ginnyb

Congrats! That is great news!!

Hey there--

Ours was transferred on May 10, 2012. We have not heard anything from them yet.

Today I received my EAD Card

Congrats!!

I now see your case was transferred to CSC. Others here on VJ have been waiting over 6 months for their Green Card due to being transferred. I read CSC is wayyy behind. Most all K-1 / AOS are going to CSC for processing. Take alook at the Immigration Timelines it really shows how things are moving for folks on VJ. TTYS

Thanks, Kim....yes, the letter about being transferred said something about the reason was for quicker processing!! I'm only concerned about it because the DMV may insist on Hassan having his GC to apply for his driver's license. I'm not sure they will accept the EAD card, although I've read that some states do.

BTW, I'm glad to see things are moving along now for Hany's AOS. Yay!!

Does anyone know, how long is the usual waiting period to get the Green Card, after getting the

EAD/AP card?

Assalaamu'Alaykum/Salutations:

I hope this finds you all well. Well, today is 04/06/2012 and still our check has not been cashed by the USCIS Chicago Lockbox. The waiting is killing me. I try not to think about it, but according to the other timelines, their checks are cashed within 5-7 days. It's been 9 days. We are doing a AOS from F-1Visa.

However, I am not sure if it's because of the holiday. Some offices here are closed for the Good Friday/Passover. Alas, I am not sure about the federal offices being closed on Good Friday.

The waiting is killing me. UGH!!!!!

~Saudiwife

PS: Is it possible that someone from a office may call me? I received a call from a ghost number yesterday but they left no message.

Hi Saudiwife,

Our AOS packet was delivered on April 1 and the check was cashed just yesterday, April 11, so that is 10 days. Don't panic yet!

The consulate just called my husband. They asked if he was Mr. xxxxx xxxxx, well this is the consulate in Casa....we are setting up your interview, where do you live? He said he lived in xxxx. He said, your interview is next monday at 3 pm with the consular. Hubby asked if he needed to bring anything. They said just your passport. They also told him, don't wait with the other people waiting for interviews, just go to the secretary, and give her your passport. I can't believe our interview is in a week

Great news!! Good luck--hope all goes well!

I am sure that he is in AP because it is almost a necessary when dealing in MENSA countries, I have had the displeasure of going through this with my ex's brothers who applied for student visas years ago.

What is DOS? and how do I contact them? and if they were checking our relationship, wouldn't they have asked him to see more documentation.... he took a load of stuff with him to the interview and when he asked if she would like to see; she refused.....????

DOS means Department of State. DOS information: DOS can be contacted Monday through Friday during business hours. You must have all information concerning your case with you so that they can assist you.

Department of State’s visa Information phone number: 202-663-1225

Good luck!!

Sorry, but you DO need our opinion. Entering this country, on a tourist visa, with the INTENT to marry and adjust status is immigration/visa fraud. Period. Yes, you can marry. Yes you can try to adjust status. But when your interview comes and the questions can be hard, and something is said that arouses suspicion, you can and will be denied. Then you can be in a world of hurt. Understand? Have your fiancee sponsor you with a K1 visa and do it the right way.

The police didn't even bother to show up when this happened.

The video of the praying Muslim man being harrassed is very troubling. These kinds of Christians give Christianity a bad name. Is this Christ-like behavior? What is happening to freedom of religion in the US?

OK I guess I never made it official OR actually ever told EVERYONE ....including my family YES I GOT MARRIED. Was trying to avoid judgement, I just wanted to enjoy being happy before sinking into the "whys" or "what were you thinking" or "are you f**ing crazy. YES I maried a younger man. We are happy, I have a great new family that accepted me. I was afraid to share with my blood family.....I am sorry, think I made a bad judgement call thinking ya'all were small minded. Saif is the best part of life every day I wake up and I am his happiness each day... plz let us continue being happy is all I ask

It's your life; you deserve to be happy, don't you? I can share with you my own story of family issues, if you want to private message me.

I am asking for prayers to be sent our way. We are spouse interviews waiting to get out of AP in Egypt. Cairo generally tells people AP for 1-2 weeks and then the AP can last months.

AP is a very difficult place to be. There is minimal communication. We do not know what is being researched on our file or what stage of background/name checks that the file is in. Wendy<3Ahmed have been waiting over 4 months. None of us know when this will end. Please pray it ends soon.

Thank you

God Bless

1.Wendy<3Ahmed-----------------Oct 2, 2011--Approved-He is still waiting for Visa

2.wghabour-interview ---------Nov 22 more papers needed-He might need 2nd interview

3.Aly174 ---------------------Dec 1, 2011-He approved was told possibly 1-2 weeks

4.(Ruby56) Bev&Hadi ------------Dec 14, 2011 -He more papers needed

5. MahaAhmed --------------------Jan 9, 2012 HE Approved with AP 1-2 MONTHS

6. madanisgirl ------------------Jan 12, 2012-HE-----Approved told AP 1-6 weeks

7 CarolBasha (and Ahmed) -------Jan 17, 2012-told he will get in 1 month after more papers.

8.Togetherforever13 ------------Jan 19, 2012-HE Approved with 14 WEEKS AP

9.Emad Desouky -----------------Jan 19, 2012-HE-Approved-SUBMIT MORE PAPERS

10.mer&damby308 -----------------Jan 22, 2012-HE Approved HE WAS TOLD 3 WEEKS

Hello,

I'm saying prayers for you, that your AP ends soon. The waiting is so awful....stay strong. Better days are coming.

Congrats!

I ran into something similar at our local SS office. It was hell. The supervisor, even when I was polite and pointed out forms from their website showing that a K1 was eligible was not only rude and harsh, but even looked my (now) husband in the eye and said, "You're working here illegally, aren't you? That's why you need the SSN. You don't want to get caught." She also said that we don't need a SSN for things like bank accounts, drivers' licenses, or starting school: all lies.

The ss office one town over? No problem. We were in and out in 20 minutes, social came in the mail two weeks later.

I still get worked up thinking about that first office. My husband had been in the US not even 20 days and some witch was accusing him of breaking the law in such a rude, condescending manner it made my blood boil.

You should report her. And tell her how you were treated much better in the second office you went to.

I would advise you to contac the DOS and ask them if this is AP. Also, based on the Cairo embassy website Normal AP time is MAX 3months so just let them know its getting close. Good luck.

I emailed the Cairo embassy and asked specifically what our case status was, out of the options that togetherforever13 suggested above. Their response was that the case is currently being reviewed for issuance at the consular section. Sounds like good news, yes? I sure hope so He should get the visa soon? Insha'Allah.

Hello, VJrs:

My fiance's case is now "Pending review" according to the latest email from the embassy (his interview was successful but he was lacking his police certificate, which they now have. They did keep his passport). The previous email I got from them (after they received his police certificate) said that his case was being reviewed. Does anyone know what this actually means? Is this another way of saying he is in AP? Any ideas? Am I better off calling the State Department for an update? I hope those of you with more experience can shed some light on this. Thanks in advance.

hiiiiii all

i got my visa approved October 12

it was smooooooooooooooooooooth interview ... me.my father and mother in law were in the same interview and different case numbers

1st of all she smile and ask my father in law samy ur son ?

he said yes and there is his mother and his wife

the consol asked them

do u swear that all information in ds 230 is true ?

we all replied yess

do u travel to the us b4 ?

i replied no

father and mother in law : yess 2 times b4

then she smile at me and asked me few questions

when was the last time he visit egypte ?

when was the last time u see him ?

did u talk to each other dialy ? i reaplied yes 24 houres on the phone and by the internet skype ,msn and yahoo

then she asked me to c the wedding photo .. i gave her my engagment , wedding and the honey moon pictures

one of our honey moon pictures was in sharm el shikh ... she asked me is that sharm el shikh i said yes she told me also that she've been there

she asked me : when u want to travel ?

i told her that my husband birtday will be october 27 and i wanna be with him b4 that date

she just smile

she asked me when did my husband travel to the US ? and how ? and when did he became american citizen ?

she asked also about his work ..

finally she tell us that she approved our visa and we'll received it during 2 weeks

Good luck all visa joureny members ... God bless ur joureny

Great news!! Congrats and best wishes!!

Hi everyone,

Hassan had his interview today; it went well, the woman who interviewed him said congratulations on your visa. The only problem was that he has to get a police record from Italy for the years that he lived there. But she told him he could take his police record for Egypt to the Italian embassy and have them stamp it with their embassy stamp showing that his Italian police record is ok.

I was so excited and happy, I totally forgot to ask him if she said anything about AP.!! I will write up an embassy review after I talk to him and get more details.

This website is amazing and has some of the best people. That being said, there are some people on here who seem to just want to make people feel stupid or bring them down. I have seen posts asking about booking flights and scheduling weddings and yes, you shouldn't do any of that until the visa is in hand but NO ONE IS PERFECT. People get excited and may get bad advice and jump the gun a bit. Does that give anyone the right to be mean or disrespectful to someone else? We are ALL on here b/c we want to marry our loved one so maybe people could try having a little compassion for the other people on here. If someone asks a question that you think is stupid, JUST DON'T REPLY!!!!! My mother always used to say "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". Maybe some of the people on here need to follow that mantra. Just b/c you're miserable doesn't mean you have to try to convert everyone else into a life of misery as well.

Good luck to everyone and God bless!!

We received the same email responses. Don’t worry about it. We just received our interview date, and its after our NOA2 expiration. The Co can extend the validity of your petition. I am sure you will hear from them soon.

Thanks, Mandy_Amro. And how were you notified of your interview date? Did you get a letter, an email, a phone call? Your answer is giving me a bit of hope.

Hello all,

Our fiance petition will expire Oct. 1 and we still don't have an interview date. I emailed the embassy, asking them if the petition would be extended, and all they would answer me is that the appointment hasn't been scheduled yet. Has anyone else had this experience or can anyone comment? They didn't answer my question, and the answer I got was not helpful at all. I know that others have been denied visas due to expired petitions.

Hello everyone, I used to participate on this forum regularly back a few years ago. My husband and I got married in May of 2007, but he didn't arrive here until December of 2008. It was a long journey filled with the angst I'm sure many of you are going through now. He was Iraqi and and a refugee. He couldn't go back to his country and wasn't very welcome in Syria or Jordan, where he stayed for a couple years before finally coming to the United States. We never did get his spouse visa in those eighteen months. The whole process dragged and was completely frustrating. We got lucky that the US approved him for a refugee visa, so he came here on that. It saved us some money in the long run though I spent a lot already trying the other route.

Anyway, I know many people hear horror stories about MENA marriages. Part of me worried about it myself, but I believed I was the exception to the rule. We were open and honest with each other and around the same age. Thankfully, my marriage was among the small percentage that make it. He hasn't needed me since the day he arrived in the country, due to the US government sponsored his coming here rather than me. Yet it will be three years in December since he arrived and our relationship is stronger than ever. We still don't have any children, but we hope some day it will happen (God willing). Due to the economy going bad right before he got here, it took eight months for him to get his first job. The first two he found paid less than four hundred a month since they were part time. The third job, at a gas station, gave him full time work but barely above minimum wage. It wasn't until seven months ago that he got a job through Walmart's distribution center that he finally got something making about $15 an hour. We live in a cheaper state so this is okay. It is labor intensive and not what his degree is in, but we are thankful that it at least pays the bills. I have been able to go back to school and finish my degree as well, which has been great.

I have to say, the first year was the worst. Those that may have told you this are not lying or exaggerating. It is awful and takes tremendous patience. Not everyone can survive it because it requires both spouses to really try. The MENA spouse will need help with every tiny thing. You will go to the grocery store and they will want to know why there are one hundred kinds of salad dressing, ketchup, cheese, vinegar, etc. You have to explain about credit cards, banking, pumping gas, fast food drive-thrus, and the list goes on. My husband didn't even understand why we had to pay the electric every month since they only paid it quarterly or something. It all sounds amusing now, but I swear the endless questions and acts of helplessness were enough to drive me insane. We definitely fought and occasionally thought our marriage wouldn't last. Yet, we still remembered that we loved each other. How could we go through all those eighteen months of pain and troubles to get him here just to give up? So we rode it out. I compromised on some things, he compromised on others. We learned what subjects were safe to talk about and which ones were best left alone. He learned to fend for himself and get around without me helping him. I forced him to become independent and he hated it, but he learned and is quite happy now to be self-sufficient. Don't get me wrong, the man still will not cook or clean, lol. Yet he will work, occasionally take the trash out, buy groceries, and other small things. He has mastered the credit card quite well (which can be a bad thing but he hates debt so not too bad). The check book is still a mystery to him no matter how many times I explain and even show how he can copy the previous entries through the carbon copies. I think he just doesn't want to write the rent check out himself. He will walk it down to the office though!

The other day I was on the phone with a service company about something and I had to ask my husband a couple questions for the lady on the line. We got to joking and laughing and she asked if we were newly weds! I told her no, we had been married for over four years. She was shocked. We often laugh now like we did when we first met. Keeping a sense of humor and lightheartedness has helped tremendously. Remembering to say "I love you" and maintaining affection help as well. What amazes me most is how hard my husband still tries to make me happy, even when I'm being the less than pleasant one. He still cares a lot and it always touches me.

So, I just wanted you all to know that there is hope. Not all MENA relationships fail. Some do work. I think occasionally one of the older crew pops in to let you know, but thought I would add to the list. For everyone waiting, keep your faith and hope alive. I wish you a short journey to reuniting with your spouses and much happiness.

Thanks for sharing your story....it's nice to read about a successful marriage and what you do to make it all work!

Congratulations!! Enjoy your life together!

I'm sorry you are going through this. It must be painful. Stay strong.

I used Skype Log View.. worked very well.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/skype_log_view.html

Hi,

Thanks for the tip....I downloaded this and it shows all the calls. I saved the log as a Word document, and thought I would print it out to send as evidence for his interview. The problem is, since I talk to my fiance every day, it came out to be over 1800 pages to print it!! Did you print out your log and how did it work out for you?

Virginia

Hello,

Has anyone printed out their Skype call history and if so how? I mean a record of the video chats, not phone calls. I don't see anywhere on Skype where this is an option, but there has been a thread in the past about using a file exporter. Is there a faster way other than copy and paste?