My fiance had his 4th visit to the embassy on 11/4/07. They asked him a whole bunch of questions and they were really tough on him. My fiance was a bit nervous and made some mistakes with the questions. In anycase they told him he would recieve his visa in 6 days and the consular officer said for him to call them from the states in 2008. So does that mean he is approved? What is wrong with them? Why don't they just say "You are approved"

Sounds like he passed his interview so that's really great news!! I am sorry they gave him such a hard time but at least he passed. As far as recieving in 6 days!! I don't know about that one that sounds like your usual Cairo far fetched story, but you never know he might get it in 6 days i sure hope so. I wish you all the best and a speedy A/P so he can be reunited with you soon




AJ1

Prince of Egypt, did your husband have two interviews??

Yeah my fiance had 2 interviews. This was the second one. We already went through AP processing. Strange.

How did you get connected with Herman? I tried to go to the emabasy when I was in Cairo this week and it got me nowhere , I left with a piece of paper with the email, big help....

I hope so much they told u true

Did they say why they wanted to do a second interview? Who did the interview the first time? That's really strange that they would tell you he'd get it in 6 days. Kind of a random number you know? Especially since 6 days from the interview is Sat and they're closed then right?

Actually, they are not closed on Saturday, they just don't take phone calls. The Department of State gave me this guys e-mail. I can get it for you. The DOS is very helpful if you call them.



The first interview was with this Black guy in August. Second interview was with a differnt man. Someone a little higher up than the other. Actually they are not closed Saturdays. They just don't take calls... They said we should recieve it by DHL by Saturday.

Thats really nice of DOS to give you an email... I think I have called 20 times they just always sat there is nothing I can do but wait... no one to contact

hermannrc@state.gov Try Richard Herman ok. Good luck

thanks I hope so much what they said is true

Really they have always been very helpful for me everytime. I don't know. I haven't seen my fiance for 1 year and 3 months. I am tired of waiting for this stuff. I can't believe they have no consideration for people. Hopefully when they say six days it is for real. I mean they told him "You will recieve it in 6 days" I guess that means they are mailing it...

They've never been helpful to me either which is why I stopped calling them.

I just emailed him and it says he is out of the office until November 12.

Day of my SO's interview Maby I should e-mail him afterwards to find out what kind of AP/AR my fiance was flagged for... j/k don't think it will help

Does anyone know where that thread is where the person listed all possible contact numbers/emails? The email that I got back says to contact Deputy CG/Visa Chief David Potter but it doesn't state his contact information.

btw in the email that i did send I mentioned how the interviewer asked about intimate details of our sex life. Hopefully something will be done about that but who knows. That still gnaws at me when I think about it.

That is disgusting and uncalled for. EWW ! How degrading and rude. I hope you write a letter and report that. Not that they will do anything about it. Good luck. Also there is a woman called Stacey Brothers-Jackson that was really helpful. I don't remember her e-mail but she is in Cairo.

I sure hope something will be done about that!!

www.state.gov/documents/organization/82081.pdf

Need middle name to get email address, but try google to look up these people if you want to get ahold of them…. I found Hermann’s middle name mentioned when I googled him.

email format is: lastnamefirstinitialmiddleinitial@state.gov

I also found this:
Principal U.S. Embassy Officials
Ambassador--Francis J. Ricciardone
Deputy Chief of Mission--Stuart E. Jones
Economic/Political Affairs--Catherine Hill-Herndon
Consular Affairs--David Potter, acting
Management Affairs--Steve J. White
Public Affairs--Haynes Mahoney
Foreign Commercial Service--Amer Kayan
Foreign Agricultural Service--Asif Chaudhry

Don't know if this helps, but it's the best I could do

I was super po'd after I came back (I was in Egypt and left the day of his interview) but I've let it go up until I wrote that email today. I get po'd each time I think about it but I haven't thought about it in a while. I've hesitated saying anything to them about it since I don't wanna rock the boat but since Mr. Hermann is in charge might as well let him know what this guy is doing over there. I'm sure no one has complained for fear if it interfering with the ap wait but heck I'm already more than three months into it.

Nothing comes up on google with his middle name so I'll call DOS tomorrow and ask directly for his email addy and see if they give it to me. Otherwise I'll have to wait a week and see if my email today did anything.

I think that is one of their tactics. Most MENA men don't like to be asked questions like and will get furious. Maybe they just wanted to see his reaction. Did he answer?

The guy asked in an indirect way a couple of times and my husband avoided the question acting like he didn't know what he was talking about and then the guy got indignant and basically yelled through the glass "WHEN DID YOU HAVE SEX WITH HER THE FIRST TIME". My husband was worried when he yelled thinking he was pissing him off. I had warned him to be nice no matter what in case they were trying to trigger someone's anger or something so at that point he said, "after we were married".

That is uncalled for to ask a question like that to somebody. I would so want to say when did you sleep with your wife or fiancee, jerk! I know they are not friendly first hand from my visit with this Embassy bringing my notarized affadavit from the US stating I was free to marry (which by the way they kept). I was humiliated and embarassed to death by their actions and accusations. They were judgemental and told some really awful lies that could have led to ruining relationships. I tried to file a complaint against them through my senator and congressman due to the treatment I received an email sent to my state representatives from Mister Richard Herman stating that his staff has a very good reputation and was not trying to intimidate myself or my friend but was trying to educate us on marriage and make sure we outweighed all of the factors of marrying an egyptian. I was very intimidated on filing this complaint because we weren't far into this process but felt like I had to stand up for myself and now he knows that my state representatives are aware of the treatment and will be following our case along its course. Good luck working with this man he only responded to us after our state reps were on his tail and I did write another email to him thanking him for responding to my reps and that I would keep in touch with them to ensure that we had fair treatment. That was a few months ago...no response back from him.

Stacey Brothers-Jackson ...I still remember her so well ...she was the first person I met at the American Embassy on the American side....WOW!! I needed to have her notarize my eligibility to marry certificate....my first encounter was of her yelling at me and asking me was I sure I wanted to marry an Egyptian as "didn't I know how abusive Egyptian men were"....at first I was shocked at this... came out of nowhere and really didn't know how to respond to her yelling at me....she wasn't very nice and had me in tears...i wanted to be as graceful and respectful as i could to her as i did have respect for her position as i have respect for my Embassy...

I still don't know why she did this....to me this will always be the one thing i will remember on our visa journey and would hope it never happened to anyone again...

I am truly very happy she was nice and helpful to you!! Keep the faith and I hope your journey will end soon...

Wow, if someone at the embassy tried that on me I would be yelling right back! I have actually gotten that before when people find out I have an Egyptian fiance (well, about arab men in general) and I get pretty PO'd... I guess they like to use the scare tactic bc they assume you are an ingnorant tourist swept up in how "romantic" it would be to marry internationally Not much really romantic about dealing with imigration issues, but we don't choose who we fall in love with based on that

You are so right that you don't choose who you fall in love with. This was something that was discussed at my visit. Actually it was told that because I couldn't get the paper to marry that I would probably be beaten when we got back to the flat. My fiancee was appalled by this and said honey, I think you could put up a good fight but I would never hit you. Now that I am home I see how they do use scare tactics for intimidation there. I am sure they do see abusive cases and lots of things that we could not even imagine. But to make general statements about a race like that is uncalled for. It's like saying all of us Americans are cannibals like Jeffrey Dahmer, ya know it's people's lives and heads they are messing with!

what are we frikkin' toddlers that this dude who may or may not be married himself has to educate us on marriage? If we have the mental capacity to purchase a ticket and fly half way across the world wouldn't ya think we have enough wherewithall to take all of the risks involved in marrying an egyptian into consideration before making the big step? The job was for the embassy to state that we are free to marry. That means verifying that we're not already married and are of the correct age to be married. That's it. The job is not to educate us on the pros and cons of marrying an egyptian. I swear we give up so much freedom when we embark on marrying someone oversees it's just ridiculous.

Wow I'm shocked at some of your stories about the consulate. Aside from AP, we had good experiences with the consulate. When we went for our affidavit the man who stamped it for us was very friendly. He looked at my husband and asked if he was my fiance. I said, yes. The man stamped the paper and congratulated us. We asked for instructions on what to do next in order to actually get married. He kindly ablidged and gave us detailed instructions. The CO that interviewed my husband was very friendly and kind also.

I totally agree!!

I agree Moody. My husband said things went well and the CO was straight-forward,but professional and helpful. Too, whenever I called or emailed, they were helpful as well.

Your true in fact. I just hope that something changed there and people start telling some good stories like moody's and that these people realize that they are dealing with real lives and emotions and not numbers. Best wishes to everybody, you are all in my prayers!