My Egyptian boyfriend and I have been together for two years. I'm a US citizen. We are trying to put together a plan for our future and I'm having a really hard time finding accurate information about the military service requirements. My boyfriend is currently a student, 21 years old, has a younger brother, and his father is below 60 years old. So he is absolutely eligible for conscription. There's a small chance he would be exempt for his terrible vision, but not a very big chance and we can't count on that. He has 2.5 years of school left. We can't afford for him to do a graduate school in the states afterwards and come here that way (although we are open to suggestions or ideas for how to make that happen). We plan to do the CR-1 or K-1 visa (undecided on which yet). He wants to complete his degree, but the more I read about military service, the more worried I get. We don't want to wait an ADDITIONAL 2-4 years after he graduates for him to come here.
Can someone clarify what impact an unfulfilled military service would have on our situation and maybe clarify a few questions I have?
- Is he able to get a temporary exemption from the military due to being in school in order to travel here for "vacation" after our visa is approved? Could we tell them it's just a vacation, not emigration? I've heard sometimes they won't give out temporary exemptions if you are in your last year of school.
- Would the temporary exemption be a problem for the paperwork side of things? Like, would they demand a completed military service instead since his visa would be a permanent visa?
- If he waited until he graduated to come here, would he be stopped, even with a Cr-1 or K-1 in hand?
- How do you even time asking for the military exemption with your visa timeline? I've heard it's valid for a month, other places say it's valid for a year. I've also heard that they will only grant exemptions during school breaks. How do you make that work with a strict interview date?
Any other recent experience or advice with similar situations would be greatly appreciated. This is keeping me up at night and I want to figure out a plan sooner rather than later.