My daughter just married a resident of Morocco. We love him! My husband and I both attended the wedding, and met his wonderful family. We returned to Canada and our daughter sent in all their papers (both hers and his), plus all the necessary documents and photos to Immigration at the end of February/07. How long do you think it will take for him to get permission to come here. They are miserable living separately and we are waiting patiently for permission for him to come to Canada. We understand that Immigration here, has to send the papers to Rabat in Morocco after they are finished with them in Canada (Ontario). Would you give us an idea how long it will take for everything to go through? Thanks for you time.

Thanks for your prompt reply. It was late February that she sent in the papers. Do you think he might be here for July/August? We have a couple of family weddings for him to attend? Can you give me an approximate guess? lol

Thanks so much for all your help so far. My daughter sent in the papers at the end of February. They were received in Mississauga on the 2nd of March, and she just found out that the sponsorship was approved March 23rd. I think that was very fast. The papers are in Rabat I guess now. We're hoping that everything goes smoothly over there. Keep your fingers crossed for us please. Thanks again.

Great! good luck..from here on, its all in their hands..hopefully, things will move fast for your new son-in-law.
Keep us posted.

Dear Essouira,
So nice to hear from you. Don't worry about your English. It is much much better than my Arabic. lol
You are from Essouira? We visited there last January. Lovely! You will love Vancouver, as you will have the sea near you. We lived in British Columbia near Vancouver for 5 years and loved it. Now I don't know what to tell you about our situation. My daughter met my new son-in-law on the internet. We went to Morocco in late December and stayed for close to a month there. What wonderful people we met! We were accepted into our new son's family, and AFTER A LOT OF WORK!!!!! they were married. As you read, they started the papers at the end of February. I think it is going well, although of course we would like it to go faster. The paperwork went quite quickly this side. My new son got a letter as you did, saying that they were starting the paperwork in Rabat. His were started April 2nd. If you look on the Canadian Immigration website, it tells you how long it usually takes. The shortest time is 3 months, the longest 7 months. If you have had your medical, and police check, and all papers are in order, it will help move things along faster. I read that if the husband and wife live separately, they want to try to get them together as soon as they can. I know you must be very lonely without your wife. Just take one week at a time. As I tell my son-in-law, you know you will be be together. You just have to be patient. There is nothing you can do about it, so just be thankful for email, Messenger, and telephone. It would be nice to hear how things are going for you, so if you want to email me, let me know and I will send you my email address.

Essaouira, I have sent you an email. Look in your Inbox on this site. (See at top of page).
- Penny (the nice lady lol)

Hi;

I live in Victoria (not far from Vancouver - Mr. Essaouira) and am married to a Moroccan from Marrakech.  We were married the beginning of January and his application is now in process in Rabat (letter sent April 16). I expect his application will be processed between mid August and mid November if there are no problems. As always I hope it's sooner than later.  It's extremely difficult waiting and costly, however this is fairly standard from what I've understood. It's great to see a number of people in this forum with Moroccan spouses - it's great to touch base with other people in a similar situation.

Essaouira - your application should take 4 - 7 months to process in Rabat.

Cindy - I've gone through the whole process in Morocco to get married and the info on the Embassy's website is pretty accurate.  The recommended timeframe to allow for marriage paperwork is 3 - 4 weeks.  It took my husband and I 2 1/2 weeks, but I think we were pretty lucky.  It was a huge amount of running around - and make sure you take your papers on the plane (my luggage was lost for 4 days with all my papers in it).  Your fiance should talk to an adul in Morocco to find out what is needed as well. This is what they instructed him on what's needed from you:
- valid passport
- birth certificate
- criminal record check (in Canada for you)
- proof that you are a christian, muslim or jew
- 4 recent photographs (you can get passport ones done in Morocco)
- Capacity for Marriage (you can get this in Canada or do it in Morocco - there is someone you can go to near the Embassy in Rabat)
- certificate of police clearance from the ministry of Justice in Rabat (proof that you have no criminal record in Morocco)

All the best to everyone waiting for their loved ones.

Tracy

hi cindy
about the marriage process and how much will take and what you need like documents
 you will need all cindy said + some other documents

- your 3 last cheque of paye.
- one document from your boss ,explaining what you do as work.
- certificate of nationality _ you ask it in the embassy when you go to ask the Capacity for Marriage in the canadian embassy in rabat.

the marriage process need much time and work ,but if you do good planing you can ,finish all in two weeks,me and my wife we had good planing and all the process took 10 days .

the better think if your husband not from rabat ,that you go to rabat take one hotel for 3 days ,the first think you will need do that you go early in the morning to the canadian embassy ,ask the capacity for marriage and the certificate of nationality,you will need wait 48 hours to have it
after the embassy you need go to one translator ine the same moring to gain time ,and give him all your canadian document's ,to translate all to arabic  ,and when you get your capacity for mariage and nationality certif you will need translate it also, and you tel the traslator men or women that you don't have time and ask fast work if not they will ask you to come back tomorrow in the evining
the next stape that you go to the ministry of justice to ask the certificate of police clearance from the ministry of Justice in Rabat ,you need to bring with you your canadian criminal record check ( translated with one copy of your passport and birth certificate translated ) you will need to go early in the morning like that you will get it at 12h00
your husband  will need to stamp some documents in the moroccan ministry of foreign affairs
after all that you will need to do 3 copy of all your document's and your husband documen's
than you will need to contact the adul and he will show you the good way to finish all ,coz in this step all will be eazy
the proof that you are christian muslim or jew its eazy ,your husband can write in one simple paper that you are christian or jew or muslim and you sign this paper and you go with him to one governement office ( moukataa) to notarized it( you bring with you your passport and one copy of it)
finally i wish you good luck and i hope that i dont forget some details hahahaha
abdellatif
                                                                 

My understanding is that it's an another 4 - 7 months once the application is sent to the Canadian Embassy in Morocco (in addition to the time it took in Canada).  I'm not sure what the reason for the variance in processing times at the embassy -- my sense is that is partially dependant on how many applications are being processed and perhaps partially to the individual applications (some are more complete, require less follow up or clarification, etc.).  Perhaps someone else out there has a better idea...

It is great hearing from all of you re the topic I started. Let's keep in touch, so we can help each other with information. We can start a club! lol
- Penny

Cindy,
It's a good thing you extended your vacation to 3 weeks. Even longer would be good. Make sure your holiday doesn't fall on any Muslim holidays. We ended up going right when they were celebrating Eid el-Kbir and all the government offices were closed for 3 days! What a nightmare! Congratulations! You're in for a very stressful time ahead, but it will be worth it in the end. You will love Morocco. I didn't want to come home! Be sure to visit the Hussain II mosque in Casablanca. It's amazing the feeling you get when the Imam calls everyone to prayer. Essaouira is lovely! The souks in Marakesh are great. Just being so close to the sea is wonderful, but I especially loved the mosque. Oh I wish I was going back!
I don't know if you mentioned it, but where do you live?
Beslama,
Penny (or Lady Penny as Essaouira calls me)

hello
really im very happy to be with you in our club lol
and hear all this nice word from you about morocco
yes cindy your fiance can contact me in any time i will be happy to answer all his questions
plz give your mail and i will send you my cell phone number
i would like know wher live your fiance exactly in morocco
me im from rabat
dear lady penny its always nice to hear your nice words about morocco ,and i like much your idea about the club
inshallah we will be friends for evere
abdellatif
nb /I am sorry to write this short message ,coz im busy and i have so much work to do,and i will write more soon.

Hi Abdellatif  I sent you a private message with my email address in it.  plz let me know if you don't get it.  Maybe we can visit you while we are in Rabat doing all of our paper work :-) That is if you are still in Morocco, incha alah you will be in Canada by then.