applying a tourist visa for my Dad

[David & Kezia 25]

Hi!

We are hoping to have my Dad at my wedding in Vegas this early March.

He is very busy right now, preparing the budget for their municipality, but he promised to be in Manila this end of December to send me off to the airport.

I'm hoping that he will have time to apply for a tourist visa during that short visit, so when it's time for him to come over on March, he could just go straight to the airport. I'm trying not to bug him too much, because he's super busy and it was even tough to make sure that he will be coming here in Manila this December with all the budget deliberations at the end and start of the year (and I had to call his Mayor to help get him excused for a few days), so I'm hoping to get everything figured out and ready for him when he comes over.

He's 55 years old, and has been head of his office at his municipality for decades (official Municipal Agriculturist but designated as the Municipal Budget Officer right now), another UP graduate, and a very well known and well respected member of the community (in the whole province, and in many agencies regionally). He doesn't have any real estate properties in his name yet, as his mother is still alive, but he and his 2 siblings are the only heirs to some properties at their province. The house he lives in right now, and our home for decades, belonged to my late grandfather, and the papers may not have been transferred yet, but it now belongs to me as the eldest granddaughter (and designated heir of that property among others) since my mother (and my grandfather's only child) has also passed years before. I am hoping that the last circumstance doesn't prevent him from getting granted a tourist visa, and that the previous ones would help him get it.

I checked the US Embassy in Manila website and it only says that he needs the DS-160 application form, the $140 application fee, passport photos, and passport. It doesn't say anything much of other requirements which may be included in the DS-160 nor the medical exam.

I would like to ask VJ people who used the DS-160 if there are other requirements there that I need to know about and prepare, like NBI clerances and Birth Certificates, although I expect the tax and other income/property related information would already be part of the showing of "ties".

Also for the medical exam, is it not required? If yes, is it before or after the interview? My concern is whether to schedule my Dad for his medical first and worry about the interview later, because he's had a history of tuberculosis and might be required to wait the 8 weeks for the culture before he is cleared. The latter is the reason why I wanted to do everything this early for him, so that if he has to come back to Manila in late February or March, it will just be for the interview, and then he can fly to the US within 2-4 days for our wedding. He can't take a lot of absences from work, not because he isn't allowed to but because he has a lot of responsibility that he can't leave behind for more than a few days or two weeks at most. I'm hoping that he can stay with us for a week or two, so we could at least tour him around Vegas and the areas nearby.

I would appreciate any advice from our members.

Thanks!

-Kezia