RJandHamid

I've been following visa cases at the Casablanca consulate for several years now and I've known a handful of same sex couples who successfully received K-1 visas. Everyone I spoke with said they were actually surprised by how kind and understanding the consular staff were. I haven't seen same sex couples try for a spousal visa in Morocco (probably because the online marriage option is still fairly new and I think getting married in a 3rd country and then returning to Morocco can be potentially risky), but that doesn't mean it hasn't possibly happened. But like everyone has already said, you are going to need to meet this person at least once, I don't think you are going to find a way around this requirement. 

Casablanca does not allow you to schedule the K-1 interview yourself, you'll need to wait for them to give you an interview date via email. 

You can go ahead and pay the fees now if you want. Or you can pay in cash at the consulate when you attend your interview. It's not uncommon to be waiting 3-5 months for a K-1 interview at the Casablanca consulate at this time.

My husband arrived in the US on the K-1 visa in 2017. He's now a US citizen and we're doing well. No relationship is completely perfect, but we definitely have many more good days than bad ones. My husband works very hard and has been a major support to me both financially and emotionally. 

The initial adjustment period is tough. I don't know how long your husband has been in the US, but I will say that the first year, even first 2 years were tougher in the sense that moving to the US from Morocco can be such a large cultural learning curve and it really does take some time to be comfortable navigating life in America. 

There's a pretty significant K-1 interview backlog at the Casablanca consulate. I've seen people waiting around 4-6 months for K-1 interviews to be scheduled. The consulate schedules the interview, so that's why ustraveldocs doesn't have any information. You can try emailing K1Casablanca@state.gov, but they have not even been great about responding to that recently. It's really just a waiting game, as frustrating as it is. 

DCF is not an option in Morocco unless it is an exceptional circumstance. 

https://ma.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/filing-local-petition/

You took the correct step paying the fee at Bank Populaire (it can also be paid at the consulate on the day of the interview, either option is fine). But unfortunately K-1 interview timelines in Casablanca are varying wildly right now. You received the most up to date answers in your previous thread.

5 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Are you saying that Casa K-1s do NOT schedule their own interview appointments?

They do not. The consulate schedules interviews for both K-1 and CR1 interviews.

Your wait time is unfortunately normal for the Casablanca consulate right now. You can try emailing K1Casablanca@state.gov to ask for an interview date. Sometimes this works right away, sometimes it still takes weeks or months to receive a response, but they generally do respond to that email. I'll post a template below. Another thing you could try is to ask your congressman to email them on your behalf, they tend to be more responsive to that. 

Email template:

Email subject line: K1 Interview Date Needed- Name (Case Number)

Hello,

I am requesting assistance with an interview at the U.S. Consulate.

We filed the K1 Visa on 00/00/00. It was approved by USCIS on 00/00/00. The National Visa Center created a case number on 00/00/00 and shipped the case to the US Consulate in Morocco on 00/00/00. The case moved to "ready" for interview status on .00/00/00 We already submitted the DS160 application on 00/00/00. However, we are unable to

schedule an interview until the US consulate schedules one for us. We have not received any kind of communication from the consulate regarding our interview.

K1 Visa

Petitioner: XXXXXX DOB

Beneficiary: XXXXXXX DOB

Thank you so much for your assistance with our case.

Kindest regards,

You cannot schedule the K-1 interview online for the Casablanca consulate. You either wait for them to email you an interview date, or you can try emailing them to ask for a date. The email is K1Casablanca@state.gov.

You'll need to wait until your status is "Ready". Once you have this status, it means the consulate has received your petition. The Casablanca consulate sends out interview dates by email, but many people have decent luck emailing the consulate themselves to directly ask for an interview date. The email that they are currently responding to is K1Casablanca@state.gov.

That sounds fairly normal. The Casablanca consulate seems to be taking around 3-4 months to schedule K-1 interviews at this time. I would recommend reaching out to your congressman to do a congressional inquiry. Sometimes the consulate needs a little "push" to get things moving.

It's very normal to have an engagement party in Morocco. In fact they will likely ask about it at the interview and ask to see photos. Some of the VJ users might say some scary things about the Casablanca consulate (and they are right that it notoriously difficult), but a traditional engagement party is generally not a problem at all. We were actually asked at our interview why we did not have a traditional engagement ceremony and had to defend that. I've seen plenty of couples show engagement party photos at the interview in Casablanca and never have I seen it be a cause for denial or concern. As long as it doesn't look like a wedding party (engagement party photos would be a simple and small gathering involving engagement rings, sharing milk and sweets/dates vs a wedding party with a large number of guests, multiple wedding dresses, traditional wedding chair/furniture photos, etc).

What is your current case status? It's very typical for it to take Casablanca 1-2 months from when the status first appears as "Ready" to send out the K-1 interview date. You don't set it up yourself, they will email you a packet with details and an interview date and time. If it's been awhile, you can also try emailing K1Casablanca@state.gov to try to speed things up. Hope you get an interview date soon!

Went in for biometrics today (Naperville office). 

N400 filed in May 2021

Biometrics done 9/2/2021

Case status says "actively being reviewed". Hoping we don't have to wait too much longer, but also trying to keep low expectations and prepare for a long wait. 

I know plenty of successful K-1 couples who uses engagement photos during their visa interview in Casablanca, and none had any major issues with the engagement photos in particular. The milk and date engagement ceremony is a very common and important aspect of Moroccan culture. I know many in these forums in particular advise to avoid anything that looks "too wedding like", but in general this is okay in Morocco, as long as the photos don't depict things that look like wedding customs (tons of different dresses, many people, extravagant furniture, etc). 

Submitted N400 online (based on 3 year marriage rule) on May 12th, receipt notice dated May 13th. No notice of biometrics being reused yet, hopefully they will reuse them...but if not, it's not a huge deal for us since the local ACS is only about 30 minutes away. 

The recent K-1 interviews in Casablanca that I have seen have all been cases that were being sent to and processed by the NVC during the early months of the pandemic (February/March 2020). Like Jeanne mentioned above, they are slowly working on cleaning the backlog, but it's going to take some time. The consulate also started using a new K-1 specific email for K-1 inquiries - K1Casablanca@state.gov. 

What does your CEAC status say? As others have already mentioned, Casablanca is known for extended periods of AP and long visa processes. 

Casablanca is finally doing everything is electronic now, there is no paper packet. As long as you have the visa stamped in your passport, you should be good to go.

Make sure that you get documented permission to leave Morocco from your local authorities. Usually evidence of the passport/visa are enough, but you should be prepared to give additional information about the nature of your travel if needed (unification with your spouse). You won't be allowed to leave Morocco without this document.

I guess I'm not really understanding your question/post. I'm married to a Moroccan man, and while he fits some of the cultural stereotypes that we often see on these forums, not all Moroccan people are the same. You don't need to covert if you don't want to, there are plenty of Muslims who are married to non-muslims. Yes, many Moroccans will send money home, because the US dollar can go very far in Morocco, and he probably wants to provide a more comfortable life for his parents/family. I don't think there is anything wrong with that as long as the terms of the amount and frequency of money sent are discussed and agreed on by the couple. Not really sure what you are talking about regarding family shame. It sounds like you are looking to confirm any possible suspicions or fears you may have, which unfortunately we can't really help you with because we don't really know the full situation.

He can remove conditions on his green card and even potentially become a US citizen all on his own. You won't really be able to "help" him in this regard. Maybe take a little more time getting to know this man, and definitely take your time deciding if you really want to convert or not. Don't convert just to please another person.

Have you registered with Aramex? They are the ones who will contact you about picking up the visa. 

Are you trying to contact them to make sure that the case has arrived? Casablanca is not currently interviewing new K-1 cases, only ones that had been cancelled in the spring due to the pandemic.

There is a new email address that they have been using for K-1 cases, though they say they will only respond to certain specific inquires. But I would give it a try anyway: K1Casablanca@state.gov