Olya was able to escape Ukraine, but we are living in limbo.
I was on a work trip to Ukraine in 2019 when I first met Olya Arkhipova. She was working for the same company as me and I delivered a special musical performance at our annual holiday party in Kyiv. That night we hit it off. I live in Miami and she lives just outside Kyiv, but even with that remarkable distance, we gave it a shot and entered into a long distance relationship. The pandemic made it even more challenging, but we managed to spend a couple of weeks together every few months, on my work trips or on vacations we took together. Saying goodbye became harder and harder each time. Then, in the summer of 2021, during a trip to Montenegro, we both came to the realization that we are perfect for each other. I proposed, and she said yes. It felt like something out of a movie. It was exciting and beautiful; a love story that I’m sure we’ll be telling our kids someday. We were planning a future together in Florida. But earlier this year, I began to notice reports of Russia’s military build up around Ukraine and started to read warnings from the Biden administration that Russia was poised to attack. In early February 2022, I urged Olya to evacuate Ukraine before the situation escalated. She was nervous about the possibility of leaving her entire life behind at short notice, not knowing when she’d be able to return, or what might happen to her beloved country. Many people we knew in Ukraine did not expect Russia to launch a full-scale invasion, but, fearful that it would happen, I pleaded for Olya to leave. Thank God, she agreed. We had applied for a K-1 visa for fianc(é)es in October, but had not yet received a response from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Our attorney told us that applying for a tourist visa to the United States—which can be very difficult to get—could slow down the K-1 process. So on February 6, Olya and I met in Mexico, which allowed us tourist visas for up to six months. Arriving in Mexico was bittersweet for Olya.
