MENA - AP - Prior Immigration History

[Allison and Ahmed 30]

Hey VisaJourney Friends!

 

I am writing this to help a fellow VJ'er and friend...and really need your help and input.

 

My friend's husband had his interview in Cairo, Egypt a couple weeks ago.  He was put in Administrative Processing. No additional paperwork was asked of him, no checklist of things they needed, passport was not left there.

 

When going into the interview, they did not ask for any of the Petitioner's information.  Just his, and of course the Family Registration Certificate. (marriage certificate, original, police, birth, and medical).  

 

They asked a couple questions:

How many times has your wife visited you?  5

Has she been married before? yes

Did you have a wedding party? no - wanted to save money for more trips to be with each other

Had she traveled to Egypt before meeting you? - yes for work

Does she have kids? -  no

Asked for Family Registration original in Arabic

Gave him a 221g marked Administrative Processing - nothing else.

Then asked if he had filed a expedite .. answered - yes, I have a job waiting for me to start in the US with my wife's company.

 

Information about the couple:

Petitioner has made 5 visits to Egypt to be with her husband 

Known each other for 3 years, married in Jan 2017, applied for CR1 in May 2017.

Petitioner has been thru 2 divorces

Petitioner has gone thru the immigration process for a K1 over 7 years ago (country was Morocco) - they were approved, now divorced

No age difference

Different Religions

Met the family many times - vacationed to different parts of Egypt together and with family

No engagement or wedding party (wanted to save up for additional trips to be with each other - and have a big wedding in the States)

 

So I guess I have a couple questions ---

 

Has anyone successfully be approved when you had prior interaction/approval on another case with Immigration?

Anyone gone thru something similar in any MENA countries, including Egypt?

 

Any tips or suggestion and feedback would be much appreciated.  They are just lost on what to do.  And I would love to try and help them as much as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geowrian 22,337]

Sounds like the interview went fine, and the 5 visits plus meeting the family and similar ages is pretty good. The different religions may be considered a red flag adding additional scrutiny.

 

It's quite typical to be put into AP with Egypt. Every case goes through AP actually - usually days, sometimes weeks, rarely months, and very rarely years. With Egypt, it does tend to be in the months or longer category more often, though. This could involve additional review of the relationship evidence (possibly even a home visit), background/security checks, etc.

 

There's not really anything to do but wait now. Many have been approved in similar circumstances. Many have not been approved as well.

I wish them good luck.

[Allison and Ahmed 30]

20 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Sounds like the interview went fine, and the 5 visits plus meeting the family and similar ages is pretty good. The different religions may be considered a red flag adding additional scrutiny.

 

It's quite typical to be put into AP with Egypt. Every case goes through AP actually - usually days, sometimes weeks, rarely months, and very rarely years. With Egypt, it does tend to be in the months or longer category more often, though. This could involve additional review of the relationship evidence (possibly even a home visit), background/security checks, etc.

 

There's not really anything to do but wait now. Many have been approved in similar circumstances. Many have not been approved as well.

I wish them good luck.

Praying for a good outcome for them. Thank you for your kind advice.  I will make sure to pass it along to them.

[Boiler 45,487]

Any reason they do not ask themselves?

 

Always tricky with secondhand stories bit there is nothing out of the normal in what was posted.

[Allison and Ahmed 30]

36 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Any reason they do not ask themselves?

 

Always tricky with secondhand stories bit there is nothing out of the normal in what was posted.

Thanks for your input.

 

They are not super tech savy or familiar with posting on VisaJourney.  So, I offered to help them out.  Like I stated prior, I am trying to help my two friends out who feel like they are completely stuck with no insight or reason why AP was given to them.

 

So you don't think the two previous marriages, or the fact she had a Moroccan husband come to the states on a K1 (now divorced) hurts their case, or causes major red flags?

 

I think their main concern was getting a 221g with no explanation, or no idea why or what is needed next to help prove this is a legitimate and bona-fide marriage.  They have seen many Cairo Egypt members that have been stuck in AP for years.   

 

(They are VJ members and have a direct link to the post.  So any information is helpful)

Edited September 17, 2018 by Allison and Ahmed
spelling error

[Boiler 45,487]

She has a business  which involves international travel, sort of unusual, as has been said and a quick perusal of VJ would tell you AP is something everybody goes through and for obvious reasons it does not tend to be a quick process in Egypt.

 

The totality of the case is what counts and inevitably we get snippets

 

[Allison and Ahmed 30]

2 minutes ago, Boiler said:

She has a business  which involves international travel, sort of unusual, as has been said and a quick perusal of VJ would tell you AP is something everybody goes through and for obvious reasons it does not tend to be a quick process in Egypt.

 

The totality of the case is what counts and inevitably we get snippets

 

She had a previous job where she did travel overseas for medical devices.

 

She no longer is employed there and works for another company residing in the Midwest (with no international travel required).

 

I am doing my best to give you majority of the information regarding this case.  

[geowrian 22,337]

18 minutes ago, Allison and Ahmed said:

So you don't think the two previous marriages, or the fact she had a Moroccan husband come to the states on a K1 (now divorced) hurts their case, or causes major red flags?

It can be part of the consideration.

Did the K-1 result in a green card? Was ROC completed? If so, was it jointly filed or did they separate first? To be clear, IU'm not sure if these questions actually matter or not...but if there was a past K-1 from the same country and it looks like it may have been fraudulent in nature, that would increase scrutiny of the case.

 

For instance, there is one member on VJ who petitioned for somebody about a decade prior who ended up being fraudulent. They divorced and reported it. Their new spouse's case involved a couple years of doing AOS for approval, including a home visit. Others have petitioned a few different people, who just didn't work out together, and it wasn't an issue. Another member had 4 prior divorces and are now having difficulty. It really depends on a lot of circumstances.

 

Quote

I think their main concern was getting a 221g with no explanation, or no idea why or what is needed next to help prove this is a legitimate and bona-fide marriage.  They have seen many Cairo Egypt members that have been stuck in AP for years.  

That's not uncommon to not really be told why...they will review and/or investigate, and complete a background check.

There is nothing for them to do at this time except wait.

Edited September 17, 2018 by geowrian

[Khallaf 650]

4 minutes ago, Boiler said:

She has a business  which involves international travel, sort of unusual, as has been said and a quick perusal of VJ would tell you AP is something everybody goes through and for obvious reasons it does not tend to be a quick process in Egypt.

 

The totality of the case is what counts and inevitably we get snippets

 

It is for me Allison did me a favor I could not figure out how to start a discussion here. I traveled to Egypt before meeting my husband for work to do audits of medical companies to make sure they were not using ourdated products for my company. 

 

Everything she gave you was correct information. 

 

I am concerned and do not understand with all the evidence presented in hoth uscis stage and nvc how we ended in AP. 

 

 

[Khallaf 650]

2 minutes ago, geowrian said:

It can be part of the consideration.

Did the K-1 result in a green card? Was ROC completed? If so, was it jointly filed or did they separate first? To be clear, IU'm not sure if these questions actually matter or not...but if there was a past K-1 from the same country and it looks like it may have been fraudulent in nature, that would increase scrutiny of the case.

 

For instance, there is one member on VJ who petitioned for somebody about a decade prior who ended up being fraudulent. They divorced and reported it. Their new spouse's case involved a couple years of doing AOS for approval, including a home visit. Others have petitioned a few different people, who just didn't work out together, and it wasn't an issue. Another member had 4 prior divorces and are now having difficulty. It really depends on a lot of circumstances.

 

That's not uncommon to not really be told why...they will review and/or investigate, and complete a background check.

There is nothing for them to do at this time except wait.

The K1 resulted in Marriage ROC filed together, 10 year green card and citizenship after 3 years divorced just over 5 years. Previous country was Morocco.