At some point in time, you are going to have to get on that big bird and head to Russia. You can write letters until your correspondence file is thicker than War and Peace.

And you can telephone her until you feel you are paying enough to single handedly bring MCI / World Com out of bankruptcy. And the result will be nil until you go to Russia.

Why? Well, the first reason is that you cannot bring a woman to the U.S. under a fianc' visa without meeting her first, and providing substantial proof of that meeting.

Secondly, you have a better chance of winning the state lottery than she has a chance of getting a tourist visa to America. Unless she can provide 'overwhelming evidence' that she will return to Russia, the U.S. Government will not issue her a tourist visa.

'Overwhelming evidence' is evidence that she is leaving her children or substantial property in Russia, such that she would not risk losing them by not returning to Russia. Very few, if any, women you are likely to meet in Russia are going to qualify under this criterion.

You will find unscrupulous tour agencies that say they will get her a tourist visa, but they are lying. There is no such shortcut. They will take your money and you will never hear from them again.

The long and short of it is that YOU must go to Russia if you are to bring home the woman of your dreams.

This is not as unpleasant as it may seem. You will have the opportunity to meet hundreds of beautiful women. You will find traveling to Russia an experience that you will not soon forget.

I discuss the details of traveling to Russia in more detail below. However, there are two basic ways of traveling: by yourself and with a tour. I will discuss traveling by tour first.