letter of invitation?

mail order bride?

Mail order Yeltsin?

I've had the reverse done for me but who knows what it said as it in russian. However my Bangladeshi colleague has to have one every time he goes to the states, even though he ha a visa, I shall ask him what they say.

Oh, no. It's for a friend i met last year in St. Petersburg. She's coming to visit, I'm going to take her to baseball games and Culver's and there won't be drunk teens on the trains here, SHE WILL BE BAFFLED.

Thanks for the info, natch. I'm at a total loss.

Not to burst your bubble, but it is VERY VERY HARD for young, unmarried Russian women to get US visas. Several things will be crucial to the process: she needs to be able to convince the embassy staff that she is not planning to come to the US and not return. It will be important, therefore, for her to prove one way or another that she has significant ties to Russia (usually a job is an important part of that). She also needs to be very clear about what she's doing in the US, in terms of where she's going, where she's staying, and how long she'll be there.

I don't mean to throw cold water on this, and presumably your friend has heard the stories, but both of you should be prepared for the possibility that she may be denied a visa for no clear reason. E-mail me at the address above if you or she have more questions. I sent probably 100 people to the US over a period of several years (admittedly on business rather than personal visas), and it can be a pretty cruel process.

I don't have a copy of an invitation letter handy at the moment. But write me at the address below if you have more questions, and I may be able to get a copy by the end of the week from people at my old office.

"address above" --> "address below"