Moving to a new country can be hard. Moving to a new country during a global pandemic, that’s even harder.
At least that seems to be the experience for 90 Day Fiance’s Zied Hakimi as he moved to America right before lockdown.
Speaking to Us Weekly, Zied’s fiancee Rebecca Parrott shared that the adjustment was more than Zied had bargained for.
Rebecca shares that America isn’t what Zied had expected
“He basically said, ‘This is not what I thought it was going to be,’ and he was very unhappy,” Rebecca said. “He missed his family, and it was really hard. It was a struggle.”
Rebecca also shared that the couple had engaged in a big argument shortly after Zied’s arrival, which certainly didn’t help.
Despite their fight, however, Rebecca understood where he was coming from. As she points out, if she was to move to his home country, the last thing she’d expect to happen is a global pandemic.
“I know if I were going to Tunisia and I was going to live there, I would have something in my head of what…to expect. I don’t know what it would be, but I guarantee you sitting in quarantine wouldn’t have crossed my mind. That’s not something that’s in your toolbox to consider,” she continued.
To top it all off, Rebecca shares that Zied’s inexperience also played a part in his rough adjustment.
“He’s never been married before. He’s never been in a long-term relationship before. He’s never been to another country before,” Rebecca revealed.
Zied’s visa was approved just before the COVID-19 lockdown
Rebecca and Zied have returned for Season 8 of 90 Day Fiance. Fans quickly learned that Rebecca was working as a fast-food manager in order to sponsor Zied and the visa process.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and threw a wrench in their plans.
“If I were in any – literally almost any – other field of work, this would have been a blessing in disguise. Can you imagine [if] I would have gotten the stimulus checks and probably gotten unemployment to stay home? We would have thought it was written for us. We would have gotten to stay together…or we would have killed each other. I don’t know. But you know, because of my job, it was just the worst possible scenario,” she admitted.
Rebecca also dished that Zied’s K-1 visa approval came quicker than they were anticipating.
“We actually got an email that said his interview had been moved up a week to my birthday, and we didn’t do anything for that,” Rebecca said.
“We’re not sure why that happened, but had that not happened, he would not be in America. He would not have come when he did because he got here and within two days, COVID hit and everything was locked down. So we just made it under the wire.”
90 Day Fiance airs Sundays at 8/7c on TLC.