mspain

Thank you. This is very helpful info.

My husband traveled home every year since he came to the US (once he had his Green card). You are free to fly through Europe without a visa you just can't leave the airport. This depends on the country however. When he went through England and had an overnight stay they gave him a 24 hr stamp in the airport to leave he wanted. Spain would not do this. We never tried in France. But if you're just connecting through Europe it's no problem.

You may want to look at Royal Air Maroc from JFK - Casa. In mid-late September they have fares at $880 roundtrip. It might be cheaper to do one ticket from where you are to JFK and then the RAM flight.

My husband traveled home every year since he came to the US (once he had his Green card). You are free to fly through Europe without a visa you just can't leave the airport. This depends on the country however. When he went through England and had an overnight stay they gave him a 24 hr stamp in the airport to leave he wanted. Spain would not do this. We never tried in France. But if you're just connecting through Europe it's no problem.

You may want to look at Royal Air Maroc from JFK - Casa. In mid-late September they have fares at $880 roundtrip. It might be cheaper to do one ticket from where you are to JFK and then the RAM flight.

Thank you so much. I checked flights from NY to Casa on RAM and they're still pretty high. We'd have to buy a separate ticket to travel from New Orleans to NY also, so I've been looking more into flights into Europe and then taking a European airline to fly to Morocco. Do you think he would find problems if he took a flight with a company like Continental from New Orleans to Paris and then he took a flight with a separate company on a different ticket/ reservation from France to Morocco? Even though he wouldn't be leaving the airport I'm still paranoid that something might happen and he'd get stuck at passport control and miss his flight. We would save alot doing this.

If you go to Priceline.com you can win a very cheap ticket on a route you prefer. You would just need a few tips on how to execute. These tips can be googled as well. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip. I guess what I should have highlighted is the question about whether or not he needs a transit visa- which you can see more about by clicking on the link. If he can't travel through Europe we won't be able to afford the ticket, so it would be a moot point.

My husband is a permanent resident from Morocco. His dad is elderly and has been putting a lot of pressure on him to visit. It's a big sacrifice economically to do any kind of travelling right now, so not only will it just be my husband visiting, but also we want to go with the least expensive way. It's very expensive to travel from where we are to Casablanca- where he will still have to go on to Tangier from there on another flight. As most of you probably know it's relatively cheap to fly into Spain and take a flight. However my husband's Spanish residency card expired in November 2010 (he lived there for several years before he came to the US) and I read that you must have a Schengen visa even if you never leave the airport. I've been doing a lot of research and I found something that looks like a loophole to this rule... http://www.consulfrance-chicago.org/spip.php?article658 Has anyone on here ever done this? Can he really travel through France then on to another flight to Tangier? I'd really love to hear your stories about how you travel with your spouse to Morocco because we need to find a way fast. My husband really wants to be there for the end of Ramadan with his dad.

Thanks in advance

They did mention a translator, but due to our situation, we think it might not work out well. My husband is orignally from Morocco and has only been speaking Spanish for about 4-5 years and it's not perfect. He also has no formal background in Spanish as he learned it all from living in Spain. We have no problem communicating, but I sometimes catch myself saying things incorrectly because that's how he will say them in Spanish.

The differences between Latin American and Peninsular Spanish are also an issue. For example, since living in the US, we signed him up for driver's ed en espanol. The lady who taught the class was from Cuba and the words and accents were very different for him. He ended up failing the driver's ed class in Spanish, but we later took it in English where I translated for him (without cheating) and he made a 96 on the test.

I guess I'm nervous that if he gets someone to speak Spanish for him, that there may be some kind of misunderstanding due to regional differences. There's even a language barrier between Moroccan Arabic and standard Arabic. We don't know anyone who would be willing to take off time from work to travel an hour away to go to the interview with us. Is it unreasonable to feel nervous in this situation?

I'm a little nervous about AOS for my husband. We have our interview in two weeks. My husband is learning English and can answer basic questions. We speak Spanish together. Can I translate for him at the interview?

My husband was working on a 3 month employment authorized stamp given to him at POE in his I-94. When we got married, I changed my tax info at work as married filing jointly. I thought his greencard would be here before the end of the year and I also didnt know that I couldnt file jointly with him until I did some reading up on the IRS website. How should I file? Should I contact my employer to change this info to married filing separately and/ or claim him as a dependent? How should he file for himself? Please help!

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. My husband and I got married in September and filed for AOS in October. A while back we received our biometrics appointment for next Tuesday. I've spoken with my boss about getting the afternoon off to go to the appointment and we are waiting for the day. Well today I got an RFE in the mail for birth cert. original (the original is on the top part of the translation, but I guess they arent accepting that). Anyway, I want to know if this RFE affects our biometrics appointment- it doesnt automatically cancel it because of the RFE does it? I would hate to have to take the time off from my work at this very busy time of year in my job only to find out that my appt is cancelled. Please help. Thanks.

i love this recipe, and have been making it for years when you first posted it!

Yeah this is definitely a classic. I learned how to make this one several years ago and it's definitely a keeper. I like it with manzanilla olives though, and a great variation is to add mushrooms too!

check out cookingwithalia.com she is awesome and I just made her chebakia last weekend and it was just like my sister in laws

I disagree. I see sense of entitlement and pissiness due to things not going as planned.

Too bad that's what you see. Maybe you should stop reading my posts if it bothers you so much. It sounds like it might be good for you. Have a nice day.

Way to go Danni, I am trying to find my way back to that place, too.

What some people are seeing as attitude and defensivenes, I'm seeing as sadness. It's such an emotional rollercoaster that we have no control over. You're trying to make sense of a process that has no apparent rhyme or reason. All I can say to you is to hang in there. That's it. You'll do it because you have no choice....one week, two weeks, three months. We'll all be here right beside you.

I guess the other thing that makes it so hard is that he was never told he was on AP, never received a piece of paper or anything. I still don't see how we got from the interview with no AP to being put on AP 5 days after interview.

Also, I appreciate the words of comfort and I apologize if my tone was off. I'm really still very much in denial about the whole thing and don't really know what to believe.

I've heard direct consular filing is relatively painless. You may want to look into that. Best wishes and Congratulations.

Boiler, that's an excellent point. I also noted that in my original post, and I also noted that 11 days into it may not seem like alot to some people from MENA countries, but for this particular embassy it is more than the usual time.

Anyway this post was really to just find out a little more about the behind the scenes of what is going on and Sara and Mrs. Amera were very helpful with suggestions, although as Sara pointed out, we don't know what it is that they do. However, it got off track.

Edited to add: to LaL, I just looked at your timeline, read your consular experience and I know you must have gone through alot. My point is, everyone is going through the same thing, and yes, I know I've only been in it six days, but they've been intense for me. I'm sure everyone who's been on AP has stories that they could tell about the frustration, anxiety, and pain of being separated. I think it's something that people ought to respect and I dont think it's right to make anyone feel bad about the way their dealing with their AP because it's tough no matter who you are, where you are, or whatever the situation.

Most people who frequent this forum have been on AR/AP. In my journey we went through Montreal (with a "mena" man) and were on AR for 8 months. The advice is good advice, really. It's really disheartening to see people new to the process lash out at seasoned members suggesting we don't recall what the wait is like. I remember.

LAL, I was not referring to you. I think your comment was one of the ones for good advice. And I was not "lashing out" - I think it is sad that some people cant express their thoughts without being insensitive to others.

Echoing others by saying that comparing cases will make you crazy.

It's possible that he got a name hit. You've only been on AP for 6 days. If you're getting irritated and angry after only 6 days how are you going to cope if it takes 6 weeks or 6 mos. or longer? Please try to calm down and do not compare your case with anyone else.

What is with all the judgmental attitudes today? I appreciate those who have been supportive, but I am really wondering about several people on here. If you've never been on AP don't just tell me to get over it or stop comparing. If you have been on AP before, you obviously don't remember what it feels like to actually BE in AP. Just like every case is different, every person handles being in AP differently. The judgmental attitudes are really unnecessary and I'm very disappointed to see this kind of behavior going on when we are all in the same boat, especially between the MENA posters.

first of all, although comparing timelines with others can be a useful reference point, it can also send you over the edge. At this point its really not going to do anything but make you crazy to focus on the other cases in Madrid.

as for the security checks, it IS standard for MENA males, regardless of what consulate they go through. The upside is that because the checks cost our government money, they are usually not ordered until everything else for the visa is a go, which means that your evidence and relationship info is probably fine and acceptable. There are a number of internal databases the names go through, including the DOS and FBI but undoubtedly more we in the public dont even really know about. the fact is, we just dont know what all they entail. I have been on this board several years now and I cant count the times this has been discussed, and at the end of the day its all just speculation and guessing on our part. If anyone had a more concrete or satisfactory answer about the processes behind AP we would all be happier.

With just a very very few exceptions, everyone on this particular forum has stood in your shoes Meghan. It sucks and its frustrating but about the best you can do is hope yours is brief and not the one year + we've seen other people go through.

Thanks Sara for the advice. Yes it is very frustrating. Especially due to the fact that my fiance and I waited out the time for two years for his background and name checks in 07 and 08 for him to get his residency in Spain that finally came in November of 09, before we even filed for the K-1. Had I known that he did not need his Spanish residency to do his interview in Madrid, we would have filed earlier, but we were trying to do things the right way so we wouldnt have these problems now. It's just frustrating that even though you have all the paperwork for background and security checks completed, that you still have to wait. And it's frustrating to see people who didnt go through these checks to get their residency slide on through.

Anyway, I am really having a hard time wrapping my head around why they're doing security checks on him, when they didnt do it on the other Mena males who went through the same embassy.

Sorry, but it's not uncommon to have AP for MENA folks suggest you go over to the AP/waivers forum for more info.

Read more carefully what I wrote above and check the timelines of the Madrid consulate. You'll see that several undocumented MENA men in Spain were issued a visa within a week. Mine is documented and is in all the databases for Spain already.

I forgot to ask....

What exactly are they doing on these security checks and how long do they take?

Hi all, if you don't know me, I'm Meghan, met my Moroccan fiance three years ago in Spain where we had our interview Aug 11. Madrid is a pretty good consulate from everything that I've read. I've studied timelines and reviews and the average wait time for the visa to arrive in hand is 5-6 days. We are on day 11. I know that's not alot for many of you in other consulates, but for Madrid it is. I've only seen two other timelines that have taken longer than that. There were several MENA petitioners in Madrid that received their visas within a week from the day of the interview.

My fiance has his legal permanent residence in Spain. Any foreigner with any criminal background will be denied residency. He also has his police reports from both Spain and Morocco (translated) with no problems.

What I do not understand is why we are on AP. We have been on AP since last Monday with no changes or updates. We have a really solid relationship, good evidence, so that's not an issue. People have told me we are on AP because he is from a MENA country and they are doing security checks. This makes no sense- because other MENA petitioners (some without residency or even police certificates from Spain) did not have to wait more than a week to get their visa, no security checks or anything . WTH is going on?

What expiration date are yall talking about? Is that the NOA2 date that's open for four months? Mine is coming up Sept. 5 and if we don't have a visa issued by the embassy by then (it's being reviewed or processed- we don't really know and they won't tell us, just saying visa cannot be issued at this time) the visa will then expire right?

I agree. Take the personal info down. It's not only VJ by the way, there's also facebook, and other social sites. Make sure yours are private.

Try to understand that if they ask offensive questions, most of the time it's to see the reaction. In other words, it's not that they think a man can't love a larger woman, but they want to see how he reacts to the question/statement. They like to call this an interview...you should view it as an interrogation. They are trained to identify certain body language, speech patterns, biological responses, nervous tics etc...They aren't just listening to his answers, they are looking for signs of deception. Chances are they deliberately insulted you and asked about sex to see how upset he became. I'm not saying what they do is right or wrong, but it was easier for me to get past some of the questions they asked my husband when I had a better understanding of why they asked them.

I sincerely wish you luck, and hope your fiance gets his visa soon.

I'm confused with this tactic.... It sounds like a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of a thing. So they ask you a question that would make a man upset. From my experience and understanding, North African men are very protective of their women and will "fight" anyone who says anything bad about them. I find this charming as I'm sure several other MENA ladies do. However, is his 'hot blood' used against him in this interview? Are they saying if he is easily provoked he is dangerous? I still dont get the logic here

Their job is to find out if we have provided what was asked for, that we aren't hardened criminals, that there is no obvious fraud (because I can promise you that there has never been an SO that walked into an Embassy and said "You're right, I don't love him/her. I'm just using them for a visa."), and to see if the relationship is ongoing as another way to avoid fraud. If we've had sex or not is not a determining factor. You can't prove love by asking questions. You don't know how those two people are together from some papers and a few questions. You can only really look at the documentation and do your job and make sure that all that was asked for is there and legit. Our green form just says AP. Doesn't ask for anything more from us. So if they have everything.... why can't they just approve it. That's what I don't understand. Look it over, and either it's there or it isn't.I'm not stirring the waters there until after he is here. But once that happens the letter writing begins and the calling starts and the formal complaints are filed. And then I will follow up on each complaint.

This is our lives they are dealing with. Not just some papers that can wait forever. It's ridiculous. I keep telling people that after this is over I'm going to move to DC and become a lobbyist for immigration reform. LOL

I know exactly what you mean. We are experiencing something similar. We were loaded to the gills with evidence which they did not want to even look at and then two days later put us in AP. Another VJer on here had her interview the same day and got her visa three days ago, no AP. I even called the emb. to see why we were on AP and if I could give them any information (so they could hurry up and issue the visa). I got the whole "Don't call us, we'll call you" bit. It's like they have everything, but for some reason WON'T issue the visa, because they could- we did everything right. And I know y'all did too. It's so frustrating. Today I brokedown and started crying in the ATT store when I was having troubles with my phone, the guy there was like, "ma'am I'm gonna do all I can to fix it!"

But it's little things that set me off when everything is so tense and you don't know if you're going to see your fiance this month or in 10 months. I'll be so glad when there's a solution and a visa in hand. Stay strong!

Hmmmm, so there's a Spanish girl here on VJ that I've been chatting with. She had her medical the same time as my fiance and said hey to him. She also had her interview the same day as him. She lives on an island off the coast of Spain (mail takes longer to get there) and she just PMed me back saying her visa arrived three days ago. She won't be coming to the US till October. Today was supposed to be the day we got married. The irony of it all.