Hi everybody,

I have a question to ask concerning DCF through EG. My question is, is Direct filing only for right after your marriage, when you dont return or is it ok if you go back to usa and then come back again and do DCF? And also, is there a specific time limit for this? I have been to Eg 3 times so far. Im still here now. The first for 10 days, then 6months, and now 1month+. But I have already returned and then come back again after we married...so I wonder if DCF is an option in our future. Thanks for any helpful advice, Kristy

Here is the link to the US embassy in Cairo: http://cairo.usembassy.gov/consular/iv003.htm . It looks like the US citizen has to be a permanent resident in Egypt AND have stayed there after the marriage. Do you have permanent residency in Egypt or are you just visiting?I think your best bet is to email the consulate at ConsularCairo@state.gov and see if they can give you more specific information.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. I'm not sure if anyone on the board is did DCF in Egypt, but maybe someone can give you some more information.

I will try to dig up my old emails from the consulate in Cairo but they told me on more than one occasion that you don't have to have residency there... you just have to be residing there... IE staying there.... can even be on vacation as long as you don't return to the US BEFORE filing the applications/petitions.

Oh!! I'd be very interested in seeing that paperwork! I'll be staying there for a month when I go insha'Allah and if I could do DCF that definitely seems like an easier way to go.

It certainly seems that way... didn't turn out that way for me but it does seem easier

I'll look for those emails and documents they sent me when I get home tonight inshallah and I'll remove the personal info and paste them here inshallah.

I'm so jealous!!!! I can only stay 11 days and even that is stretching it. The only reason I can even do that is because since I work for a University we automatically get intercession off (the time from Christmas to the day after New Years) so I technically only have to take 4 vacation days.

Yeah, I'm surprised my work let me take that much time off. And I don't have vacation pay for all of it, 2 weeks of it will be unpaid.
Of course, I've never been away from home that long before. Or to a foreign country before except for Jamaica for a week when I was 19. What if I get homesick??

We'll have to exchange cell numbers for when we're there at the same time. We can hook up at Burger King and make pretend we're in the US.

Better make that Mickey D's, Hardees, Bizza Hut or KFC...they don't have BK in Egypt yet.

Yeah, I'm sure I'll love having someone from the US to visit or at least talk to!!

wow, there is McDonalds in Egypt...... in Algeria there was a Joker's, but i guess they got confused and spelt it Jockers, with a C, and all the employees had little Tshirts with the C crossed out...

of course, i didn't try the burgers, but i hear they are pretty tasty... hehe

Oh wow!!! That's ok. I do prefer Burger King's burgers but I like Mickey D's fries better.

wow, there is McDonalds in Egypt...... in Algeria there was a Joker's, but i guess they got confused and spelt it Jockers, with a C, and all the employees had little Tshirts with the C crossed out...

of course, i didn't try the burgers, but i hear they are pretty tasty... hehe

I worked for applebees for 3 years and can vouch for there being an applebees in cairo...wonder if its like the one here?

Oh I'll have to try it. I wonder if they have the WW points listed?

They have all kinds of American restaurants in the bigger cities like Cairo and Alex. Chili's, Fuddruckers, Applebees (although I don't remember seeing one), McD's, Pizza Hut, Hardees, KFC, Little Caesars, etc. They also have a fast food restaurant called, Mo'men, that is supposed to be good. I've only eaten at McD's there and it is very good and pretty much the same as here. Although it's friggin expensive for Egyptians. For 3 ppl it cost about 60LE. If you convert money it's only like $11 but in terms of what Egyptians can afford that's like us going to McD's and spending $60. Ouch! I always get the spicy chicken sandwich combo. They ONLY have supersize combos there. Giant pops and fries! They also have the dollar menu although there it's the 5LE menu, lol.

Pizza King and the other pizza chain (can't remember the name at the moment, but I want to say Pizza Express?) are just as good as the Egyptian Bizza Huts and are much cheaper One or both have buy one get on free deals.

McDonalds in Egypt is the same as the US, except for their McArabia. You can't go to Cairo and say that you had a big mac. Ya gotta say you had the McArabia.




My further restaurant recommendation are the Peking Restuarants. I've been to them every time I've gone to Egypt, always on a special occasion. The Nile cruise is my favorite. It's uber expensive, but when you translate from LE to $, it comes out to be the same or a little bit more than a nice Chinese restaurant in the US. It was my husband's first introduction to chinese food, and now he's hooked Good thing too, cuz I couldn't live without my sesame chicken.






It is, as is in the TGIFs. Ditto for the Hard Rock Cafe.

Applebees Cairo is on the Blue Nile cruise boat that doesn't move across from the Nile Hilton.
TFI Friday's is on the Americana cruise boat, also one that doesn't move, across from the Nile Hilton.
The Hard Rock Cafe is in the Grand Hyatt.

While the home food restaurants are nice, nothing beats a shwerma, tamiya and koshari from the local vender.

Please ladies...when you go to Egypt don't limit yourselves to the American restaurants. There are many nice little sandwich shops and koshary shops that have great food. There was a koshary shop in Cairo that was really good. I can't remember the name for the life of me though. Try the traditional foods...koshary, moloukhia (aka swamp soup), firakh meshwia, maashi, shawerma (ask for it Syria style otherwise you'll get it on French bread), pisella, etc. Hopefully you ladies will have a chance to stay with your SO's families so you can try traditional home cooked meals. They are def. the best. Also..they're less likely to give you Tut's trot.

The only place I ever got stomach issues from was McDonalds



They sell more traditional like egyptian food, but in a McDonald's setting.

I am sorry to say that I have lost the emails from the consulate.... I was looking for them for someone else as well last night and I can't find them anywhere. I had been switching between Outlook Express and Incredimail for a while and they both kept crashing and I've got a new email program now that actually works but it looks like I lost any emails from before this year I'm really sorry.

All I did was emailed the consulate and told them I plan to marry there and wanted to make sure I have everything I need prior to leaving the US and they replied a few days later with a break-down of everything along with some Word docs giving directions and details.

I'm sure if you just email them and ask them nicely about it they will provide you with the same information inshallah.

Oh how could I forget the tamiya/falafel??? On Mohamed's street there is woman called, Um Ibrahim, who runs a falafel stand. They make the BEST falafel! Whenever I visit she makes him bring me to see her. Her son is married to an American woman and lives in the states. She LOVES Americans because of her daughter in law.

I have a feeling I'll be a bit challenged while there as I don't eat meat. I might be willing to try fish but it's pretty doubtful as it's been years since I've eaten any kind of animal. So fast food is basically out for me anyways.
And I heard that you should NOT eat from the street vendors.

You can eat from the small shops. I've eaten in several and was fine. There are so many vegetarian foods you can eat in Egypt. Koshari, falafel, fuul, moloukhia (cooked without chicken or rabbit), maashi, baba ganoug. Some days we only ate vegetarian at my family's home. We'd eat fried cauliflower, salad, bitingaan (eggplant), rice or we'd have maashi (stuffed grape leaves or cabbage..stuffed with rice, tomatoes, onions, spices).

Were you careful about washing fresh fruits/veggies in lemon or vinegar first? I read somewhere, probably on ES, that doing that would kill the bacteria. But I'm a lil worried it'll be a pain to have salad since you don't cook it or peel it.
It's also sometimes difficult to explain to people who don't understand eating vegetarian that cooking veggies in meat sauce kinda kills the whole point of eating vegetarian.
At your family's house did they take any precautions for you?

Melly...

My family didn't do anything special for me as far as washing the produce or their cooking style. My husband told them to keep everything as normal. The ONLY times I got sick to my stomach was when I ate tuna "pizza" (repulsive!) and when I ate watermelon. I ate another type of melon similar to cantelope and was fine. I ate salads, all types of fresh fruits and fresh fruit juices (from street vendors) and I was just fine. Oh you MUST try the aseer asab (sugar cane juice) and aseer manga (mango juice)..it is sooo delicious! Also the manga ice cream..yummy! I even drank a small amount of tap water with no problems. I wouldn't suggest that in Cairo though. The water there has a strange smell to it. It's also highly chlorinated. My husband wanted me to at least take a sip of the tap water because there's a saying in Egypt that says...if you drink from the Nile your soul will return there. So I did it. I will say that the first morning I ate there I only ate small amounts so that if I did get sick I'd be able to identify the culprit. Alhamdulillah nothing happened. The only thing I can say I didn't really care for was the use of semnah baladi. It makes the food have a strange taste and smell...it also makes food seem very heavy. When I returned this past July for a visit they had bought a different kind of semnah and the food tasted great. It wasn't heavy at all. Of course they did use a little less for my benefit. Mohamed told them the reason why I didn't eat so much in the winter was because of the semnah baladi. They want me to cuul, cuul (eat, eat) so they changed that for me.

Melly did you get a Hep A shot and do the thyphoid pills?

Thanks Moody - it's really great to hear firsthand from people how their trips went and what they did and didn't do.

Doodlebug, my doctor tested me to see if my vaccinations were current for Hep A and B and also a few other things. Needless to say, I do need to go get bothe the Hep A and B shots. Gonna wait a couple weeks before I do it though.
I was told at my HMO that I wouldn't need any other kind of shot or pills since I wasn't going to an area where there were really prevelant things like typhoid or other stuff.

Oh....youve got to go to one of the Dinner boats on the nile in Cairo ...half is Chilis (no awesome blossom!) and half is Johny Carinos! and the best thing...you can sit on the patio and look at the nile! Its beautiful! We went there twice.

I just found this thread so even if my response is late, my hubby and i filed dcf in egypt and from what they told me I could only file dcf if i stayed in egypt after my marriage. I took it as I couldnt marry then leave and come back to file. I stayed in egypt for abt a month but we filed dcf abt 12 days after we were married and got approved the same day. So in my experience you have to stay after marriage and not leave and come back to file.

That's exactly what we were told. I was not able to stay a long time durng that visit , that's why we did the K-1

Thanks for the replies. Another question, it says the other option to DCF is that you can be a lawful resident of Egypt. Should I call the embassy or do any of you know if that would be an option. What would qualify as a lawful resident? Because, I have lived here for 2 months and I am here now, if they refer to having a residence stamp, I can get that in a day. If you have any advice, please let me know, Thanks

Here is the web-sites quote for DCF in Eg:

However, the Consular Section in Cairo accepts petitions filed by American citizens resident in Egypt on behalf of their parents and children (unmarried and under 21 years of age). Additionally, we will accept petitions of American citizens filed on behalf of their spouses ONLY if the following conditions apply:


The U.S. citizen petitioner is a resident of Egypt; or

The U.S. citizen petitioner did not return to the United States after marriage in Egypt; and

The beneficiary is a legal resident of Egypt.


What do you guys understand a lawful resident means?

ahhhhhhh koshary

Well, back to DCF. I will be staying in Egypt for 4 weeks when I go. If that was long enough to file for DCF I guess I would try to do it, though from what I read from someone here it took almost just as long as if they had filed a K3 after getting back to the states.
Angel7422, when you say they approved you the same day, do you mean that he was able to get a visa that same day? Like you filed for DCF 12 days after marriage and they approved it and that was it? The whole process was over for you?