Hello from Cairo!

[MMteam 72]

Hello, everyone!

Greetings from cloudy Cairo! We are new to the forum! My name is Meghan, and my husband is Mahmoud. I'm the USC and my husband is from Egypt. We met online in 2014 on an Islamic marriage website and after a long distance relationship, became officially engaged in April of 2015 after meeting face to face, and married in August 2015. We have lived together in Egypt since our marriage and have finally gotten our paperwork sent to the USA!

Some details about us: I'm 30 years old, and my husband is 33 years old. I'm a graduate student working on my Masters degree in the instructional technology field, and my husband works as a mechanical engineer specializing in computerized maintenance planning. We are eager to start building our family in a safer place.

My husband and I have just received our acceptance e-notification from the Chicago Lockbox. My I-130 petition for my Egyptian husband has been sent to the new Potomac center for processing. As far as we can tell, our case has two red flags. We met online and my husband is from a high marriage fraud country. We front-loaded our petition with the evidence they typically request in cases of RFE for MENA-based petitions in hopes we will experience no delays in processing. I'm thankful to have been able to relocate to Egypt to be with my husband. It's not always easy living in Egypt, but we have settled in for the long haul until we get our golden ticket outta here!

Wish everyone a successful visa journey!

[zeeeeeeek 9]

welcome to visa journey. strap your seat belts its gonna be a bumpy ride. But luckily VJ will have the answers to all your questions. If you spend the time and read the right threads you should have no problems at all. The only question we don't have the answer to is how long your process will take. Because your husband is from Egypt most likely it will take longer than the average. If all goes right you may be looking at 11 months to 16 months. Wish you guys the best of luck and don't forget to edit your timeline as you reach those milestones.

[KASH2011 382]

Welcome to VJ!

[Pitaya 2,577]

Welcome to the forum.

[kyrachos 11]

Don't worry too much. The fact that you live with your husband is a HUGE plus. The couples who receive the most scrutiny are those with considerable age differences, different religions, and those that don't have much in-person time together. The fact that you met online would only hold you back if you haven't spent much time together in person (which you've obviously overcome since you live together ). Your biggest hurdle might be proving your intent to reestablish domicile at your interview. Don't take it lightly--Cairo will easily put you in AP until you (the American) are physically in the US if you don't submit sufficient proof that you intend to move back...at the CO's discretion. It's happened to multiple couples over the past few months. You will also have to send some proof of domicile (or intent to reestablish it) to NVC, too, so make sure you prepare accordingly (NVC will accept less evidence than the embassy, but you still have to submit something). I lived with my husband throughout our entire 15.5 month journey from I-130 submission to visa-in-hand (finally going home next month! ), so it can be done, but you have to submit every scrap of evidence you can think of to show that you are moving back to the US at the interview (you are still a long way from that point, but it's never too early to think about it). I left a review of the embassy that includes my domicile evidence (on my timeline) because I know this can be a huge problem for couples who stay together in Egypt during the process. Best wishes for a speedy journey!

[4 the luv of Masr 14]

Lucky lady; my husband is also Egyptian and also Mahmoud <3 Welcome to the forum; long road but you get to be with him so that's a huge bonus. Feel free to message me!

[TBoneTX 45,267]

Welcome to the forum. Sounds as though you're a lot more aware and prepared than many!

[sandiego2013 3]

Welcome to Egypt

[Lenny&Sanna 114]

Welcome to the site Meghan

[madalas 0]

Just saying hello, salaam to all of you with Egyptian spouses...

Indeed it can be hard living in Egypt, I did so for 10 years. You never fully get used to it do you...(think driving, lack of organization, etc.)

But we are fortunate to have had the choice/opportunity right?

I am now in US with our son, and it has been the hardest year ever being away from my husband.

We just filed I-130 on 4-21-16 (20 years of marriage next month..its a sad, long story see, my profile).

So we will try this again and see what happens. Ultimately though the goal is to be together as a family so if we cannot overcome our crazy situation w USCIS my son and I will be in Cairo with S.

Good to see all of you and I am sure I will asking for tips and tricks with Cairo IF we get that far.

Bets wishes.