New to experience's of Egypt's Embassy

[NancylovesAhmad 1]

Norie, I also live in TN. Where in TN are you? I agree with you on there not being many options as far as foreigners here in TN. But there are actually quite a few single Arabs where I live. Maybe if you dont live too far from here we could meet up. PM anytime you want and we can discuss it further. I am also married to someone from Egypt, which is the consulate you were asking about. He got here about 4 months ago. His AP in Egypt was about 2 and 1/2 months. Almost everyone out of Egypt gets AP but some have gotten lucky and gotten in the visa in one to two weeks. Hope to hear from you soon!!

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

Norie, I also live in TN. Where in TN are you? I agree with you on there not being many options as far as foreigners here in TN. But there are actually quite a few single Arabs where I live. Maybe if you dont live too far from here we could meet up. PM anytime you want and we can discuss it further. I am also married to someone from Egypt, which is the consulate you were asking about. He got here about 4 months ago. His AP in Egypt was about 2 and 1/2 months. Almost everyone out of Egypt gets AP but some have gotten lucky and gotten in the visa in one to two weeks. Hope to hear from you soon!!

I live on the east side of Tennessee. Like 8 hours from Mephis...lol. But it is cool to know someone else in Tennessee.

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

Hi Norielorie. I'm not familiar with your case going through the Moroccan consulate or your prior love so I don't really have any comment there. As far as pursuing an Egyptian man who is abroad all I can say is like most of us here we love who we love. If love is far away and not local then we're going to follow our hearts and that should not be held against us. When I decided to pursue my relationship with my Husband I heard every word of caution there was to be heard in the beginning. When I told them we were engaged I got my ear chewed for the next nine months but I wasn't going to be deterred from what my heart wanted no matter how scary or how ever it seemed to others. It's my life and my choice and eventually they all came to respect it but it took time.

As far as Egypt goes I know that while it has some similarities it's a very different country from Morocco. Many of my friends that have lived in Morocco and Jordan and then lived in Egypt consistently prefer their experiences in Egypt. I don't know all their reasons why but they give many different reason for it. That's not to say that many SO's involved with mena men and women don't prefer their SO's home countries to the other mena countries they may have visited. Many of them were fellow students in foreign exchange programs who spent considerable time in each countries, 6 months to a year or more. These aren't all friends that were involved with MENA men or women either.

As for the US consulate in Egypt I've been going through the process with them for the past 3 years and finally my dh is here and we're filing AOS. It took us 2 years and 8 months from filing to visa in hand. Our case is somewhat unique in that dh was taken into the Egyptian military a little under a year after our marriage for 16 months of compulsory service. The Embassy was willing to work with us and held/delayed our K3 for that time until his release in April/May of 2009. I've known 8 other women this also happened to with their SO's; 7 of them are here on VJ.

You may want to ask what his military status is because that can be a complication. As we wives have discovered there is no exemption from mandatory military duty in Egypt under the emergency law that was placed in 1952, and it was renewed just last year. There is a popular myth that circulates there that if an Egyptian man is married to or engaged to a foreigner he will become exempt from his mandatory military service for reasons of national security and this come to find out is not the case at all.

There are exemptions however for single sons, those that are studying in college until the completion of their degree are exempt, those over the age of 30 who avoided service have to pay a fine, and those who have a medical excuse are exempt. Sometimes when a man goes to sign up to serve they will tell them they don't have to serve at that time, that the military doesn't need them, they may not give the reason why they don't need them but it's if the military has already reached their quota of men they can handle for the time being. However, they can still be called up till the age of 30. Those that don't have to serve are truly the lucky ones. If they get out of the country on an school exempt like studying abroad make sure they are still in school and filed their paperwork before they left the country they are studying in because once they enter back into Egypt the military can take them for their service. It won't matter if they have a foreign wife and children in the other country. If the paper work isn't in order they are theirs. Also if they have completed their school and are under 30 expect them to serve if they go back to Egypt, if they are over 30 and completed school they will have to pay the fine. Those that have served their military time are also still on call for up to 21 day service for the next 9 years after their release. So anytime they go back to Egypt in the next 9 years after service they may be called to serve for 21 days. If they are called for one of these 21 days of services while out of the country and they go back to Egypt they may show the military they were out of the country when they were called up and then everything is ok.

The Egyptian consulate used to be a ####### shoot and it still is in some ways. Just like every consulate they factor in the red flags, the age gaps, the level of knowledge of the culture, geographic, language, religion, how the families take it, and the prior petitions filed within the country or at another consulate. It used to take years for processing visas. With the change of procedures in 2007 it seems they have become more efficient. I haven't heard that the K3 was no longer being accepted at their consulate. It could be because of the CR-1/IR-1 processing time becoming more efficient and with the change in procedure announced Feb 2010 regarding the I-130's & I-129F's at the NVC level regarding K3's.

You may proceed with the K1, CR-1 or DCF. They are all taking about the same amount of time. It depends on how much money you want spend in the long run and if you want to have a wedding in Egypt or in the US. The fees for filing petitions for each path will be the same as the fees for the prior consulate you dealt with. The fees to get married in each country vary considerably from what I've read so far. To get married in Morocco seems more complicated and expensive but their weddings seem so elaborate and beautiful with the henna and the many dress changes. If he's a business man as you say and travels he may exhibit a sort of MENA man/Egyptian pride and wish to pay for all the immigration fees and marriage fees himself. My Husband did that and many other Egyptian SO's I know from women on here have done this as well if they were able to.

You may look at this thread: Cairo Final Review Club for more specific consulate information. It's a beast to sift through but you may get a feel for what some of us have to go through. The most challenging part of the process for most of us is the black hole of AP/AR. It seems to average 5-6 months but it may be shorter or longer. Some have waited for over a year on the K1 process while others have gone through very swiftly. Same for the CR-1. There aren't many DCF's on here anymore so I can't say how they are processing now. They used to be about 6 months or less processing time. They also seemed to have a higher rate of success if you were able to live there in Egypt for 6 months or more and have an in person relationship with your SO. I'm not sure how that would work out if your SO travels a lot or if you are able to live there.

Thanks you for all the info. Do not have to worry about the Military part. My guy is still in the military, for now. At least untill we decide what we are going to do for now. And you are right we can only follow our hearts. I did not think this was going to happen. But he is the most incredbile man i have every met. So we will see where this takes us.