Alright, MENA people, what do you think are our chances of Visa approval at Cairo?

[amysaid 9]

My husband Ahmed's visa interview is coming up, and I am a little freaked out, so I thought maybe I'd get your guys' opinion on whether you think our visa will be approved or not. I know some of you have seen a LOT of applicants come through here, and that you probably pay more attention to the MENA ones, so please let me know what you think. It seems like there are some key points that the embassies look at, so I'll try to give the basics and cover those too. We're applying for K3 (I know, I know, should've done CR1, but that ship has sailed). Okay, here are the basics:

He is 34, I'm 28.

Neither of us were married before, but I have a young daughter from a previous relationship.

We were officially married (at the Ministry of Justice in Cairo) 8 days after we met in person, which was December 20, 2008.

We originally met online, through a mutual friend (one that lives in Cairo, and was one of the people who submitted a letter of our bonafide marriage), in October of 2008.

I spent a month with him when we got married, and spent two weeks there again in March. We bought plane tickets for my daughter and I to go visit this summer.

He's an air traffic controller at Cairo Airport and has held that job for 11 years, I'm a nursing student here in the US.

I've spent a lot of time with his family, he has talked on the phone with everyone in my family. One of my sisters is co-sponsoring him.

We didn't have a wedding, just a legal marriage, because his mother had died recently and his family was still in mourning.

We are both Muslim.

I sent lots of pictures for him to take with him to the interview from both of my visits, as well as lots of other stuff from my previous visits (tickets, itineraries, receipts), the itinerary for my upcoming visit, pictures my daughter drew for him, a letter my mom wrote him welcoming him to the family, and a bunch of other assorted things like chat logs, Skype call logs, etc.

Anything else I'm leaving out? Any other questions?

Thanks!

Amy

Edited May 24, 2009 by amysaid

[Nothing1234 2]

When is his interview date? How is his English?

You never know with Cairo but if you have supplied all the necessary documents and are showing your returning with your daughter as well this time those are all positives in your favor. I think they might question about how accepting his family is of your marriage just because there was no wedding but as long as he's prepared for this line of questioning, it should be fine.

Make sure he brings every document necessary and copies of all things you have already submitted plus a photobook of your pics where he can show your times spent together. Also, interviewing in English of course is important proving that you both can communicate properly.

AP is a given but just be patient. If they keep his passport or not, its still a wait and not a given sign of good or bad. Make sure he has money for the DHL letter the day of interview. Just remember, they are human and have their good and bad days...its a high fraud country so they are always looking for signs. Make sure he's prepared and ready for any questions.

Wishing you the best of luck girl!

[doodlebugg 10]

I don't think you'll have any problems. Your age difference isn't even a big one and you did spend a good amount of time there. If it makes you feel any better, my husband and I are 7 years apart, me being the older one, I have two daughters from a previous marriage, am muslim as is he, got married the second or third day I was there ( i can't remember), met online via a chatroom and had no formal wedding or any papers vouching for us and my husband's been here for a little over a year now and we're doing fantastic We did have a hard time but I doubt it had anything to do with any of the above factors, I think Cairo is just unpredictable. There are very few people who get denied through Cairo (i can't even think of one) but sometimes they do take a long time. They tend to be very thorough. (my husband had two home visits).

[Peace be still 6]

It all sounds like you have all the evidence that you need to prove a bonified relationship. But it all depends on what side of the bed the consulate gets up. INSHALLAH your husband will get his visa, and he will be home to join you really soon.

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

Sounds to me like you should do OK... He must speak English if he's an Air Traffic Controller... Close enough in age, both educated/professionals, same religion.....

I don't think the lack of a big wedding is any big deal since his family was in mourning and yours wasn't there... And since you are both Muslim (I assume you were before you met him...) there's no way you were going to stay there with him without being married... and the whole Big Wedding Hoopla isn't part of Islam anyway... Tell them you will be having a party here to introduce him to the community here when he gets here (public announcement of marriage is what's important...) And besides your daughter wouldn't want to miss the party anyway... right?

What is the relationship between you (or him) and the person who "introduced" you? Family? Friend? Is it someone who knows both of you well? Your Wali? I sent photos for H to take to the interview of us with the couple who introduced us.

You can never predict 100% what will happen, but from the sounds of things you're in a better state of "believeable" than many... still might take a long time but doesn't sound like anything with "red flag" written all over it...

Good luck!

K

[Melly 2 0]

The only thing I could see would be the amount of time you knew him before getting married, and then filing for the visa.

Maybe it's not a big deal, I don't really know. Maybe someone else can pipe up about it?

Best wishes, and like one of the previous replies said, we hardly see any denials through Cairo. You just have to be VERY patient.

[Nothing1234 2]

The only thing I could see would be the amount of time you knew him before getting married, and then filing for the visa.

Maybe it's not a big deal, I don't really know. Maybe someone else can pipe up about it?

Best wishes, and like one of the previous replies said, we hardly see any denials through Cairo. You just have to be VERY patient.

[amysaid 9]

Nawal: He's mailing off packet 3 tomorrow (today) so we don't know his interview date yet... it took a while to get everything together, and I think he was kind of dragging his feet anyway because he wishes I could be at the interview with him, but I told him better sooner and get on with the AP than later and have me be there for the interview, but have an unnecessary delay. The last time I visited, I took copies of everything that's been submitted thus far in the whole process, and he also has extra copies of the I-134s, in case the embassy conveniently loses them, and just about everything else. I told him to photocopy the entire packet that he is sending before he sends it off, so hopefully that'll help in case anything happens to it. We have lots of pictures of me/us with his brothers and sisters, neices, etc (both his parents are now dead), but his mother had died only 3 months before we got married, so it wasn't an appropriate time for a celebration. I'll make sure that he's ready for that line of questioning, though. He does speak English quite well, since he has to use it at work.

humpkinpumpkin: Thanks for the encouragement I think it would be funny if they did home visits and talked to some of his neighbors, family, etc. They were all sooo curious, it only took about 48 hours before the whole neighborhood knew that he'd gotten married to a.. GASP... AMERICAN! hahah. It is good to see that people in similar situations end up with good outcomes!

KPH: The person who introduced us was a friend that I made when I was considering converting to Islam, we had chatted online for about a year or so. He knew my husband Ahmed through his brother, and told him that he knew a woman that Ahmed might be interested in getting to know better, gave him my yahoo screen name, and that was it. He is actually a Canadian citizen, but Egyptian by birth... One of the pictures I sent Ahmed to take to the interview is one of the three of us, so he has an easy reference for the "How did you meet?" question We have planned to have a party here whenever/if ever he arrives, so that's not completely off-base. And my daughter cannot WAIT to meet him.

Melly: Yeah, that's my concern too, I think that is pretty much the only potential red-flag, that we got married so quickly. But like KPH said, there was no way I could stay with him withOUT being married, so hopefully with it being Egypt, they'll understand that.

Thanks for all the feedback so far

[Nothing1234 2]

I think everything will be fine. As many have stated, its not very typical to get denied. So you have that going...just patience is necessary with them! Wishing you a fast process!!! Keep your chin up and stay positive. isA he will be home with you soon after the interview.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Nawal

[zahrasalem 114]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the same situation.....it's nice to know I'm not alone....my husband is from Egypt, but he has been working in Doha, Qatar for the past 2 years, so he will interview there at their consulate. He is sales professional and has a university degree.

We're both muslim and met online on a Muslim website while I was working in the middle east. We hit it off very quickly and just knew we fell in love and wanted to marry. He came to vist me 2 months after we met and we decided to marry this past January. When you just know you've met the right person, you don't want to have a long engagement!

We look like a normal arab couple and I also wear hijab.

After we met in person in November, I moved back to America.... I also have a daughter from a previous marriage and I must live here to share custody with the father, it's in the court order, so we hope that this point helps establish why he must live in America with me.

My daughter loves my husband sooo much, all 3 of us visit by video on Skype every single day for a couple of hours, before we married and now after we're married. We've saved screenshots of the 3 of us together this way.

This Jan I went to Qatar to get married, we were married at the Egyptian embassy and then flew to Egypt for 1 month for a honeymoon and were with all of his family everyday.....we have a million family photos for the interview. We also didn't have a big wedding.....not a tradition in his family,,,,,,but we had big family dinners when we first got there and have lots of photos.

We also did make a formal wedding dress album, just for our own memories, but will show it at the interview.

I came back to America and was going to file the I-130, but I had family problem about sharing custody of my daughter and I had nowhere to live suddenly, so we changed our plans and I flew back to Qatar.........we decided we would live there together while I was sorting out the custody issue and even try to have my daughter live with us there.

We lived together for 2.5 months........I went on several job interviews, we had an apartment, etc.. We saved all of my interview paperwork, so we will also show that at the interview.

Then this April, my daughter's father decided to cooperate in sharing my daughter, but in America only, so then I flew back to America and quickly filed our I-130 on May 2nd.

So in all, the only things we hope isn't a big deal for our case is:

I have a daughter and a previous marriage

we married only 4 months after meeting

and I am several years older than him, but not a huge age gap

But we have all of our evidence of a true, ongoing marriage, so we're not very worried..........WE TRUST IN ALLAH

We have a ton of photos, chat and video logs with us and my daughter, my older brother & sister made official notarized statements for us, phone bills, I even added his name to my utility bills at home, ticket stubs for his visit for me and my 3 trips to Qatar & Egypt, receipts of our honeymoon and living together.

Thanks for reading, and insha'allah I wish all of you a successful journey.......have a nice weekend

[Nagishkaw 510]

he's an Air Traffic Controller

This could mean a possible long wait in AP.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

i think u will be fine, just the wait afterwards probably will feel like forever, his job maybe will be looked at with more degree but who knows for sure

[JeanneVictoria 55]

There have been many of us who have gone thru Cairo and I must say it's always a surprise to see the different scenarios that each of us have gone thru. Same country, same Embassy, different CO's, different questions, different waiting times, hoping and hoping we have everything they want.

Amy, all I can say is you just have to be confident is submitting ALL your evidence of a bonafide

marriage. Basically when it comes right down to the nitty gritty of it all, this is what they want

and require. I do think it will be at the mercy of whatever CO you have. Some are outstanding, others are not.

Wael is muslim, I am catholic. I was married before, he was not. I knew him 2 yrs before marrying him. Made 4 trips to Egypt, lived with him for 7 months. At our interview we submitted e mails and only a very few pictures. I didn't have books and books of items. Others have submitted many more things than we did and had a longer wait than us.

One cannot determine if your case will be approved or denied. Only the embassy can. There are factors they look at and determine the importance in approving or denying a case. You have great evidence to submit. Wishing you the best of luck with your process!

[morocco4ever 63]

I think the 2 flags would be getting married quickly after meeting in person and not having a wedding. I would certainly have him prepared to be questioned a little more on those 2 things. I know this sounds morbid, but maybe if he took a death certificate with him to show that there was a death in the family, perhaps that would answer any suspicions on that one. As for getting married quickly, well have plenty of evidence that you had an ongoing relationship online previously.

If the person that introduced you was a family member of his you might want to prepare for that as well. The consulate in Morocco got confused about my husbands sister that lives here in the US, and actually asked if she arranged our marriage. We were not prepared for that one, and it caused some MAJOR problems. We won in the end however.

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

he's an Air Traffic Controller

This could mean a possible long wait in AP.

Why would that be a reason for a long AP?