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Hi Margaret,
Gonna get off the topic for just a sec as I think it may help just a bit for you both. After reading so many good and bad stories regarding couples getting engaged to soon or getting married to soon just after meeting, made me realize something about our case that may have helped Mohammed get his visa since our red flags were huge.
I met Mohammed in 2008 online and travelled to Morocco in March of 2009 for 3 weeks. I didn't spend the entire time with Mohammed as I had another good friend and she lived here in the States and was going back home and wanted to know if I would like to come to Morocco and spend some time there with her and her family. I agreed and off I went. Actually, I only spent the last week meeting up with Mohammed and sharing some dinner time and lots of coffee time at the coffee houses. It was until the last few days of my trip that I met his Mother, and two sisters and their family.
I found Mohammed's home to be filled with love and kindness. They opened their arms to a stranger they had never met or even seen online. Believe it or not, I never showed my face to anyone online and never ever showed Mohammed. We only chatted via yahoo and My Yearbook and only shared pictures of the two of us. The first time he saw me was at the lobby in the hotel. I got off the elevator, and there he was with a beautiful smile. I didn't know what to do, I knew, I couldn't just go and give him a nice to meet you hug as we do here in America. Honestly, I froze and didn't know what to do as I never thought that part out very well. All I could do, is smile and greet him with a hello and it's nice to finally meet you. We spent a few hours walking downtown Casablanca and having just a nice time getting to know each other better.
To make my story a bit shorter, I made 4 more trips to Morocco and spending much quality time with Mohammed and his entire family and closes friends. We never spoke of marriage at all until one night a year later, he said, Darlene thank you for making so many visits to see me, and I would love more than anything if you would share your life with me. I cried ..... he cried.... the end (of course I said yes LOL)
Now onto your question:
Engagement party: One year later + after meeting the first time.
Where: His sister's home
Food: His sisters and mom made all the food (yummmmmmmmmy)
Cost Well we had a ton of food so unsure of the cost
What I wore: His sister gave me a beautiful off white lace, silk, beaded with stones .....just beautiful
Pictures: I took many, but only sent 10 of them on a 8x10 sheet including all members of his family with us together and only one of me and him (where he kissed me on the forehead)
The reason, I had the little story before I answered your question, is I do believe that the Consulate could see we took it slow and I made multiple and multiple visits before we decided to make a commitment. A year and a half passed of our visits together, etc. before we applied for the K1 visa.
So maybe just maybe considered your next visit if possible to have your party.
Margaret, you mentioned that you may go back in December, why not wait until your third visit to maybe have some kind of engagement party. This third trip before his interview could be the deal breaker in so many ways. When I was interviewed by the Consulate, he was very impressed with how we took our time, all my visits, etc. I know so many other couples have made it through with no party and not many trips, but I just wanted to share our success story with you.

Honestly, especially given your demographics, a big engagement party is highly unlikely to make a difference in getting an approval or not, much less be remotely necessary or required. I wouldn't take any visa stuff into account re an engagement party, but that's just my opinion. If you want to, and can comfortably afford to do it just for kicks, that's cool.
This summer will probably be really expensive for travel to morocco especially with Ramadan almost smack dab in the middle of it.

We didn't have one, and it wasn't a factor in approving the visa or not. I can't remember if my husband was asked about it or not. I believe it wasn't a factor because we were both in our later 30s at the time of our marriage & it was my husband's 2nd marriage. If they asked him about it he answered honestly saying we were having a celebration in the USA bc it was the way I wanted it.
I would say if you don't want to have one, don't have one & be able to explain why.

yes i had an engagement party
it was great i used a restaurant and i had about 22 guests
my mom sisters and close friends were there
it is not mandatory to have an engagement party at all thats your choice
i am not sure whick packet your talking about but we had a party after we got engaged so none of those pic were sent in with our packet but we did send pics, ticket subs, stamps from passport to show how much time he visited
the amount of money you spend on your party depends on the place and the amount of persons you invite
good luck

Thanks lady! Oops, sorry I forgot to specify on the packet! I was referring to the I-129F fiance visa packet! Thank you for your response :")
We may or may not. It's our first marriage but it will be extremely expensive and difficult to not only bring both my parents to Morocco during the summer months (most expensive airline tickets urrrghhh) but also to buy all the food, outfits, etc. We haven't decided but we were just curious as to what others did and if this was a matter we could possibly put off until a later time when the funds permit. Thank you for your response though! It was helpful so that we can successfully deal with what is to come.

Though me and my fiance have already gotten engaged we are debating on having a formal big engagement party since both our families are already aware and supporting of our relationship and future marriage, I wanted to get some input from the ladies (and gentlemen) that have already been through it! I wasn't sure if this was appropriate to post in the K-1 discussion forums so I decided to post it here.
~Did you have an engagement party?
~What was it like? [foods, # of guests, etc] (feel free to add as many details as you want)
~Where did you have it?
~Which family members attended?
~Do you think it's mandatory to have an engagement party? Did you include basic evidence of the party in your packet? [photos, receipts, etc]
~How much was spent on your party?

he probably need some time to relax and calm down
just let him be

God-willing it will all go smoothly. As long as you two can demonstrate that your intentions are real, you communicate well, and that culturally/religiously there are similarities, you should be fine. Good luck and God bless you both!

I'm choosing to write a one page single-spaced "how we met" especially since my relationship with my fiance was primarily developed via the internet and I feel like I need to elaborate. I think it's just nice to include the facts with some details especially since my fiance is also from a high fraud country and again I feel that need to elaborate a bit just to create a timeline like "Jamie and Sveta" mentioned. The choice is yours because guides say you can go up to one page! but I wouldn't go over 1 page and I would stick with relevant and important who/what/whens/ and wheres!

In reading a lot of threads, I noticed that there were a lot of questions that are related to state services. Since each state handles things like driver's licenses, certifications, etc. differently, one needs to check out their specific state to get the relevant info.
To assist with that, I've put together a spreadsheet listing information for the 50 states plus DC: http://bit.ly/IbtIHE
For now, I've only included links to the following: the state government site, info on driver's license/state identification, teacher certification, state bar association, and lists of the colleges and universities in each state. If there's other info that folks feel would be helpful to know -- at the state level -- feel free to make a suggestion and I'll do what I can.
Enjoy!

You mean an arrange marriage failed?

The address is used not just to forward mail but to do physical checks if the applicant is placed on AP. I recommend you read the K-1 application instructions to see what is acceptable. Never met anyone that applied with a PO Box but call USCIS and ask. Also, it is up to you to explain anything that may generate an RFE or worse cause the petition to be returned or rejected. I explained everything that could be questioned in the cover letter and numbered all the attachments plus I referenced each enclosure in the cover letter.
What address is on his ID it has to match where the packet is going otherwise he will not get the notifications. I have travelled to Morocco 5 times and have yet to see small towns or villages not have a cyber cafe, western union or a post office and mail in Morocco is slow as molasses. They may also drop off a notice at any rural area and he must go to the designated post office to get the mail piece. In our case my husband was told to report to Rabat with his ID.
Lastly, I got notified about the entire process via email not courier mail.
Good luck,

OMG I'm so sorry. You are right.. I need to stop posting before I'm fully awake! Glad you have your flag now... anyway. Ireland seems to be the same way. You should really stop by the Regional part of the forum and have other Irish fellows, help you.
Once again, I'm sorry....Going to get in the shower to wake up

I may be wrong but wouldn't the British and Irish consulate be different? My interview will be in the US Embassy in Dublin, Ireland, I'll have nothing to do with the UK, I am an Irish citizen.

My fiance and I are planning to file for the K-1 Visa in the upcoming Summer months after I come to see him for an additional longer visit. The problem is that his village in Morocco has no postman to deliver mail at the moment therefore it is obviously difficult to receive mail. The upside of the situation is that he interns with his uncle's company and they have a company P.O box that he could use to receive mail with in the future. I have asked a question similar to this before but would like more input on the issue.
My questions are:
1.) Is it acceptable to use a P.O box number on the K-1 forms to receive correspondence from the USCIS? Is it acceptable to use this company P.O box?
2.) Where would should we let the reader of our package know the mailing address is different from the physical address? (cover letter?)
3.) Should we attach a separate sheet in our package elaborating on why the mailing address is different from the physical address (Common sense tells me yes, lol)
4.) Where should we put the P.O box number on the k-1 forms and where should we specifically put the physical mailing address?
Thank you for any and all feedback!

Or here,
http://arabic.morocco.usembassy.gov/ar/immigrant-visas.html

Maybe one of the Arabic country embassy websites? Found one on visas for Kuwait, but can't read Arabic!
http://arabic.kuwait.usembassy.gov/visas.html

If you have time maybe you could rewrite the steps in simple English and phrases so that he can understand!

New Zealand, Singapura, much better economic outlook than in USA. Sadly, this web portal not focus on immigrating there, so you'll have to remember the primary focus of this web portal, aye?

You can put it to whatever address you want -- the USCIS, the embassy, etc. The most important part of that letter is stating you're both free to marry, will do so within 90 days, and is signed.
Also, typing in all caps = yelling. We don't want to wear hearing aids, so please turn down the volume.

Time to book a trip and pack a bag.

Hi everyone,
I've been seeing a significant amount of comments about the K-1 process that I thought were strange and posed interesting questions. For example, I've seen several people mention that they had the feeling their case was already decided even before the interview occurred and that they felt like the CO's were unnecessarily hard on them during the interview. Because these are potential situations that we all face (and more selfishly, because I wanted peace of mind for myself in Youssef's and my own case), I asked my immigration attorney. Here are some things that he shared with me that I wanted to share with the group. I hope some of this information is useful to you! Here are some nuggets of information that the attorney imparted to me:
* Often, couples will petition for the K-1 visa and literally submit the mandatory documents and proofs, and send one or two small pieces of evidence in support of the authenticity of the relationship. It's incredibly important to submit as many different kinds of evidence as possible (i.e. phone records, emails, screen captures of facebook conversations between couple and relationship status, facebook interactions between each partner and significant other's friends/family, IM and Skype logs, photos of you together that show a date within the past two years, evidence of travel to visit the beneficiary fiance(e), videos--uploaded to a website and easily accessible by internet, and notarized affidavits from friends and family). The lawyer said you don't have to submit every single piece you have, because the CO actually has to read every single thing you submit and you don't want to frustrate them by overwhelming them since this can slow your process significantly. It's important, however, to include significant events and show time span across your evidence. Interactions with friends and family/affidavits/public relationship status postings are important because if your relationship were not legitimate you probably wouldn't be sharing about your relationship publicly. When USCIS gives you an RFE during the NOA processes, it's really important that you supply them with enough evidence to prove beyond any question that your relationship is legitimate, and not just send one individual piece of evidence to answer the concern. Also, he said that while you're in NOA phase they're basically looking at the legitimacy of your relationship from the petitioner's standpoint. They want to see that you're not being paid to bring someone over, in other words. That's why if you can provide several first hand testimonials on your behalf from American friends and family, it'll be very helpful.
* When the officers are going through your paperwork during NOA, they're basically marking a checklist of questions that need to be answered before they're satisfied of the relationship's authenticity on the petitioner's side. Don't misunderstand, they're still looking at whether the relationship seems legit from the beneficiary side, too. But the most important part of that will come during the interview. So if there are several questions or red flags that still need to be addressed or things about your relationship that seem suspect to the CO reviewing your file during NOA, these will be marked in red on the outline that accompanies your file to the consulate in the beneficiary's country (in our case, Morocco) for further probing during the interview--this is why some people have long, grueling, brutal interviews... because the CO has a list of things that look suspicious in your case sitting in front of them, and their protocol is to assume the relationship is fraudulent until proven beyond any doubt that it's legit. If the USCIS officer reviewing during NOA doesn't see anything that makes him suspicious about the relationship then that's when you generally will have very short interviews that seem more like a formality than anything else.
* Things that make the officers suspicious might include: significant age difference (particularly if it's the female who's older and outside of child-baring years), significant differences in attractiveness--I know this seems harsh, but the reality is that particularly in "high fraud posts" it's easy to understand that if the non USC party is very attractive and the USC partner is pretty homely that it might be a possible fraud attempt. This alone won't be a factor, but if it's paired with a large age difference, disabilities, previous marriages/children, etc., then it's a suspicion point. Disabilities are another one because a disabled petitioner might seem like an easier target if the beneficiary partner were in fact trying to trick the USC petitioner into thinking the relationship was legit. They also look at previous marriages and children. All the above factors are things that could be construed to make an easy target by just showing a little attention to someone who may not get much attention elsewhere. Again, I know it's harsh, but it's a reality that this is possible. The marriage/children thing is big in Arabic countries because divorce is frowned upon and, I'm sure, for other reasons as well. Other red flags might be multiple K-1 attempts or applications in previous relationships by either party or multiple failed attempts by beneficiary party to enter the US on other long-term visas. Think of it as relationship profiling. Once the officer is confident that the USC doesn't have an ulterior motive, the next thing to rule out is the possibility that the USC is being misguided or tricked by the beneficiary party. So if you have red flags in your case, it's best to minimize the possibility of the officer being suspicious from the very beginning by making sure you include enough of the various types of relationship proof.
* The next big hurdle is proving that you're in a relationship that has a chance of lasting. So especially if you're from different cultural or religious backgrounds, you need to be able to show not only that you've talked about these differences, but how you handle misaligned beliefs and behaviors as they arise. For example, you need to be able to show that you can communicate effectively--this one's particularly big if your native languages are not the same. It also helps to show that you're actively working on improving your communication (maybe by taking language courses in the other partner's language). It's also important to show the officer reviewing your case that you are willing to be open-minded about your cultural and religious differences and that you're able to deal effectively with the differences or that you have discussed how to handle them (i.e. raising children, dealing with finances, family matters, religion, etc.). Basically, they're trying to protect the USC from getting into a situation that's supposed to (ideally) be a lifetime commitment before the person really understands the added difficulty of an intercultural marriage (since marriage is difficult enough even when you come from the same backgrounds).
Again, I know some of this is a bit harsh to read, but this came straight from the attorney. And I wanted to put the info to everyone here with hopes that it might help some of you better prepare throughout the process. Best of luck to you all!

النصيحة الي نعطيها ليك هيا لبس مقاد , قبل الانترفيو نعس مزيان, وجد وراقيك كلهم , ما تخافش وتوكل على الله
الله يوفقك اخي الكريم

If the baby is born prior to your interview months down the line, you will need enough income for a household of 3 instead of 2.
Make a statement that you were a student, made no income and did not have to file. Provide a letter from your employer and pay stubs to show proof of your current income when it comes time for the interview.