Re: Marring a Moroccan Muslima

Salam Alaikum,

I need help and would appreciate honest advice.

I am engaged and my fiancé wants to get married in her home of Morocco. I am an American (born) Citizen. We are both practicing Muslims and are looking for the least expensive and quickest way to marry and move her to the US to live with me.

So far, it seems the quickest way is to get married is there in Morocco and then apply for her immigrant visa to the US. I was told from others that this is not an immediate process and it is very slow. She might have to wait for up to 6 months in Morocco.

I read someone else’s blog and they mentioned getting married in the states at a Masjid and then sending our marriage certificate to Morocco would be a lot less expensive route but I am worried that applying for a Fiancé Visa will take longer.

How long does that take?

Because of the distance, price on travel, I’m looking for the least expensive and quickest way for us to marry and be together. Insha’Allah we have a nice wedding in Morocco the following year.

Let me know if there’s a better way.

Salam

>She might have to wait for up to 6 months in Morocco

and that is looking on the bright side, and then some...

If you get married in Morocco, make sure that you wait at least 18 months before applying for an immigration visa to the USA, otherwise the US INS dept may view your marriage with suspicion and most likely treat it as a marriage of convenience for immigration purposes. If they do, you might be called in for interviews and if they are not convinced, may put your papers on the bottom of the pile and make you wait a long time for processing.

There is no quick way around your problem. Maybe a good way forward is to get engaged, throw a big family party, take a lot of photos of it and apply for a fiancee visa. By doing this you will appear to be honest, and thus more likely to succeed with your application.

You don't say which state you are living in, but there are some areas in states where it can take up to 5 years to get an interview and up to 15 years to get a green card. I remember this to be true of the INS office in San Jose, California.

I personally got notification of my initial interview from an INS office after three years. wow.