December 2010 Manila Embassy Interview Thread

[Tahoma 2,292]

What is the embassy # you are calling to get your appointment? i need to call next week

The Embassy call center's phone number from the U.S.: 1-888-877-9888

The Embassy call center's phone number from the Philippines: 1-909-101-7878

Oops...sorry BigJohn...I didn't notice until now that you are a CR-1 visa. I'm not too familiar with spousal visas, but I believe you should be calling the National Visa Center (NVC) rather than the U.S. Embassy Manila.

[BigJohn 4]

It's a DCF it didn't go through NVC so pretty sure I have to call the embassy directly.

[Tahoma 2,292]

It's a DCF it didn't go through NVC so pretty sure I have to call the embassy directly.

Oh...OK...it's a Direct Consular Filing. Well, I don't know much about those either.

Are you still living in 'Pinas?

The phone number for the Embassy's Immigrant Visa Unit: 301-2000 extension 5184 or 5185.

From the U.S.: 011-63-2-301-2000 ext. 5184 or 5185.

Edited November 20, 2010 by Tahoma

[BigJohn 4]

That's probably the # I need. Yes, still in the philippines for now.

[DAAG 1]

i just read this thread on scheduling an interview and feel a little encouraged. my filipina fiancee and i have been struggling for some time with this delima, only because i had gone through the process once before, and mistakenly thought it would still be as it was in 2006, when the embassy actually sent interview packets and scheduled the interview and medical on thier own as soon as you were qualified, so when my fiancee recieved her letter from the embassy stating she was elegible for scheduling of an intetrview, july 9, 2010. we foolishly waited for notification of her interview being scheduled, till november when we read on visa journey, that isnt how its done any longer.

consequently we're now in the same boat as the rest of you albiet true that we could have been done last summer if we'd known better. ive been getting the standard runaround most of you have. unfortunately my fiancee went to manila from mindiano with her cousin who knew manila as a guide, before we were able to sceduole anything, so im playing catchup now. after i'd gotten my $18 pin, i was put on hold for 5 hours till the embassy closed on a friday, wasting my first call of the two i was told i'd have, the next week i was told there were no k1 visa appointment slots. i asked how long are there none, she didnt know. i asked will the scheduling process change and she said yes but had no idea what the change will entail. i asked when may we expect there to be new appointment slots and she didnt know, basically she didnt know any more than i did and didnt care. on a subsequent call i reached a more empathetic and knowledgible operator who didnt have much if any more information, but said there are no slots currently but may be again in december. she suggested calling again next friday. i sent 3 emails to the embassy after that, none of which were answered. i got really worried they might just let us sit with no information till whatever changes are comming have taken place. i asked will they raise the costs again as they did doubling them in june, but still no answer.

basically i, now know, we'd be far better off had i called the call center in July, and we'd have been together last summer, but you know what they say about hind site. now Janes in manila, living at much higher costs than at home and were blocked from scheduling the last step in the process by burocracy. we did take our chances and get her medical exam, which she passed with flying colors on the 10th, not waiting for the interview scheduling, kasi they wouldnt do it.

now her passport, which you must also bring to the medical exam at st lukes, is at st lukes, most likely being sent to the embassy into limbo kasi we dont have an interview scheduled, becasuse the call center wont schedule it. so will they know what do do with the passport and medical passing information for a visa applicant with no interview scheduled? who knows.

when i called the call center, the operator didnt even ask the correct questions she asked my name only and didnt care about the applicants name or case number. i got the empression from that and the fact she kept saying she didnt know what Embassy Manila was doing "over there", as if she was in a different place, that she was in california not manila. I wonder if it'd go better if we were allowed to contact the place where the case is actually being handled, so theyd have some idea what the change will be in 6 work days, and if we have any chance of scheduling appointments.

meanwhile were all getting repeated pins and throwing away $18 each time to keep trying to pry our way into information we should have access to because it has such a profound effect on our lives. and some teen aged phone talker denies us that knowledge on a whim, while probably doing her nails behind her desk, happy for the rest while appointments arent being scheduled, wreaking havoc with our lives.

it looks like were all being kept in the dark, hoping for a miracle in the last week of November. i thank any and all of you who are trying to get the closely garded secrets of the new scheduling procedures, and informing us of what they are able to find.

if i learn anything new i will post it here too. i went to the link someone posted above for the new scheduling procedure, but didnt find anything about the new procedure. i just hope the embassy will recognize that we are vicitms of the changing system, who simply want to be with our fiancees, and decide to make it easier for us. i also hope we do have some hope of getting interviews scheduled soon. good luck to us all.

i may have been in this process a little longer than some of you, having tried it twice, but unlike other processes, it doesnt get easier with time because they keep changing the process, and we always remain not privy to those changes. so i am learning from you. i am happy we have this site, because it seems to me the best source of information on the process. each time the embassy call center leakes even a small crumb of information to any one of us, if we share it, eventually we may have some clue of what theyre planning , and how we need to replan to try to succeed with what should be a simple process, but is made more difficult by the system keeping us in the dark. thank you, one and all.

i will keep trying to get information and trying to keep jane going in manila till we can get something useful i can share with you, and hopefully be able some day to bring my fiancee here to marry and start our livews together and hopefully we'll all, someday be able to look back on this nightmare and laugh.

[BigJohn 4]

I don't know if the paperwork has changed since july, but the paperwork I received was very specific that you needed to fill out and send in the interview request. Did yours not say in the packet you needed to send it in? Mine had step by step instructions of what was needed. In my experience, the embassy/government does not really care about your circumstances so you will just have to hope for the best.

[BB & MJ 3]

i just read this thread on scheduling an interview and feel a little encouraged. my filipina fiancee and i have been struggling for some time with this delima, only because i had gone through the process once before, and mistakenly thought it would still be as it was in 2006, when the embassy actually sent interview packets and scheduled the interview and medical on thier own as soon as you were qualified, so when my fiancee recieved her letter from the embassy stating she was elegible for scheduling of an intetrview, july 9, 2010. we foolishly waited for notification of her interview being scheduled, till november when we read on visa journey, that isnt how its done any longer.

consequently we're now in the same boat as the rest of you albiet true that we could have been done last summer if we'd known better. ive been getting the standard runaround most of you have. unfortunately my fiancee went to manila from mindiano with her cousin who knew manila as a guide, before we were able to sceduole anything, so im playing catchup now. after i'd gotten my $18 pin, i was put on hold for 5 hours till the embassy closed on a friday, wasting my first call of the two i was told i'd have, the next week i was told there were no k1 visa appointment slots. i asked how long are there none, she didnt know. i asked will the scheduling process change and she said yes but had no idea what the change will entail. i asked when may we expect there to be new appointment slots and she didnt know, basically she didnt know any more than i did and didnt care. on a subsequent call i reached a more empathetic and knowledgible operator who didnt have much if any more information, but said there are no slots currently but may be again in december. she suggested calling again next friday. i sent 3 emails to the embassy after that, none of which were answered. i got really worried they might just let us sit with no information till whatever changes are comming have taken place. i asked will they raise the costs again as they did doubling them in june, but still no answer.

basically i, now know, we'd be far better off had i called the call center in July, and we'd have been together last summer, but you know what they say about hind site. now Janes in manila, living at much higher costs than at home and were blocked from scheduling the last step in the process by burocracy. we did take our chances and get her medical exam, which she passed with flying colors on the 10th, not waiting for the interview scheduling, kasi they wouldnt do it.

now her passport, which you must also bring to the medical exam at st lukes, is at st lukes, most likely being sent to the embassy into limbo kasi we dont have an interview scheduled, becasuse the call center wont schedule it. so will they know what do do with the passport and medical passing information for a visa applicant with no interview scheduled? who knows.

when i called the call center, the operator didnt even ask the correct questions she asked my name only and didnt care about the applicants name or case number. i got the empression from that and the fact she kept saying she didnt know what Embassy Manila was doing "over there", as if she was in a different place, that she was in california not manila. I wonder if it'd go better if we were allowed to contact the place where the case is actually being handled, so theyd have some idea what the change will be in 6 work days, and if we have any chance of scheduling appointments.

meanwhile were all getting repeated pins and throwing away $18 each time to keep trying to pry our way into information we should have access to because it has such a profound effect on our lives. and some teen aged phone talker denies us that knowledge on a whim, while probably doing her nails behind her desk, happy for the rest while appointments arent being scheduled, wreaking havoc with our lives.

it looks like were all being kept in the dark, hoping for a miracle in the last week of November. i thank any and all of you who are trying to get the closely garded secrets of the new scheduling procedures, and informing us of what they are able to find.

if i learn anything new i will post it here too. i went to the link someone posted above for the new scheduling procedure, but didnt find anything about the new procedure. i just hope the embassy will recognize that we are vicitms of the changing system, who simply want to be with our fiancees, and decide to make it easier for us. i also hope we do have some hope of getting interviews scheduled soon. good luck to us all.

i may have been in this process a little longer than some of you, having tried it twice, but unlike other processes, it doesnt get easier with time because they keep changing the process, and we always remain not privy to those changes. so i am learning from you. i am happy we have this site, because it seems to me the best source of information on the process. each time the embassy call center leakes even a small crumb of information to any one of us, if we share it, eventually we may have some clue of what theyre planning , and how we need to replan to try to succeed with what should be a simple process, but is made more difficult by the system keeping us in the dark. thank you, one and all.

i will keep trying to get information and trying to keep jane going in manila till we can get something useful i can share with you, and hopefully be able some day to bring my fiancee here to marry and start our livews together and hopefully we'll all, someday be able to look back on this nightmare and laugh.

Daag, thanks for your post and joining the thread. We'll all be trying again Sunday (Monday Manila) and hope to get lucky! Good luck my friend!

[DAAG 1]

Has anyone's Fiancee received their notification from the Embassy ? Just for the heck of it, I had my fiancee go to the BPI bank in Cagayan De Oro on Mindanao, and the manager did not know what she was talking about paying the MRV fee. You would think that BPI banks would know about the new system by now. So maybe any BPI bank in Manila

I saw on some of the embassy papers where there is a list of BDO (Banko de Oro) branches that take the k1 visa application fee. i looked it up once and printed for my fiancee where the ones in Butuan, Agusan del Norte, and Surigsao City, Surigao del Norte both in the far north east corner of Mindinao. i cant recall if there are some in Cagayan de Oro, but due to ist size i assume so. i will try to fiond the link again and post it here for you, if i can find it. i think it might have been on the insrtuctions in english link, from the 9 page download on the Embassy website.im haviong a similar problem as soon as the call center allows me to schedule an interview, because i need to find the banko de oro near the embassy, as jane went to manila before we got to that part of the process.

[BB & MJ 3]

I don't know if the paperwork has changed since july, but the paperwork I received was very specific that you needed to fill out and send in the interview request. Did yours not say in the packet you needed to send it in? Mine had step by step instructions of what was needed. In my experience, the embassy/government does not really care about your circumstances so you will just have to hope for the best.

BigJohn, MOST (if not ALL) are K1ers. The process is alot different (like in your case). K1ers have to call in and schedule for an interview appt. Unlike some other visas where NVC will automatically schedule the interview for you. Try not to get confused my friend....Good luck on your journey!

[Tahoma 2,292]

i just read this thread on scheduling an interview and feel a little encouraged. my filipina fiancee and i have been struggling for some time with this delima, only because i had gone through the process once before, and mistakenly thought it would still be as it was in 2006, when the embassy actually sent interview packets and scheduled the interview and medical on thier own as soon as you were qualified, so when my fiancee recieved her letter from the embassy stating she was elegible for scheduling of an intetrview, july 9, 2010. we foolishly waited for notification of her interview being scheduled, till november when we read on visa journey, that isnt how its done any longer.

July 9th!!! OK...no comment on that one...I won't rub it in.

consequently we're now in the same boat as the rest of you albiet true that we could have been done last summer if we'd known better. ive been getting the standard runaround most of you have. unfortunately my fiancee went to manila from mindiano with her cousin who knew manila as a guide, before we were able to sceduole anything, so im playing catchup now. after i'd gotten my $18 pin, i was put on hold for 5 hours till the embassy closed on a friday, wasting my first call of the two i was told i'd have, the next week i was told there were no k1 visa appointment slots. i asked how long are there none, she didnt know. i asked will the scheduling process change and she said yes but had no idea what the change will entail. i asked when may we expect there to be new appointment slots and she didnt know, basically she didnt know any more than i did and didnt care. on a subsequent call i reached a more empathetic and knowledgible operator who didnt have much if any more information, but said there are no slots currently but may be again in december. she suggested calling again next friday. i sent 3 emails to the embassy after that, none of which were answered. i got really worried they might just let us sit with no information till whatever changes are comming have taken place. i asked will they raise the costs again as they did doubling them in june, but still no answer.

It looks like you are getting the same runaround as everyone else. It's also disturbing that you emailed the Embassy three times and they never once answered you. By the way, you can use your PIN many more times than advertised. Try it.

basically i, now know, we'd be far better off had i called the call center in July, and we'd have been together last summer, but you know what they say about hind site. now Janes in manila, living at much higher costs than at home and were blocked from scheduling the last step in the process by burocracy. we did take our chances and get her medical exam, which she passed with flying colors on the 10th, not waiting for the interview scheduling, kasi they wouldnt do it.

I'm glad Jane passed her medical exam. It is a big hurdle out of the way for you guys. Chinook and I were much more stressed by the medical than we were by the interview.

now her passport, which you must also bring to the medical exam at st lukes, is at st lukes, most likely being sent to the embassy into limbo kasi we dont have an interview scheduled, becasuse the call center wont schedule it. so will they know what do do with the passport and medical passing information for a visa applicant with no interview scheduled? who knows.

No worries about Jane's passport. The Embassy will hold on to it.

when i called the call center, the operator didnt even ask the correct questions she asked my name only and didnt care about the applicants name or case number. i got the empression from that and the fact she kept saying she didnt know what Embassy Manila was doing "over there", as if she was in a different place, that she was in california not manila. I wonder if it'd go better if we were allowed to contact the place where the case is actually being handled, so theyd have some idea what the change will be in 6 work days, and if we have any chance of scheduling appointments.

Another VJ member just called the Immigrant Visa Unit directly and got the runaround from them too. They told her to call the Embassy's call center, even though the call center is not making appointments for K-1ers right now.

meanwhile were all getting repeated pins and throwing away $18 each time to keep trying to pry our way into information we should have access to because it has such a profound effect on our lives. and some teen aged phone talker denies us that knowledge on a whim, while probably doing her nails behind her desk, happy for the rest while appointments arent being scheduled, wreaking havoc with our lives.

it looks like were all being kept in the dark, hoping for a miracle in the last week of November. i thank any and all of you who are trying to get the closely garded secrets of the new scheduling procedures, and informing us of what they are able to find.

if i learn anything new i will post it here too. i went to the link someone posted above for the new scheduling procedure, but didnt find anything about the new procedure. i just hope the embassy will recognize that we are vicitms of the changing system, who simply want to be with our fiancees, and decide to make it easier for us. i also hope we do have some hope of getting interviews scheduled soon. good luck to us all.

i may have been in this process a little longer than some of you, having tried it twice, but unlike other processes, it doesnt get easier with time because they keep changing the process, and we always remain not privy to those changes. so i am learning from you. i am happy we have this site, because it seems to me the best source of information on the process. each time the embassy call center leakes even a small crumb of information to any one of us, if we share it, eventually we may have some clue of what theyre planning , and how we need to replan to try to succeed with what should be a simple process, but is made more difficult by the system keeping us in the dark. thank you, one and all.

i will keep trying to get information and trying to keep jane going in manila till we can get something useful i can share with you, and hopefully be able some day to bring my fiancee here to marry and start our livews together and hopefully we'll all, someday be able to look back on this nightmare and laugh.

If worse comes to worse, I have a feeling that the Embassy's call center will resume scheduling interview appointments on December 1, or shortly thereafter.

Great post, DAAG.......keep the faith! It will happen.

[Tahoma 2,292]

I don't know if the paperwork has changed since july, but the paperwork I received was very specific that you needed to fill out and send in the interview request. Did yours not say in the packet you needed to send it in? Mine had step by step instructions of what was needed. In my experience, the embassy/government does not really care about your circumstances so you will just have to hope for the best.

BigJohn, MOST (if not ALL) are K1ers. The process is alot different (like in your case). K1ers have to call in and schedule for an interview appt. Unlike some other visas where NVC will automatically schedule the interview for you. Try not to get confused my friend....Good luck on your journey!

BigJohn......You should check out the Direct Consular Filing (DCF) forum here on VJ. Your DCF process is different than our K-1 process.

[th and jv 3]

Maraming walang anuman po.

I will keep you posted regarding any communication from the Embassy.

this is greatly appreciated.......

[Tahoma 2,292]

this is greatly appreciated.......

Walang anuman po.

I hope you get your NOA2 malapit na!

[th and jv 3]

Walang anuman po.

I hope you get your NOA2 malapit na!

thanks.....

hope so too !!!

there are just changes lately...... like the appointment system......

hope it will facilitate everything for everybody........

we are all getting closer each day......

hang in there co filers !!!!!

[Tahoma 2,292]

thanks.....

hope so too !!!

there are just changes lately...... like the appointment system......

hope it will facilitate everything for everybody........

we are all getting closer each day......

hang in there co filers !!!!!

The Embassy should have their new call center contractor in place and ready to go by the time you receive your NOA2.

I wonder which company received the contract. I hope they hire some Pinoys from VJ to work there!