IS IT EVER HOPELESS????

[mybackpages 0]

Age gap couples DO get approved quite often, but then so do couples with language, cultural, economic and ethnic disparities. It only goes to prove that age is not more of a mitigatibg factor, just one of many, so concentrating on it and constantly trying to elevate it as a problem over other considerations is non-productive. What you have in common or not is far more relevant than age.

Afterall, COs are looking at your relationship as believable or not primarily from the cultural vantage point of the beneficiary who would be committing the fraud, and age differences are less of an issue in the US than they are in the Arab world. As are cross ethnic, cross cultural, cross racial, cross economic issues. Those are each more relevent overseas than they are here, and that is the side the bread is buttered on.

It does a disservice to our members to continue to shunt aside mitigating issues that are most common among you - language, race, ethnicity, economics, tradition, etc., but it comes on good authority that these are challenged quite often and are valid considerations to make when going thru the process. Do not devalue them. They are as real as age gaps.

a very important post in understanding how to handle your case going through MENA. Definately worth reading several times to let it sink in. It's the whole package.

[sarah and hicham 3]

I think that one of the first things that the Consulate knows and accepts is that the couple is most likely going to be of different cultures and backgrounds. It is afterall a Consulate in a foreign country who handles marriages and other family related cases between Americans and the country where the Consulate is located.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

That's a given, but they are to judge the validity of the relationships between those of different cultures and backgrounds, and that is where the elements of how they determine whose is valid and whose is not comes into play. It's not based primarily on one factor or another, or that primary factor, whatever it would be, would provide a constant indicator that a petition would be rejected. There is no such factor, so various elements between the couple are taken into consideration when discerning their validity, so one is not necessarily more significant than another.

Edited May 6, 2007 by Green-eyed girl

[babybunny 2]

I think that one of the first things that the Consulate knows and accepts is that the couple is most likely going to be of different cultures and backgrounds. It is afterall a Consulate in a foreign country who handles marriages and other family related cases between Americans and the country where the Consulate is located.

[babybunny 2]

What is weird is. how come CASA has the biggest amount of Returned petitons.

I think that is strange because, there are age gaps and stuff in other nations.

course Pakistan embassy loves to give endless Admin processing to people. that because, of national security. but, how come CASA has this reputation? anyone knows?

[Marriednow 4]

You don't lose your American citizenship by living overseas. Is that what you were asking? Or whether he would lose his permanent residency if you moved back?

I guess what I am wondering is (and this is a health insurance issue and don't know if it's the same in Canada) how long a person has to be in the USA for authorities to know that they do have residency and can keep getting health insurance. For example, I am with Blue Cross, and they said if you live over there, you do not get insurance, same with Medicare in the USA. I'm wondering if a person can fly back and forth for health care. Sorry to be so ignorant on this. Thanks Caladan for your input.

[Marriednow 4]

What is weird is. how come CASA has the biggest amount of Returned petitons.

I think that is strange because, there are age gaps and stuff in other nations.

course Pakistan embassy loves to give endless Admin processing to people. that because, of national security. but, how come CASA has this reputation? anyone knows?

YES, BABYBUNNY, exactly. Does anyone know the exact percentage of those being rejected on the fiance visas and the spouse visas? I will be surprised if the consulate there publishes it. I know someone will say cuz Morocco has lots of terrorists, but that's racist. There are crazies everywhere, including folks from countries that don't even need visas to visit other countries.

[babybunny 2]

What is weird is. how come CASA has the biggest amount of Returned petitons.

I think that is strange because, there are age gaps and stuff in other nations.

course Pakistan embassy loves to give endless Admin processing to people. that because, of national security. but, how come CASA has this reputation? anyone knows?

YES, BABYBUNNY, exactly. Does anyone know the exact percentage of those being rejected on the fiance visas and the spouse visas? I will be surprised if the consulate there publishes it. I know someone will say cuz Morocco has lots of terrorists, but that's racist. There are crazies everywhere, including folks from countries that don't even need visas to visit other countries.

alot of petitions I have seen returned since being a member on VJ. < 2005 >

my friend her husband is from CASA. but they filed 2000. in 2000 there were not this many

petitions being returned. now its seeming like a certainty your petition will be returned.

oh and my friend - they have 10 year age gap, met online < married after 1st visit >, she did not have a job- so I was her co- sponser. ultimately he became a USA citizen < my sponsership is since been over >.

[sarah and hicham 3]

I'm trying to think if those who have been denied at Casa have red flags in common.

Anyone have any insight?

[Caladan 19]

Realistically, we have no real way to gage whether age differences or anything else is an issue. Simply because people here experience any particular problems is not a true measure since we are a mere microcism of what goes thru MENA consulates. This board is overwhelmingly white, with lots of age difference couples. It's not really correct to say that, over all, the consulates are rejecting age difference couples at a higher rate than non-age difference couples, nor that Arab-non-Arab couples have a certain shot, or anything else. This site is skewed, thus, we have no real data about what does and does not raise red flags more easily. So, it is best to consider EACH element that is against the MENA norm. This is also not about anyone's relationship, it is about reality.

I half agree with you, and half agree with Sarah. That's true, but from the information we do have on VJ: has anyone ever been cited for being non-Arab, or more generally, for being a different race than the petitioner? (Thai girls don't normally marry older white guys in Thai culture, either, you know?) Part of the problem is that we don't have as good a collection of reasons for returning petitions as we do for NOA2s: those that we do have seem to focus on language, way of meeting, length of engagement.

It stands to reason that an Arab-American girl who grew up in Casablanca will probably face less scruntiny when she tries to bring over her Casablanca boyfriend than someone who grew up in say, Iowa, and has only been to Morocco once. And since this whole process seems to be about the impression of legitimacy given to the Consulate, if both parties are Arab and have lived substantially in the area, it probably helps to down play other flags a couple might have. So it might not be that 'being a white American' is just as much of a flag as being older than your spouse, but that if both parties are Arab, some flags don't count as much. (Others could count more.)

But that doesn't mean that being whitebread American necessarily a *flag* in that it would be cited as a reason to return or deny a petition or raise suspicion. And we know that things like language, way of meeting, age, length of engagement, have been cited. So while I think your admonition to consider more than just the age gap is well heeded, I don't know if I'd go as far as saying Arab-non-Arab are just as suspicious as an age gap; we just haven't seen any questions along those lines.

[babybunny 2]

I think one of the biggest problem might be this:

if you dont speak a common language. there has been members accused of using a Language translator when communicating.

I think it plants the idea - how do they communicate if they both dont speak a common

language. example. He speaks only his native tongue -but not a drop of english. she knows english and not a drop of his native tongue. so they communicate with babble fish.

[Caladan 19]

You don't lose your American citizenship by living overseas. Is that what you were asking? Or whether he would lose his permanent residency if you moved back?

I guess what I am wondering is (and this is a health insurance issue and don't know if it's the same in Canada) how long a person has to be in the USA for authorities to know that they do have residency and can keep getting health insurance. For example, I am with Blue Cross, and they said if you live over there, you do not get insurance, same with Medicare in the USA. I'm wondering if a person can fly back and forth for health care. Sorry to be so ignorant on this. Thanks Caladan for your input.

Oh, residency for your health care. That's going to depend on the health care plan and its details. C.'s insurance won't cover him in the U.S. He's going to buy traveler's insurance for three months, until we're married so I can put him onto mine.

But you'll have to check with your plan. My guess, based on my health care plan, is that it won't cover anything overseas with the possible exception of emergency care, but that if you're paid up, if you fly back for a checkup with your on-network doctor, that would be covered. Fortunately, that's between you and your insurance company, and doesn't involve the department of state.

--

According to the nice link upthread, Casa had 865 or so immediate relative petitions approved last year. The link didn't say out of how many, but I'm sure that information's out there. What's striking is how many visas were approved out of Morocco compared to the surrounding areas. Or hell, even compared to Canada, which had 1200 or so. If there's been an uptick in "hey, here's a great way to get to the U.S." or even just more internet access in the country, that could explain the extra scrutiny.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Arab/non-Arab relationships is only ONE element of what I've put forward, but, for some reason, seems to be the one that jumps out to some. I've also cited in my discussions of red flags, religion, culture, tradition, economics, social status, the importance of staying close to family, language, and more. Yet, it is the Arab/non-Arab element keeps rising to the fore. Why is that?

[Caladan 19]

Because that's the only one I haven't seen cited in an report about questions at an interview or in the scant information about the petition returns? Because we agree on the existence of the other red flags?

And because I find it less likely that the race of the petitioner would be a helpful sorter for the consulate. Just too many white Americans petitioning for foreign fiancés to have it sort out the wheat from the chaff.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Arab is not a race. I'm not talking about race when I mention Arab/non-Arab. I'm Arab, but there are people here who maintain that I'm not simply because I was born in the US. I'm mostly distinquishing between culture, history, perceptions base on community. Those are factors in determining the validity of a relationship in MENA.