Police Clearance for OFW wife/starting visa process

[Toby and Quennie 4]

Congrats on your marriage. My situation is very similar to yours so maybe I can offer you a few tips. I married my wife in February who was also an OFW. I have been working on my wife and step son's I-130s since I got back home in February and hopefully I will be ready to mail them out by the end of this week. First of all as many here will tell you don't waste your time or money on an attorney unless you have some serious legal issues. They will just take your money and you still have to do most of the paperwork anyways. I will admit this all seemed overwhelming for me at first and I thought about hiring an attorney (for about $2000-$3000 not including all the government fees) but if you take it all step by step it is not a big deal. There are some great people here who have helped me out a lot and I am now confident I can handle this process without any legal help. As far as police clearences go my wife worked in Dubai and I can confirm the only way to get a police clearence there is in person so the embassy has an exemption. I don't know about Qatar or Hong Kong.

Something no one has asked you yet. Have you applied for a NSO/PSA marriage certificate? It is needed for your I-130 package and can take a month or longer to get so if you haven't applied for it I would do that right away. We paid the expedite fee (I believe it was about 1000p) and we had it in about a month. It is my understanding if you simply include your local marriage certificate with your I-130 you will get an RFE asking for the NSO/PSA copy which could cause delays. Also you should fill out all the paperwork using your wife's married name which will make things easier later down the road. You should start thinking about getting your wife to her CFO seminar because it is required to change her last name on things like her passport. My wife has hers scheduled for the 10th of this month. Then I'm told it could be another couple months to get a new passport. I have found the Philippines government can be slow at times so it is best to get this stuff out of the way as soon as possible. I am still learning as I go here so if any of the experts here see anything I got wrong please correct me.

Thanks for all of this information. Where can we get information about this CFO seminar? She is not sure what this is? Where does she need to go? hopefully not manila!

[Joshua@Tinz 52]

Those links are of no value - canada

Seriously? are you joking? let us just throw common sense to the wind, I happen to have just gotten 4 police clearances, all of them using the canadian website because it gives better instructions than the USA site, but please elaborate.... instead of telling everyone that one set of instructions,written in english is better then another set of instructions which you didnt provide....the admin on this forum are a joke, complete lack of common sense

[jg121783 3,909]

Thanks for all of this information. Where can we get information about this CFO seminar? She is not sure what this is? Where does she need to go? hopefully not manila!

Go here: http://www.cfo.gov.ph/. The CFO is required by the Philippines government before your wife can leave the country on a CR-1 visa. It is also required for her to change her last name on her passport (which is why my wife is going to her CFO seminar next week) and I believe other forms of identification. My wife is attending the seminar in Manila. I am not sure if they have them at other locations. Maybe someone else with more experience can give you more information.

I would not worry about the CFO seminar right away unless your wife needs to change her passport right away. I would be more concerned about getting your NSO/PSA marriage certificate. As I said before it took about a month to get ours even when paying an expedite fee. Keep in mind the city hall of the city we were married in appeared to be organized and actually used computers. I don't know where you got married but I have seen city halls in the Philippines that used typewriters instead of computers and were very slow to get things done (where we got our marriage certificate for example). My point is depending on what city you were married in it might take even longer than it did for me so I would put it towards the top of your list of things to do. If you only send your local copy with the I-130 it is my understanding you will get an RFE (request for evidence) which can cause delays.

[Toby and Quennie 4]

Taking a close look at the I130 package. I need to provide bonafides. What is the best route to go?

I can provided the proof of our ongoing 22 month relationship before the wedding, photos, my 3 visits, travels together, etc.

Will this be sufficient to prove a bonafide relationship?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.