Dealing with a previous marriage in a high fraud country.

[Shoot Em Straight 385]

Hang around a bit, probably more unusual cases on VJ than any Lawyer will see.

ha At least another 8 more days.

OP if it was me in this situation...Yes I would DHL every piece of proof to the consulate (dont know if Egypt Consulate accepts it or not) but.....

The day before my husbands interview my mother sent an email the consulate in Casa, I spoke to them by phone and they confirmed they received and it had been placed it in his file.

IF you chatted through yahoo...there is a way to condense the months and years so it can show the amount of chat without showing private messages.

Notarized letters (affidavits) from your immediate family stating awareness and approvals of your relationship with your fiance could help, but most of all HIS family would be better!!! You did not mention much about their support of their son/brother/ex and your relationship. As the other ladies from MENA were asking/mentioning/helping with past experiences, not just opinions...... Your differences of Religion might be questioned. Is he really ok with you not being a Muslima? How can he leave his children? Does he have his parents blessings with this?

Your red flags are going to come up in the interview whether you have a lawyer or not.

They will come up whether you liked the posts on VJ or not.

From what your stated....

You "started" your relationship with a married man with the Orfi pass then, He was denied a visitor visa in March, which in normal cases (k1)might not have come in to play except he was going to visit you while still married. (If it comes up will he be able to explain why he would want to come visit a female "friend" leaving his wife and children for just a visit?) I ask because you mentioned he was shy and quiet. The two visas might not intermingle but if you look at the bigger picture....it looks like rapid fire attempts to immigrate. Oh but that is just my opinion.

He divorced in June. You filed a K1 few days after.

Your fiance needs to speak up. Have his facts ready. Be willing to answer in complete sentences and with supporting info. Not just yes or No.

Please take the time to read more in the MENA forum it is really for your benefit.

Respect to the ladies that have already successfully went through this process.

It is no Ka'ak walk.

Good Luck to you and please keep us informed.

[Elchelle 5]

Thank you, thank you, everyone!

[PallasAthena 101]

Thank you, thank you, everyone!

I didn't see anyone mention this here but another option would be to go to Egypt, marry there, and file for a CR-1 / IR-1 to bring him over as your husband / immediate relative. Those visas have higher approval rates than the K-1, which is just the fiancé/fiancée visa.

[Elchelle 5]

I didn't see anyone mention this here but another option would be to go to Egypt, marry there, and file for a CR-1 / IR-1 to bring him over as your husband / immediate relative. Those visas have higher approval rates than the K-1, which is just the fiancé/fiancée visa.

This is Plan B, SofiaIsabella, if he is denied. I am happy to know they have a higher approval rate.

[Elchelle 5]

ha At least another 8 more days.

OP if it was me in this situation...Yes I would DHL every piece of proof to the consulate (dont know if Egypt Consulate accepts it or not)

Notarized letters (affidavits) from your immediate family stating awareness and approvals of your relationship with your fiance could help, but most of all HIS family would be better!!! You did not mention much about their support of their son/brother/ex and your relationship. As the other ladies from MENA were asking/mentioning/helping with past experiences, not just opinions...... Your differences of Religion might be questioned. Is he really ok with you not being a Muslima? How can he leave his children? Does he have his parents blessings with this?

Your red flags are going to come up in the interview whether you have a lawyer or not.

They will come up whether you liked the posts on VJ or not.

From what your stated....

You "started" your relationship with a married man with the Orfi pass then, He was denied a visitor visa in March, which in normal cases (k1)might not have come in to play except he was going to visit you while still married. (If it comes up will he be able to explain why he would want to come visit a female "friend" leaving his wife and children for just a visit?) I ask because you mentioned he was shy and quiet. The two visas might not intermingle but if you look at the bigger picture....it looks like rapid fire attempts to immigrate. Oh but that is just my opinion.

He divorced in June. You filed a K1 few days after.

Your fiance needs to speak up. Have his facts ready. Be willing to answer in complete sentences and with supporting info. Not just yes or No.

Good Luck to you and please keep us informed.

Thank you, again.

It was a "rapid fire attempt to immigrate." He and I wanted to be together, and I wanted him to meet my family as soon as possible. We actually went the visitor visa route on the advice of our immigration attorney. Now I wish if never hired the attorney. I think I already wrote do not trust his competence (the lawyer) at this point.

My fiancé's family is supportive. His father died when he was child, but his mother is very supportive, particularly because it was her who pressured him into the traditional marriage (for two years until he gave in) when he did not want it. His mother then saw him utterly miserable for seven years with a wife with whom he fought constantly, and who constantly left him to return to her mother. His mother does not want him to leave Egypt because he is her youngest living son, but she supports this relationship because he truly loves me, and this relationship makes him happy. I know this, and his sister has told me the same thing.

Obviously, his family's affidavits would be in Arabic. This would be okay with the embassy?

[shahara2013 16]

From what I have heard, you will want to have all of your supporting documents translated into English. Anybody who speaks both languages can easily and quickly do this for you.

From what I have heard, you will want to have all of your supporting documents translated into English. Anybody who speaks both languages can easily and quickly do this for you.

[Shoot Em Straight 385]

shahara is correct with the translations....

In my situation, my father in law wrote it in French and we translated the letter into English handing in both.

and in a nut shell he wrote heart felt words about him being happy to have another daughter in his big family.

[visaqueries 111]

This was my consulate review:

My fiancé had a very tough interview. He said that while he was interviewing, the interviewer beside his interiewer finished interviewing two people with a third getting ready to interview.

The interviewer had really read all the information I submitted in the first packet. He did not seem to have reviewed any of the packet my fiancé sent in before the interview. However, there was enough information to create quite a lively exchange of information.

I'll provide red flags, so it might help: 11+ years difference, different religions, and he'd been married before to a citizen of another western country. My fiancé said our interviewer asked every question he could think of related to his previous marriage, our friendship turned relationship, family...

I think that sometimes when the interviewer senses red flags, they question hard to see if there is a chink in the armor. That's what happened with us. Thankfully my fiancé speaks English well. I say that because there was no confusion as to what was being asked, and my fiancé didn't have to really concentrate on the language part; he could just talk.

Types of questions included: Why when you tried for a visitor visa did you say that she was just a friend, but you were beginning the relationship before that time? My fiancé explained that when we applied for his visitor visa we hadn't seen each other in three years. He knew we were meeting to determine the extent of our feelings. My fiancé said, "How could I have even written she was my girlfriend when I hadn't seen her? I can't call someone my girlfriend when I've not even seen them. After we saw each other, yes, I could say that. Not before." Incidentally, his visitor visa was denied, and I ended up travelling there.

My fiancé talked about our traveling together, and the interviewer questioned how such traditional families would be okay with us traveling together. My fiancé explained that though our families are very aware of our engagement, they don't question us about the extent of our relationship. Without them discussing their feelings with us, we don't know what they think. The interviewer then stated he felt our European trip was actually our honeymoon and we are probably already married.

Concerning his previous wife, he asked about how it could be that he was friends with me and married to someone else. My fiancé explained that both of us knew about the other (my relationship was not romantic at that point), and I was providing input regarding their business plan. Additionally, we only communicated until the business issues were resolved. Then communication ceased and resumed once his marriage was dissolved (her decision). The former wife had planned to move to Egypt then decided she didn't want to move or be married, so the interviewer wanted to know why all of a sudden he wanted to move to America. My fiancé explained that we haven't fully decided that we will spend our lives in the US, but the best decision for us now is for him to move here. Our plans might change, but we are determined to start our lives together here.

There were more questions, but because the interviewer was truly convinced our relationship was authentic, they were specific to our lives. In the end, he stated that the only lacking component was he still felt we were married. He told my fiancé he'd be going to the Department of Justice to determine if his divorce was recorded, and if he had no marriage on file. If that turned out to be the case they would, "go forward with our visa". It would be a few weeks before we would know. My fiancé tried to hand him the original divorce decree, but the interviewer told him he can't trust it as those can be bought anywhere in the city.

As a side note: one thing my fiancé forgot to do was to highlight some paperwork that would determine our "not married" status. We traveled last year and this year to places in Egypt. By law, an Egyptian man is not allowed to stay in the same room with a woman to whom he is not married. We had receipts for our hotel stay with two rooms last year 2012 and reservations for our two rooms this year as well (I was arriving three days after his interview and we then took the trip). We know it only proves that we had purchased two separate rooms, but we felt it would help with the case. We debated what to do about that, and in the end we sent the receipts via DHL the day he interviewed. The good outweighed the bad when we debated if we should send them. In our cover letter we stated that they already had a copy of the receipt from 2012 (so they wouldn't think we just generated a fake receipt).

At any rate, we determined the name of our interviewer (written at the bottom of the paid receipt), and we now smile and ask ourselves "What would D do?" Interviewer told fiancé after fiancé called me a girl that he was actually marrying a woman. So, when we talk about each other my fiancé says, "Now woman, according to DP, I think we should go to the Mall of Arabia." I am sure an interviewer has never been referred to as much as we affectionately refer to him. He was tough. We are grateful for him working diligently to do his job, and we just hope through his diligence he determines we do indeed qualify for a visa.

By the way, we were approved on February 4. It was very hard, and my fiance had to stand up for his ideas and thoughts. We are looking forward to his arrival May 2.

Edited March 11, 2014 by visaqueries

[PallasAthena 101]

This is Plan B, SofiaIsabella, if he is denied. I am happy to know they have a higher approval rate.

This is just a thought... but you might want to go with plan B to be safe and save yourself a year. The entire K-1 process takes about a year. If it is denied in the end, that will be a year that went by. The CR-1/IR-1 process takes 12 - 16 months. Approvals for the I-130 are taking roughly 6 - 8 months and then comes the NVC and embassy. You also might qualify for expedited filing if you meet some criteria. This plan might be a better workaround and you might save yourself a year. This, of course, if your K-1 case may have too many red flags. (Just a suggestion!)

[Elchelle 5]

Many thanks, everyone! I spent the entire evening downloading our 75,127 Facebook messenger messages. I'm going through and deleting some so I can just give them samples because printing this thing is going to be a novel. I bolded every time a Facebook Video call was made, which we do (like Skype) about once a week. The downloaded messages are in editable format, so I'm also including snapshots of some those conversations as further backup. I'm showing snapshots from about 5 to 7 conversations a month in addition to the text.

I spoke to my fiancé and he said he would be happy to get affidavits from his family and friends, including his mother, brother, and sisters. I will do the same.

I will keep you all posted. I truly, truly appreciate the excellent advice, specific answers, links to other resources, encouragement, etc.

God bless

~ elizabeth

Edited March 11, 2014 by Elchelle

[miranda1 1]

Government Statistics shows...

Marriage in Egypt:The Egyptian government allows U.S. citizens to marry in Egypt. For further information, please refer to the website of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

While some marriages between Egyptians and U.S. citizens are successful, the Embassy warns that marriage fraud on the part of the U.S. citizen, the Egyptian, or both is common. Entering into a marriage contract for the principal pur...pose of facilitating immigration to the United States for an alien is against U.S. law and can result in serious penalties, including fines and imprisonment for the U.S. citizen and the Egyptian. At the same time, it is not uncommon for Egyptians to enter into marriages with U.S. citizens solely for immigration purposes. Relationships developed via correspondence, particularly those begun on the Internet, are particularly susceptible to manipulation. The U.S. government urges U.S. citizens who meet Egyptians on the Internet or while touring the country to take the time necessary to get to know them before considering marriage. Unfortunately, the Embassy sees many cases of abuse against U.S. citizen spouses and often those marriages end in divorce when the Egyptian acquires permanent residency (a “green card”) or citizenship in the United States. These cases invariably occur when the relationship is based mostly on Internet communication and very little face-to-face interaction.

[sandinista! 1,816]

But really do you honestly think a CO is going to view all of this in softer, kinder, gentler light? Whether you like it or not, your absurd pat answers to some very huge life issues are not going to cut it at the Egyptian consulate. You may be a nice, intelligent human being, in all kinds of ways, but you have got to realize how you come across. Because ultimately when it's interview time and a CO wants to know why your fiancé is leaving his kids behind, non sequiturs about MENA male migration for employment that have nothing to do with him aren't going to cut it. Bumbling through Egypt with a "spiritual contract" you've inexplicably signed but cannot define isn't the hallmark of someone who's thought out much of anything here. They've seen you before, they'll see you again. He'll probably end up with a visa despite all this. Success!!

Looks like you've got this all covered.

[Ellchelle 1]

Once again, I did not ask for opinions on my relationship or my comments. If you are not being helpful or supportive, then I do not understand why you feel compelled to respond at all. I suppose there are some who derive purpose and pleasure from being self-righteous and making others feel badly. If you are one of them, you succeeded.

[Ban Hammer 12,845]

several posts removed for being sarcastic, snarky, or for introducing drama.
please post constructively.

[sandinista! 1,816]

The relationship is the only thing to talk about though. It's what people are granted these types of visas based on, the merits and character and plausibility of it. Plausibility wise, you've thrown out a ton of MENA canards that are just textbook "are you kidding?". Plenty of people have still received visas in those circumstances. You're lucky you're going through Egypt, Casablanca would chew this up and spit it out. So that's a plus. Only you two know how and why you're both ok with several things that raise "are you kidding?" alarm bells. That's not a judgment, and I'm in no way asserting it's any of my business at all because it totally isn't. What I hope though is that you aren't completely oblivious to just how eyebrow raising it potentially could be for the person who's deciding whether they give your fiancé a visa or not, and just how much more in depth answers are going to need to be when your fiance is asked about them. You've been given some really helpful advice, from a varied and knowledgeable group of people, even those you seem to write off. I wouldn't recommend that.