Denials in Cairo

[DarwishAE 19]

My husband has his interview on September 1st in Cairo. I'm starting to get anxious and have been wondering if there is any info on the statistics of outright denial at the Cairo embassy. Searching through visa journey I haven't found any recent ones for Cairo. Some background on our case specifically: been to Egypt 3 times each time for a month, total family approval on both sides, 8 year age gap (I am younger), applied for a tourist visa prior to getting married to try and meet in the US first, we will be married two years on Christmas.

[nomadnoor 29]

Hi Elizabeth,

I can only speak to the fact that in the MENA region - AP -administrative processing takes much longer than for couples going through the visa process in Europe or Latin America. AP is when they finally get Homeland Security involved as USCIS has been absorbed under that umbrella so to speak to do the background checks on the individuals who have been interviewed.

From talking to couples both here on the visa journey website and the visa journey Facebook group - depending on the security situation in the given country, if that country is home to groups deemed terrorist organization, if that country is unofficially on the Homeland Security black list for visas based on terrorism threat assessment - AP can go from a month to years.

I suggest you contact once AP goes over a month - your congressional representative, CAIR - Council on American Islamic Relations and the ACLU for further legal advice and aid for your case. Your congressional representative can request further information and put pressure on the Consulate, State Dept and Homeland Security to hurry the background check up. CAIR can advise you on your rights and lawyers that can help and ACLU could perhaps take your case for free.

I wish you and your husband the best of luck!

Ally & Omar

[DarwishAE 19]

Hi Elizabeth,

I can only speak to the fact that in the MENA region - AP -administrative processing takes much longer than for couples going through the visa process in Europe or Latin America. AP is when they finally get Homeland Security involved as USCIS has been absorbed under that umbrella so to speak to do the background checks on the individuals who have been interviewed.

From talking to couples both here on the visa journey website and the visa journey Facebook group - depending on the security situation in the given country, if that country is home to groups deemed terrorist organization, if that country is unofficially on the Homeland Security black list for visas based on terrorism threat assessment - AP can go from a month to years.

I suggest you contact once AP goes over a month - your congressional representative, CAIR - Council on American Islamic Relations and the ACLU for further legal advice and aid for your case. Your congressional representative can request further information and put pressure on the Consulate, State Dept and Homeland Security to hurry the background check up. CAIR can advise you on your rights and lawyers that can help and ACLU could perhaps take your case for free.

I wish you and your husband the best of luck!

Ally & Omar

Yes the dreaded AP! As far as I've seen that's much more common than total denial. But many people I've met through this process had almost a year of AP. I'm hoping and praying that if we do get AP it will not be one of those lengthy cases. I've been working closely with a congressman's office since our i-130 so I will definitely be contacting them if we get AP.

[Crossed_fingers 128]

I can't think of any Egyptian denials off the top of my head. Of course, my focus was on Morocco, where there are plenty of denials. It always seemed like in comparison Cairo was a very slow but also permissive/easy consulate that didn't deny based on red flags the way Casablanca does.

[LizzieBee 25]

You can try my trick of copying/pasting the case numbers from the currently posted interview schedule on the embassy website (after the interview date) to see how many get denied/issued/AP. It should reassure you somewhat.