Sdmansour

Ranjini <member839@british_expats.com> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > Originally posted by Khadija
    > > An Egyptian from the
    > Consulate has visited our home while my husband was out at work (for
    > those of you following our case, my DH got his old job back on Tue) and
    > this woman stated she was there to investigate some issues about your
    > marrage , such as my family's opinion about the situation , checking
    > some dates, etc..... According to my husband, Abdo, he told me that she
    > left after meeting his familiy and appeared to be satisfied ( at least
    > that is what he was told by his family).
    > >
    > > Patty Khadijah
    >
    > I
    > can understand how panicked you must be feeling I have heard of this
    > kind of thing happening with people coming through the Mumbai Consulate
    > in India, where administrative reviews and all manner of delaying
    > tactics used to be very commonplace. But I haven't heard of outright
    > denials even in Mumbai, if that's any comfort!!
    > Mumbai has obviously had
    > several visa fraud cases in the past and hence the extreme precautions,
    > I think. It looks like the same sort of thing is now happening in Egypt
    > (Cairo consulate??). It kind of sucks, I know. I am truly sorry to hear
    > about what you are and fiance are going through.....



Hi Patty,

I just found this website last night (I guess in desparation) and read
the 2 threads that pertain to Egypt. You don't know how thrilled I
was to read that there is someone else going through the same "stuff"
we are going through. I have met others in Egypt when we have been to
the embassy but it is really nice to have other women here that are
going through the same process.

We filed our I-130 and all the other papers that accompany/support it
in July 2003. Shortly after we filed our papers, there were 2 guys
who came into my husband's neighborhood just poking around for
information on the people who lived in his building. When they
discovered that my husband's family was related to the former first
lady's family (Sadat) they said they were finished.

We had our interview in Nov. 2003 and shortly after the interview, a
male investigator came to the apartment and wanted to see my husband.
His father answered the door and the investigator asked him if he knew
that his son was married to an American woman. Of course, his father
said yes. The investigator also noted the framed photograph of us
sitting on the end table in their living room. The investigator also
asked my husband if his friends knew of our marriage and he said all
of his friends knew so the investigator asked him to call any 2 and
let the investigator talk to them himself. So he complied. That was
pretty much the extent of the investigation. The investigator had
convinced himself that our marriage was valid and publicly known which
is what I understand their mission is. It was about 1 month after
that that he was called by the embassy to come and give his
fingerprints. We are still waiting on the results of this - it has
been about 6 weeks.

I would be happy to entertain any questions anyone might have either
here or offline at my email address: [email protected]. I think it is
important to share as much information with each other as possible
because the embassy is so secretive or just too burdened.

Debbie

Hebapotamus42

Patty, how #@&%#&($#$!!!! I don't think words can describe my feelings right now.

Khadija

Well, Heba, that pretty much summed up my feelings yesterday, too. Interestingly, my husband was much more resigned to this type of intrusion by government and those in authority. It surprised him far less than it did me. I guess it's the difference between growing up in a system where everyone is guilty until proven innocent and one where you're innocent until proven guilty.

He was not home at the time this occured. This week he got his old job back at the hotel where we met. It's difficult work, the pay is not much but he's thrilled to have a job to go to everyday. I'm so happy for him. It will help him pass the time until I fly there to bring him home.

Anyway, I digress. I spoke with my sister-in-law yesterday (the one who spoke with the investigator) and here's her account of the event:

She mentioned the lady was very nice and friendly. She also said this woman did not write down anything. Nor did she ask my sister-in-law to sign anything. The questions were about the marriage. Was it in public? Did all members of the family agree and are they happy about the marriage? How did we meet? How many times did I visit Egypt? How do we keep in touch with each other? Who calls most of the time?

My sister-in-law was able to answer all the questions except the one about the number of your visits. Her answer was that she does know exactly but her brother (my husband) would know. She (my sister-in-law) felt the lady was seeking information about the marraige, if it took place publicly and was it attended by family members and friends. Basically, she was searching to see if the family knew of our marriage and was happy about it.

My sister-in-law felt very satisfied with the interview and told me again how very nice and friendly she was. She also told this woman about our flat on the fourth floor and how much you love it.

Since we have nothing to hide, they can ask all the questions they want. However, since I don't trust these Consulate folks further than I can throw them, I'll be following up with a "hi - how's it going email" this week ask them now that the "home visit" is concluded and confirmed the information we already had submitted as our evidence, how much longer will it be.

As I said in an earlier posting somewhere, this interview was absolutely redundant to all the reams of evidence we sent in. I don't know why we bothered. We had hundreds of photos in an album from our first date in 2001 to our last rendezvous this past October, his brother was his witness at our wedding and my friend from a sister organization was my witness, we sent a video with us at his sister's engagement and wedding parties (2 years apart), we had 18 months worth of MCI phone bills showing calls to/from Egypt and personal cards and letters. It's as if they didn't bother to look at any of it or assumed it was all cooked up (yeah, like we hired actors to be our family and I wore wigs to show my hair getting longer over the past 2 years). Our tax dollars at work!

I was happy to learn I'm not the only one subjected to such humiliating scrutiny. Debbie - new to our group - had the same thing happy to her hubby recently. She's doing DCF. Misery loves company.

Hopefully, the worst is over and it'll be downhill now until we finally get this visa. I don't know how much more of this I can take. At least I got to speak with my hubby this morning for Valentine's Day.

Patty Khadijah

Hebapotamus42

This is exactly why it's so weird. Either they never bothered to do so much as glance at all that evidence (perhaps the amount of it overwhelmed them) or they were so suspicious as to think you doctored all of it. At least you know they're working on your case. I wonder if the level of fraud they encounter is so high as to warrant that level of suspicion. Yikes!

Khadija

The only thing I can think of is none of it was specifically labeled. So, while Abdo and I are in a lot of pictures, we didn't label the photos, e.g, Amira & Mohammed's wedding, Our Flat, Engagement Ring, etc... If they wanted to be dense, they could have said as far as proof of his parent/siblings knowing, these were friends who were in the photos. Photos from outside Egypt don't prove his family knows anything - just that he was with me at business functions. What can I say. They probably have a "checklist" of stuff to do for each case. Depending on the degree of suspicion, they may do just a phone call, e.g., egypto & nka418 or home visits ala me and sdmansour.

Yes, fraud is rampant in Cairo. Even Abdo has commented there are stories in the newspaper about what a problem it is and how the Egyptian authorities are cooperating with the Consulate to try to stem the tide. There are a lot of jerks out there who make it very difficult for the honest ones like us. Not much we can do.

I was angry but I'm getting over it. Allah will provide. I must have faith that he didn't bless me with Abdo just to keep us apart indefinitely. He will get his visa somehow some way.

Patty Khadijah