visa on hold because of my religion

[Twisted K 2]

i wonder if that is the same thing they needed from me for when i had to sign a piece of paper saying i am hindu so my husband and i could get married at the arya samaj temple? sorry to hear. hope you get things settled quickly.

[gaeliza 0]

When my husband and I married, the gov required a certified copy of proof that I had accepted Islam. Since we do not do that in the USA, they required me to take shahada again in the court house and then take the proof to the Islamic Presentation Committee to have it certified. This certification was required also to authenticate our marriage certificate at the embassy, even before we filed for our visa. I think they are trying validate your marriage. I dont know what you can do long distance but there must be an organization there that does this sort of thing that you could contact to find out. Good Luck and best wishes to you.

[Zayd 0]

Simp,

It is not possible for all people, but if you are creative, there are ways you can provide government documents that some is Muslim. For example, only Muslims are eligible for Hajj and Umrah visas from the Saudi Embassy. If your husband has been on Hajj or Umrah in the past, you should submit a copy of the visa he was issued by the Saudi Embassy. Since only Muslims can get such visas, having one is a pretty strong proof he is Muslim. In addition, if he legally changed his name to a Muslim name, you should submit a copy of that document. Furthermore, if your husband has donated money to Islamic charities (e.g. paid zakah), he can include copies of the receipts and his tax returns that show the donations.

Also, in addition to getting a letter from the imam of your masjid, I would get testimonies from family and friends (both Muslims and non-Muslims) asserting he is Muslim.

Zayd

[trinket 30]

Indian Marriage system is a bit complicated. There are civil marriage where religion doesn't matter and then there are shot gun religious marriages, where both parties should belong to the same religion, if not then they have to convert. That's why India has Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsi Marriage boards.

Simps, did you have a civil marriage? That is apply at court house, then wait for 45 days and then finally get married OR did you have an Islamic Nikaah and then registered your marriage? If you had the latter then yes you will have to provide with documentation that both the parties are of the same religion. I am not really sure how Mosque would work, but they can give a statement but with Hindu Marriage of ours at Arya Samaj, they did give my husband a Hindu certificate, it wasn't anything official by the court of law but it was provided by the priest. We were never asked for it and religion was never mentioned in the interview but I would assume I would have to submit this certificate if it was asked at any point.

[sachinky 465]

Indian marriages are complex because of the whole civil/religious aspect to it.

I'm a Hindu, my husband is not, so we did not have an elaborate Hindu wedding with rituals. Neither of us are particularly religous or fond of traditional rituals. We signed the marriage certificate in front of guests and the district marriage registrar, exchanged gold rings and rose garlands, followed by a dinner reception. Our marriage was registered under the Special Marriage Act (unlike the Hindu or Muslim Marriage Acts) of India, 1954 since we don't belong to the same religion. All rules regarding waiting time period were followed as specified under the act.

[pushbrk 12,883]

Indian marriages are complex because of the whole civil/religious aspect to it.

I'm a Hindu, my husband is not, so we did not have an elaborate Hindu wedding with rituals. Neither of us are particularly religous or fond of traditional rituals. We signed the marriage certificate in front of guests and the district marriage registrar, exchanged gold rings and rose garlands, followed by a dinner reception. Our marriage was registered under the Special Marriage Act (unlike the Hindu or Muslim Marriage Acts) of India, 1954 since we don't belong to the same religion. All rules regarding waiting time period were followed as specified under the act.

I appreciate the last couple of posts. They help shed light on the real issues at hand. First, that the Indian laws applying to religious marriage were followed and second that the relationship is genuine. It is NOT about the petitioner's religious freedom in any way.

[Terca 6]

This topic has been very informative for me

[simps 2]

sorry for the late response everyone. we dont have the internet at my wifes house. first of all we did the nikah in india with a qazi then we registered in gujarat. but they didnt even look at that. i cant accept islam again becuase then they will say why are you accepting islam again if you are already a muslim? i went on hajj but i dont have any record of it since i didnt see any need to prove i was a muslim to anyone before. i am having my imam make a letter which he will take to a notary in utah where i accepted islam. i have been muslim since 1999. they asked for a proof that i am no longer mormon. but noone gives that type of document to anyone there. i have one article that i wrote about my conversion story a few years ago its on islaam.ca under zachary david simpson. i never changed my name legally because in islam if your name doesnt imply anything bad like worshipping other than Allah then there is no need to change it. if i changed my name now it would make it worse. my name has two prophets we consider muslim in it. zachary is the same as zachariah and david is dawood in arabic. my last name doesnt imply that i am christian either it means son off sim. so that doesnt mean i worship jesus. my wife is a born muslim and she married me becuase we had contact through her cousins husband. i dont know what else these people want from us we submitted all they asked for including the registration from the indian government in gujarat. and the nikah certificate. i was already muslim when we got married. this is all so ridiculous. now they want to interview me too. may Allah guide them. ameen. they asked my wife what kind of muslim i am and if my parents dont hate me becuase i left their religion to become muslim?! they asked her how her parents reacted when they found out i was a converted muslim. they asked if i ever left usa for any other country. they asked if i was sufi or sunni. they made her sign the ds 230 part two then told her we r not denying the visa we just want to get this proof of his conversion and then we want to interview both of you. they didnt take her passport they gave it back. thank you all for your responses. please pray for us.

[meowmeowmeow 1]

Inshallah things will work out for the best! sorry to hear about all your woes

[sama 0]

sorry for the late response everyone. we dont have the internet at my wifes house. first of all we did the nikah in india with a qazi then we registered in gujarat. but they didnt even look at that. i cant accept islam again becuase then they will say why are you accepting islam again if you are already a muslim? i went on hajj but i dont have any record of it since i didnt see any need to prove i was a muslim to anyone before. i am having my imam make a letter which he will take to a notary in utah where i accepted islam. i have been muslim since 1999. they asked for a proof that i am no longer mormon. but noone gives that type of document to anyone there. i have one article that i wrote about my conversion story a few years ago its on islaam.ca under zachary david simpson. i never changed my name legally because in islam if your name doesnt imply anything bad like worshipping other than Allah then there is no need to change it. if i changed my name now it would make it worse. my name has two prophets we consider muslim in it. zachary is the same as zachariah and david is dawood in arabic. my last name doesnt imply that i am christian either it means son off sim. so that doesnt mean i worship jesus. my wife is a born muslim and she married me becuase we had contact through her cousins husband. i dont know what else these people want from us we submitted all they asked for including the registration from the indian government in gujarat. and the nikah certificate. i was already muslim when we got married. this is all so ridiculous. now they want to interview me too. may Allah guide them. ameen. they asked my wife what kind of muslim i am and if my parents dont hate me becuase i left their religion to become muslim?! they asked her how her parents reacted when they found out i was a converted muslim. they asked if i ever left usa for any other country. they asked if i was sufi or sunni. they made her sign the ds 230 part two then told her we r not denying the visa we just want to get this proof of his conversion and then we want to interview both of you. they didnt take her passport they gave it back. thank you all for your responses. please pray for us.

Insha Allah everything will work out for you guys. Your passport should include your Hajj pilgrimage. You can issue a statement explaining this and include anything else that would support it. Do you have anything else that would conclude that you completed Hajj i.e. emails discussing arrangements, flight details, etc? I agree getting something from the Imam is a good idea. You may even have to have affadavits from your parents and your spouse's parents stating they agree with the marriage.

SAMA

[simps 2]

my passport that had that on it is lost. i had to reapply for a new passport after that. i never kept any documents from that travel company i went with as i didnt consider it important. it was in 2003. i dont know if they might have some record of it somewhere in some government office. Allah knows best. may Allah help us ameen.

[trinket 30]

Simps,

From what you have said, there are 2 potential red flags, lack of religious document and secondly that you and your wife met through a relative.

The pointers out here I am saying are to make sure you look your case from the CO's POV.

--According to Indian Muslim marriage act, both the parties need to be Muslim to be married. I would suggest you let your wife contact the Qazi who did the marriage ceremony and get a notarized statement from HIM stating that he knows you and to his best knowledge you are a converted practicing Muslim when you got married to your wife.

--As someone else suggested earlier, get affidavits from parents, try to get as many affidavits from friends and families of both sides, in US and also in India.

--With the assumption that your wife has told the CO how you two met, that is through her relative, try to make sure to get an affidavit from that relative too. This will show transparency, let that relative point out why he thought YOU to be a good candidate, make sure the affidavit states that you are a practicing Muslim and wife's family approves of that.

Usually when its an arrange marriage fixed by relatives of Indians living in US, CO's do scrutinize it, because a lot of cases are about deals made between 2 parties where money was given to the USC to bring a relative from India to US. You just have to make sure CO looks beyond those stereotypes in your case, just bombard them with all the proofs you can have and do go personally for the next interview, be confident with your answers.

Best wishes

[sachinky 465]

I agree with Trinket.

Get affidavits from your side. And your wife's side. As well as that particular relative who introduced you. As well as any religious figures.

[lauramajri 0]

we went to the interview in mumbai india and they basically harrassed my wife until noon about her religion and then they said that they need proof that i am no longer christian and that i converted to islam. they said without it that they cannot issue a visa to my wife. we are having our imam from my city write a letter stating that he knows me to be a muslim. the way my wife described it to me is that they wanted some kind of document from the government that i changed my religion and noone i know seems to think there even is such a thing in america. has anyone heard of this kind of document existing in america? thank you all for your advice.

I am also Muslim. I would think, since you said in another response, that you were married in India, you should have your marriage certificate. On ours here in Tunisia it was both a government and religious ceremony. Also do you have any photos from the wedding of the dua that normally takes place? You could show that. Or just recite Al-Fatiha for them LOL...

[lauramajri 0]

I am sorry, I just realized I overlooked your longest post regarding your Nikah and Hajj pilgrimage. Inshallah everything will work out for you brother. It is unimaginable to me why they would ask such questions! Especially coming from an American Embassy. May Allah guide them Ameen. And remember brother that Allah(SWT) tests those whom He loves....so mashallah He must love you and your wife so so much. Alhumdulillah for all! ♥