Hi Everyone,

sorry i am usually so quiet around here. i kind of lurk in the K1 Visa Forum, but every once in a while i check in with MENA.

today something terrible happened. today i'm at my wit's end. those of you engaged or married to Moroccan men, can you please tell me if it was difficult for your SO to get his passport from the Moroccan authorities?

my habibi and i have filed all of our papers, we're anxiously awaiting our NOA2, and in the meantime, my fiance is trying to get all his documents together. we knew the passport might take a while, but it's been 5 months! that's a lot of time, no? he knows someone who works in the mukata, (the passport section, i guess?), who is "helping him" and every time, he goes to ask about the passport, they give him a different answer. they've been telling him "come back next week," "come back tomorrow at 3," "come back next Thursday," and it's never ready. supposedly, he's been issued a receipt number, but how do we know if it is even valid?

have any of you experienced this? is it normal for a Moroccan citizen to have to wait 5 months for a passport?

please help. i just want to cry...

hz

ok first in which city does ur husband live? mine took 2 months but that's not normal, alot of ppl get it within a month. mine was late because a stupid woman that take the papers when u first file didn't tell me that in 2 weeks I need to go to the police station to do some paper work there. so mine was held there for a month.
you should ask ur husband if they told him to go to the police station.
5 months is NOT normal at all.If I was him I'd go there and b*tch my a$$ off

Hi Tarik,

thank you so much for your quick response! he is in Rabat... from Ouarzazet, but recently changed his identity card to Rabat. from what i can understand, the man at the mukata is "handling" it for him?? what the heck that means, i don't know... it has been supposedly "sent" to the police for whatever they do to it, and now it is awaiting a signature? does any of this sound right? i'm so worried and upset. i really think he's just been robbed and we've been waiting all this time...

also, does it matter what his job is? he works in the souk, has been working in the same shop (that he doesn't own) for about 6 years. does matter that he's not a "professional" lawyer or engineer or anything like that?

thanks again, so much,
hz

I think the only thing thats wrong with ur husband's passport is they want him to give them a bribe.and about the job no it doesn't matter at all I don't work at all I'm still a student in college and the ocupation wasn't a problem for me during the visa prossece.

Wow Tarik...you've not even entered the US yet and you already learned those words???

OP: I hope the information you got from Tarik helped and you can resolve this soon. I'm glad you brought up this issue because it reminded me that my husband should see about getting his new passport started shortly.

Hi again,

he's already given them 1,000 dirhams, in addition... do you think he's been robbed?

thanks for your input... sorry i'm being so emotional...

well thats what we get from watching alot of americans movies

thanks, Maggie, for the support!

WHAAT 1000 dhs when I said a bribe I was thinking 100 dhs at the most.oh yeah he's absoulotly being robbed.

Thanks..
that's what i thought... i have no idea what to do now..... it's a lot of $$ for him, as you know...

thanks for your help,

hz

Hi,

I just wanted to offer some input. My husband had some problems (meaning it took a long time) to get his passport. I don't think he ended having to pay someone 1000dH but he also had a friend in the police that helped. Anyway we had 2 problems. 1) His identity card. It listed him as a student however he was no longer a student and wasn't really working so to go through the process of changing all this business would have taken a ridiculously long time 2) Getting the documents to show he "was" a student - yea the private school he went to was a pain in the a$$. Anyway he got the passport but it didn't take 5 months - I would say something like 3 or 3 1/2. I'm thinking the problem might have been with the changing of the identity card - I have heard stories of this getting messed up. I think he needs to pressure the passport people to get the paperwork in order - I had my husband going everyday to find out what the status was. I think they finally got sick of him and finished it.

thanks, MrsAmera... yes, we had a lot of problems with changing the identity card, too. and i know things take time... but this is really bad, and i'm upset because my habeeb has been doing everything right. it seems all it takes is one person to really mess things up for another.

anyway, he's going back to the guy tomorrow (again) to demand some answers, and ask for his money back (although the likelihood of it being returned is slim). if it doesn't work, then we're starting anew next week.

thanks all, for your advice and input,
hz

My husband says that he should go back to his home town (Ouarzazate) and do his passport, and any other paperwork there.

Seriously, it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks in a village vs. the big city.

I've also heard that Rabat can be quite prejudiced/snobby towards people who come from a village.

Good luck,
Carolyn

Hello ... we have a website here in morocco tha thelp you to figure out what you need to do if you want to apply for some stuff like ID and Passport ... i made a translation so you can understand a little bit the law of applying and the fee you need to pay ... here's the website Service Public ... below you will find the translations ... Good luck !!!

Passport

ID

Go there and click on the image to download the translation ... i hope that will be helpfull !!!

My husband seconds this. Same thing happened to a friend of ours. He says the guy "handling" it is sitting on it to get more money. He said to take his birth certificate to the passport office in the town where he was born. It cost my husband 300 dh for the stamp. That's all he had to pay. Good luck.

my husband agrees with those above too. it only took him a few weeks to a month to get his (he also needed a new id card for some reason) but he did say the stamp was 600dh though. hmm..

hi

you really dont have to worry about it,first did he apply for his passport 5 months?the probleme of your man migth be the change of his ID,well beeing rubed from the person in the mukata is not applicable,the stamps are 100dh and 300dh,the whole payment of the passport cost 600dh with no more than 45 days to get it,is it the first passport?and after all no worries because when he get his interview,he just need to show them the paper and the pass in hand in 5 days,if he did applied for the passport 5 months and nothing yet,ask him to go to the amel of rabat,he can check,and with god willing everything will be fine,and best luck

Hi everyone,

Thank you so much for the insight and the advice. And Rachid, thank you for the websites. My fiance went on Thursday, and they told him it will be ready on Monday (we've heard this before, but...!) That the problem was he changed his identity card and needed the "number" or the hanoot where he works... (I'm still skeptical of all of this, but...)

The good thing is that inchallah, we are going to Ouarzazat for the Eid, and maybe, if this is not all resolved by then, we can start the passport process over again... I hope it doesn't come to that, but it is an option at least...


Thanks again for all the good ideas and support!
Hope we all have some good news soon,

hz

Hahahaha....my husband says the same thing because I know I never taught him this crap.

As for the OP, I think you have greased the wrong palms here. He probably heard that he had an American wife/fiance and took advantage of it. I doubt you can get the money back, but I wouldn't give him another dime...maybe a kick in his a$$. I do believe it is because he changed his identity card, but if you pay the right person it won't be that much, but it will get done faster.

Its really funny, I would never have suggested that for getting a passport here in the US! I know we have our share of corruption, but it is at a higher level. They wouldn't bother with us little people.

Salaam everyone,

I just wanted to let you know, since you were all so helpful.
We finally got the passport! Alhamdulilah!

Now, for more waiting on this side of the pond...

Thanks again,
hz

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE

My husband had to bring his daddy with LOLLLLLL --- It depends on where your hubby is from and how corrupt that city is .... it is a pain to get anyhing in Morocco --- I'm thinking that they are looking for "a cup of coffee" possibly extra strong???

Good Luck,
Malarie

I hear you on that coffee!

Congrats! And good luck on the rest of the process

glad your prob is settled but as i just returned fr Morocco i saw the same thing. Ahmed knew friends who knew friends or we would have never gotten the paperwork done. We had men fr the court litteraly come to the house to do my religion paper, he took people in the car back and forth to get the papers filed, only to give them money and to have them call the next day wanting more, they made a mistake on one of the papers but the guy all of a sudden need coffee money to fix it. There you do have to have connections to get anything done. We were 2 1/2 weeks getting married and i believe this is quick, we saw couples at each place that had started before us and were still fighting for the papers.

Absolutely! I agree, it's really hard getting used to the way things are done there. And now, we are waiting for NOA2 here! But we are happy for the passport at least... small successes and baby steps... And I'm excited because I'm supposed to see my habibi for the holidays in a few weeks... inchallah.

Hope everything is well with you, and thanks for the support,
hz

So happy to learn he has his passport. I pray the rest of your journey is free of troubles and fast!

Good Luck
Doreen

al hayet wallahh haraam malik they took your spouse for a ride tell him to see if he has any friends police or something like that that can help him get that done faster. My husband took only 3 weeks for the algerian passport I blieve maghreb is same to algeria when they work yeah? He didn't get bribed...hes a police and many police friends police are equally bad

oh thank god he has it now hahah i didnt read the other posts.

THIS IS A REALLY TOO LONG I GOT MY PASSPORT IN 2004 ONLY TOOK ME 3 WEEKS , NO BECAUSE OF THE NAME CHECKS THEY DO NOT LESS THAN 6 WEEKS BUT 5 MONTHS THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG HE MUST TELL THEM THAT HE NEEDS THE PASSPORT TO TRAVEL SOON AND ASK TO TALK WITH THE ADMINISTRATOR THERE

Yes, thank you Sarah and Salshi,

Alhamdulilah, he has it now. It was such a relief when he got it.
Alhamdulilah.

Now we are waiting for his interview and praying that we have all the right documents and everything prepared. It is truly nerve-wracking.
Ana hamuka henaya. Vraiment j'ai deja perdue ma tete depuis longtemps et Habibi aussi.
Inchallah, tout se passe bien!

Hi, I all what I can tell you, that your husband might miss spoken with them probably he told them that he is leaving soon, so of course they want to play with him.

As an advice if he is in Mokata3a and they playing ( Tom and jerry) Tell him to move to Al Wilaya as where the passports get the final stamps.
To get a passport from Moroco you need to go trough 3 steps.
Mekadem (mokataa man, who make sure you current adress exist,)
Police investigation
Al amala or al Wilaya/
it is possible to break all this process and go straight to Amala or Wilaya to get your passport within 3 days MAX. and that will cost only $ 10 extra

Wish you luck