I guess I was just pointing out that maybe they are getting a little better processing? Ouch.

Sorry if I snapped at you. It's just frustrating to hear someone who sailed through only a few weeks after they gave my husband such a hard time. I do hope your friend does get his visa in two weeks. Sounds promising for him since they kept his passport. I don't think they kept anyone else's passport on this list that we have here but I could be wrong. I don't think it's showing that they've gotten more efficient though but just that your friend had a slam dunk case. Dee's husband got his visa in about a month's time too but people who interviewed on that same day are still waiting so it's all luck of the draw in my opinion since I can't seem to wrap my head around why they seem to do what they do over there.

Cairo sucks that's what I'm going to say here. You're right it doesn't make sense that they do this. Really I feel for you and for my Moroccan compadres too. We were supposed to have a meeting last week at work with the head consular at Cairo and let me tell you I told my boss he had better let me speak up and voice my opinion about how awful the consule is or I should just go home for the afternoon because I would be in my chair seething. Unfortunately the guy canceled at the last minute so I never got my 15 minutes lol!

I don't mean to be nosy.....but.....where do you work? Are you involved with the embassy at Cairo and do you have regular contact with head consular officers? Who is the head CO at cairo....do you know his or her name? Sorry for so many questions.....just one more.... ....in your opinion.....do you think that speaking up about the inefficiency at the embassy will bring about change?....just wondering cuz I really want to complain but am unsure of who exactly to direct my complaints to.

They kepy my fiancess passport but as of yet we are close to 4 months AR , I think like you it is a luck thing

They kepy my fiancess passport but as of yet we are close to 4 months AR , I think like you it is a luck thing

omg your pm box is gonna be sooooooooooooooo full now!!!

I thought the same thing

I wonder if that's the same guy that never showed up to work on the day of doodle's interview.......

I think it's a luck thing as far as who gets which CO but after that I doubt it's luck. It's prolly a combination of things. Info that is contained in the petition and packet 3, age factor, the way the interviewee presents him or herself, name hits, etc. I don't doubt that they even take appearance (both the petitioner and beneficiary) into consideration.

Well if that's the case then we're screwed since he had been up since 4pm the day before being with me and his eyes were all puffy from crying at the airport dropping me off.

I don't have a big prestigious job where I can just call up the consular and have at them lol otherwise I promise I would for each and every one of you waiting, but yes I do have regular contact with several American consualtes and embassies in the Middle East including Cairo for work. (There really are people there that can write e-mails and not send the canned response!) Rare opportunities present themselves when I can discuss with them personal issues or opinions (usually off the clock type of things). When given the chance yes I do speak up but whether it makes a big difference I don't know. In several instances there hands are tied regarding procedural things (like AP/AR). The personal conduct of employees is something that I have brought up as a general complaint and will continue you to unless for some reason they totally change their tune.

Well, Amera, that's encouraging and disappointing at the same time. Hehehee. I am glad that you speak up for those who are dealing with the Cairo embassy, and I feel like you do that it possibly doesn't make a difference.

I did somewhat the same thing once. I wrote a letter to the Consular General and asked someone to hand-deliver it for me. I don't know how much good it was for, but I tried. I told him that my interviewing CO was unprofessional (without knowing if it was he who had interviewed us or not) and that their whole system was a bumbling mess. I'm not sure if it helped or hurt our case or if they were indifferent completely.

Oh, well. I hate Cairo and I am not even in AP yet.

Scratch my last statement! We just received a new email from Cairo saying that we are in AP. His interview was on June 14th and he received the 221g to find a cosponsor.

We sent in his cosponsor papers and his passport last week and now we are in the AP fire pit.

Add me to the list.

Excellent post ! I concur !

It seems that the documents we submit are looked at closely by the COs long before the interview, and any so-called "red flags" are already identified and may even have been investigated. During the interview, pointed questions will be directed toward those issues, and the answers (and body language) will be scrutinized. I would not be surprised if petitions with several "red flags" are assigned to COs who are especially experienced with these types of cases, and who will be deliberately abrasive in the interviews in order to try to fluster and flush out the BSers.

Name hits are another issue entirely -- I don't think anyone can predict if a certain name might match one on The List (unless it's a really famous one LOL.) Trying to establish that *this* person ISN'T *that* person can add months and months to the AR, and really has nothing to do with the "examining for fraud" issues. And this should not be taken personally or blamed on the particular consulate staff -- it's Homeland Security at work.

WOM, I am just searching for information here, but what do you think about an interview that was very short. My husband didn't get asked 4 questions. Where he was going to work in USA, and personal info. That was it!

I don't know if it was a good sign or a bad one. Oh, well. Only time will tell.

My husband's interview was brief, too. Two questions...what does your wife do for a living and where does she work? The CO briefly looked at our photo album after my husband coerced him into doing so. Aside from security checks our AP was relatively short. I can say this now because I'm through it but at the time it seemed like an eternity.

Who was the CO? Was it the youngish white man with glasses by any chance? He's a good one and doesn't ask many questions usually.

I've seen it go both ways (they like to keep us guessing !)

For what it's worth, my husband's interview was also very short, and they didn't even look at pics or anything. The only hitch was waiting for the Israeli police certificate which took 5 weeks. After that finally arrived, we had visa in hand within a couple of days -- no AR. But we were dealing with Jerusalem, which is a very small consulate serving a much smaller population than Cairo has to deal with. Unfortunately, sifting through so many Egyptian names often takes some time. Hope your AR completes soon !



-MK

That sounds like the direction our interview was going in until we hit the road block of the sponsorship. Maybe they were just trying to establish the income and that was it. Hmmm.

No. It wasn't the young guy with glasses, but he was the one who approved our I-130 and he was nice. We had the heavy set white guy with kind of dusty blonde hair. Your AP was 2.5 months or something like that, right?

We could've been finished by now ( I think ) if we hadn't have had to wait for the cosponsor. We lost 2 months worth of time waiting for that to get taken care of.

But, we are moving forward. Do you guys know of any other Christian husbands and how long the AP is in comparison to others? Is it about the same? I know that there was a girl from Egypt that was approved very quickly, so I wonder about the religion and if it makes a difference.

After security checks our AP was just under 2 months. Hate security checks! There was a member here named, Michael, who is Christian and Egyptian. He got his visa rather quickly. Jodo's fiance is Christian and he got his visa after about 6 weeks I believe. Hopefully it will be fast for you guys, too.

Thanks. Yeah, I think it can go either way. Cairo is supposed to be so huge, but they can't even have one person not show up for work without throwing the whole system out of whack!

Well if that were true then that means that our case had a big azz red flag, but the only questions that were asked was 1) when did you get married, 2) when did you start having sex, 3) how many times was she here for. We have a 7 year difference in age and that was never addressed nor was the fact that I'm divorced with two kids.

As far as reviewing the paperwork beforehand, I kind of doubt that only because the guy who interviewed him gave him a sheet saying he was missing two pictures, when after further review prompted by my email it was determined that no pictures were missing.

I'm not sure what else could have been a red flag but nothing was brought up at the interview. I can't really think of anything unless there's some big ole secret no one's telling me about.

Thanks.

So, yours and Jodo's AP was about the same. That's nice. I hope ours goes quickly, too. But, I've already been here so long, I might as well celebrate one year in Egypt, too! Just another reason to have a party!

micky_sabry (Egypt, K-1 but should have been CR-1) Interviewed 7/26/06 Awaiting AR

AshkiA (Egypt, CR-1) Interviewed 8/17/06 Awaiting AR

gotmeahunk (Egypt, K-3/CR-1/IR-1) Interviewed 11/19/06 Awaiting AR

CairoBound (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 11/21/06 Awaiting AR

angeljan (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 1/25/07 Awaiting AR

nouna (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 2/1/07 Awaiting AR - (VISA! 07/17/07)

Becky&Sam (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 2/5/07 Awaiting AR

Cheryl & Medo (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 2/7/07 Awaiting AR

Picatue (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 2/12/07 Awaiting AR - (VISA! 06/18/07)

aj1 (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 3/12/07 Awaiting AR

just waiting for my habebe (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 4/2/07 Awaiting AR

Ahmed & Sue (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 4/18/07 Awaiting AR

Fouad (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 4/29/07 Awaiting AR - (VISA! 07/12/07)

JODO (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 5/01/07 Awaiting AR - (VISA! 06/13/07)

water is wide (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 05/03/07 Awaiting AR

m&n (Egypt, CR-1/IR-1) Interviewed 5/6/07 Awaiting AR

TamaraLovesAdam (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 5/9/07 Awaiting AR

Wael253 (Egypt, CR-1/IR-1) Interviewed 5/23/07 Awaiting AR

deemabrouk (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 5/23/07 Awaiting AR - (VISA! 06/27/07)

Jo and Re (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 6/6/07 Awaiting AR - (VISA! 06/20/07)

Legasus (Egypt, K-1) Interviewed 6/11/07 Awaiting AR - (VISA! 06/19/07)

Monnik (Egypt, I130) Interviewed 6/14/07 Awaiting AP

Doodle (Egypt, K-3) Interviewed 7/22/2007 Awaiting AR

Is there anyone else on that list other than monnik that is waiting for AP to finish as opposed to AR? I think it would be nice to see any difference in timing that that takes.

Sorry to squash that thinking, but my husband is Christian and we have been on AP for over six months now.

I honestly think the difference is a man applying vs. a woman. The women tend to sail on thru.

Some consulates apparently consider marrying during one's first trip to actually meet in person to be a "red flag." Some of the consulates seem to focus extra scrutiny on couples who met online, and then made plans to marry very soon after, even before meeting in person (not sure if this applies to your case.)

I don't think a 7-year age difference is considered "significant" by any of the consulates, so I doubt that was an issue for your case.

It is possible that the two pictures were missing from the file when the CO interviewed your husband, but were later "found" floating around the office somewhere (LOL thank God they make us label everything with name and case number !)

Anyway I know it's hard not to find fault with the consulates -- they DO seem to be incompetent sometimes. But the length of security checks are really not in their hands.

Hope your AR gets completed very soon !



-MK

But in our case it is in their hands and that is the problem. I know other couples that met online and had similar situations as we did and their cases flew over to DOS within a week. We're almost going on a month now and it still hasn't been sent to DOS so the one holding it up IS the consulate unfortunately. If it were DOS I would totally understand but it's not.

When I filed for the K3, no where did I have to answer how many times we met in person or how we met. The CO never asked either. Unless they ask how would they know if you married on the first trip or the 10th trip? Also, how would they know you met online unless they asked this question? K1s have to answer this on the petition but K3s don't or at least they didn't when I petitioned.

Embassies or COs may consider some things a red flag that we may not consider a red flag. I do believe they look over the paper work prior to the interview even though it seems like they don't sometimes.

The hold-up could be due to so many things. Maybe they are checking some of the documents, maybe they just have their thumbs up their butts. Maybe they have staffing problems, or maybe they doing additional investigation there. It seems that home visits are becoming more common in Egypt -- maybe you're in the stack to be scheduled for that.

I know this won't make you feel any better, but you could conceivably be facing months more waiting -- Jean's AR took 9 months, and I have seen some even longer. Brace yourself for the worst -- resign yourself to it, and try not to bite your fingernails all the way down to the quick. Then if it finishes sooner, it will at least be a very pleasant surprise ! What really is a letdown is to keep planning "he'll be here by X date" and then have it pass without him here. Best not to set yourself up for the disappointment.

Hang in there -- you'll get through this.



-MK

Not giving yourself a deadline or making plans helps a LOT. We never had a date set in our heads that he'd be here by. We never made plans for holidays, b-days, etc. It was upsetting to be alone for our first anni but thems the breaks.

Part of the process is to check the USC's and the beneficiary's passport/travel records. Jerusalem knew about all my previous visits to Palestine, although all that info was not contained in our petition. If you never had never been to your SO's country before you got married there, and he'd never been to your country before, well they might "guess" that you met online. (Not that there's anything wrong with meeting online -- it's just another piece of the puzzle that the CO puts together to get a "picture" of your relationship.)



So very true !

Interesting! I had never thought of that, it makes perfect sense.

I know how you feel doodle our file has never made it to dos and we have been waiting nearly 4months, I guess my hope is fading and I have just resigned that this is going to be a long wait but all the same each day seems harder than the day before. I plan to go in Nov. to spend my b-day with my fiance it adds some light to the situation.
I really don't know what makes one case fly through and others fall into dormancy. But I really feel like ours is one of the latter.

Chin up , forward and onward

OMG you spoke to soon. Welcome to the AP list of HELL. But really I hope it goes much faster for you then some of our cases here. And I to HATE CAIRO

Cheryl is that picture really of Medo's eyes? If so you're a great photographer!!!!

Yes that is my Medo's eyes He has the biggest black eyes. And he took that pic of himself for me with his camera phone.

When I called DOS I was told from the lady that the CO's dont do the investagations. It is sent out to a outside agency in Cairo. Once that agency finnishes the case they send it back to the Embacy then the CO looks it over and makes the final decition.

Hmmm. Is that after the DOS does their thing or is she trying to say that DOS is totally out of the picture now? And if it is out of the picture why did Dee's husband's case go to DOS and then get granted the visa promptly after it was done? I think we should all call up at the same time one day and compare notes to see how many different answers they can give us to the same exact question!!!

Doodle that wouldn't be a bad idea. I asked her if they ever investagate Cairo to see what the problem is? And she said they do by the volume of calls they get about Cairo. So maybe all us waiting on Cairo should set up a date to complaine. We should make them crazy. There doing a good job to make us all crazy.

I am game! I will be glad to cause a ruckus ( if that's what might happen ). I would gladly get my friends to call and complain for me, too.



When's the date?

has anyone ever looked in to the the traking number you recieved when you paid the dhl fee at the embassy. Ours shows our file was sent to some where in cairo and it took over a month and a half to deliver by dhl. I believe the file was sent to a processing/investigation outsource, cause our case has never left cairo. I was curious what anybody else would see if they looked up there traking number. It is so frustraiting that for the first month and a half of this AP our case was just sitting in a dhl office

Here is what our Tracking number produced:

Air Waybill Number Origin Service Area Destination Service Area Status

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

98*********** Cairo - Egypt Cairo - Egypt Signed for by: US PROCESS
Shipment delivered June 24, 2007 09:35


Date Time Location Service Area Checkpoint Details

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 14, 2007 12:29 Cairo - Egypt Shipment picked up


June 24, 2007 09:35 Cairo - Egypt Shipment delivered


June 14 was the day of his interview, but we received a 221g that day for the cosponsor's information. I wonder where it was shipped to? And what happened to it??? It looks like it has stayed in Cairo, but that it was delivered and signed for by "US Processing". That's interesting. Anybody else have their results??

yes this is the same as mine at least yours made it in 10 days ours was a month and a half

I can't figure out how to track it. I go on to this site http://www.dhlegypt.com/publish/eg/en/eshi.../sref.high.html but then I'm clue less 'cause I don't have an account number just the tracking number. Did you need an account number too?

When I put the tracking number in I get:

Shipper's Reference track results.

Sorry, there were no results for the Shipper Reference you entered.


I used the number under the bar code and it had 10 digits to it. My husband dictated it to me. Should there be any letters or more digits?

only the bold ones are madatory

This is the link I used:
http://www.dhlegypt.com/publish/eg/en/eshi...track.high.html

The number is 10 digits long and possibly starts with 9800???
We have several tracking numbers from things we have sent or received from the embassy and they all start with 9800.

Doodle, I think you were typing the number in the reference # section.
Use the link above if you can.


Hope that helps.

Is it ten digits?

Maybe mine is still sitting on a desk somewhere.



Ok I get this:

Times given are local to the service area in which the shipment checkpoint is recorded.

Shipment picked up as of: July 22, 2007 11:48

That's it. Hasn't been delivered. That is the time he actually paid for it at the embassy desk so it doesn't mean anything has been done with it. Just that it was paid for. That was the day the guy didn't show for the interview so he had the interview a week later. Probably still collecting dust since who cares that people's feelings, families, marriages are involved, right?

Did you make sure that you put it in the right search section? Cause based on your results, it says "the reference number" you used didn't give any results.

Did you try the same number in the WAYBILL tracking section?



I hope they don't send out those files just once per month. It seems like Cairo has a large caseload and that would be a bummer!