Intro-K1 Applicant

[gararai 0]

Hi! My name is Gamila and I am from Wisconsin. I met my fiance Wael, who is Egyptian, online through a mutual acquaintance, I woman I knew married one of his best friends. For a few weeks they pushed us to meet one another, but both of us just kept putting it off. Neither of us were interested in a relationship at the time but decided to talk just to shut them up. LOL

I had been married for 10 years and just ended an engagement a few months before. I had very bad experiences with men and was not figuring our relationship to go very far. However cliche it sounds, my fiance and I instantly bonded and were engaged by the end of our first conversation. We were religiously married 6 weeks later in Port Said, Egypt where I stayed from 11/28/2013-09/29/2014.

We struggled going back and forth for the longest time about what we should do, stay in Egypt or come the the US. We have three daughters from my first marriage, whose father wouldn't let them travel. As much as he didn't want to come to the USA, and I didn't want to go back, the girls always come first.

After returning to Egypt this past March we decided to go ahead with the K-1 visa so the girls and my family would have an opportunity to be at our legal wedding since they couldn't attend our religious ceremony. We just filed our initial papers the 27th of July and are anxiously hoping this process will be over with soon.

I am a professional photographer and currently studying journalism. I spend most of my time in Egypt playing with my cats and crocheting to pass the time. As with boredom I am open to making new friends and helping folks wherever I can.

So yeah... I guess that's about it.

Wishing everyone luck in their journey! <3 <3

[apple21 953]

You are already married. What you should file is i130 for a spousal visa.

[gararai 0]

According to our Attorney and the Egyptian Governement, our union is only civil. We have no marriage rights either in the USA or Egypt. We were advised to either become legally married in Egypt or file K-1.

[apple21 953]

So no marriage certificate? No record at all of the religious marriage?

If that's the case, you should refrain from using the word "marriage" because that may result to a visa denial. If the consul suspects that you are already married, your K1 will be denied and you will have to chase a spousal visa. I'm not scaring you, just giving a heads-up.

Good luck!

[gararai 0]

I will use the word union then in this case. In Egypt, we do have a religious document stating we are 'joined' before God. This prevents us from being charged with adultery but gives us no rights legally. Any unions preformed in Mosques, Churches, or Synagogues in Egypt are only viewed by both governments (Egypt and USA) as civil. In order to become legally married you must go to the Egyptian Government in Cario and have a completely different type of 'legal' marriage. Most people, at least Egyptians, that I know have both ceremonies.

[Pitaya 2,576]

Welcome to the forum.

Best wishes on describing to the consulate officials about your "non-marriage" marriage union. You can try to explain it to the folks here at VJ site as good practice. The interviewing consulate officials are the ones that you have to convince.

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[TBoneTX 43,045]

Welcome to the forum.

[kareelina 42]

Why do not you just do it right , and go to Ministry of justice and have that civil marriage it will only take a couple of hours and a week to receieve your marriage certificate

[gararai 0]

Welcome to the forum.

Best wishes on describing to the consulate officials about your "non-marriage" marriage union. You can try to explain it to the folks here at VJ site as good practice. The interviewing consulate officials are the ones that you have to convince.

Good luck on your immigration journey.

Our attorney has informed us not to offer that information up unless asked specifically. It is widely known in Egypt that this is a common practice though, as living together without a union before God is forbidden in our religion and illegal in Egypt. I have known several other couples act similarly and have no issues with their visas. After speaking to an Egyptian attorney as well as our American immigration attorney it seems as though this will cause us no problems as our religious practices are well known. But thank you for the heads up.

[gararai 0]

Why do not you just do it right , and go to Ministry of justice and have that civil marriage it will only take a couple of hours and a week to receieve your marriage certificate

My family will not support our marriage if we do not agree to have the legal ceremony in the United States, besides, my children deserve to be involved. And anyone who has dealt with Egyptian bureaucracy knows that it is a complete pain to get a marriage legalized with a foreigner. Go to this office and have this guy sign, then another office to have another individual sign that the other guy signed, and so on. It would actually delay our process even more by the time we got all the paperwork done and an appointment with the embassy to have the translation of the marriage certificate stamped. For us, this is the way we have decided to go. As with any situation, everyone's is different, and a personal choice.

[kareelina 42]

My family will not support our marriage if we do not agree to have the legal ceremony in the United States, besides, my children deserve to be involved. And anyone who has dealt with Egyptian bureaucracy knows that it is a complete pain to get a marriage legalized with a foreigner. Go to this office and have this guy sign, then another office to have another individual sign that the other guy signed, and so on. It would actually delay our process even more by the time we got all the paperwork done and an appointment with the embassy to have the translation of the marriage certificate stamped. For us, this is the way we have decided to go. As with any situation, everyone's is different, and a personal choice.

In this case the CO has to be convinced that you are married , as members here advised you , once he suspected that you are married you'd deny the visa and would tell you "That's not the type of visa for your fiance" , wish you best of luck.

[gararai 0]

In this case the CO has to be convinced that you are married , as members here advised you , once he suspected that you are married you'd deny the visa and would tell you "That's not the type of visa for your fiance" , wish you best of luck.

Yes because everyone on this board is smarter than lawyers and knows the system of Egyptian marriages. If you wish to investigate yourselves instead of speculate you can simply google what kind of marriages are legal in Egypt and the United States. As I have stated, according to the United States Embassy in Cairo, my attorney, and the Egyptian Authorities we are not legally married in any form. Unless anyone of you has more knowledge than that I advise you do your research before you dish out advice to others. Situations of marriage are different in each country.

This is taken directly from the US Embassy site: " The only legal marriage for foreigners in Egypt is a civil ceremony performed at the local marriage court, which is in accordance with Islamic practice. Persons wishing a religious ceremony may arrange for one separately, but it is the civil ceremony that establishes the legal marriage." (http://egypt.usembassy.gov/consular/acs12.html)

Thank you everyone for the poor advise and know-it-allness. Hope you all have a great journey.