Registering Marriage with the Egyptian Consulate in USA

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

We want to register our marriage with the Egyptian Government and file the application for Egyptian Citizenship for me. It takes 2 years and we want to get the ball rolling now... I read the Egyptian Consulate's website and it doesn't give me a CLUE on how to do this. (Can I volunteer to EDIT the SPELLING AND GRAMMER on their website!!! UGH!) It tells you how to get married by them (if you are both Muslim) and tells you how to file for citizenship, (but asks for an Egyptian Marriage Certificate!) We have an American Marriage Certificate, and an Egyptian "Orfy" Marriage Certificate.. but it's not clear if this is enough... I emailed them, so hopefully I'll get a reply... One can only hope they are more friendly than their American counterparts in Cairo...

Have any of you (Americans married to Egyptians) gone through that process? We have to have his Mom send his father's birth certificate to us... which will take some time... but then we're ready to roll...

Thanks for any info...

K

[Nothing1234 2]

We want to register our marriage with the Egyptian Government and file the application for Egyptian Citizenship for me. It takes 2 years and we want to get the ball rolling now... I read the Egyptian Consulate's website and it doesn't give me a CLUE on how to do this. (Can I volunteer to EDIT the SPELLING AND GRAMMER on their website!!! UGH!) It tells you how to get married by them (if you are both Muslim) and tells you how to file for citizenship, (but asks for an Egyptian Marriage Certificate!) We have an American Marriage Certificate, and an Egyptian "Orfy" Marriage Certificate.. but it's not clear if this is enough... I emailed them, so hopefully I'll get a reply... One can only hope they are more friendly than their American counterparts in Cairo...

Have any of you (Americans married to Egyptians) gone through that process? We have to have his Mom send his father's birth certificate to us... which will take some time... but then we're ready to roll...

Thanks for any info...

K

You have to apply first thru the Egyptian Consulate here for the Egyptian marriage certificate by sending them a certified copy of your US marriage certificate. Then you can apply.

We had to do the same thing for the babies. They were born here so in order to apply for citizenship we needed to first apply for their Egyptian birth certificates then apply for citizenship! Go figure!

BTW, most of the people high up at the consulate here in the US do NOT speak English and mostly Arabic. They also requested to speak directly with my Husband at times.

Good luck! Calling them directly I got better results.

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

We want to register our marriage with the Egyptian Government and file the application for Egyptian Citizenship for me. It takes 2 years and we want to get the ball rolling now... I read the Egyptian Consulate's website and it doesn't give me a CLUE on how to do this. (Can I volunteer to EDIT the SPELLING AND GRAMMER on their website!!! UGH!) It tells you how to get married by them (if you are both Muslim) and tells you how to file for citizenship, (but asks for an Egyptian Marriage Certificate!) We have an American Marriage Certificate, and an Egyptian "Orfy" Marriage Certificate.. but it's not clear if this is enough... I emailed them, so hopefully I'll get a reply... One can only hope they are more friendly than their American counterparts in Cairo...

Have any of you (Americans married to Egyptians) gone through that process? We have to have his Mom send his father's birth certificate to us... which will take some time... but then we're ready to roll...

Thanks for any info...

K

You have to apply first thru the Egyptian Consulate here for the Egyptian marriage certificate by sending them a certified copy of your US marriage certificate. Then you can apply.

We had to do the same thing for the babies. They were born here so in order to apply for citizenship we needed to first apply for their Egyptian birth certificates then apply for citizenship! Go figure!

BTW, most of the people high up at the consulate here in the US do NOT speak English and mostly Arabic. They also requested to speak directly with my Husband at times.

Good luck! Calling them directly I got better results.

Thanks for the info.. I just got an email from the Deputy Consul (somewhere) telling me to call someone at the Consulate in San Francisco... I'll have hubby do that... how ridiculous to have staff in the USA that don't speak much English... although I guess they are here to serve mainly Egyptians.... but you'd think they would have quite a few calls or contact with Americans (tourists) and speaking English would be a GOOD thing (as Martha would say)...

Hubby was saying oh my GOSH do we have to get married AGAIN???? We've had 3 marriage ceremonies (2 in Egypt - 1 in Alex and 1 in Cairo and 1 here) so why not make it 4!

The things we do for love...

K

[tenderheartusa79 14]

We want to register our marriage with the Egyptian Government and file the application for Egyptian Citizenship for me. It takes 2 years and we want to get the ball rolling now... I read the Egyptian Consulate's website and it doesn't give me a CLUE on how to do this. (Can I volunteer to EDIT the SPELLING AND GRAMMER on their website!!! UGH!) It tells you how to get married by them (if you are both Muslim) and tells you how to file for citizenship, (but asks for an Egyptian Marriage Certificate!) We have an American Marriage Certificate, and an Egyptian "Orfy" Marriage Certificate.. but it's not clear if this is enough... I emailed them, so hopefully I'll get a reply... One can only hope they are more friendly than their American counterparts in Cairo...

Have any of you (Americans married to Egyptians) gone through that process? We have to have his Mom send his father's birth certificate to us... which will take some time... but then we're ready to roll...

Thanks for any info...

K

You have to apply first thru the Egyptian Consulate here for the Egyptian marriage certificate by sending them a certified copy of your US marriage certificate. Then you can apply.

We had to do the same thing for the babies. They were born here so in order to apply for citizenship we needed to first apply for their Egyptian birth certificates then apply for citizenship! Go figure!

BTW, most of the people high up at the consulate here in the US do NOT speak English and mostly Arabic. They also requested to speak directly with my Husband at times.

Good luck! Calling them directly I got better results.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL oh yeah Nawal i remember that .

Trina tried to call them many times and she said honeyyyyyyyyyyy they can't speak english and i was like huh are you kidden me ? how ???????? they are working in the USA so they must speak English and then she said well listen to this and she called them and she put me on the speakers so i can listen to them ohhhhhhhhh girl they really can't speak English at all .

i was like this is Egypt for you honey .

and this is how they hire people .it doesn't matter if you speak English or not to work in the Egyptian embassy in USA. it doesn't matter even if you have degree for that .

all what you have to do is looking for someone to pay him some money to hire you or a friend of you so he can hire you there ..................

[Aymsgirl 0]

Did you find the contact information online for the Egyptian Consulate?

[Nothing1234 2]

Yes, the San Francisco office is the office they directed us to as well. The receptionist speaks English but she does not comprehend well. LOL. She will direct you to a man that will only speak with your husband and only speaks Arabic.

They send forms by mail only! You must send them money for them and it takes forever!! They are on Egypt time, that's what I call it. Never in a rush for anything. Hehe. Wait till you see the forms. In Arabic only and on 11 X 18 paper. Haha! So old fashioned.

Let us know how it goes. Good luck!

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

Here's a link to the website that shows which Consulate is assigned to which area of the USA. http://www.egy2000.com/missionsl.htm

We'll give them a call next week and see how it goes... Will definately let H do the talking..... I lose patience too quickly with unprofessional encounters with people who should be HIGHLY professional...

H hides when I attempt to get CUSTOMER SERVICE in Egypt... ask anyone at the Vodaphone store at Carrefour Mall in Alex if they want to deal with a Madame Magnoona - I'm guessing that is my code name... they probably have a warning sign in the breakroom with my photo, name, and mobile # on it... BEWARE of CRAZY AMERICAN with bad arabic and a short fuse. tehehehehehehehehe

[Aymsgirl 0]

Let me ask you guys, is there an advantage of doing this now or just waiting and doing it in Egypt when we go? My husband said it is less costly and takes very little time to do it when you are there. I just want to know your opinion on if it seems to be ok to wait or she would do it now?

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

Let me ask you guys, is there an advantage of doing this now or just waiting and doing it in Egypt when we go? My husband said it is less costly and takes very little time to do it when you are there. I just want to know your opinion on if it seems to be ok to wait or she would do it now?

Hi Tasha,

Are you asking about getting citizenship for yourself or registering your son's birth? It takes 2 years for a wife to become a citizen... (Egyptian women who marry foreign men cannot get citizenship for their husbands)... doesn't matter if you're here or there... it takes 2 years. Probably does cost less there. In fact I'm SURE of that... I remember one of my friends talking about how cheap and easy it was there for her compared to her husband's experience getting it here...

One thing I'm not sure of is if it take 2 years from the date you apply, or if you only have to be married for 2 years and then you can get it... I'll find out and post it here.

Registering your son's birth so he could get citizenship probably is much quicker easier and cheaper there.

However, think 10 times before doing either. If you or your son become dual citizens whenever you are in Egypt you will be Egyptian, not American. Whatever happens to you in Egypt you'll be under Egyptian law, not an American visiting Egypt. And I don't think the Consulate there can help you much at all, like they do if you are ONLY an American citizen...

And God forbid if you ever had any custody issues your son would be an Egyptian when in Egypt and that could seriously affect your parental rights. (not sure if Egypt has any agreements with the US on these issues or not as I have never had this issue.. my son's father is a dual citizen of US and Jordan)

I'm going to get my Egyptian citizenship because I may purchase property or a business there some day and if God forbid something happened to H I want to be able to chose to stay in Egypt if I want. Egypt is getting more strict about non-Egyptians "squatting" in Egypt for prolonged periods of time so it only seems to make sense that I move towards getting my citizenship. Only downside for me is that if you are a foreigner starting a new business in Egypt you get a special tax exempt status for some period of time, it that hasn't changed...

If you don't plan to live there or own something there (and you don't have to be a citizen to own property but it's probably safer to be one for legal purposes) then why get citizenship? In fact I may have talked myself out of it by writing this... tehehehehehehe, however H tells me that paying taxes there isn't a huge deal like it is here... so we'll see.

What I SHOULD have done was gotten Canadian Citizenship from my ex who immigrated there... that would have been a good thing to have...

Oh well, live and learn....

Hugz

K

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

Let me ask you guys, is there an advantage of doing this now or just waiting and doing it in Egypt when we go? My husband said it is less costly and takes very little time to do it when you are there. I just want to know your opinion on if it seems to be ok to wait or she would do it now?

Hi Tasha,

Are you asking about getting citizenship for yourself or registering your son's birth? It takes 2 years for a wife to become a citizen... (Egyptian women who marry foreign men cannot get citizenship for their husbands)... doesn't matter if you're here or there... it takes 2 years. Probably does cost less there. In fact I'm SURE of that... I remember one of my friends talking about how cheap and easy it was there for her compared to her husband's experience getting it here...

One thing I'm not sure of is if it take 2 years from the date you apply, or if you only have to be married for 2 years and then you can get it... I'll find out and post it here.

Registering your son's birth so he could get citizenship probably is much quicker easier and cheaper there.

According to my many gal pals married to Egyptians, it takes 2 years from the date of application to get Egyptian citizenship for wives. Doesn't matter if you start the process here or there, you still have to wait 2 years. And those who have children say it's easier to register the birth with the Egyptian Consulate here than the Govenment office there. Especially if the birth was here in the US. No one has told me how much it costs there, but $80 here seems like a very nominal fee for an application for Citizenship compared to the $1010 we just paid for AOS.

According to one friend we can be thankful we're not Russian, I guess Russian wives go through alot more "AP" Egyptian Style than American wives do.

Hope this helps...

K

[Nothing1234 2]

The process for citizenship for children is not that easy. Just lengthy and so many silly steps. You must get their Egyptian birth certificates done first. The cost is $30. Then by the time you get the forms sent to you, it took 3 weeks for them to mail them out! WTH they are only in Cali! Then you can put in the application for citizenship once you receive their Egyptian birth certificates. Which we have not yet, over 1 month waiting already. Grrr. You do need to get certified copies of their US birth certificates before you apply as well, those need to be submitted and you don't get them back. Well, maybe we will with the final packet. Who knows.

Did I mention they are on Egypt time?

[Aymsgirl 0]

Well, that does give you a lot to think about. I know this may sound ignorant but if my marriage is registered does that mean that I have to apply for citizenship? Right now our plans are to one day live in Egypt but not for at least 8-9 years and you really never know what life will dish out to us in the mean time. I don't think taking citizenship is what I want to do right now especially with a small child. I trust my husband but you know that if things ever got bad between a husband and a wife you never know what may go through somebody's mind at the time.

[Nothing1234 2]

Agreed...you don't need citizenship to live w/ your husband in Egypt though. Only for working, tax purposes and owning property as it was stated before. Or if you would like to take advantage of Universities there at rates that Egyptians would pay...nothing more...no other benefits. (Oh! Another perk..maybe travel to Cuba though, if you're interested! )

It's just a long annoying process and might not be worth the headache for most.

[KHPerfectMatch 1]

Agreed...you don't need citizenship to live w/ your husband in Egypt though. Only for working, tax purposes and owning property as it was stated before. Or if you would like to take advantage of Universities there at rates that Egyptians would pay...nothing more...no other benefits. (Oh! Another perk..maybe travel to Cuba though, if you're interested! )

It's just a long annoying process and might not be worth the headache for most.

I can only think of 2 of my MANY friends who live in Egypt who took the citizenship. And you don't need to have it to own property, or a business. It might be safer if you are a citizen (nationalizing property and businesses is something from Egypt's past...) but it's not necessary. However my girlfriends who live there with their Egyptian husband's and own property are careful to make sure that things like the utilities are also in THEIR name, not their husband's name. (That's a whole different topic.)

My close friend who will be getting her citizenship in March did it specifically for the ability to get a job. She was being denied jobs left and right because the companies were being required to hire Egyptians, or at least could only hire a foreigner if they could prove it was a job that couldn't be done by an Egyptian... or something like that.

I think those of us getting close to retirement age think more about security and a future time when we might not be with our husbands but might want to be in Egypt (if we had a better support system there or our pensions went further there, etc.)... so positioning ourselves now is the strategy. You have MUCH more time to think about your options.

K

[Nothing1234 2]

I was reminded today by my very best friend that if our kids take dual citizenship they can never be President or run for more than (I believe, don't quote me) governor. That's just another thing to think about when obtaining dual citizenship for children.

While I pray my children have many successes in life, President or politics in general I pray they avoid!