Likelihood of MENA K-1 rejection?

[LizzieBee 25]

Hi everyone,

My fiance was getting so worried yesterday. He read on some website that we'd be lucky to get our K-1 petition approved in Cairo. He was told the same thing by somebody at his medical appointment. But I thought the approval rate was actually pretty high for K-1s? It seems like most people who have posted on here have been approved through Cairo in the last few months. Anybody know more about that? Also, what is the process if it does get rejected? We can still submit other proof or petition it somehow, right?

Thanks in advance.

p.s. No horror stories please--I'm looking for the averages, not the worst case scenarios! We all know the worst case scenarios by heart.

p.p.s. I'm flying to Cairo in the middle of April to be with my sweetheart. I'm SO EXCITED!!

[Ihavequestions 419]

Do you have any red flags?

[Mithra 1,185]

Read the sticky about denials. Denials can and do happen. No horror story, just reality. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst (read sticky). I wouldn't stress though. You never know what will happen.

[LizzieBee 25]

What sticky? I don't see a sticky about rejections at the top of the MENA forum. Is it in a different forum?

Yes, we have some red flags, but we have also submitted a lot of proof of our relationship: letters from all of our parents, letters from friends, proof of wedding plans, etc. etc.

I'm more worried about a rejection because of the sponsor papers. I'm unemployed and using child support, alimony, and rental income to provide proof that I can sponsor him. I also have a lot of "net worth" in the form of home equity and whatnot, but I just don't know what to expect.

Anyway, I was more interested in just a general feeling of what is normal for other people. More from an academic perspective because I'm curious about it.

[Mithra 1,185]

Returning petitions to the US sticky. It's not a rejection, it's a denial and return to the US.

The whole using alimony and child support as income would be a red flag, to me. Child support is support for the children not support for a future spouse. Man ppl are lucky I'm not in charge lol.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Mithra

[sandinista! 1,816]

Not an academic expert, but Cairo seems less prone to outright denials as opposed to like, Casablanca. They're not a cakewalk of course, and they throw up their own weird hurdles with visiting guy's neighbors, and stuff like that. There was a guy in Cairo who had an interview, thought everything went fine, until they called him back in for another 3 hour interview with 2 American COs and an Egyptian official of some sort. They also had someone visit his fiancee in the States and interview her for 3 hours. Cairo likes field trips?

There's all kinds of denial/ what to do in case of one discussion threads in MENA. The big pinned topic here in MENA at the top too. I would try an advanced search and use "denial" for the key word, and make your search parameters for the last several years. You can also limit the search to just MENA.

[Boiler 45,516]

Are you the same religion, Egyptian by background?

[LizzieBee 25]

Like I said, lots of red flags, lots of concerns for us personally, but I was really just curious about stats and stuff. No big deal. I don't see the sticky you're talking about, but I'll keep looking.

[Boiler 45,516]

I am not sure what you mean by stats.

Consulates handle a wide variety of cases, some of which raise more questions than others.So you would need to know not only if a visa was granted but how comparable the circumstances were to your own.

The questionable cases seen on VJ seem to involve.

Women sponsor

Met on internet

Little face time

Different religion

Older

Divorced

Children

Different cultural background

Different educational background

Past child bearing age

If you compared that scenario with what might be considered a normal relationship and looked just at stats then you could be seriously misled.

[Heather&Ramy 22]

This might be an overly idealized way to look at things, but when my fiance was gearing up for the interview and nervous I just kept telling him that as long as we qualify for the visa, we will get it. We are indeed in a real relationship intending to marry in the US in the required 90 days, we are both legally free to marry and neither of us are criminals... and we have provided evidence to those things. So why should we not be approved?

I realize there may have been cases where visas were unjustly delayed or denied even though the couple qualified according to those requirements, but I think it's good to just focus on presenting your qualifications as well as you can to the interviewer.

I also told my fiance that it we were for some reason denied, they would have to tell us the reason and give us a chance to answer it, and that there would be channels to attempt to overturn the decision. Worst case, we would just end up marrying and refiling for the CR1.

I know the system is far from perfect, but the idea is that everyone who meets the qualifications would be approved (even if it takes an agonizingly long time). That should encourage you!

(And from a purely academic standpoint, everyone is well aware that the MENA region has a relatively higher rate of denial because of a mixture of things...but I hope as an American citizen that this is primarily because of a higher rate of fraud in the area rather than racism or stupidity on the part of the embassy workers although that can exist too... Actually, I remember seeing real denial statistics somewhere, but I don't think it was VJ... I think there is a page floating around the USCIS or DHS website that has bona fide approval and denial statistics by country. You might try searching there. If I find it again I'll post a link. )

Edited March 31, 2014 by Heather&Ramy

[Boiler 45,516]

We are indeed in a real relationship intending to marry in the US in the required 90 days, we are both legally free to marry and neither of us are criminals... and we have provided evidence to those things. So why should we not be approved?

You forgot the big one.Which seems the most common reason.

[Heather&Ramy 22]

You forgot the big one.Which seems the most common reason.

LOL... well, I'm drawing a blank, but since we were approved I guess we met that one too!

I just remembered one more thing for the OP... I was worried about my financial support papers also because I just recently graduated from university and had only been working part time to get pocket money, I had hardly a cent to my name and I certainly don't have a salary to support my fiance. But I filed the paper along with my dad as a joint sponsor and wrote a letter stating that I planned on working to support Ramy and my dad would pick up the slack until Ramy could get a job. We had no problems, we weren't even asked any questions about it at the interview. Do you have a joint sponsor? That might give you peace of mind in case they don't accept your own sponsorship.

[Boiler 45,516]

Solely for immigration purposes.

[LizzieBee 25]

I'm 12 years older, divorced, with kids. Different religions. Met online. Only had about ~3 weeks together face to face. So are there red flags? Yep! Are we in a real relationship and planning to get married? Yep! I'm so excited to go back and see him in two weeks. We're both just agonizing right now being apart. His family loves me and I'm going to stay with his family the whole time, which will be crazy but fun. My kids adore him. If we don't get approved, I'm going to feel like dying because I can't move to Egypt because of my custody situation and I lose alimony as soon as I get remarried, which means he won't be able to support me here, I can't go to him there... it's a horrible scenario to think about. We've agreed that we'll do what it takes and wait, but . . . I just need this to happen right the first time. I can't go into the details of how much he means to me or how much I need him. Impossible to put into words.

[Boiler 45,516]

It is unusual for the Consulate to doubt the motivation of the USC.