ForumTitleContentMemberSexCountryDate/Time
Middle East and North AfricaDenial and AP

I believe she did, that's why we were so sure things would go well.



The problem is that they don't always follow their own guidelines. They're not supposed to send it back, but that doesn't mean that they're not going to. I think main reason for adressing them up front would be to give yourself a solid reason to rebut the consulate's decision immediately. I don't know how the post-return process goes, so hopefully chiquita or kiya can address how to proceed when you can prove that USCIS was aware of all of the red flags when they approved the petition.


That's exactly it. It's a lot easier to argue that "the consulate overlooked this piece of evidence X when it made the decision to return the position" than it is to argue "the consulate didn't have access to this piece of evidence X that would have changed their decision." In the first you're arguing that with the evidence as presented, they made the wrong decision. In the second, you're arguing that their decision was right based on the evidence available but incomplete with respect to the total body of evidence possible.

Best of luck and prayers for the parties involved for a swift, favorable resolution. And a huge thanks and note of praise: so much of VJ is dedicated to bringing about a successful interview that it's hard to find out what to do when things go wrong unless people publicly brainstorm and get help. It's brave to do that, and any one who comes after owes you a debt of gratitude.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-04 14:38:00
Middle East and North AfricaContinued Suicide Bombings in Morocco - TODAY
How awful. Stupid f*cking terrorists.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-14 13:45:00
Middle East and North Africacommon names causing petition to take a long time?!
God only knows I've been a crazy person through most of this, and the only way our case could have been easier would have been if, well, he were American. ;) Perspective --- that was the thingy they asked us to submit with the I-129F, eh?
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-14 16:17:00
Middle East and North Africacommon names causing petition to take a long time?!
Relax, kiddo. There's nothing you can do about this one even if he's named Osama bin Laden; ain't gonna change 'is name this late in the game. :)
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-14 15:57:00
Middle East and North AfricaHave your husbands friends married American?

Im still trying to get any answer out of them, so far nothing. Will be faxing another letter today asking for a statement of reasons and also including letters from family and friends, at this point this is all i have i can do, senators are also made aware of...but for us its still soon only will be two weeks Wednesday>Anyone can have issues, but if denied give the concrete reason so it can be addressed, i think thats what most are just asking for.

THose with the age, that cant be changed so what i guess prove its not a problem to anyone, not family or friends. So does this become a issue to the embassy, they arent going to be living in the house. Religion again explain it is not a issue for those concerned, Meeting on the internet, in todays times what do you think the percent is that DIDNT? most cant travel all over the world to meet new people. If its money, again these issues should be able to document time, places, reason, if its not a habit but one time, who did that affect? Another might be divorces, ok people get married they get divorced having no bearing on the current relationship and those papers are all given in the application again. Talking at interview in English not sure how all that works with translators since Ahmed knows English and is educated which he took his degree papers translated but they were not looked at. Ive seen reasons from others of not being pretty enough, being American, so i guess if every woman is very nice looking and NOT american there is better chance, who at that embassy should be allowed to decided how another sees their SO wether fat, skinny, short, tall, black, white I dont know the answers...I know ahmeds brother married someone older and a catholic but he went to Italy so i guess they dont care there...maybe soon we will know an answer.


It's not just whether the CO is personally affected or personally approves of the relationship. If that were the standard, denials of most consulates would be around 75% because there are a lot of non-traditional relationships out there.

The embassy doesn't care if you have a miserable marriage or if the couple isn't suited for each other, but they do care if the USC is being taken for a ride by someone who is just using them to get into the country. They don't know you and your partner, and they can only go by how likely it is that someone with all of those flags will turn out to be saying when her partner takes off: "I guess I should have suspected because of A, B, and C."

I really hope you get specifics soon, because it's hard to know what triggered it. But imagine a hypothetical fraudulent couple with your set of flags, as impersonal as you can. What's different between your situation and theirs? That's what needs to be brought out.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-15 14:52:00
Middle East and North AfricaHave your husbands friends married American?
Yeah. There seem to be two separate issues here, too; a) whether a petition should be held at DoS pending more evidence and fraud research, and b ) whether it should be returned to USCIS. So the options aren't 'approve' or 'return.' There's supposed to be a middle step.

It seems that the guidelines for the latter are quite strict, but that Casablanca doesn't have the resources (or maybe the inclination) to deal with it, amd so they're reading 'fraud' as broadly as possible in cases with a lot of flags. The memo chi posted sounds like interdepartmental squabbling, where DoS wants USCIS not to approve them in the first place if they have all those flags and USCIS wants to adhere to the minimal NOA2 standard we know, and both want to keep their processing times down.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-15 13:44:00
Middle East and North AfricaHave your husbands friends married American?
All I'm saying is that the NOA2 process is really easy to get through, and it can't just be that whatever's in the original petition means the consulate has to accept it without question, and I suspect 'new' information can mean pretty much whatever DOS thinks it means. Eligible for an NOA2 isn't the same as eligible for a visa, or else there'd be no need for an interview.

brdokiegrl, can you try to get a letter like aicha did?
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-15 13:14:00
Middle East and North AfricaHave your husbands friends married American?
Having read what chiquita posted (thanks chi!), it seems that there's a lot of wriggle room in the clause that says 'what a reasonable person' would think constitutes fraud. It's clear that USCIS doesn't what the consulates returning petitions unless they have proof, but it also seems that the 'reasonable person' standard could be construed as proof.

On the larger question: 'The consulate can't return it to USCIS if the information was known to USCIS' sounds a false note to me. The petition approval stage consists in proving that you've met in two years and that you're free to marry and you're compliant with IMBRA. That's why it's really easy to get an NOA2. But that's a really low hurdle, so it doesn't look like they'd have the information necessary to make a judgment on anything but the most blatant fraud.

So the standard's supposed to be 'anything new in the interview', but that's a pretty broad brush. Is it anything 'new', such that if you say in the petition 'I know we've only met once, don't speak the same language, his cousin set us up and I'm thirty years older and a divorcée and we married on our first visit', that would take care of it?

I think not, so I'm thinking we don't understand exactly what counts as 'new.'
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-15 12:57:00
Middle East and North AfricaHave your husbands friends married American?
I don't think any one thing is a red flag in isolation. If your spouse had a lot of friends who had married Americans, but that was because they had all met a lot of American exchange students at university, that would seem to be a lot less red flaggy than someone whose friends type up his e-mails for him. Are his friends all happily married, or do they suddenly develop irreconcilable differences right at the two-year mark? Are there other red flags?

But a successful marriage can develop out of a lot of things, so it's hard to say. It's got to be the case that marrying someone because she (or he) is American has to be a large part of it in some of these relationships, but that doesn't mean the person's getting used or that the foreign spouse intends to leave.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-14 13:31:00
Middle East and North AfricaCasablanca Consulate closed "indefinitely"
They may not want to announce a firm date, so they can be flexible when they learn more about the suicide bombers.

As jenn wisely observed, "indefinite" just means "without a definite end" here, not "permanently."
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-18 14:33:00
Middle East and North AfricaImportant Tips About Birth Certificate Translation
Whatever the reason, you'll stay a lot more sane through the visa process once you delegate tasks to your fiancé or spouse and then let him deal with it. Nothing wrong with helping out, but half the petition is his, so if the visa's eating up your life, make it eat up some of this, too. ;)
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-27 19:23:00
Middle East and North AfricaConverstation btwn Muslim student and Professor
Gee, that looks like a very old evangelical joke with "Muslim" tacked on the front of it, as rclouse notes. It certainly seems to be debating Christian theodicies (a little weird for a Muslim story, but I guess whoever comes up with these stories hasn't actually been too a philosophy class.)

I know another one, and it's even got an evil philosophy professor.

So an atheist (boo!) philosophy (hiss!) professor finishes up his lecture on evolution (why? because EVERYTHING is about evolution in the Liberal Academy®, even the dining hall!) and says to the class: does anyone here believe that the laws of nature are violable?

-Yes, says one student.

-You're Christian Muslim, aren't you? sneers the Instructor.

-Yes.

-So you mean to tell me that the laws of nature will not hold, if I drop this piece of chalk? It will not break upon the floor?

-Yes, if God wills it, in'shAllah, replies the student.

The professor haughtily holds out his arms and drops the chalk, and it does not fall! It gets caught on his sleeve, rolls down his arm, along his body and leg, and rolls harmlessly across his shoe onto the floor.

Instantly, the class is converted reverted! And the student begins to witness.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-01 08:31:00
Middle East and North Africaany CASA updates?
I didn't mean it to be disparaging earlier, uh... wow look at the thread? I just find it interesting, the way people choose to assert new identities, and the little Arabic phrases by a non-speaker of Arabic just jumps out. Sort of like that Sex and the City episode where Charlotte is trying to get an A in being Jewish, and her actually Jewish boyfriend takes it a lot less seriously. Or a college girl coming back from a semester in France and pronouncing all French loanwords in English with the full Parisian accent.

It's a "I'm doing something new in my life" thing, not just limited to conversion to Islam.

Not buying that it just slips out because of prayers, because I don't imagine "thou" and "thy" slip in when the Christians on the board post just because the Lord's Prayer uses archaic language. :) Nothing really wrong with adding to your personal style with all the inshallahs and alhumdillallahs, of course, but it doesn't really measure your degree of conversion. The handful of Muslims I know that were born to it dress more or less normally, and don't sprinkle their conversations with Arabic. (Probably because they're from Iranian parents, but you know, details, details. ;) )
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-01 15:16:00
Middle East and North Africaany CASA updates?

I'm just wondering why you feel that it is necessary to write ALLAH when you are writing in English and Allah means God?


I don't know, generally, but often here it seems to be a new convert signaling thing, like using random Arabic phrases to mean "god willing" and "praise be to god", or the whole hijab decision, which sometimes seems like one part finding one's way in a new faith and one part signalling/dressing up.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-01 09:15:00
Middle East and North AfricaThank you to all of my motivation

That's my diagnosis, Alex. Plus a heavy dose of new convert fun when things get boring.



You are always the most insightful contributor here, Caladan.


Oh, hell no, but thank you for the sentiment. There's a wealth of information held by people on BOTH sides of this debate, which is the really dumb thing, because if everyone can just stop freaking out about whether their ox is currently being gored, there's a whole lot of advice, especially in the red flags area.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-05 17:32:00
Middle East and North AfricaThank you to all of my motivation
Pink elephants on parade!
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-05 17:29:00
Middle East and North AfricaThank you to all of my motivation
That's my diagnosis, Alex. Plus a heavy dose of new convert fun when things get boring.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-05 17:25:00
Middle East and North AfricaThank you to all of my motivation
Goodness, this board feels like it's always dancing around the elephant in the center of the room: whether people's relationships are legitimate or whether people are deluding themselves or being deluded by a significant other; and whether the appropriate response is cheerleading or honesty. When the board swings one way, the people that believe strongly the other way disagree, and almost no one is tactful, and everyone has memories as long as an elephant.

Kind of hard to blame it on any one individual when people keep leaving and the arguments keep continuing.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-05 17:21:00
Middle East and North AfricaDid I do the right thing?

First of all, that is not how an Egyptian talks.
Second of all, would you have refused to write a letter to the embassy on behalf of a relative of Larry Silverstein?

Yeah, actually it is. And leave it to one of you nitwits to try and turn this into some kind of "Jewish 9/11 conspiracy" rubbish. Drooling moron of a cretin.

First of all, that is not how an Egyptian talks.
Second of all, would you have refused to write a letter to the embassy on behalf of a relative of Larry Silverstein?



Is Shel Silverstein Larry's relative? Because The Giving Tree changed my life, so I'd totally write Shel a letter.

Shel's dead love. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you.



dammit

posthumous letter writing campaign for his visa to heaven, then.


I wonder though if being dead is a bigger red flag than others we have seen here


How dare you deny their love!! Don't be so judgmental of necrophilia!!! ;)
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-05 00:39:00
Middle East and North AfricaHello Everyone :)
According to my friends, the babies eventually give you your brains back once they start sleeping through the night. Then they start teething and take them away again. ;)

Got any pictures of the baby?
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 10:54:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
There's a big uproar because people confuse tact with being passive-aggressive.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-07 11:08:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
Good, that's a reason for thinking there's other flags we don't think about. G-EG, that's a good point. I would hope that all visas are subject to the same scrutiny, but it's possible that VJ-relationships skew K and non-VJ (without VJ flags) skew CR-1.

It also makes it somewhat irrelevant. To the extent that other VJer MENAnites are likely to be all-American chicas conversant with the internet who met Moroccans guys online, the advice from VJers to other VJers might be spot-on, though not reflecting on Casablanca's policies at large.

I also thought mybackpages' point seems to be right on. If I had to guess at what seems to be the biggest problem for VJers going through Casa, I'd say it's a language barrier combined with some hole in the background story. This makes it a bit hard to plan for.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 16:46:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
I don't think it's a bias on this board. It's a matter of working with the information at hand, not postulating information that isn't at hand. On this board, there isn't a lot of evidence for the Arab/non-Arab problem. VJ might not be representative of all of the Ks going through Casa, but.. do you have a particular reason for thinking so?
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 16:06:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????

Arab is not a race. I'm not talking about race when I mention Arab/non-Arab. I'm Arab, but there are people here who maintain that I'm not simply because I was born in the US. I'm mostly distinquishing between culture, history, perceptions base on community. Those are factors in determining the validity of a relationship in MENA.


That I agree with, though I think those worries present as flags not as Arab/not-Arab flags but distilled down to: age (large gaps less common than in the U.S.), marital history (remarriage frowned upon), religion (perhaps more important than in the U.S.), number of visits (to establish the USC's familiarity with the region and her fiancé), and language (which seems to me to be rather one of the bigger flags.)

Personally, I wouldn't be able to date someone if I didn't understand their culture well. People aren't islands. It's like problems with the mother-in-law writ large. ;)
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 13:50:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
Because that's the only one I haven't seen cited in an report about questions at an interview or in the scant information about the petition returns? Because we agree on the existence of the other red flags?

And because I find it less likely that the race of the petitioner would be a helpful sorter for the consulate. Just too many white Americans petitioning for foreign fiancés to have it sort out the wheat from the chaff.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 13:12:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????

You don't lose your American citizenship by living overseas. Is that what you were asking? Or whether he would lose his permanent residency if you moved back?



I guess what I am wondering is (and this is a health insurance issue and don't know if it's the same in Canada) how long a person has to be in the USA for authorities to know that they do have residency and can keep getting health insurance. For example, I am with Blue Cross, and they said if you live over there, you do not get insurance, same with Medicare in the USA. I'm wondering if a person can fly back and forth for health care. Sorry to be so ignorant on this. Thanks Caladan for your input.


Oh, residency for your health care. That's going to depend on the health care plan and its details. C.'s insurance won't cover him in the U.S. He's going to buy traveler's insurance for three months, until we're married so I can put him onto mine.

But you'll have to check with your plan. My guess, based on my health care plan, is that it won't cover anything overseas with the possible exception of emergency care, but that if you're paid up, if you fly back for a checkup with your on-network doctor, that would be covered. Fortunately, that's between you and your insurance company, and doesn't involve the department of state.

--

According to the nice link upthread, Casa had 865 or so immediate relative petitions approved last year. The link didn't say out of how many, but I'm sure that information's out there. What's striking is how many visas were approved out of Morocco compared to the surrounding areas. Or hell, even compared to Canada, which had 1200 or so. If there's been an uptick in "hey, here's a great way to get to the U.S." or even just more internet access in the country, that could explain the extra scrutiny.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 13:01:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????

Realistically, we have no real way to gage whether age differences or anything else is an issue. Simply because people here experience any particular problems is not a true measure since we are a mere microcism of what goes thru MENA consulates. This board is overwhelmingly white, with lots of age difference couples. It's not really correct to say that, over all, the consulates are rejecting age difference couples at a higher rate than non-age difference couples, nor that Arab-non-Arab couples have a certain shot, or anything else. This site is skewed, thus, we have no real data about what does and does not raise red flags more easily. So, it is best to consider EACH element that is against the MENA norm. This is also not about anyone's relationship, it is about reality.


I half agree with you, and half agree with Sarah. That's true, but from the information we do have on VJ: has anyone ever been cited for being non-Arab, or more generally, for being a different race than the petitioner? (Thai girls don't normally marry older white guys in Thai culture, either, you know?) Part of the problem is that we don't have as good a collection of reasons for returning petitions as we do for NOA2s: those that we do have seem to focus on language, way of meeting, length of engagement.

It stands to reason that an Arab-American girl who grew up in Casablanca will probably face less scruntiny when she tries to bring over her Casablanca boyfriend than someone who grew up in say, Iowa, and has only been to Morocco once. And since this whole process seems to be about the impression of legitimacy given to the Consulate, if both parties are Arab and have lived substantially in the area, it probably helps to down play other flags a couple might have. So it might not be that 'being a white American' is just as much of a flag as being older than your spouse, but that if both parties are Arab, some flags don't count as much. (Others could count more.)

But that doesn't mean that being whitebread American necessarily a *flag* in that it would be cited as a reason to return or deny a petition or raise suspicion. And we know that things like language, way of meeting, age, length of engagement, have been cited. So while I think your admonition to consider more than just the age gap is well heeded, I don't know if I'd go as far as saying Arab-non-Arab are just as suspicious as an age gap; we just haven't seen any questions along those lines.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 12:51:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
You don't lose your American citizenship by living overseas. Is that what you were asking? Or whether he would lose his permanent residency if you moved back?
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 11:35:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
I would guess that while it's surely something to consider, an Arab-non-Arab relationship is less likely to throw a flag simply because it's not a decent way to sort out the good relationships from the fraudulent, given the high number of non-Arab Americans applying for Arab spouses. Bad noise-to-signal ratio.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 11:11:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
I wouldn't place too much stock in being hit on by 500-600 guys over the world on the internet as validation of anything except that the Internet is a weird place populated by horny men. :) But it's good that you're at least familiar with the dynamics of online chatting, at least.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 10:42:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????

I want to also add that I would also question a more than 20 year age difference between a USC and a beneficiary (no matter the country or the gender). This regularly does not happen in most cultures.

Casa can be intimidating. However, they are trying to do their job with little staff and even less funding. If they truly question the validity of the relationship, they don't have the time or resources to investigate or even schedule another interview. It is much easier if the case is not laid out in front of them in the petition to send it back and let USCIS deal with it.



SO, one more question. If the case gets sent back to the USCIS, does somebody here in the USA decide the case? Does that mean we get to add more evidence before they decide it? And is the decision final or can we keep appealing it? Thanks for the info!! Debbie



ONE MORE THING TO ALL READING THIS POST: Hamid was invited by a friend who owns a business to move to England and this guy would sponsor him. But he didn't do it. His brother lives in Spain and wanted him to come there to be with him, but Hamid didn't want to leave Morocco. He also has a friend in Italy who wanted him to come there, but he didn't want to. Also, he would just as soon stay there and have me move there, but I can't do that due to health insurance and such. So, my point is, he has had more than once chance to leave Morocco if that was his reason for wanting a visa. Believe it or not... that is your choice. I am trying my best not to judge people on this site, and I would respectfully ask you to do the same. Yes, we have an age difference, but he looks older and I look younger. Go figure....People don't always fall in love with folks that other people deem appropriate, but only God can figure that one out. Thanks for listening! Debbie


Read what I wrote, because if all you got out of the post was "Caladan is saying my relationship is fraudulent", you really need to re-read it. I did not say Hamid is using you for a visa. Really. Re-read the whole thing. I didn't even mention age gaps as a red flag. How could I possibly be judging your relationship based on that when I don't know how old you are?

Okay? This isn't about attacking you. Re-read it. Not attacking you. Saying there is a high-ish rate of fraud in Morocco is not. attacking. you. Read some of the posts here.

I am not saying that your relationship is fraudulent. I am saying, however, that you need to be honest with yourself about what your case could look like to a consular officer before you decide, before you have your NOA2, that you're being discriminated against.

And it is more than just an age gap. People with age gaps get approved. Language, religion, your familiarity, the culture, his educational background, whether you're Arab, how you met, how long you've known each other. It seems that it's not just any one thing (why a discrimination suit is going to fail, by the way), but whether when the consulate looks at the application they get a sense of whether you're legit or not.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-06 09:33:00
Middle East and North AfricaIS IT EVER HOPELESS????
70% rejection rate? I thought that it was closer to a 75% approval rate for marriage-based visas out of Casablanca.

1. IS IT EVER TOTALLY HOPELESS TRYING TO GET A FIANCE OR SPOUSE OUT OF MOROCCO AND TO THE U.S.A.? If we keep trying long enough, can we eventually get Hamid here? And what is the longest it has taken to get a SO to the U.S.A. that you know of?

It's hard to say. People who find out their situations are hopeless tend to disappear. But yes, some cases are hopeless.


2. HOW MANY TIMES CAN A PERSON APPEAL A K-1 REJECTION? OR DOES A PERSON HAVE TO FILE A NEW K-1 PETITION TIME AFTER TIME?

I think you get one appeal, but I'm not certain and would welcome correction. Most cases I imagine fall apart long before an appeal is completed; I don't think there's a whole lot of information about this.

3. WOULD IT BE BETTER AFTER A FEW APPEALS TO GO AHEAD AND GET MARRIED IN MOROCCO AND FILE FOR A SPOUSE VISA? I mean, geeze, if a person waits a few years for their SO, how in the hell can the people sitting in Casa say that this is a fraudulent case?

You still have to prove a legitimate relationship, no matter if you married him. Imagine the guy's a con man, no real prospects in Morocco, and his only shot, he thinks is getting to the U.S. by whatever means. How long do you think he'd string along an unsuspecting American woman?


4. DO THEY GIVE A RAT'S BUTT IF A FIANCE OR SPOUSE GOES BANKRUPT DOING THIS ####### AND/OR VISITING THEIR SO IN ANOTHER COUNTRY? Never mind, I think I can answer that one with a resounding NO.

Nope.

5. DOES IT DO ANY GOOD TO GET OUR SENATORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVES HELPING US? WHAT CAN THEY DO? CAN THEY INTERVENE BEFORE THOSE PEOPLE IN CASA REJECT OUR CASE?

Someone here has an experience of contacting a Senator or Congressman early, but they're not magic. They can inquire into a case, but they can't tell the Department of State to let this guy in.

6. WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE PEOPLE IN CASA WHO ARE MAKING THESE SNAP JUDGMENTS THAT AFFECT THE REST OF OUR LIVES? DOESN'T ANYONE HAVE ANY SAY OVER THOSE FOLKS? I KNOW THERE ARE FRAUDULENT CASES, BUT 70% REJECTION RATE? COME ON, GET A GRIP, CASA.

I think it's a 1 in 4 rejection rate. And I suspect you're wrong that it's a snap judgment.

7. I WILL KEEP VISITING HAMID EVERY SCHOOL BREAK UNTIL HE GETS HERE. ANYBODY KNOW HOW MANY A PERSON HAS TO MAKE BEFORE CASA CONSIDERS THIS A "VALID RELATIONSHIP"? WHAT WILL GIVE OUT FIRST, MY MONEY OR CASA? (LOL, SORRY, COULDN'T RESIST SAYING THAT!!!)

The question isn't just how dedicated you are, though lots of visits certainly seems to help. The final question is whether he's looking for a dupe so he can get a green card. Lots of visits proves you two have gotten to know each other, but there's not a magic number.

8. I READ THE LAWYER FELLA'S ARTICLE ON HERE RECENTLY. HOW WILL I KNOW WHERE THE PAPERS ARE SENT SO THAT I CAN CHASE THEM DOWN? HE SAID THAT IF WE DON'T RESPOND TO THE PAPERS BEING SENT BACK, WE ARE S.O.L. (AND IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, IT IS "SH-- OUT OF LUCK." SOUTHERN SAYING)?

Hello-whatnow-come again?

9. WHO IS IN CHARGE OF ALL THIS #######? WHO IS MAKING THESE INSANE RULES?

The guys charged with keeping fraud out of the country. It's not the consulate's fault that a significant minority of young Moroccans are desperate to leave.

10. IS THERE ANY WAY TO SEND ADDITIONAL INFO SO THAT IT CAN "CATCH UP" TO THE VISA TO GIVE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT OUR RELATIONSHIP IN THE FORM OF A LETTER OR SUCH?

Anyone have experience with this?

THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH, VJ MEMBERS, YOU HAVE MADE ALL THIS BEARABLE. I appreciate each and every word of advice and support you can give. It seems bizarre that a person in Casa can sit and make a 15 minute judgment that ruins the rest of our lives. I'm betting most American (and other country) marriages couldn't hold up under this much scrutiny.

Eh, most of them could. It's really not all that high a bar, to expect people to follow minimal cultural norms and speak the same language.

--
Look, betting is, you'll be fine. Lots of people have been just fine. Be honest with yourself. Do you have any red flags? If so, what are they? How would you explain them to a consular officer? Put on your consulate hat. Do you two look like a legit couple? You do? Then relax. Your biggest worry now is making sure the consulate is open.

Do you look like maybe you're a bit questionable? Read Kiya's Awesome Thread of Awesomeness and prepare yourself.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-05 22:09:00
Middle East and North AfricaA MRS. IS JUST A MS. IN CASABLANCA VISA SCHEME
Damn. This isn't going to make it easier on anyone trying to convince someone their relationship is real, but since most of the conspirators were arrested and convicted last year, it probably won't introduce any NEW delays.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-11 14:43:00
Middle East and North AfricaThanks (saha ~ jazk Allah kheirn) everyone
Oh, you poor dear. Best wishes to both of you.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-04 11:56:00
Middle East and North AfricaEthnic/Religious Fears...
If I understand how the name check works, it's not exactly that young men from ME/NAn countries are subjected to more scrutiny, but that their names are more likely to pick up false hits, and hence require more scrutiny.

But in any case, look at the approvals by consulate for the last year, and you'll find thousands of visas out of the middle East and North Africa. It's more scrutiny, but they're not going to say, "oh, Muslim? denied."
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-13 19:04:00
Middle East and North AfricaHorrible Casa News
Morocco's nowhere near Iraq. The suicide bombers didn't even manage to kill anyone besides themselves. That would be the most peaceful day in the past four years in Baghdad.

Anyone called their Senator or Congressman? Maybe that can get you an estimated time to reopening, or at least an explanation of why they're still closed.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-13 00:09:00
Middle East and North AfricaMoody's Mohammed is coming to America!
Hurray!
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-02 08:32:00
Middle East and North AfricaLike the cat...meow!
A friend of mine is Persian, and passed along this funny stand-up routine, which includes a bit on the difference between Arabs and Iranians.

It's a light touch, but pretty incisive.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-04-24 19:30:00
Middle East and North AfricaAvoiding red flags in our K-1 application
A red flag isn't something you can avoid, exactly; it's just a characteristic of your relationship that might raise an eyebrown. He isn't going to go *poof* and get older or be educated in poetry instead of chemistry. :)

So it's more how you can address it. How you can show that you're a legit couple. Good advice on here would be from other couples going through the consulate in Turkey. Good advice might also be obtained from a lawyer, which is usually worth a consult if you can find an experienced one.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-14 20:05:00
Middle East and North AfricaWhere does some go from here?

I know that you don't like the idea of leaving Morocco and reentering in order to extend your tourist visa, but you really might need to do it in order to buy yourself more time, no? It would make me very nervous to be in Morocco without a valid visa, so just make sure that you're careful, aicha. Better to hop a ferry to Spain and back to have your visa extended until October and have more time to figure out a course of action than have to deal with the consequences of overstaying your current visa. Good luck to you!


Just wanted to express sympathy and second this. Make sure you keep your end legal; the last thing you need is another hassle at this point. Hang in there; you'll get through this.
CaladanMaleCanada2007-05-13 00:05:00