The hoping not to be denied at Casablanca thread

[Crossed_fingers 128]

Thank you both for the advice!

Does anyone know if there are any interviews coming up in the next week? Should I be crossing my fingers for anyone?

[bahisgirl 11]

Thank you both for the advice!

Does anyone know if there are any interviews coming up in the next week? Should I be crossing my fingers for anyone?

Yes! Amirah's fiance (pinkamirah) is on Monday...say your prayers for her!

I hope they have a quick and easy interview with a fast approval

[KittyPollitt 284]

Yes! Amirah's fiance (pinkamirah) is on Monday...say your prayers for her!

I hope they have a quick and easy interview with a fast approval

Oh my goodness!! GO AMIRAH!! We're rootin for ya, girl!

[KittyPollitt 284]

Thinkin about Amirah, hoping everything went okay..

[sweetnsour 0]

I have been wondering the same thing...I pray all is okay..

[msheesha 548]

Hope things went well for Amirah.

Sarah, any plans for getting back to the US?

Are Vanessa and her husand back? I lose track sometimes! Sorry!

[Vanessa1 7]

Hope things went well for Amirah.

Sarah, any plans for getting back to the US?

Are Vanessa and her husand back? I lose track sometimes! Sorry!

I just checked the portal and Amirah's fiance was approved! CONGRATULATIONS!!

My husband and I did finally get home to the states late Friday night but whew, what a trip! Royal Air Maroc canceled our original flight out and so we knew there was a good chance we were going to miss our connection at JFK. That's exactly what happened so we had to spend the night in New York and got home a day late and very tired.

POE was very smooth and easy though, and no lines. Right after us a bunch of flights arrived and I was just so happy we got there when we did! Funny thing though is that they didn't have the American customs forms on the plane and when we got to the airport they didn't have them in English, if you can believe that! The only language they had them in was KOREAN so we were all crowding around two posters in English showing ppl how to fill out the form and trying to match up the numbers. Then when we got to the visa line they said my husband needed to fill out one too. This one lady in the visa line didn't speak English very well and the guy just pointed her to the Korean forms and basically didn't help her so I started to argue with him and it was the first of many "It's not my job, ma'am." statements I heard that night. New York has its reputation for a reason!

But my husband has finally, finally, finally met my mom and step-dad in person and that was soooooo wonderful! They LOVE him and I couldn't be happier about it. Tomorrow we're having dinner at their house with my grandparents who are excited to meet him too. The only things we are battling right now are a seriously bad case of jet lag for both of us and the fact that my husband really misses his family and Morocco. I have been planning on cooking tacos for our dinner tomorrow and tonight, while we were making dinner, he suggested we have harira. We don't have a pressure cooker so that takes several hours so I told him we'd have it soon.

He fixed several small things around the house already when I went to my tutoring job for a couple of hours today. Nice! We're going to the social security offices tomorrow to see if we can get him a number and I checked into driving schools today and he'll start that hopefully this weekend. I go back to work full time in 9 days so we're trying to get settled in before then.

That's the update here. How is everyone else doing?

[pinky2000 0]

Yes my fiance got approved sorry im late to give the 411 but I had to wait for samir to get back home he lives far from casa and I wanted to get as much details as possible so I can be able to share it with you all, and thanks to everyone wishing me good luck and praying for us and for the kind words thanks thanks thanks oh and monica special thanks to you we took ur advise and seems like it worked THANKS

[msheesha 548]

Vanessa, wonderful that you are home safe and sound! I think I've seen a recipe for harira that explains a way to cook it without pressure cooker. I may be confusing it with something else though. I'll look and if I can find it, I will post it.

Amirah, congratulations on the approval. You must be really excited. Do you have plans for when he'll be coming over? Are you there now? Again, forgive me, I lose track!

Anyone else coming up?

Monica, how are things going with you? Have you heard anything more?

[msheesha 548]

Vanessa,

This is a great blog for Moroccan dish recipes, from what I can tell.

If you click on the soup/salad link on the left, there is a recipe for harira about halfway or more down the page that doesn't require pressure cooker.

Does he have easy access to contact his family (calling plan, card, etc)? That might make things easier for him. I know you were over there and probably didn't have a lot of time to prepare for easing his transition when he got here. Hope the blog link helps.

http://www.marocmama.com/

[Tunisia216 2]

The Maroc Mama blog belongs to one of our very own MENA vj'ers

[Vanessa1 7]

Vanessa,

This is a great blog for Moroccan dish recipes, from what I can tell.

If you click on the soup/salad link on the left, there is a recipe for harira about halfway or more down the page that doesn't require pressure cooker.

Does he have easy access to contact his family (calling plan, card, etc)? That might make things easier for him. I know you were over there and probably didn't have a lot of time to prepare for easing his transition when he got here. Hope the blog link helps.

http://www.marocmama.com/

Great blog! Thanks! I checked out the recipe and it does look a lot easier than the one I found and made before. It looks like it's a smaller recipe too so I might actually have a pan that works. It doesn't mention any times though so I'll give it a try and see how it goes. The other recipe I have also had a non-pressure cooker option but it took like 3-4 hours to make the soup and that's just not in my realm!! At any rate, we're going to my mom's tonight and he's going to meet my grandparents!

Yes, we have a calling card he can use to call home. Actually it's the same one I've always used and it used to be $0.75 per minute but when we got back state-side and he called to let them know it's now at $0.28 per minute which is awesome! Of course it was so much the whole time we were dating. LOL!

How are your plans coming along?

[msheesha 548]

Everything's going well with us. Planning on going over, spending my bday at a nice place in Asilah, and then coming back together. Really looking forward to it.

Have you tried the VIP calling system? I used another one, until someone posted about VIP on here. It's about .03 a minute if you call a home phone in Morocco! I couldn't get over it. Cell phone calls are about .28 on VIP as well. But, home phone calls are great!

[Always+Forever 7]

Yes my fiance got approved sorry im late to give the 411 but I had to wait for samir to get back home he lives far from casa and I wanted to get as much details as possible so I can be able to share it with you all, and thanks to everyone wishing me good luck and praying for us and for the kind words thanks thanks thanks oh and monica special thanks to you we took ur advise and seems like it worked THANKS

Glad my mistakes could help others As for us...we are still waiting...glad my Senator's office is staying on top of it...they contact them atleast once a week to check on it...that atleast makes me feel a little better about it...have someone on our side Glad to hear about all of the approvals...seems like there have been only approvals posted on here since our denial. Guess they are in a better mood now. Hope the approvals keep coming for everyone.

Monica

[Always+Forever 7]

Everything's going well with us. Planning on going over, spending my bday at a nice place in Asilah, and then coming back together. Really looking forward to it.

Have you tried the VIP calling system? I used another one, until someone posted about VIP on here. It's about .03 a minute if you call a home phone in Morocco! I couldn't get over it. Cell phone calls are about .28 on VIP as well. But, home phone calls are great!

Sounds like a nice bday...Asilah is beautiful...my fiance proposed to me in Asilah And as for VIP...that's what I use also...has worked really good...and I think they just lowered Morocco rates.

Monica