New American-Egyptian Couple

[Heather&Ramy 22]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to introduce myself and my fiance and tell a little about our story. I'm an American citizen and my fiance Ramy is Egyptian. We met when I was working in Egypt for a few months in the summer as an au pair. If any of you are familiar with Egypt, the family I worked for lives in El Gouna on the Red Sea during the summer. That place is amazing!

Anyhow, we first attempted to have Ramy come visit via tourist visa, but that didn't work. It's notoriously difficult for young single Arab men to get visas to the U.S. So we began the fiance visa and it was recieved by the USCIS on December 19th, 2012. We just got our reciept a few days ago! We began planning our 2-country wedding for August 2nd, 2013 in America and the following weekend in Egypt. We hope that will give us more than enough time for visa approval.

Gathering all the materials was way more involved than I thought it would be. Boy is it quite a project! With the stakes so high, I was afraid every second that I was missing something or reading one of the directions wrong... I began to doubt my own English abilities! So I am really excited to find this forum and I suspect it is easier to navigate the intricacies of American immigration regulations with all this support. Looking forward to getting to know all of you and hearing about your experiences along the way!

Heather & Ramy

[rohandlulu 22]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to introduce myself and my fiance and tell a little about our story. I'm an American citizen and my fiance Ramy is Egyptian. We met when I was working in Egypt for a few months in the summer as an au pair. If any of you are familiar with Egypt, the family I worked for lives in El Gouna on the Red Sea during the summer. That place is amazing!

Anyhow, we first attempted to have Ramy come visit via tourist visa, but that didn't work. It's notoriously difficult for young single Arab men to get visas to the U.S. So we began the fiance visa and it was recieved by the USCIS on December 19th, 2012. We just got our reciept a few days ago! We began planning our 2-country wedding for August 2nd, 2013 in America and the following weekend in Egypt. We hope that will give us more than enough time for visa approval.

Gathering all the materials was way more involved than I thought it would be. Boy is it quite a project! With the stakes so high, I was afraid every second that I was missing something or reading one of the directions wrong... I began to doubt my own English abilities! So I am really excited to find this forum and I suspect it is easier to navigate the intricacies of American immigration regulations with all this support. Looking forward to getting to know all of you and hearing about your experiences along the way!

Welcome to the forum!!! I'm also a December filer, had hopes of a July wedding..may be pushing it but still hopeful. Lol. I couldn't have gather our documents without this site.. there's a wealth of information and experience ..ull find it extremely helpful along the way...

Heather & Ramy

[Just_Me00 15]

Welcome to VisaJourney! There is so much useful information here and so many helpful members.

As many other members would probably agree, it is best to wait until the visa is in your hands before making any concrete plans for a wedding (here or in Egypt). My fiance and I applied for the K1 visa in March 2012 and are still waiting to receive the visa (his interview was last week).

Also, you should be aware that the K1 fiance visa is a one-time entry visa. Once he comes into the US, he can't leave until he has received his conditional green card (after getting married and applying for it) or receiving Advanced Parole (also after applying for it). Both those options take time so it would be impossible to have a wedding in the US and then another wedding the following weekend in Egypt. If he does leave the US before receiving his conditional green card or advance parole, he would need to reapply for another visa. Sorry for the bad news.

Welcome to the forum and good luck in your journey!

[Heather&Ramy 22]

Thanks for the welcome! I have heard from a few others that our wedding date might be premature... which is disappointing. We will have to do something about that.

But for his entry, we were guessing that he would enter about 3 or 4 months before our wedding date and we would have a civil ceremony to get his green card and travel papers, then later have a religious ceremony in America and a religious ceremony the following week in Egypt. We thought that would kind of beat the system, if that makes sense, so we would get married legally as soon as he gets here and then apply for his adjustment of status while waiting for the "real" marriage...

[RFQ 110]

Hi! I'm an American citizen married to an Egyptian. I suppose we were lucky and blessed to have our B2 visitor visa approved. We married here- at least the Nikkah part, and then began the immigration journey once he was back in Egypt last March. I actually just returned from Egypt and just had my Egyptian wedding. I plan to play the video and have a big reception in the US once we are approved.

As far as an August wedding-- after him being here 3-4 months? That means you would need to be through this entire process by March-- If you just started the paperwork, I wouldn't expect anything sooner than 6 months for completion. It could take 3months+ alone just for the I130 to be approved. (assuming thats the part you are on with USCIS, and not the NVC stage).

I wish you the best. VJ is a huge help.

[mounir412 101]

Welcome and good luck

[visaqueries 111]

Hello to another American-Egyptian Couple,

There are many components to your story that parallel mine. My fiance and I tried to get a visitor's visa last summer, and he was denied. Instead, I made my second trip to Egypt--the last one being in 2009. I had talked with an immigration attorney after we received the denial for the visitor visa, and she said that denials for visitor's visas were quite common. After I explained our situation--that we definitely wanted to spend our lives together--she suggested the K-1 visa. And, so here we are...6.5 months later and still waiting for any sign that our papers have not gone astray. We had hoped that he would be able to arrive in May, but the timeline we had in our heads quite obviously doesn't seem to be in line with the government's. Oh well, we will continue with patience...

It sure will be exciting to watch all of us slowly progress (successfully) through the process. Best wishes for your journey!

[4ourFuture 0]

Hello there!

I am new here myself ( I just joined today ). I am feeling my way through this process and it's really for me and my husband like the blind leading the blind.

My husband is also Egyptian and I am an American. I wanted to say congratulations on your engagement and I feel this forum is so important so we can support and inform one another. This will undoubtedly be a long journey but with others going through the same thing, hopefully we can come through a little easier than if we're all on our own.

Anyhow, congrats and let me know if I can help you in anyway.

Erica & Mostafa

[FlipgalRN 19]

Welcome to Visa Journey! Best of luck to you!

[CharliesAngel13 7]

Im engaged to an African and visitor visa's are rarely approved.. Were awaiting our k-1 visa approval now and praying our journey is not extended as some are.. Welcome to the forum!! We are all here to support eachother!

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Welcome to VJ !

When you get a chance, check out the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) forum here - we have many members who have processed or are now processing through Egypt, and lots of good information is shared.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/97-middle-east-and-north-africa/

Good luck with your process !

[zamar 0]

best of luck with everything!