New to VJ and need advice

[Linds&Youssef 56]

Hi everyone, I just joined VJ.com last night and have been reading many posts here on the site. I've seen that it's often considered a red flag if the beneficiary has applied for a visa before and that brings up a question for me. I met my fiance in March 2008 on tagged.com when I was living in France. We started communicating pretty much every day either by phone or online, and I went to visit him twice that summer before coming back to the US (because I had to, not because I wanted to). By the end of summer we were pretty serious and talking about how to make things work. So in December 2008 we filed for the DV Lottery visa for a couple of different reasons:

1)It seemed like the easiest/least expensive way to file at the time

2)We'd only been together for a few months and weren't ready to go the fiance visa route yet

3)We wanted to prove to my very southern, very conservative, very skeptical family that we were legit by having him try to get here on his own merits, first.

He actually made it through the cuts and got an interview but was denied the lottery visa (officially in September 2010). Now we're about to file a fiance visa in the next couple of weeks (delay between denial of DV Lotto visa and filing I-129F due mostly to the fact that my income, though well above the annual minimum for sponsorship, wasn't stable because I was in a commission based job at the time--not that he expects me to pay for everything... he paid all the DV Lottery Visa fees, and we're splitting the fiance visa fees down the middle). We have some pretty substantial evidence, which I'll outline below, but my concern is that the fact that he's already applied for a visa once may be enough of a red flag to cause a denial. Does anyone have experience with this, especially with regard to the consulate in Casablanca, Morocco? I don't know if it'll help with your advice, but here's a little about us and our evidence and such that might help:

*I'm 29, and he's 32

*Although we met online, I found him on the site and added him as a friend first

*At the time when we met, I was living in Paris, France, and was planning to make it my permanent residence

*I've been to visit him 4 times (total of about 7 weeks) since we met in 2008

*Although we met online in March 2008, we didn't actually start talking regularly until May of that year, and got serious in June during my first visit

*I've met many of his closest friends, and all of his family except a sister who lives in Switzerland - she and I have talked on the phone, though

*His family adores me (evidenced by general behavior and special actions, for example: on my last visit in December 2011, they threw me a birthday party and a thanksgiving because I had missed thanksgiving here in the US to go be with Youssef

*Now that we've been together for over 3.5 years my family is cool with things, too

*Our parents have met on Skype and gotten along as well as to be expected considering the language barriers (his parents speak Darija and French, while mine speak English and limited French)

*Youssef speaks English fairly well, but I wouldn't call him fluent (I'd call him proficient, though, because he can understand most things and get his point across in English)

*I speak pretty decent French and I've picked up a bit of Darija here and there (so we don't have any trouble understanding each other)

*Although we're different religions, he doesn't try to convert me to Islam, and I don't try to convert him. We're very open with each other about religion and considerate of the other's views

*We have even talked about when the time comes to have children how they'll be raised with regard to religion; we've also talked about money management styles and other important topics to a good relationship

*Neither of us has ever been married nor has any children

*He's never pursued another visa outside of the DV Lottery one that I convinced him to apply for and now our K-1

*He's never asked me to send him money and in fact often gives me gifts throughout my visits (as does his family)

*No communicable diseases, criminal records, or suspect activity on either side

*We have the following evidence supporting our relationship and right to marry:

**birth certificates,

**passport photos,

**certificate of celibacy,

**W-2s and financial forms for sponsorship documentation

**photos of us together ranging from 2008 to December 2011 (some of just me and him; some of me, him, and his family; some of us with his friends; and some of just me and his family),

**copies of hand-written letters I've sent him and associated dated envelopes,

**records of phone bills showing call histories between us dating back at least a year and showing call frequency and duration,

**airline tickets and email itinerary confirmations with dates and locations included (ranging from 2008 to December 2011),

**screen shots of our facebook profiles showing "engaged to" statuses for each of us as well as posts between us and posts between each of us and the other's friends/family members--including pictures of us with his friends/family

**individual notarized affidavits from 3 of my friends, both sets of my parents, and my grandparents (6 letters total) attesting to the legitimacy of our relationship and confirming approval of our relationship and impending marriage (parents and grandparents)

**individual notarized affidavits from his father, brother, sister-in-law, and 2 close friends (5 letters total) stating the legitimacy of our relationship and confirming parental approval of our marriage on his side)

**video footage of us together from 2008 and video footage of us together in 2011 to show proof of physical presence as well as how we interact together

I know this is a lot so thanks for reading all of this. Any advice is appreciated!!

[Linds&Youssef 56]

One more quick note: I've seen that including thousands of emails and such has been a hindrance in some cases so we've only included about one email interaction chain per fiscal quarter since 2008, with a few extra thrown in for important highlights and milestones in our relationship. Same with all other subjective materials (hone records, facebook posts, etc.) just to show the length and depth of the relationship...

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

**** Moving from "Bringing Family of greencard holders, as OP is a US citizen, to MENA regional forum for country specific answers ****

Why was he denied the DV lottery visa?

[Linds&Youssef 56]

The two requirements for the DV Lottery Visa (you have to meet either one or the other) are:

1) must have high school diploma or equivilent

OR

2) must have minimum 2 years work experience in technical field which requires 2 years of technical training

When we applied for this visa, I was under the impression that his having an Associates Degree equivilent in Information Systems Management (IT Management) would meet the requirements. Evidently not so since they don't care if he's got post-high school education, only that he has a high school diploma. The situation there is that he finished the course work for high school equivelency but missed his exams--he was in the hospital discovering that he has diabetes. He was still in the hospital the day the make-up exam was offered. So he didn't receive his high school diploma. However, somehow he still was able to attend and graduate from his associates degree program. The ####### is in the technicality--no high school diploma equivelent (BAC), no go.

Regarding the work experience, he's got 4 years experience in management related positions in the IT industry, but the positions he was filling do not in fact meet the required level of position in the industry. In other words, if he'd gotten technical training to be a woodworker and then started working with wood directly by designing and making wood products, he would've qualified because it's a direct relation and a field that's not terribly in high demand here in the States. If your background is management, though, that's a high demand field in the US with tons of qualified candidates already here. So your experience has to meet certain requirements with regard to level of responsibility that he wasn't able to meet.

He wasn't denied for anything sketchy... we just should've done more research into the technicalities before applying.

[Miss smarty pants 84]

Dont include the video

[Linds&Youssef 56]

Dont include the video

Why not? They show how we interact together and how his family and I interact?

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

Why not? They show how we interact together and how his family and I interact?

They will not view the footage. Photos only. If you think it is important, print of a page of stills from the video (6 on one page) with a header explaining what these photos are from.

[Linds&Youssef 56]

They will not view the footage. Photos only. If you think it is important, print of a page of stills from the video (6 on one page) with a header explaining what these photos are from.

Thanks for the advice! It's interesting that they would go peruse facebook pages and such but would stop short at entering a direct link to a youtube video...

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

Ah, when you said "video footage", I thought you meant you were going to submit a VHS tape or DVD or something. I still don't think they will look at it but since it is on YouTube, you could make mention your YouTube account id in the cover letter or something.

As to Facebook, I am not sure that they routinely look at it, if the case seems clearcut. But they have been known to check Facebook and other social networking sites if they are not sure about a case. Probably depends on the CO/ the embassy too.

[Linds&Youssef 56]

Ah, when you said "video footage", I thought you meant you were going to submit a VHS tape or DVD or something. I still don't think they will look at it but since it is on YouTube, you could make mention your YouTube account id in the cover letter or something.

As to Facebook, I am not sure that they routinely look at it, if the case seems clearcut. But they have been known to check Facebook and other social networking sites if they are not sure about a case. Probably depends on the CO/ the embassy too.

Other than the lottery visa denial I feel like ours is pretty straight forward (feel free to point out any potential red flags you might see), but he is from Morocco which is a "high fraud post" according to USCIS.

[kokylolo 7]

As to Facebook, I am not sure that they routinely look at it, if the case seems clearcut. But they have been known to check Facebook and other social networking sites if they are not sure about a case. Probably depends on the CO/ the embassy too.

They really check Facebook? Hmmm...If they check my Facebook that would make me very happy