What items should I front load? Fiance is 7 years older than me, different religion and I'm from High risk country

[Moh-Kris 0]

Hello VJ members,

We're about to file I-129F petition this month and we've had some questions to ask.

My fiance who is the USC is 7 years older than me (29 years old) Christian Catholic and I'm a 22 years old Muslim from Egypt.

We don't care at all about our age differences or religion. We make each other happy and been dating for two years now and I just proposed three days ago and fortunately she said Yes :-)

Now I know the U.S. embassy in Egypt is very pessimistic about couples who do not fit the norm in the Egyptian culture. (Muslims rarely marry Christians and males tend to be always older than the females). However, I was raised with different set of principles and those cultural norms do not apply to me at all. BUT, proving that to the U.S. Councilor might be very hard.

I've visited her 3 times now (I'm currently with her) each time was a month or maybe two. She came and visited me for a week in Egypt as well. We do have pictures and passport stamps of that. We have over 28,000+ messages on Facebook messenger, as well as hundreds of Skype calls/chats and texts when I was in the U.S. and a handful of emails and a 3,000+ pictures of us during those years we've been dating from.

We are a genuine couple and we know it, but reviews of the Egyptian embassy and even some of the people I talked to gave me the impression that it is very, very hard to issue a fiance visa to people with "red flags" like us.

Can anyone give us an idea on what should we send? I already saw the guide on VJ and planning to implement every single item on it, but should we add ANYTHING extra? should we send them ALL of our Facebook messages, pictures, calls/chat logs? That would mean thousands of pages of application.

Also I'm sorry for getting a little bit into U.S. politics, but IF Donald Trump was elected, will that pose any sort of problem when it comes to the immigration process of a Muslim male in his early 20's?

Thank you.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Moh-Kris

[A'n'L 735]

In person meetings are valued way above other communication - so start with frontloading evidence of that. Tickets, boarding passes, passport stamps, hotel receipts and pictures from every visit. Pictures with each other's friends and family are golden.

You can also add excerpts of your written communication, but don't send everything.

[HKdut 0]

You two sound like every other couple here. You have met each other in person more, and have even known each other longer than many members here. You seem to have all the evidence you need, and It's the good in person evidence.

Front loading is providing anything extra. Follow the k1guide on this website. In person evidence is huge, I would load up on that. That and chat history.

Yea, you're right about your age, gender and religion being a red flag. I'm sorry you have to deal with other people's bullshit. I like to think you will be judged by the same standards as the rest of us, love. Double, triple check all your paperwork.

Just a thought but if I was you then I would hint at being a moderate Muslim(if you are), and I would never say the word terrorist, don't even say "I hate ISIS". I would try so hard to describe my feelings for her, and show them she owns me and heart

Edited August 10, 2016 by HKdut

[dillygoose 21]

Your case sounds similar to ours and we were just approved for our K1.

As others have said actual face to face time is important. Big time!

Also when it comes time for the interview try to have the petitioner be there. We did that for ours and I found it to be a big help.

Other than that if you've included pictures, conversation proof, and travel receipts you should be ok. (When I sent mine I sent 'selections from different dates of time' to cover the range that we knew each other but certainly not every single message back and forth)

As to the politics question, well I don't think any of us can rightly say what would happen. I think it would be difficult to make sweeping changes like those that are being proposed in a short time period (i.e. its not like a light switch on/off). But I will say I hope it doesn't come to that.

You probably already know this, but expect extra security checks. Whoever is president.

Edited August 10, 2016 by dillygoose

[Moh-Kris 0]

In person meetings are valued way above other communication - so start with frontloading evidence of that. Tickets, boarding passes, passport stamps, hotel receipts and pictures from every visit. Pictures with each other's friends and family are golden.

You can also add excerpts of your written communication, but don't send everything.

You two sound like every other couple here. You have met each other in person more, and have even known each other longer than many members here. You seem to have all the evidence you need, and It's the good in person evidence.

Front loading is providing anything extra. Follow the k1guide on this website. In person evidence is huge, I would load up on that. That and chat history.

Yea, you're right about your age, gender and religion being a red flag. I'm sorry you have to deal with other people's bullshit. I like to think you will be judged by the same standards as the rest of us, love. Double, triple check all your paperwork.

Just a thought but if I was you then I would hint at being a moderate Muslim(if you are), and I would never say the word terrorist, don't even say "I hate ISIS". I would try so hard to describe my feelings for her, and show them she owns me and heart

Your case sounds similar to ours and we were just approved for our K1.

As others have said actual face to face time is important. Big time!

Also when it comes time for the interview try to have the petitioner be there. We did that for ours and I found it to be a big help.

Other than that if you've included pictures, conversation proof, and travel receipts you should be ok. (When I sent mine I sent 'selections from different dates of time' to cover the range that we knew each other but certainly not every single message back and forth)

As to the politics question, well I don't think any of us can rightly say what would happen. I think it would be difficult to make sweeping changes like those that are being proposed in a short time period (i.e. its not like a light switch on/off). But I will say I hope it doesn't come to that.

You probably already know this, but expect extra security checks. Whoever is president.

Thank you all for your great help.

I'll make sure to do all the tips recommended for me here, another question.

We do have pictures with her lovely family. BUT..

We did meet her friends plenty of times but unfortunately we didn't take pictures of that, is getting an affidavit from them would be helpful that they acknowledge that it is a genuine relationship? and do they have to be notarized or just leaving their phone number/email would be enough in case the embassy wanted to contact them to confirm what they said?

Again, thank you for your help.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Moh-Kris

[cyanmavi 101]

I think the affidavits would help. They would probably have to be translated which would add another layer of certification if you don't want to deal with the hassle of notarization, which I frankly don't think you should need.

Include phone and email, and then hope for the best!

Good luck!!

[Tam&Luke 30]

Hey! Welcome to VJ! I sent you a PM about 3 weeks ago and let you know about me and my fiance. I'm older by 10 years than my fiance. You should come join us over on fb as there is a group of Egyptians/Americans going through the process and you can get some ideas of what we all are going through! Best wishes!

[Moh-Kris 0]

Thanks guys for help.

I'll PM you Tam-Luke. I'm sorry I'm still new to this.

[Unidentified 2,930]

Affidavits are actually useless as they could just as well have been written and signed by you. They don't prove anything.

Thank you all for your great help.

I'll make sure to do all the tips recommended for me here, another question.

We do have pictures with her lovely family. BUT..

We did meet her friends plenty of times but unfortunately we didn't take pictures of that, is getting an affidavit from them would be helpful that they acknowledge that it is a genuine relationship? and do they have to be notarized or just leaving their phone number/email would be enough in case the embassy wanted to contact them to confirm what they said?

Again, thank you for your help.

I think the affidavits would help. They would probably have to be translated which would add another layer of certification if you don't want to deal with the hassle of notarization, which I frankly don't think you should need.

Include phone and email, and then hope for the best!

Good luck!!

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

Choose chats, app communications, itemized phone logs (date/length of calls/names) screen shots, along with everything else you have

such as boarding passes, receipts etc that tell your love story on how you met, visited, how love grew over time to current time,you

have to convince the CO, a total stranger, that you are both genuine.

Use quality not merely fillers, take your time selecting the right evidence.
You have to choose wisely on what events and mile stones in your relationship you want to present and high light.

You can't send thousands of pages but for example you can select the first page of each chat, phone log from 3 days per week.

Rotate the type of communication (example one day of phone convos, next apps, next chats etc) so you don't have

a gap but can proof daily communication.

The longer you have communicated the thicker the package will be. We front loaded a 12# package the second time around because

my then fiance was refused the visa and we started over and then were approved.
Select chats where you talked about the upcoming wedding once he is here, like a venue, who makes the cake or whatever,

number of guests etc.
Put thought into choosing what to send.

The same with photos. I selected photos and categorized them into my 5 visits and highlighted special events such as

engagement, rings, being with friends or family, landmarks and just hanging out together. Mine were about 150, you could probably
front load 75 or so, it is personal and there is no magic number. Our 2. CO mentioned how he could tell just from the photos how much we

truly loved each other, I guess we were oozing love straight from the pics.

Some say photos are secondary but with us it was a winner.

We had about 6 affidavits, make sure the name and address, phone number and DOB is on the letters.

One from your parents, one from his parents, a friend or 2 would be good. Have them sign and date it. They can be notarized.

Prepare for about 5 months more or less of AP. Have your fiance be on the premises during the interview if possible and

inform the CO that he is waiting outside and came in support of your interview.

Best wishes.

You

[dillygoose 21]

Ebunolowa explained it very well.

The only thing I want to clarify is, for the interview the petitioner CAN go along and be with the beneficiary for the entire interview (and the entire wait inside the embassy).

We did it for our interview. And when we were back to pick up our visa we told others to do it as well.

There's no need to wait outside the embassy. Just make sure the US citizen brings their passport. The embassy will ask for it.