Help with marriage process and then applying for visa

[Samabdu 0]

Hello, I'm from Egypt and my wife-to-be is from America. We already been through K1 visa process after engagement and they kept us waiting for a year after the interview, then after we got a congressman's office involved we received an email that said "Our file was suppose to be sent back from Egypt to NVC but it never made it, therefore the application is canceled and we are welcome to start a new one.

 

Now we are going to get married then apply for CR1 but I'm not familiar with the marriage process if anyone has done it in Cairo recently i'd appreciate the help and advice. Also, my wife couldn't visit me for 2 years because of problems with her work. Would that affect us badly in the interview?

 

 

[accumbyte 149]

41 minutes ago, Samabdu said:

I'm not familiar with the marriage process if anyone has done it in Cairo recently i'd appreciate the help and advice.

An alternative is marriage in Hong Kong if you don't mind the travel; travel to HK is visa-free: https://www.passportindex.org/comparebyPassport.php?p1=eg&p2=us&fl=&s=yes Or if you have (or apply and receive) a Schengen tourist visa, then a marriage in either Copenhagen, Denmark or Reykjavík, Iceland is also an option:

• https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/how-get-married-copenhagen
• https://guidetoiceland.is/history-culture/getting-married-in-iceland

Edited January 28, 2019 by accumbyte

[NikLR 13,232]

43 minutes ago, Samabdu said:

Hello, I'm from Egypt and my wife-to-be is from America. We already been through K1 visa process after engagement and they kept us waiting for a year after the interview, then after we got a congressman's office involved we received an email that said "Our file was suppose to be sent back from Egypt to NVC but it never made it, therefore the application is canceled and we are welcome to start a new one.

 

Now we are going to get married then apply for CR1 but I'm not familiar with the marriage process if anyone has done it in Cairo recently i'd appreciate the help and advice. Also, my wife couldn't visit me for 2 years because of problems with her work. Would that affect us badly in the interview?

 

 

She needs to use her time off yearly to visit.  Not seeing each other for 2 years is a huge red flag. 

[Sammy 1 13]

 you can go online to check about the marriage process in Egypt. One thing I do know is that it takes about 1 month to complete all the paperwork.  Also you have to have seen each other within 2 years to qualify for cr1

[accumbyte 149]

35 minutes ago, Debbiedeb said:

 Also you have to have seen each other within 2 years to qualify for cr1

That's only a requirement for the K-1. It's a red flag for sure, but not required for the CR-1.

[Khallaf 650]

5 hours ago, accumbyte said:

That's only a requirement for the K-1. It's a red flag for sure, but not required for the CR-1.

when you go years without seeing your spouse and beneficiary is from a Mena country, yea its a red flag.

8 hours ago, Samabdu said:

Hello, I'm from Egypt and my wife-to-be is from America. We already been through K1 visa process after engagement and they kept us waiting for a year after the interview, then after we got a congressman's office involved we received an email that said "Our file was suppose to be sent back from Egypt to NVC but it never made it, therefore the application is canceled and we are welcome to start a new one.

 

Now we are going to get married then apply for CR1 but I'm not familiar with the marriage process if anyone has done it in Cairo recently i'd appreciate the help and advice. Also, my wife couldn't visit me for 2 years because of problems with her work. Would that affect us badly in the interview?

 

 

there are many steps that the USC must take here in the USA before traveling to Egypt to get married, you are welcome to send me a message and ask me any question you want to know.

 

the steps all depend on if the petitioner has ever been married before.

[Samabdu 0]

On 1/28/2019 at 6:29 AM, accumbyte said:

An alternative is marriage in Hong Kong if you don't mind the travel; travel to HK is visa-free: https://www.passportindex.org/comparebyPassport.php?p1=eg&p2=us&fl=&s=yes Or if you have (or apply and receive) a Schengen tourist visa, then a marriage in either Copenhagen, Denmark or Reykjavík, Iceland is also an option:

• https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/how-get-married-copenhagen
• https://guidetoiceland.is/history-culture/getting-married-in-iceland

Thank you for your comment but why those countries? I'm living in Egypt.

 

On 1/28/2019 at 6:32 AM, NikLR said:

She needs to use her time off yearly to visit.  Not seeing each other for 2 years is a huge red flag. 

 

On 1/28/2019 at 7:20 AM, Debbiedeb said:

 you can go online to check about the marriage process in Egypt. One thing I do know is that it takes about 1 month to complete all the paperwork.  Also you have to have seen each other within 2 years to qualify for cr1

 

On 1/28/2019 at 1:53 PM, Khallaf said:

when you go years without seeing your spouse and beneficiary is from a Mena country, yea its a red flag.

there are many steps that the USC must take here in the USA before traveling to Egypt to get married, you are welcome to send me a message and ask me any question you want to know.

 

the steps all depend on if the petitioner has ever been married before.

Thank you guys for your comments.. So if we delay applying for CR1 for a year or so after marriage so that we can have some more visits would that make the red flag go?

[db2016 100]

this happened with me, except my now husband did his interview for the fiance visa but was put on AP and we waited for months and never heard back. We ended up getting married and applied for the marriage visa. You just have to send a letter to the embassy withdrawing your K1 visa and apply again with the Cr1 visa

 

On 2/1/2019 at 12:49 AM, Samabdu said:

Thank you for your comment but why those countries? I'm living in Egypt.

 

 

 

Thank you guys for your comments.. So if we delay applying for CR1 for a year or so after marriage so that we can have some more visits would that make the red flag go?

you dont have to wait a year. i applied a month after we got married.

Edited February 6, 2019 by db2016

[Just Paul 4,595]

On 1/31/2019 at 3:49 PM, Samabdu said:

Thank you for your comment but why those countries? I'm living in Egypt.

Because it's fast and in the eyes of USCIS, perfectly legal.  We did ours in Hong Kong because I didn't want to sit around the Philippines for 4 to 6 weeks to get it done.

[Samabdu 0]

23 hours ago, db2016 said:

this happened with me, except my now husband did his interview for the fiance visa but was put on AP and we waited for months and never heard back. We ended up getting married and applied for the marriage visa. You just have to send a letter to the embassy withdrawing your K1 visa and apply again with the Cr1 visa

 

you dont have to wait a year. i applied a month after we got married.

In my case the application was lost in Egypt. The email we got said that the app was never sent back from Egypt and is no longer available and that we can start a new one So I don't think we need to withdraw it.

 

Why I said wait a year is to get more visits done because we couldn't see each other in the last 2 years

 

20 hours ago, Paul & Mary said:

Because it's fast and in the eyes of USCIS, perfectly legal.  We did ours in Hong Kong because I didn't want to sit around the Philippines for 4 to 6 weeks to get it done.

Thanks for the recommendation I will look into it

Edited February 7, 2019 by Samabdu
adding info