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| Egypt |  Review on January 7, 2014: |
visaqueries
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
My fiancé had a very tough interview. He said that while he was interviewing, the interviewer beside his interiewer finished interviewing two people with a third getting ready to interview.
The interviewer had really read all the information I submitted in the first packet. He did not seem to have reviewed any of the packet my fiancé sent in before the interview. However, there was enough information to create quite a lively exchange of information.
I'll provide red flags, so it might help: 11+ years difference, different religions, and he'd been married before to a citizen of another western country. My fiancé said our interviewer asked every question he could think of related to his previous marriage, our friendship turned relationship, family...
I think that sometimes when the interviewer senses red flags, they question hard to see if there is a chink in the armor. That's what happened with us. Thankfully my fiancé speaks English well. I say that because there was no confusion as to what was being asked, and my fiancé didn't have to really concentrate on the language part; he could just talk.
Types of questions included: Why when you tried for a visitor visa did you say that she was just a friend, but you were beginning the relationship before that time? My fiancé explained that when we applied for his visitor visa we hadn't seen each other in three years. He knew we were meeting to determine the extent of our feelings. My fiancé said, "How could I have even written she was my girlfriend when I hadn't seen her? I can't call someone my girlfriend when I've not even seen them. After we saw each other, yes, I could say that. Not before." Incidentally, his visitor visa was denied, and I ended up travelling there.
My fiancé talked about our traveling together, and the interviewer questioned how such traditional families would be okay with us traveling together. My fiancé explained that though our families are very aware of our engagement, they don't question us about the extent of our relationship. Without them discussing their feelings with us, we don't know what they think. The interviewer then stated he felt our European trip was actually our honeymoon and we are probably already married.
Concerning his previous wife, he asked about how it could be that he was friends with me and married to someone else. My fiancé explained that both of us knew about the other (my relationship was not romantic at that point), and I was providing input regarding their business plan. Additionally, we only communicated until the business issues were resolved. Then communication ceased and resumed once his marriage was dissolved (her decision). The former wife had planned to move to Egypt then decided she didn't want to move or be married, so the interviewer wanted to know why all of a sudden he wanted to move to America. My fiancé explained that we haven't fully decided that we will spend our lives in the US, but the best decision for us now is for him to move here. Our plans might change, but we are determined to start our lives together here.
There were more questions, but because the interviewer was truly convinced our relationship was authentic, they were specific to our lives. In the end, he stated that the only lacking component was he still felt we were married. He told my fiancé he'd be going to the Department of Justice to determine if his divorce was recorded, and if he had no marriage on file. If that turned out to be the case they would, "go forward with our visa". It would be a few weeks before we would know. My fiancé tried to hand him the original divorce decree, but the interviewer told him he can't trust it as those can be bought anywhere in the city.
As a side note: one thing my fiancé forgot to do was to highlight some paperwork that would determine our "not married" status. We traveled last year and this year to places in Egypt. By law, an Egyptian man is not allowed to stay in the same room with a woman to whom he is not married. We had receipts for our hotel stay with two rooms last year 2012 and reservations for our two rooms this year as well (I was arriving three days after his interview and we then took the trip). We know it only proves that we had purchased two separate rooms, but we felt it would help with the case. We debated what to do about that, and in the end we sent the receipts via DHL the day he interviewed. The good outweighed the bad when we debated if we should send them. In our cover letter we stated that they already had a copy of the receipt from 2012 (so they wouldn't think we just generated a fake receipt).
At any rate, we determined the name of our interviewer (written at the bottom of the paid receipt), and we now smile and ask ourselves "What would D do?" Interviewer told fiancé after fiancé called me a girl that he was actually marrying a woman. So, when we talk about each other my fiancé says, "Now woman, according to DP, I think we should go to the Mall of Arabia." I am sure an interviewer has never been referred to as much as we affectionately refer to him. He was tough. We are grateful for him working diligently to do his job, and we just hope through his diligence he determines we do indeed qualify for a visa.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #13594