DCF In Manila, Mail Problems

[DaveHorton 0]

Decided to pursue a CR1, got married March8 2006, and persuaded the CIS clerk at the embassy to accept the I130 petition as a DCF submission March 17. The info packet the visa section provided prior to filing the I130 included the affadavit of support I 864, but the clerk would not acept it.

Received an Intent to Deny May 8 based upon them finding an undeclared previous marriage of my Filipina wife. Was not accurate, but it took some time and digging to get the legal docs to prove it. Sent the original docs as requested via LBC (local fedex equivalent). Checked online, package signed for at the embassy June 6.

By end June no response; I called the call center. The girl said they were unable to answer my question because I had no case number. Would not accept what the embassy told me, that I can refer to the case using my wife's full name. Faxed and emailed the embassy requesting confirmation that the case was proceeding. No answer by July 10. Call center again refused to provide any information. Finally got the embassy switchboard to put me through to a number with a real person on the end in the CIS at the Embassy. The packet signed for had never made it through the mail system at the Embassy and the case had been languishing with no activity. But now I had a number to bug! Persistent calling got me a fax number, and I faxed everything that had been in the packet. The assistant told me that I needed to provide originals, but of course the originals are lost somewhere in the Embassy! Fortunately, sanity prevailed and the I 130 was approved July 25 based upon faxing the copies of the lost originals.

Waited for the Packet 3 in vain for 4 weeks. Then by chance, one of my original emails from early July was answered, telling me the Packet 3 had been mailed, and giving my case number, so now I could call the call center and get a response. Turns out the registered mail sent on July 27 was presumably lost by the philippine mail system. AAAaarrghhh!!! Another 4 weeks lost. I bleated loudly and the call center girl put a request for a replacement packet into the system. I was not hopeful, but fortunately this time the embassy used DHL, and the packet arrived today. I plan to file it myself at the embassy personally tomorrow.

2 lost mail events in one app cannot be typical.... hope the rest of this app goes more smoothly.