How Many Times Did you Meet Before Your Interview?

[Aymsgirl 0]

But they look at education, employment, ect???? My SO has a communications Engineering degree but currently hasn't been able to find work in Egypt.

we really thought this process wouldn't take so long so we decided for him to stop looking till he got here...but..now we are wondering about that. But he didn't have to do military time, doesn't have a high risk education factor, never traveled out of Egypt, and has no work history to raise a red flag over. So should his background check go faster? (As far as the name check/background check) Not sure how "common" his name is though. Seems all names are common but the order in which they use them differs. with a last name like Abd El Magid is that likely to be very common???

I dont know if this will put things into perspective with names, but my son cant get on an airplane without getting pulled aside for a secondary security check from the department of Homeland secuirty before beign issued the boarding pass EVERY time he flys. His name is a match for someone.

I think the difference in time after the interview is based on several factors- security checks being one- some just require more time. Using arabic letters, the translation of a name can take many forms- eg Muhammed, Mohammmed, Mohammad, Mohamed

all of the variations would need to be verified.

anotehr fctor in time might be any special conslate rules that they set for themselves. If there is a case that may been some special handling for X, it goes into one pile, for Y it goes into another. X may take less time to coplete than Y. etc

I do think in general success at the interview menas you are getting the visa, unless they uncover soething in the AP process that would allow them to deny it. I dont think I have ever heard of that happeneing in any consulate.

That reminds me of the skit from the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour where the guy says, "Hi, my name is Ahmed Ahmed, and I can't fly."

Once Usama gets here, let's all chip in and buy him this t-shirt.

That is hilarious!!! You have to get it girl!!!!

[allousa 1]

I don't believe there is any kind of "magic formula" to get through AP quicker.

Hicham and I didn't meet online. We were married for almost 2 years before we even began his application. Granted, we are filing a 601 waiver which is different than most on here. Neither of us have a criminal record, but I DID serve in the Air Force one term after I got out of high school. We had TONS of pics with my family and his because they had come over here to stay with us for 6 weeks. We also had affidavits from family and friends. We also had letters from our Congress Rep in our file.....

we were in AP for ONE YEAR AND 2 MONTHS!!!!

I did go to see Hicham once during AP and we made several inquiries, but never were told anything and nothing seemed to help.

I will tell you that when we were working with our Congress Rep (who has been absolutely worthless this last leg) and she told us that the security clearence is what would take the longest. We were told this before we ever had the first interview, prior to AP. She said that because DOS and FBI equipment is so outdated that they do not have the facilities nor the manpower to expedite these security checks. Many are doing it the old fashioned way by telephone calls and even on FOOT!

It seems our case is not the norm and I've come across very few that were in AP for as long as we were. Some of us have speculated that the fact Hicham is Palestinian may have caused this delay. He also had a previous asylum case that caused wrinkles.

IMO, going through this process IS what it IS. There isn't a magic formula and there isn't a golden seal of approval (well, unless it was from the president himself). A person's case gets sucked through the vacuum and comes out on the other side with a yes or no....and we don't know what happens in between.

[deadbird 2]

I don't believe there is any kind of "magic formula" to get through AP quicker.

Hicham and I didn't meet online. We were married for almost 2 years before we even began his application. Granted, we are filing a 601 waiver which is different than most on here. Neither of us have a criminal record, but I DID serve in the Air Force one term after I got out of high school. We had TONS of pics with my family and his because they had come over here to stay with us for 6 weeks. We also had affidavits from family and friends. We also had letters from our Congress Rep in our file.....

we were in AP for ONE YEAR AND 2 MONTHS!!!!

I did go to see Hicham once during AP and we made several inquiries, but never were told anything and nothing seemed to help.

I will tell you that when we were working with our Congress Rep (who has been absolutely worthless this last leg) and she told us that the security clearence is what would take the longest. We were told this before we ever had the first interview, prior to AP. She said that because DOS and FBI equipment is so outdated that they do not have the facilities nor the manpower to expedite these security checks. Many are doing it the old fashioned way by telephone calls and even on FOOT!

It seems our case is not the norm and I've come across very few that were in AP for as long as we were. Some of us have speculated that the fact Hicham is Palestinian may have caused this delay. He also had a previous asylum case that caused wrinkles.

IMO, going through this process IS what it IS. There isn't a magic formula and there isn't a golden seal of approval (well, unless it was from the president himself). A person's case gets sucked through the vacuum and comes out on the other side with a yes or no....and we don't know what happens in between.

And even if there was a magic formula, in most cases there's nothing we can do about it. We can't really do much to change our life circumstances in the middle of the process, only hope for the best. I thought for sure we were going to have an extended AP because Ramy had previous immigration history including an overstay as a minor ...but maybe that's what sped up security checks because they had all been done before even though they had to be done again. I don't know how long it took him and his family to originally obtain their visitor visas 10 years ago, maybe the government's been keeping an eye on them ever since...I'd love to know. I know there's an answer out there somewhere but I'm not so sure we're going to find it any time in the near future.