Salam,

Just thought a chat for Muslims would be helpful. I am constantly wondering if that may come up on the radar for the approval and if that may delay but alas it doesn't help to worry about such things as there is nothing I can change I am who I am Hamdolah. Looking for the support of others facing the same challenges or anyone interested in participating... all are welcome to chime in.

Being Muslim in itself is not really the issue. But beneficiaries from Arab and/or Muslim countries -- especially male beneficiaries but sometimes females -- often have delays for extensive name, security and background checks. In the MENA forum, we call it "AP" for "Administrative Processing." Having a very common name or a history of travel to certain countries can complicate this procedure.

But on the other hand, some MENA beneficiaries have little or no delays. It's hard to predict if or how much your case will be affected. So in general -- be braced for an extra wait, but keep hoping for the best.

Also, we have some lists in the MENA forum called "Visas in Hand" -- you can see how many MENA cases have gone through successfully over the last few years, which consulate they processed through, and if they had AP and how long it took. This could make you feel a lot better !

Wishing you all the best with your visa journey !

Salamat



-MK

howdy

The MENA regional forum has many past threads that may interest you.

Best wishes on your journey.

moved to mena.

A lot of muslims males and females have made successfully!! U got nothing to worry about insha Allah.... i felt same exact way u did but then when i read about muslims here i was relieved al hamdulillah!!

Sanita is a Muslim and a Chechen..we had some issues with the CO but it had nothing to do with being a Muslim o0r Chechen

Yeah you know my spouse told me beforehand the people who usually (not all) go thru Administrative Processing have other papers that have to be looked at like Previous marriages-divorce decrees or Police reports. It's just for extra security reasons but I can imagine it's hard! Goodluck & God bless

oh man i dont wanna hear this lol Perviz and I are both Muslim i was assured it would have absolutely no barring on our case at csc so maybe this is the big hold up for us?

Long story short but I was in the Army reserves for 11 yrs and been all over the world. After my experinces I ended up converting while my husband and I were in the "friends" stage.... when i sent my G325a app in it was a pic of me with my hijab but if they just run my social they'll see my TS clearance and I think that might help??

In truth im not really sure being Muslim has anything to do with cases that get extra review and problems like ours have i really want to believe that our country is better than that........in reality there could be just as many non Muslim cases that get the extra views and security checks but we dont know about them because they are not on vj......but im sure ur TS clearance wont hurt any

Lol thanks... you know we talk about our country and how things like that shouldn't matter but i do have to say just the security checks at the airport are more intensive and all over the board. I went to morocco twice got stopped 4 times in security getting on the plane to leave the country but when I was coming back in not a problem. Than my last trip back in I got the four security officers surrounding me and having to show pictures of my husband and I and answer questions for 15 min. The funny thing is noone one else was forced to do the same. I love my country I am the 5th generation service member but people are still human and frankly we still all hurt from the travisty that occured on our own soil. Do I think it'll slow down the process??? Anything is possible to whomever is looking at the apps I guess.

"Your" TS clearance will not help one bit, as your intended spouse is the subject of the investigation. You are not in question here, your intended immigrating SO is.

I have travelled the same road; and my clearance level was a primary cause of my career change to be with my wife. The best call I ever made.

Anyway, all the best to you both.

Edit: spelling....

I know what ur talking about we lived over seas for four years in pakistan when we came back it was nov after nine elven we were in security for two hours they even checked my youngest sisters puck she was really sick when we landed......we were made to miss our connecting flight and strangely when it was time to board for people with small children we were pulled for u guessed it another security check
after that until the last two years anytime we fly we have been given the extra security check.........

Salam Rajaa and all,

It's funny because each time I flew to Morocco wearing my jellaba, I had to get the patdown in the States and London, so when I went to visit my mom I decided to wear jeans and a thigh-length shirt to cover the bum and it worked! No extra patdown!! Also when I came back from my first visit to Morocco they took me to the side to go through my bags and asked me inappropriate questions in my opinion and I didn't know my rights at that time but next time I do have the right to tell them it's none of their business (personal questions about my husband, that dude was NOT an immigration officer!) and then when I went back in Jan. after being here 6 months they took me to the side again but that was only because I had been outside of the U.S. for so long and that dude didn't ask me anything, he was nice. I'm hoping that the fact that my husband hasn't traveled outside of Morocco except going to Algeria when he was a kid will help, but he's never been in any trouble, never been to the States, hope that will help. By the way I read that when you want to get a new passport if you want to take your picture with hijab you just have to send in a letter with the passport application explaining that you're Muslim bla bla bla. So since my I-130 picture was me with a scarf too I wrote a letter like that just in case. Hope it worked. Hey guys, if they send me an RFE and want more evidence of our ongoing relationship, I don't have any conversations or phone calls because I live with him, what can I do? His dad owns this house and pays all the bills so there isn't necessarily a paper trail of me here expect for my ATM withdrawals hehe Go to the police here and get a record of my entry date? And they won't call me in for an interview will they? That would suck...see you next time.

April

Wow, 4 times???? I wear salwar kameez but do not cover my head and sometimes get looks when I am at the airport - last time when I went to KTM(the flight was actually JFK-Bangkok) as I was boarding the plane a security officer pulled me aside, asked to see my passport and then asked me how much money I was carrying with me and said I was not allowed to bring more than $10K(i think) out of the country. Nobody else got this kind of treatment and I thought it was very strange - my jewelry is all silver and nothing about me shouts 'rich' - quite the opposite, I was wearing $10 flipflops and carrying a cheap Chinese backpack - the only reason I could think is because I was wearing SK and the officer thought I was Muslim and once she saw I didn't have a Muslim name had to think of some excuse for why she pulled me aside.

furthermore, they'd not see that ts clearance unless they ran it thru sso channels..........something uscis isn't connected to.

Hey it looks like you're gonna see the husband in a couple of days, congrats! Are you staying for good, or it'll just be a long visit?

April

I am not Muslim, but for some reason I am profiled at the airport, mostly France. Not sure what they are looking for, but one time I didn’t think I make it home. I was in France, trying to get my flight to America; I had a ton of problems there. First there was something wrong with my ticket, I never sure what the problem was, but I was standing in line to check in, and first this lady starts asking me questions, on why I was in Egypt, what did I do, where did I stay. I am not feeling happy at this point, than she tells me to wait for one minute, than the next thing I know I have two more people coming to me asking me even more questions. Finally after TWO HOURS, they state they have checked me in to the flight and I am now good to go. WRONG, I go to the next check point, GUESS WHAT, I am pulled aside again, but this time they make a few phone calls, and I am off to my gate. Finally I am in the line to borad the plane, than all of a sudden I am surrounded by at least 7 French police officers, under-cover ones, and they pull me from the line, in front of everyone, so I look like a criminal at this point, they take me to another room, and this is when I was strip searched, not my first time, but I was really shocked. They did all this, plane is waiting on the runway, I am finally able to get back to getting on the plane. As I was getting ready to get on the trolley to the plane, they pull me again, WTF, I had just been strip searched, and then they search me again, patted me down, and finally I was able to get on the plane, and I was the last one, every eye on me. Oh yea good times, now what were they looking for, not sure, but for some reason they put me through the ringer. Not the first time I have had run inns’ with France. I learned a long time ago, NEVER DO ANYTHING WRONG, because for some reason they always look at me first.

Im sorry that happened to u.....we have never been strip searched but two years ago when leaving for India my mom and got pulled from line and patted down at portland air port now this does not sound bad right lol my mom is very mmmm big in the chest area and this lady was busy with her magic wand checking guess that was not good enough she demands my mom remove her shawl and proceeds to squeeze her breast not just one but both with everyone looking no curtain for privacy after she was done and let us thru my mom walked back up to her and said gee i hope that was good for u but it didnt do a thing for me........i about fainted i figured we would be back in security check and blocked from boarding the plane but the lady said nothing as mom had already turned around and started towards our gate area

Wow!! Remind me not to fly to France! and yeah April I did do the no Abaya this time but long shirt and pants but It was at the airport in Amsterdam.... hummm however they did make me miss my flight and KLM was wonderful at putting me up in a room at the Crown Plaza, no complaints there. But Ganga_girl you showed me, just when I think I have a bad experience there are worse! I am sorry you had to go through all of that. My question is though why the profiling?? I mean honestly, do you think i am trying to be deseving or naughty by wearing a Hijab??? If i didn't want to bring extra attention to myself you think i would go about it that way? uuughhh!! anyway, as we are supposed to be patient I am sure Allah would like us to have a sense of humor too. As my husband says "we should always say Hamdolah"

WTF was that, she just wanted to feel your mother up, your poor mother, I am sure she fits the profile of drug smuggler or terrorist. I remember once on the border of France and Spain, crossing into Spain, this one man was really checking out my passport, I am with my mother, and he is talking Spanish really fast, and my mother is talking also, any Spanish I learned, is GONE, I am freaking out, but he was just asking how such a little girl, me, could be in the Army. That was in my military days, it is funny now, but in the middle of the night in the Pyrenee’s mountains, you kinda of lose your cool. I also remember the big German Sheppard dogs they had.

I wear a scarf on my head and when hubby and me flew to North Carolina last month this woman in the line for security kept glaring at me and whispering to her husband while keeping an eye on both me and my husband. Karma's a beatch and she ended up being pulled aside and interrogated while hubby and I sailed right on through.

(i know that has nothing to do with admin processing but I thought it was a funny story )


My husband had a long ap wait after his interview but honestly there were Christian men who had longer waits so I think it has more to do with other things like name hits, etc. than with the religion.

I guess the bottom line about flying if u fit the Muslim profile is just go with the flow and learn to have a sense of humor about it but what really scars me is while they r busy checkin the small kids and women that fly or men with long beards there are people that really r dangerous passing thru the check security system with out problems..........kind of reminds me of a very old joke ............

there was a black man seated on the plane......a very mmm shall we say red neck with out offending anyone that came and was seated next to him the man started complaining loudly to the stewardess that he had been seated in the wrong place and they had made a mistake everyone was looking he was so loud and rude finally the stewardess came once again when he turned on his light to complain and said to the man that was complaining u know sir ur absolutely correct we have made a mistake in the issue of seats she then turned to the black man and said excuse me sir but we have mistakenly put in economy when ur seat is suppose to be in first class and lead the black man to the first class section of the plane.......

I just wear normal clothes, but maybe it is my face. I am not sure, I am now wondering if they were looking for drugs or bombs. The one thing I hated was when they talk in their lanague and I have no idea what they are saying. I remember they kept saying Madam Bell, one minute, ONE MINUTE MY BUTT, I am I going to jail or home. I cried a few times that day.

I hope i dont offend anyone but here is a couple of videos about muslim flying they are done by a muslim man and are funny but get the point across just a little funny to laugh a little

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nolNcJ1G7w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6VAxucmNeI


I keep checking to see if he has done anything on immigration but so far he has not

Thanks April, I wish it would be for good *sigh* - with VSC taking their own sweet @ss time who knows when I will see him again. I am leaving for 6 weeks and will be back in New York on July 7. I am soooo excited!!!!

What'll happen if you refuse to get stripsearched? And it was female officers right? That's just ridiculous.

as far as i know and have read, you cannot "refuse" to be stripsearched. its part of the rights you give up as you choose to fly somewhere. either you agree or you don't get on the plane and choose to find another way to get to your destination. you could always sue afterward like a true american.

I think you can refuse and then you just do not fly! I remember one time I took my science team to a competition up state and we were flying back out, the competition ran late so we were basically running to catch a flight that only had about 10 people anyways on it. My co-coach was stopped and searched. It was funny and we joked about it since I was wearing a head covering and she was wearing a low cut shirt, hmm.... I told her the guy stopped because her jugs were hanging out (even though he knew we were trying to make the flight) I kept talking to the lady at the door gate as a stall tacts (it worked) and she got there right when the door was closing. They stopped and asked her a bunch of questions that had to do with nothing then said 'O we can not find a female to pat you down' it was just they wanted a closer look at her 'assets'! I have had mixed experiences in France. My first time though no one seemed to want to answer my question on how to find our connecting gate. Good think my son asked and got some answers. But when I went through immigration to stay there over night it was the officer was very pleasant, but the lady and her mother right before us, he was so disrespectful to them. It is really hit and miss with some people. I remember one time I was connecting in Dallas (this was in Dec) and I asked the person right when you come out of the check point how to find the connecting gate, the lady first told me some crazy long way that was impossible to even get there, specially with two young boys. So I stared her down and said to her there is no other way, then she looked embarrassed and said yes just take the train here and get off at the second stop you will be right there. WTH she did not say this first I do not know, but when I gave her the look she sure had no problems in guiding me the fastest way. Perhaps it was the look of that I gave, lol and scared her!

Those videos were great!!!! Hamdolah someone out there that is saying what we're feeling. I've gotta tell everyone about this guy thank you for sharing.

Salam everyone! My hubby is one that has a commen last name and well before we got approved we were in Secruity check for about 2-3 months
INSHALLAH we won't be in AP too long!!

Nita

i hope u took the opportunity to look at all of his work.........the only thing i have not seen him do a skit on is immigration
i did write to him and ask him if he would consider it but i bet he gets so many request each day he hardly looks at somethings lol

I've never been totally strip searched...but one time in Mexico they made me lift up my shirt behind a curtain. lol

I watched about 5 of his videos I am going to share them with my friends here.... I really wish he would do something on immergration he just may not have the first had experience to talk about it. The airport security thing were they watched his video on airport security had me laughing out load! He is right though it is a good time to show what "true Islam" is about. Subhanallah it always refreshes my spirit to see these things. Shokran

It's really a crap shoot with immigration... my husband was a muslim man, coming from a country that, until last year was on the USA's list of terrorist countries, with a name that's the Arabic equivilant of "John Smith" and was only in AR/AP/name checks for 30 days before getting his visa after his interview..... then he got his GC in no time once he was here without having to go in for an interview. I suspect we'll have to go for an interview when he applies to remove the conditions though.

Here's something.... Has anyone that wears a scarf been asked "where you're from" and when you tell them a state in the U.S. they just don't understand? I had a man at the gas station ask me where I was from I told him Seattle washington... he said "no...WHERE ARE YOU FROM?" raising his voice so in case my fluent english wasn't good enough for me to understand him... I again replied (but louder of corse) SEATTLE WASHINGTON... finally exhasperatied he said "but you wear a scarf on your head" i said "yes i am muslim" he couldn't understand at all. Now I wish I could say this has been my only experice with disbelief that an american blue eyed girl is muslim but it's not. Has anyone else encountered this or is it purly a northwest thing??

well im latin that confuses them more sometimes lol most the time i go in FULL hijab as in the long dress over my other clothing and head scarf or i wear my clothing that is muslim clothing such as pakistani or india wear......i get asked mmm where are u from
i really blow their mind i say Im from Guatemala.......its not a lie its were i was born.........lol u should see their faces lol

You have me laughing out loud!!!! That's hysterical. I can only imagine there faces trying to wrap there brains around that one.

It's sad when they think Islam is a race!!! its a religion ppl!!! anyone can accept it or reject it like any other religion on earth!!

I was really upset when my husband told me he cant come pick me up when i get the visa!!!! its my first time flying to the states and being a MUSLIM!!! lol Im ok now i kind of got my self psychologically prepared. So its really good reading all of your experiences. I know where they re coming from and they do have to be careful n everything but DO NOT BE RUDE!!!!! thats one thing im so worried i wont tolerate! u wanna check ..check! u wanna ask... ask!! but if u re rude... sarcastic or any of that ....arghhhhh!!!! but again i wont b able to say anything and i will stay calm n friendly insha Allah. I wish i wd have other hijabies on the same flight so i wdnt feel alone There are going to be the good n the bad everywhere!! so lets just hope we d always pump into the good ones

I agree with sara (estadia( on when she said that while they re searching the ones with their "alerts signs" lol they re letting the bad ones go thru security!!!

Some lady at a gas station asked me if I was Jewish, um, I don't remember Jewish women wearing headscarves lately...that was weird. Then when I'm in the airport in Casa and I give them my passport to go through the security thing the guy thinks it's fake and that I'm not really American and he won't stop speaking Arabic with me even though I insist I'm American. Okay then one day in the mall in California I wanted to buy a watch for my husband but didn't know if it would fit him so I wanted to fit it on a guy so I had my mom ask a guy passing by if he could try on the watch for us and he said in Spanish that he didn't speak English so my mom told me to ask him (I'm fluent in Spanish, part Mexican) and when I asked him he like stared at me for a minute having a brain fart probably. He didn't ask me how in the hell did I speak Spanish but I knew he wanted to. People have asked me where I'm from too and when I say San Francisco they're like oh your parents are immigrants and I'm like no my parents are Mexican and German! They're dumbfounded. They're like but you're not Arab at all? And I'm just like no...(it's not worth explaining that I do have a tiny bit of Arab in me, my grandma is half Arab, either Lebanese or Syrian from her dad's side) People would also always look at me funny when I'd be talking on my cell phone to Mohamed in French...no one has ever screamed at me before thinking I didn't speak English alhamdulillah, I probably would've gone off on them (short temper)

April

when my sis came back from cairo last time she said more than half the plane was muslim so u should not have too much trouble .........

its amazing how ignorant people can be....

lots of jewish women wear headscarves. many christian women do too, from all kinds of different places.

you should be nervous there are alot of muslim will be on the plane and they didnot give us any problems in egypt nor in usa airports

I have 2 full seasons of his videos on my website www.amal.noorm.com HERE'S THE LINK .

I guess I'd have to miss my flight if they said I had to be strip searched, I flat out refuse to allow that by anyone other than hubster. Even he doesn't get to see me in my all-together, so no way will a security officer, male or female... PERIOD!

Yes, after I answer "I'm American" they always follow up with "Right, but where are you originally from?"
One lady asked me what language I speak.... "English" I answered so she said "Of course but what is your language?" I have a southern accent.... I don't know where she got that I'd be speaking a different language other than because of the overhead abaya I was wearing LOL

LOL... you know that purly southern American middle east accent????

Not in Los Angeles they don't!