakima. But Irina never really had a desire to visit until she met Scott.
“After that first trip, (Irina) told me that maybe she would like to visit,” Ella said.
During that first trip, the couple hit it off and embarked on a transatlantic relationship. Unfortunately, the courtship moved faster than Irina’s immigration application.
Scott applied for the visa in November 2004, and it had been approved stateside and sent to Moscow for processing in early January.
Fiancé visas are fairly routine. Last year, 1,159 were granted to people coming to Washington state. Nationwide, a total of 28,546 were awarded. The visas require couples to be married within 90 days of visa approval.
Typically, fiancé visa applications take about two months to process. A spokeswoman for the western region office of the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services said it’s not clear what delayed Irina’s application.
A frustrated Scott called the U.S. Embassy in Moscow weekly. Each time he was told the application was “under review” and asked to “submit more information.”
In May, after waiting for so long, Scott traveled to Russia for a second time, a two-week trip to visit Irina and her mother in Kirovo-Chepestk.
When Scott returned, he wrote to U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray. He sought help from Yakima city officials and reached out to U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings.
“They all said they would do what they could,” he said. But days and weeks passed and still no visa.
“We were sending document after document to the immigration office in Moscow. It was just frustrating for me waiting and waiting,” he said.
He contacted the White House asking for help and continued calling the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Then, in mid-December, Scott got an early-morning call from Moscow. A new caseworker had been assigned to Irina’s visa application and it was quickly approved.
“The guy said he didn’t understand why her visa wasn’t approved earlier,” Scott said.
Irina traveled six hours from her home in Siberia to Moscow and boarded a plane bound for New York City, then flew on to Seattle, arriving Dec. 19.
“It’s been a long journey but, actually, this is just the beginning,” Scott said.
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