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| Egypt |  Review on December 4, 2011: |
Kiki ElSharif
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I wanted to start off by saying that we were one of the lucky couples that got to file our I-130 here in Cairo because we had scheduled our appointment before the August cutoff date. We called the embassy in May after the required 6 months was up and the soonest appointment they had was Sept 6th. I was kinda worried after we read about the new filing rules and i emailed the embassy to see if we were able to still file here and keep our appointment. One response we got back was "yes we are honoring all appointments made before Aug"...and another just copied and pasted the new rules on filing and said to file in the US...i believe that some responses you get after emailing the embassy are people responding and not knowing what they are talking about. Anyways we went to our appointment and were approved. I'm not gonna go into all the details cuz they're the same as when we had the interview. The lady we met with at the window was really nice..it was an Asian lady. She asked us when we got married, if we were married before, if i had kids, how old i was, how old he was and asked if we had any pictures. I said yeah but we didint know we had to bring any and she said well just make sure you bring them when you come back for your interview...we said ok and she said your petition is approved.
Interview day~ We arrived at the embassy around 7 AM and there was the big line as everybody knows. We went to the front because we knew from the last time that they form 2 lines for Immigrant and Non. We waited til they let us in and did the usual...gave up our phones and went in. Got our number which i believe was 513. We waited and when our number was called we went to window 13 i believe and there was an Egyptian lady. She said "you two look familiar" We said yeah we were just there a couple months ago. She was the lady we had when we filed the I-130...the one who took the paperwork. We gave her the medical envelope and she was looking through our papers that were in the file. She looked at the Affidavit of Support and at the cosponsors last year tax return. She then gave us back our originals we had sent in and we gave her copies. She gave us a paper and said to go pay our visa fee and over to DHL and give them the shipping info. We did that then sat and waited til they called my husbands name to do fingerprints. After that we waited about 20 min and they called his name for the interview. We went to the window on the end..dont know which one that is but it was the same Asian lady there who we had when we filed the I-130. She said good morning and we replied. She then said hey i remember you guys...i said yeah we were just there in Sept. She said that we were one of the lucky people who got an early interview cuz they had some appointments open up. She asked for the DHL reciept and then asked my husband when we got married. he said the date then she asked him if he was ever married before...he said no.She asked him if he had ever been to the US before and he said no. She said the cosponsors name and said is that your cosponsor? He said yes. She asked my husband to sign the DS-230. She then checked some boxes and signed her innitials on the AOS form and she was gonna stamp the paper and i guess she didnt have any ink. So, she was looking around and walked around til she found some and came back and stamped the paper. She said congratulations your visa is approved. Then she said she has to send the info to the US(im assuming the name checks and fingerprints) and that we should have the visa in 3 to 4 weeks. She said everything looks good and i hope to get you guys back in time for Thanksgiving. We said thank you...smiled and left. I emailed the embassy on Nov 20th and i got the response that the case was pending consular officers review. I was gonna email again last night but something told me to wait. I checked DHL and was shocked to see our envelope was sent out on Dec 1st. I was freaking out...as well as my husband was. But since DHL here is closed Fridays we recieved the passport and visa on Sat around 11 AM.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8807