milimelo

I think you really just need a tourist visa.
You're putting the cart wayyyyyyyyy before the horse here.
As an adult, you probably realize that spending time in person with someone is much much different then spending time on a webcam/phone/online. I'm sorry, but it is. That's not to say you don't have true love, I'm not here to judge. But, I truly think you need to go meet him first, if not multiple times, and let the relationship play its course to marriage.
I dated my husband for SIX YEARS long distance before I moved here on the K1. I did exactly what you did, looked at what my visa options where, and ultimately, it came down to being patient, spending more time together in person, and then letting the relationship naturally progress towards marriage. I was 19 when we started dating, and going to school, I had no money, but I made it work. And then, when I knew I wanted to move and be with him, I started my career back home and saved thousands of dollars, so that when I did move, I wouldn't have to worry about my finances.
You have stated multiple times that finances are an issue, hence the working visa, but you need to consider visiting for now, working and saving lots of money (which is obviously hard when you're also trying to travel and visit each other, but it's not impossible.
We all know what it's like to be desperately in love and wanting to be with that person. You're no different from probably almost everyone here. You say you're thinking about the right now, but you're not! You should be focusing on meeting, not how to spend the rest of your lives together. Try to step outside your situation and look in. Unfortunately falling in love with someone in another country is not an instantly gratifying thing. The relationships take longer to develop and immigration also add time to being together. All things you seem smart enough to realize, yet you still seem so out of touch with reality.
Focus on the right now, which is meeting each other for the first time, getting to know each other IN PERSON and then maybe move on to your second visit, maybe even a third visit before you start talking about packing up and leaving everything you know for someone you haven't even met.

Well at first it sounded like maybe he had a different concept of what a "wife" should be (i.e., a more traditional view with some bonus machismo) and this was not compatible with your own (which is fine, just culture shock), but then how can he expect you to do "traditional" things AND financially support you both? It just sounds like laziness now. You and your family deserve a true partner in life, and he does not deserve you. Good luck to you, really!

Well the petitioner should be the one to withdraw the petition and you as the beneficiary want to also notify the embassy you will not be going through with the visa. Letter or email to the consular section with your case number, DOB, petitioner name and withdrawal information should be sufficient.

People make choices when they immigrate to the US. No one forces a family to separate. Some people can be petitioned for and others can not.
The parents did not have to immigrate to the US to be with their adult daughter. They could have chosen to stay with their minor children in their home country. No one force them to leave their children. They choose to immigrate to the US without their children.

Sounds like she has MUCH bigger needs than a vacation.
If you intend funding the trip sounds like the money could be MUCH better spent.

Six years????? You must be doing something wrong. It usually takes about a year for a US citizen to petition for a parent.
It's not the job of USCIS or the NVC to walk you through the process. You need to take control by learning what you need to do. If you don't understand the process, you will end up wasting time and money.
People abandon the immigration process all the time due to changed circumstances without notifying USCIS or the NVC. This is not uncommon.

You cannot be calling customs and CBP and asking them not to give hard time to your GF.....lol.
It does not work that way your word that she is only visiting you and would not overstay has no weight unless you are some bigshot with connections...
Your gf will have to deal with customs and immigration on her own.

Stop looking at it from your side of the situation and think like a Consular Officer for a minute.
First, they are required to assume that all Visa applicants have immigrant intent and the applicant bears the burden of overcoming this assumption.
Second, they have a situation where a member of your family (you) married a USC while on a Tourist Visa so that will raise the bar for your whole family.
Why is that? Well the answer is simple and it has nothing to do with if your marriage is real or not rather it's about how others have behaved. Because others have abused the Tourist Visa by using it to come and marry then never return and your family is now aware of the ability to do this they will assume that your siblings are at higher risk to follow your example.
This is one of the "undocumented" risks of marrying and AOSing on a tourist visa.

Yes, it is possible that you could follow his plan, have you enter the US on a tourist visa, marry, file for AOS and be just fine - you'd get your GC in 5-6 months, and all would be fine and dandy.
However, there is a risk that it would not be fine. What you would be doing is, essentially, visa fraud. Whether or not you'd get "caught" during the process is another matter, which no one can really predict for sure. The fact of the matter is though, that entering the US with the preconceived intent to marry a US citizen and then file for AOS in the United States to become a permanent resident is visa fraud, which could carry some very serious and long lasting consequences, including you being banned from the US. It's a big risk to take when you've fallen in love with an American.
Personally, I wouldn't risk it. I wouldn't risk being banned from the country where the person I want to spend the rest of my life is from, especially after spending a lot of time and money in filing all that paperwork and going through months of waiting and agonizing. I understand that waiting for another 7-9 months separated seems like a horrible idea, but it beats being apart for the rest of your lives.
Personally, what I'd suggest is that you'd look into the CR-1 route. You would first get married (wherever you want), and then file for the CR-1 spousal visa for you. You would have to wait out the process in your home country, though you might be able to visit the US during the process with a tourist visa. Once you got the visa, you would immediately become a legal permanent resident upon entry to the US - there would be no periods of not being able to work or travel internationally, and you could start a normal life with your new husband as a geencard holder as soon as you got to the US.
Ultimately, the decision is naturally yours to make, and you should make it together. But I'd have a long talk with your fiance about the risks associated with what he is suggesting before deciding to take that route.

I wouldn't want to sponsor someone either, unless it's a spouse or close relative I really, really liked.
There are two reasons: 1. You need to disclose all your finanicial info, tax filings etc. 2. You are "on the hook", at least if you fill the I-864, which is a legally binding document. If the visa holder never becomes a US citizen, the government could come after me 30 years down the line. Not something to be done lightly!

Scott & Mary--
There is ABSOLUTELY no reason to wait for the green card--the stamp in the passport gives you all the rights and responsibilities of the actual card, and it is good for one year. You may personally be nervous about not having the actual card, but there is zero risk using the stamped passport.

Congrats on your upcoming nuptials.

You are saying many different things that all contradict each other as far as your relationship goes. It's going from how abusive he is and how you know it's a seriously bad situation for you to what a good man he is that loves you so much to how you are not going to spend the rest of your life like this and back to how you are trying to not mess up things for his AOS.
I don't want to sound harsh or mean, I am just really concerned about you. Is it possible he is totally manipulating you? To me as an outsider, he sounds like a complete jerk with no regards to you, using you, using his charm whenever he can get an advantage out of it.
I am truly sorry you are in this situation and I know you asked only for advice specific to the AOS/court situation but it is hard for me to watch you going down like this.

How about a free bus ride back to the other side of the fence (and no, we're not sending everyone home... we're dropping them off in TJ. EVERYONE!) with a permanent bar from reentry?
All this ####### about "we need them" is BS. We don't need them. Would our local job market change? Absolutely. Unemployment would drop to record lows!

Wow!!! I cannot believe the BS I am seeing in this thread. Saying we should let the "Good" illegals stay is like saying that if someone broke into my home and was not hurting anyone, that I should let them stay. I'm sorry but they came into this country with a premeditated decision to bypass US Immigration laws. That makes them a criminal.
Also children who are not born to a US Citizen, should not have that priveledge granted to them just because of the location they were born. There was a time for this law, but that was over 100 years ago and no longer serves the purpose it was designed for.
Now I do feel that Amnesty should be granted to those who came across as children without any say in the matter and grew up in America. These children's ties are generally to their immediate family and friends they have known their entire life and not to a country they have never known.

You can call up IRS and order your tax transcripts to have on hand should a RFE appear.
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http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506t.pdf

By the way, the original post made it sound like he was ready to grab a lawyer and try to go after part of her house and non-marital assets after only seven months of marriage, which I think made several people's hair stand on end, including mine. Nobody has a right to own property just by virtue of living here - I have yet to own property of my own - so "can he get some of hers since he doesn't have any" doesn't fly. If he tries something like this, he should be prepared for an expensive fight he'll probably lose - she's not going to give it up quietly after already being burned once.
On the other hand, if, for example, they bought a second car for work transportation for him, and he made most of the payments, but she kept it in her name for insurance or tax purposes or whatever practical reason, and they're able to sit down cordially with a mediator instead of attorneys, perhaps she'll be willing to negotiate putting the car into his name and letting him pay her back if she's put something into it, especially if public transportation is as lousy there as it is here, and he needs the car for work to support himself. That's just an example. A mediator could help them sort out what is a reasonable request and what is not. However, I realize he's unemployed now, and if he's only been here seven months, he may be better off going back home. In this economy, he'll really struggle to get by alone here, unless, of course, he's already lined something else up.

This whole topic is ridiculous. If the truth is told, he probably didn't want his name on anything because his religion forbids him from paying interest. It gets on my nerves that MENA guys want to build a credit history but don't want their name on anything. Not only that, but this guy has been talking to someone if he's only been here 7 months and he's already trying to figure out how to get some of what she probably worked years to obtain. She should send him packing back to Egypt with his suitcase and clothes which is more than likely what he showed up with.

I love this thread.
If I remember right, in the Arab culture, the man is suppose to support the wife, and the wife's money is for her. So perhaps it would be in her best interest if she attempted to adapt to his culture.
But as one stated, he is in America, and that he bears the burden of adapting to our culture. So that being said, since he is no longer employed does she come home from work to a clean house and dinner cooked? Is he doing laundry, shopping, yard work? Because in America we share not only the financial burdens, but work around the house. If one is not working outside of the home they should be doing the work in the home. So if he is not doing these things, then what exactly has he been contributing to the marriage, and in what way is he entitled to anything if he isn't? How long did he work as compared to how long has she worked? Is it right for a man that has worked for only a short time to take from a woman that has worked her entire adult life? Would it be right for her to have to start over?
I am not saying the marriage was fraud, although we all know the statistics. What I am saying is that there are always two sides of the story, and it sounds as if the guy merely wants more than he actually deserves. I do get tired of hearing about human sponges, be it an immigrant or an American, that feel entitled.

Do nothing.
Both children will become US citizens when mom naturalizes. You also don't need to file for N-600s, unless the $1,200 it costs is chump change for you. Let mom and the two little ones apply for U.S. passports based on mom's CoN and that's all the proof of U.S. citizenship the children will ever need.

"Him and his needs"? I'm sorry but I'm feeling less and less sorry for this guy as you "explain"...
"Even all what is his is owned by her".. so it's HERS!! She let him drive a car that's in her name. It's HER car. She bought a computer that he used, it's HERS. If they're actually gifts he would need to prove that. If we're talking about HIS clothes and things HE bought then it's different. This is the issue with piggy-backing off someone. He might have been paying it off but unless he has proof of an agreement about that, it's in her name and therefore hers.
He feels she used his lack of employment, and lack of credit rating to "control, neglect and disrespect" him. Okay. Well I'm sorry but "neglect" and "disrespect" is just ridiculous. I understand a lot of MENA men have a large amount of pride (from reading here). But just because she didn't cow-tow to his every whim and need doesn't mean anything. And "neglect" doesn't apply to an adult. It would apply to someone helpless but he's an adult so he was able to feed himself and wipe his own butt... so how did she neglect him? Again, he's not OWED anything. Disrespect him? What was she supposed to do? These are his own issues here. Did he do anything to DESERVE respect? He isn't granted respect simply by virtue of having a pen*s and being her husband.
Absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. Again, he's not OWED anything. He certainly has some issues to work through. Including that he doesn't gain rights simply by being the man in the relationship. Based on your postings he wants a certain amount of control in the relationship that he's not getting so he's ticked off she doesn't respect him as a man and "know" he's the boss. He wants her to "give it up" whenever he wants it because he's the boss, he deserves respect and he should control her and now he's considering divorce.. but only if he can get the things he's not entitled to but feels he's entitled to simply because they were married.
Ridiculous.
He has no rights to anything that's hers. He's owed nothing. He should simply move on.

If he can't "financially" look after "what belongs to him" then it does NOT belong to him and instead belongs to the bank. You said the car is in HER name yet refer to it as "his" car. If he cannot work to pay it off then she has to (so it doesn't hurt her credit rating) and so I understand her not wanting him to drive it if its in her name and he can't afford to pay it.
To me this is reading a lot like he feels like he's "owed" something out of the relationship. He's not. He's entitled to what is his, if he can't pay for what is "his" and its in her name (so not ACTUALLY his) then he should sell it or return HER property (it is in her name and therefore hers).
It sucks, I know it does. He probably feels like he's gotta start all over again and he does. He needs to stop feeling like he's owed something and just move on and up.

Yes and not only is it illegal, you will get banned for life when they find out. And they will find out, it's all in the computer.
Try the SB-1. Your chances of success are small, but it;s your only chance other than your mom petitioning or the DV lottery, both of which will take years.

I beg to differ. Their case is not complex at all. There's no family immigration visa category for a nephew, and even the best immigration attorney isn't going to be able to create one. The other common non-immigrant options have already been pointed out, as well as the likelihood of getting any of those visas and the disadvantages of each. The only things that haven't been pointed out are those that have very little chance of success, such as a refugee/asylum application or a private relief bill filed by a US Senator or Congressman.
There's no harm in the OP consulting with an immigration attorney, but they shouldn't get the impression that this is something that an immigration attorney can fix (even a very good immigration attorney), and there are many attorneys who would be happy to promise them the moon and stars while separating them from all of their savings, and in the end deliver nothing.

You have your question answered - CO wants to see a co-sponsor and you have next to no leverage in changing his decision...
Poverty guidelines are only a formal requirement, and sometimes an income that low can be accepted by CO (or not) - based on individual circumstances. He applied his discretion as he saw fit.
Legal position? You want to sue the consulate? I understand your frustration, but it is better to focus on getting a visa rather than starting a fight with the consulate.