Quiries about CFO seminar Philippines

[Matt & Bing 56]

You can't have the seminar first because you have to have your visa before you can register for the seminar.

This is NOT true. My wife (then fiancee) went to CFO before visa interview then we went back to get CFO stamp in passport after we received it with the visa added to it.

[wizardfitz 13]

I dont know if it has changed BUT I attended the seminar before my medical and before I got the visa. You can attend the seminar, its just you wont get the sticker until after you have the visa, you can then go back and get the sticker once you have your visa in hand

[tjnielsen 2]

My wife just went threw all the CFO stuff... You can go and attend the Seminar WITHOUT YOUR VISA you will just pay to attend the class and so forth... after you interview with the embassy and you have your passport back from there you will then go back to the CFO and register and pay the register fee. if you go before you interview all she will do is go threw the seminar and a few questions that they will ask her about you... rather you go before you interview or not doesn't mater. she will have to go threw it all one way other the other. So its up to you and your wife. she can do part of it before the interview and just go back afterwords to finalize it or just wait till you have your visa and do it all in one day. i suggest splitting it up. My wife completed hers end of March 2010 In Cebu City

[troy9788 0]

Any recent experiences at the CFO in Cebu?? Avi will interview in Manila June 21st, but she is thinking about attending the CFO seminar in Cebu beforehand and just returning to get the VISA stamped later. Thoughts are.... we have all the supporting paper work including certified copy of my divorce already together for the interview so why not take all documents and attend the counseling and seminar at CFO Cebu before the interview date?

Thanks

[Ed and Elnie 0]

OK this is pretty much an update, based on what I have learned in the past 24 hours on the CFO webpages:

Seminars are now done at the CFO offices, not at the previous locations. You can still do it in one trip if you have your visa already, or you can make two trips to get the seminar/certificate first trip and the visa stamp on the second. Just depends on your own distance and needs.

I accidentally got into one website that "looked" official but turned out to be an agency trying to scare you into paying them 600 pesos to "prepare" you for the seminar... talking about stern investigations into the background of the petitioner and other things. My clue that it was a BS site was that my virus software gave a warning on every page I went to... so I found the real CFO site and it was pretty clear what to do. They have complete listings of the seminar times as well.

I'm still upset that this wasn't flagged to me earlier, because Elnie was planning to book her flight on the same trip when she picked up her visa/passport at the Cebu Consular Agency... now I can't really decide if it's safe for her to book, and the prices for her departure date continue to rise as the time gets closer....