Hello everyone. I am new to this website and hopefully can get some advice. There's a 29 year age difference between me and my fiance. We met online one year ago through a mutual friend and fell in love. Although we video chat for hours and hours every day we will not be meeting in person until November. He tried to get a tourist visa back in November of 2017 and was refused. We believe his situation has improved since that time and he's more able to now provide documentation of strong ties to Egypt so he will be trying again in August. If he is refused again I will be flying to Egypt in November and we plan to marry there. And then plan to apply for cr1 visa for him. I realize that our age difference will be a red flag... However I have a Year's worth of daily chats that I can print out as evidence of our relationship.
My question is, what are the chances that they will refuse a cr1 Visa because of our age difference?
I know it's difficult to marry in Egypt but I'm willing to do all of this for us...so that we can start our life together. But I would be devastated to marry him and then be told we can't be together here in the US.
I really just wanted advice on rapid Visa versus any other services that are out there.
But in response to your questions we have a 29 year age difference and I am older than my boyfriend.
We are not the same religion.
He does speak English.
You must denied for tourist visa to the US which is not at all uncommon for an Egyptian man to be denied.
We've been in a relationship for one year. We have lots of physical proof of our relationship... Chat logs, phone records, pictures and video sent back and forth we've met each other's family on video chat in fact I talk to his family everyday and I've met his friends.
When I start the application I will have had two visits to Egypt...
Please no judgement about marrying on the first visit. I've never been more sure of anything in my life...
It sounds like I haven't heard anything positive about Rapid Visa... So I'll take that into consideration.
OP- The posters here are usually pretty objective, and we have seen a multitude of cases almost identical to your case. Most of those cases end poorly. You have mentioned several significant obstacles which will not be remedied by a 2 week visit.....or marriage on the first visit. In my opinion, you are looking at a very long, uphill battle. A 29 year age difference and different religions will receive a lot of scrutiny. In addition, 1 or 2 denied tourist visas could be seen as desperation to get to the US. Please heed the advice given by the seasoned posters here. Don't rush your marriage, and Do front load your petition with as much face time evidence as you can.
GOOD LUCK.
As said by others, no one here is intentionally attacking or judging you. We've all met in unconventional ways, in one way or another, in order to even be in the middle of the processes that we are, so we certainly understand more than anyone else will. You made a good decision by coming to these forums for some wise and experienced advice. However, what people here ARE here for is to expose you to the questions, expectations, and complications you will face along the journey you are interested in embarking on. It's better to be aware of all of these scenarios now, and possibly be prepared for them. I'd advise to keep that in mind when reviewing responses you get here from other VJ members.
That being said, here is my opinion, based on my own experience and (somewhat limited) knowledge.
You do not fully learn a person solely online with zero face time. I know it feels like you know each other inside and out now, but you do not. I met my husband online, so I can entirely relate to you. And I've had to defend us and our relationship many times, for this reason, despite the fact that we met several times before even getting engaged. I felt the same way about him before we met in person. We were involved for a solid year before we ever even met face to face, and I was certain nothing would really change once we did. I was wrong. (Fortunately in my case, I was wrong in a good way). I got to know him on a whole other level. You can't learn how someone truly operates and navigates disagreements, arguments, or general problems unless you witness this face to face. It's easy to hide, or at least sugarcoat, things over the internet. These are characteristics and things that are important, if you are going to marry someone and spend the rest of your life together. This isn't being said to question your judgement of character, or in making your own life decisions. This is because COs will question these same things based on your situation, and it could cause hiccups or worse, denial.
I see a lot of people come through here who seem to want, or already have, jump/jumped the gun, so to speak, because the forthcoming wait time is daunting. And believe me, anyone here who's already been waiting any amount of time during their process can attest to that. It can make you eager and want to rush the "preliminaries" so as not to have to wait any longer than you'll have to. That's completely normal, especially when you're in love. Not saying this is necessarily your case, but it just sounds familiar.
I truly do not mean any disrespect with this part, and forgive me if that's what it conveys - you already indicated your age bracket and age difference. You aren't a 20-something, or a 30-something, I'd imagine based on the facts you've provided. The reason I bring this up - my husband and I are a bit "late in life" with our marriage, compared to average couples. He is also older than I am. This is also his second marriage. When you're in love, particularly when you are later in life and a bit past the "young and naïve" years of your life, you want your life together to begin NOW. Like, five minutes ago. You don't want to waste anymore time, because if you're like my husband and I, you already feel like you've lived a great deal of your life without them as it is. DON'T LET THIS DERAIL YOUR LONG TERM INTENTIONS. Jumping the gun and acting spontaneously has a large possibility of hurting you in the long run. It is not worth it to shave some time off the frontend, when it'll potentially cause even more time on the backend if you have RFEs, or even rejections where you have to start over.
My long rambling is basically to suggest this - take the time to visit one another as MUCH as you can. Most people here aren't millionaires. It took 2 and a half years for me to ever visit Sweden, where my husband is from, because of the cost of tickets and my vacation time at work. Although nothing is guaranteed, particularly with his past experience, let him try for his tourist visa again in August as you've mentioned - it could go through, and that will be a good visit for him to have on his track record when the time comes for your process. Go ahead and plan/take your trip there. Go. Enjoy it. Get to know him MORE. Get to know his local friends and family. Get to know his culture, his home. Even after almost 3 years together and already being engaged at the time, I gained a whole new perspective on my now-husband when I visited his home country. It allowed me to understand him so much more and form a much stronger bond, which I know only benefitted our marriage once we did finally get married.
As others have said - you have to view the CO perspective as this: when they read our cases, they have to determine if the beneficiary is committing visa fraud (are they just using this to get a green card?). Things like very large age gaps and no in-person meetings beforehand are major indicators for this. While you cannot do anything about your age difference, and this alone is not necessarily means for a rejection, you CAN do something about no in-person meetings. You have to focus on the things you DO have control over, and make sure those factors are as strong as humanly possible. That is how you will get an approval at the end of this yellow brick road. They don't care if you're in love. They don't care about our relationships. We are cases to them, and they have to apply specific criteria to determine the outcome - it's not emotionally based.
Sorry for such a long post - I didn't realize my thoughts would take me quite so far when I began typing. At any rate, even if all you read is this - let it be for me to wish you the best of luck, no matter the choice you and your partner make, and pray for the peace that surpasses understanding (as this is definitely something we have struggled with ourselves!)
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