RJandHamid

I don't think anyone on this forum can answer those questions. Although the DS-5535 has been in use for over a year now, it's still an overall new step in the processing timeline, so I think it's still too early to say what kind of impact it has had on visa approvals or refusals. I think this is one of those things that USCIS won't publicly comment on unless they come up with a concrete way of processing it (either make it mandatory for everyone or clarify how and why certain applicants are chosen to submit the form). Right now it's still seemingly random if you will be selected to submit the DS-5535 or not. Sure, you have a greater chance of being asked for it if you are from Morocco, Pakistan, Egypt, ect, but other than that, we still have no actual evidence to prove that there are certain 'triggers' that lead to someone being selected. It has to be more than just based on a location.

Was he asked to submit any additional documents after the interview?

November 2018 statistics are out. 17 K1 visas issued in Casablanca (and 31 CR1).

Have you contacted the consulate yet (via email) to inquire about the interview date?

No November statistics yet. And the 400 dirhams is just the consultation alone. My husband (fiance) ended up paying around 2000 dirhams including the consultation, blood work, vaccines, ect. He saw Dr. Maach in Rabat, but the physicians in Casablanca are a bit cheaper.

Some administrative processing is normal for all cases. They need time to issue and print the visa. What did the CO say at the interview? Were you given the Aramex instructions to pick up the visa? Did they ask you to submit a form called DS-5535?

They are a K1 case though, they don't have to wait at the NVC for as long as the CR1 cases. If they get NOA2 in January or even February, I doubt it will take until August to interview. Generally it takes about 1 month at the NVC, then anywhere from 1-2 months to get the interview scheduled and visa issued if approved.

No, they are open during Ramadan. They only close a day or two for Eid El Fitr. He can apply for the SSN as soon as he arrives in the US. Documents needed to apply for SSN: 1. Passport with visa 2. Printed I-94 3. Social Security Application Page 4. Copy of birth certificate (translated from Arabic to English) I'd estimate your interview will be around April/May with NOA2 at the end of January. Maybe late March if you get really lucky.

He hasn't yet but it's something we are starting to look into. He's still not sure what he wants to study.

The adjustment has taken time, as expected. If you live in/near Orlando like your profile says, I know there is a large community of Moroccans in that area, so it might be good for you to stay there for awhile. We live in the Chicago area. Not a lot of Moroccans, but still a large number of Muslims from other countries. And the few Moroccans we have met, my husband really hasn't been able to form much of a friendship with them. The only exception is the other Moroccans we have met who also came to the US on a K1 or CR1 visa recently! The hardest adjustment for him was first not being able to work for several months and being bored and feeling unproductive. That's certainly one of the biggest negatives of the K1 visa in my opinion. He's now been working at Burger King for about 1 year. Started as a crew member and quickly was promoted to assistant manager. He's started job hunting again as he doesn't want to work in fast food forever. We are going on vacation to Germany and Morocco soon and we'll be gone for 3 weeks. When we come back he'll be going on a full scale new job search! And of course, he misses his family and friends in Morocco. He tries to call his mom every day. We both like to eat Moroccan foods, and lucky for me he can cook most Moroccan dishes. We eat a lot of tagine and lentils!

Sure. We went to several different mosques in our area to ask about the process and cost of having a simple Islamic marriage ceremony. The first one we went to wanted to charge us $500! We ended up walking straight out of that one. Fortunately we found another mosque even closer to where we live that offered to do the ceremony for free (we did make a donation of our choice though). We set up a date and time with the imam. The 'ceremony' (it's more like short lecture) is very simple and took less than 30 minutes. Basically the imam talked about the importance of marriage in Islam and the rights of the husband and wife. We discussed the mahr (dowry) amount which I kind of just said a random number because we just needed to put something on the marriage contract. My husband and I signed it with 3 male witnesses present, as well as my mom and my brother present who are both not Muslim, but the imam encouraged them to come be a part of the ceremony anyway. And that's pretty much it. Now we have a Islamic marriage certificate, which is also written in Arabic. It will be useful for us when we travel back to Morocco and want to use it as proof of marriage to stay in a hotel or something. As a side note, I'm not Muslim, only my husband is. Non of the imams we talked to had any issues marrying a Muslim man and a non-Muslim woman, since this type of marriage is allowed in Islam. Most mosques do require you to be legally married before they will preform an Islamic marriage ceremony. We had to show our marriage certificate and the mosque actually kept a copy of it.

The DS-5535 is taking a lot longer than a week to be processed at this time. There is a thread going where others who have been asked to submit the DS-5535 are keeping track of how long it is taking to issue a visa. It seems to take an average of about 1 year now. I hope your outcome is different and it does only take a week or so as the CO said, but I would also be prepared for a longer wait.

We had a courthouse wedding less than 2 weeks after he arrived (mostly for AOS purposes) Had an Islamic marriage at a mosque a few months after the courthouse wedding. Had a big party/ceremony with white dress and my family flew in from Germany a few weeks after the Islamic marriage. I did book this venue in advance before he had the visa in hand, but I was able to negotiate to move the date or be issued a refund had the visa not been issued.

You cannot file a K1 visa if you are married. Consummate the marriage in February and then file the I-130. It's understandable to not have many joint accounts early on in the marriage, (especially since you don't live together) but you might be able to add her to your insurance policy, as a financial beneficiary, ect.

I (my husband) had a successful K1 visa approval in Casablanca...I did make more than 1 visit, which I always mention is one of the main reasons I think our visa was approved. Sure, he can use a translator, but the officer interviewing him will still question his ability to communicate with you. You say you want advice strictly from those who went through Casa, yet now you say YouTube videos (probably NOT talking about the visa process in Casa) have told you otherwise. You can use a service like Visa Coach, all they do is help put together your paperwork. More often than not, those services don't guarentee that the visa will be approved, but rather the I-129F petition will be approved. Many services also don't know how particular the Casablanca consulate is when it comes to relationship evidence. That's why we are trying to advise you here (for free).