Does education have anything to do with it??

[♥Sora_9_Dam3a♥ 0]

Thanks for the clarification. I hope the readers understood the reference to the terrorist training category of Madrassa, not all schools in Arabic countries. Although, there are additional security clearance checks that delay immigration from all those countries now anyway.

Well, this is what I'm getting at. Because using "madrassa" as shorthand for "terror training camp" is a gross misuse of the term. I don't blame you -- it has become quite common in the Western press. It seems some news reporters thought flinging around the Arabic word would somehow be much scarier to the local yokels than "terror training camp" -- I guess because "madrassa" sounds so... well.... foreign and so.... Islamic. These same Western reporters think it makes them seem like they have some kind of clue, since here they are using an actual Arabic word and all. But Arabs and Muslims never use the term in this way. "Oooooh he was educated at a school"..... it's just silly.

Anyway, what you said about certain educations being a possible red flag -- now this is definitely the truth. Individuals with higher degrees in subjects like engineering, nuclear power, chemistry, aeronautics, etc. (or experience in the military or working in "sensitive" industries) will likely draw very close scrutiny. We have had a few members in the MENA forum facing this situation.

However I do want to point out that although we do see some very long Administrative Reviews in the MENA consulates, not every applicant has a delay. We see quite a few who get their visas within a few days or a week after the interview.

And frankly, much of the delay in the MENA background checks is because of the alphabet. There's no standard system for transliterating Arabic letters into the Roman alphabet. So they have to check their lists for Mohammed and Mohamed and Muhammed and Muhamed and Mahomet and Mohammad and Mohamad and all these variations. Some Arabic names are extremely common -- you may have thousands of people with the same name. So it takes a lot longer to sort them all out.

In general, women from MENA seem to have a much easier time than men. But religion does not seem to be the determining factor in long ARs -- we have seen Christian as well as Muslim members who have faced lengthy waits. This is what makes me think that the commonalities of Arab names and the confusion over the spelling variations are major factors in the delays.

We've been keeping informal stats on ARs for our members in MENA for the last 3 years or so -- it's fascinating trying to figure out the patterns.

oh man...haha..thankfully, my husband's name isn't so common..

thanks for your replies everyone!!

my original thought was that perhaps, they would be quicker to give a college graduate a visa....but now that i think of it again...i guess it wouldn't make sense....i don't know...whatever....

anyway, thanks guys!!

all the best...