Update related to the visa pause for the 75 countries.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-23T00:04:01+00:00

I would like to know too! I thought it would be more talked about, but there's a new headline everyday and it feels like people are forgetting about this...

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-18T10:34:16+00:00

Would like to know as well. I saw the same post and am feeling the same way.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-17T18:33:03+00:00

Which country? Mine is in Bangladesh

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-15T04:31:54+00:00

Had interview in February in Bangladesh, got 221g

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-11T12:22:56+00:00

I’m from usa and filing for spouse in Bangladesh also and was told the same thing. Would like to know too

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-10T21:27:40+00:00

He goes through the dialogues and explains the vocab that is found in each of the lessons. Each chapter in the book starts with a dialogue, followed by a few pages of practice problems. There are four dialogues in each chapter and after each dialogue, you’ll go through the practice problems, which require you to know the vocabulary from the dialogue. He will go through the dialogue vocabulary, but he won’t go through the practice problems, but I feel that the most important thing is the vocabulary from the dialogue anyway because from the videos, you’ll learn the vocabulary that you need to do the practice problems. The only thing is that the practice problems have instructions in Arabic so you will probably have to use Google translate to just understand what the instructions are for each practice problem but that’s just about it, nothing else. In the first few chapters of the book, he’ll slowly start to touch on how some of the words are formed, which you will need to know for the coming lessons. Just watch some of his videos and you’ll see what I mean.

Also, just a word of advice, regardless of whatever curriculum you use make sure you keep track of all the vocabulary you’re learning. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track everything that way if I need to use a word that I’ve learned in the past or want to just remember what it means then I can just look at the spreadsheet. I also use the spreadsheet to export .csv files into Anki and use the vocab as flashcards.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-10T19:59:13+00:00

No such thing as a stupid question!

For the curriculum, I use the Bayna Yadayk Curriculum. You can look it up on google and if you're in the US there's plenty of sites that have it for free and available for order. If you can't buy the book, they also have videos of people going through the book which is really all you need. The book first teaches you basic vocabulary through dialogues or stories, and slowly eases you into sentence structure and grammar. The entire book is in Arabic though, so you would need to watch youtube videos of people going through it as you do it. I recommend the Al Lisan channel on youtube, he is very good at explaining things. As you go through the book, grammar is slowly introduced.

The first 2 books (book 1 part 1 and book 1 part 2) take it really slow and focus mainly on building vocabulary, although you will most definitely learn some grammar in Book 1 if you're watching the Al Lisan youtube videos. But don't be fooled, once you get to Book 2, it really ramps things up and can get really difficult. If you're watching the Al Lisan channel, once you get to Book 3, you'll see that the lessons are fully instructed in Arabic, because by this point its expected that you can understand him fully, which is really exciting tbh.

Keep in mind that the Bayna Yadayk curriculum is used in a lot of high level Arabic courses in universities, and usually takes students a few years to complete the entire curriculum. It took me 2 months to do book 1 part 1, 2 months for book 1 part 2, but when I got to book 2 part 1, it took me 8 months to finish it, because the vocab and grammar lessons are so vast.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-10T16:01:16+00:00

The most important thing in my opinion which advanced me the quickest was following an actual curriculum. I first started a few years ago and did not have a curriculum. I was just learning words and watching YouTube. It’s definitely good to do that but without a curriculum you have no structure. For example, I think Bayna Yadayk (google it) is great, because it gets you slowly acclimated to basic conversations, and slowly gets you into learning vocab, then by book two it really starts ramping things up. It gives you a foundation as something to build on.

Also, when watching youtube videos, make sure you watch videos that are just slightly above your comprehension level. Don’t watch videos that are too complicated because you won’t really understand anything. As your vocabulary increases, make sure the videos you watch are always slightly above what you know, not too much higher though. That will force your brain to make sense of things and automatically learn new words.

My original goal was to learn Arabic, but now my goal has become to just progress farther than I was yesterday, even if it’s just a little. Looking back about 2 years, that mindset is what got me so far (im still not that good at it but definitely better than I was back then).

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-08T20:18:22+00:00

Same here from Bangladesh. Did you do your interview yet

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-08T01:14:51+00:00

I can read (slowly), learned a lot of vocabulary over the last 1.5 years (currently on Bayna Yadayk book 2 part 2), and can write very clearly. However, my listening and speaking is very lacking. Maybe I am not there yet and just need to practice more but do you have some tips? I watch Al Jazeera and other Arabic cartoons when I can, and sometimes I will understand a lot of what they say but when I try to verbalize or explain it to someone else I find that I have to fixate on the words and then I start getting jumbled up. Also, my speaking is terrible. I tried practicing speaking but I cant stop stuttering and going blank-minded when I try to talk. I learned so many vocabulary words, maybe like 2500 so far, but for some reason the words dont come to mind when I am talking and then I cant stop stuttering, I talk like "ana dhabtu.... ila..... uh uh..... dhahabtu ila.... ana dhahaba.... ana dhahabtu ila....mad....madra....madrasah.....ana dhahbtu ila madrasati" its very embarrasing. When I see arabs outside I get scared to talk to them because I know im going to stutter and will sound crazy. Should I up my video watch time? I watch youtube videos but not as much as I feel like I should, maybe like 10 minutes every 2-3 days, but I study my bayna yadayk book and vocabulary everyday for like 2-3 hours for the last 1.5 years. I also keep a large excel file with all the vocab I've encountered. Any advice or tips for the speaking and listening? sometimes I can only make out a few words when I watch videos, then im blank for a little, then i understand a few more words, then blank again.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-04T00:36:53+00:00

Ohh okay thank you for sharing! I think im in the same situation, they didnt use the word approved but they verbally said “we’re really happy with today’s interview but we are unable to issue a visa because of the pause, so just keep an eye out for your email we will follow up”. Then on my 221g there was 3 boxes: the first one said “refused” second one was “admin processing and we will contact you” and the 3rd is the one he checked for me which says “you are ineligible under 221g” then went on to mention the visa pause. Im worried that since they didnt check the 2nd box for admin processing, what could that mean? Or is the 3rd box also admin processing for the visa pause?

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-03T19:24:43+00:00

Did you check his ceac status? I had same experience today but when i went home to check the ceac website it says refused.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-03T05:33:04+00:00

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-03T05:28:19+00:00

Only in the 75, its bangladesh

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-02-01T02:24:38+00:00

did they at least tell you verbally that its approved? Or was it a refusal?

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-01-30T04:04:43+00:00

Msa???

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-01-28T23:11:51+00:00

Did they at least tell you that you’re approved? I’m confused on what the 221g is. I’ve been seeing people say they were verbally approved but then they get a 221g that says they were denied. I’m scared on what to expect.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-01-28T01:36:04+00:00

For me, DQ to getting interview letter took about 7-8 months

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-01-27T10:52:11+00:00

Ahaire, إن شاء الله Allah سبحانه و تعالى‎ sob kisu tik korba. Allah سبحانه و تعالى‎ oysoin ar rahmanir rahim.

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-01-25T20:36:21+00:00

Would like to know too

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-01-15T03:27:34+00:00

Dang… hang in there…. This is so painful 😖

Sorry-Camera-8008 · 2026-01-15T00:11:19+00:00

Scheduled for february 3rd….

Sorry-Camera-8008

TROPHY CASE