Why is Manila an "easy" embassy for K-1 fiancees to interview at?

[jaysaldi 213]

I'm relatively new here on this site and have read from several different posters that Manila is considered an "easy" embassy for K-1 interviewees. They suggest that the chance of success is high even if the applicant and petitioner haven't met in person for very long, and that the U.S. citizen petitioner doesn't need to attend the interview.

 

Whereas Cambodia (where my fiancee successfully interviewed) and Vietnam and other countries in the region are considered "hard," and U.S. citizen petitioners are strongly advised to be present for the interview or risk their fiancees being thrown to the wolves alone at the interview and rejected.

 

My question is : why is this? The Philippines is impoverished and has no shortage of scammers and scheming Filipina "dragon ladies".  There are a lot of Filipinas on online dating websites specifically looking to match with Western men. Many Filipinos grow up wishing to get to the USA at all costs to improve their lives and reunite with their aunties and cousins who have married Americans and moved to the USA. There's also sex trafficking and prostitution from the Philippines, as there is from other countries in the region.

 

My uninformed "gut" instinct and expectation would have been that there is a lot of marriage fraud from the Philippines and that Manila should be a very hard place to interview. What makes it easy and why is it easy? 

[geowrian 22,337]

Hard to say exactly, but Manila processes approximately 1 out of 5 five K-1 visas worldwide. So as many scammers as there are, there's also a massive number of non-scammers. There's plenty of marriages that don't work out (like everywhere), but the rate of actual fraud I don't think is nearly that high. For many other other visas, it is quite high still.

 

Also, in terms of being "easy" is the little reliance on an I-134 and a very streamlined process.

Edited August 18, 2019 by geowrian

[Eric&Mirella 367]

56 minutes ago, jaysaldi said:

  There are a lot of Filipinas on online dating websites specifically looking to match with Western men.

 

 

My now husband used to game with a girl from the Philippines( they met on a server) , she would invite him all the time to her country. It turns out that she wanted him to do a K1 visa for her. she went nuts and got very upset when he told her that he was engaged already and didn’t have that kind of interest in her. They used to talk about the K1 process sometimes, because she knew a lot about it. She thought all the time it had to do with her.

 

I don’t think Filipinas or any women  are on those sites trying to marry a westerner on purpose. Leaving your family, country,life behind is extremely hard and I can’t imagine people doing it just for the sole purpose of coming to the States. Marriages fail all the time and has nothing to do with nationalities.  Considering that some people only saw each other for a week before getting the visa, I’d say K1 marriages seem to be very successful and any marriage that doesn’t work is probably for not knowing each other very well and not because the K1 bride/groom had the intention to scam the USC( I guess it’s happened but maybe is not as frequent as one can think IMO) 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Eric&Mirella

[Falcon Cara 378]

5 hours ago, jaysaldi said:

I'm relatively new here on this site and have read from several different posters that Manila is considered an "easy" embassy for K-1 interviewees. They suggest that the chance of success is high even if the applicant and petitioner haven't met in person for very long, and that the U.S. citizen petitioner doesn't need to attend the interview.

 

Whereas Cambodia (where my fiancee successfully interviewed) and Vietnam and other countries in the region are considered "hard," and U.S. citizen petitioners are strongly advised to be present for the interview or risk their fiancees being thrown to the wolves alone at the interview and rejected.

 

My question is : why is this? The Philippines is impoverished and has no shortage of scammers and scheming Filipina "dragon ladies".  There are a lot of Filipinas on online dating websites specifically looking to match with Western men. Many Filipinos grow up wishing to get to the USA at all costs to improve their lives and reunite with their aunties and cousins who have married Americans and moved to the USA. There's also sex trafficking and prostitution from the Philippines, as there is from other countries in the region.

 

My uninformed "gut" instinct and expectation would have been that there is a lot of marriage fraud from the Philippines and that Manila should be a very hard place to interview. What makes it easy and why is it easy? 

Philippines was a US colony since the Spanish American War ended in 1898.  US granted Philippines independence in 1946.  Philippines is the 3rd largest English speaking country in the world.  

 

Their constitution is based upon the US Constitution,  English is he primary and business language.  I think it all goes back to PI being a US colony.

 

I read in 2014 Philippines had around 8,500 K1 petitions, followed by China and Mexico with around 2,000 each, this comes from data supplied by Dept of State Bureau Consular affair .

 

I don't see Philippines with a lot of marriage fraud.

[Hank_ 9,174]

8 hours ago, jaysaldi said:

I'm relatively new here on this site and have read from several different posters that Manila is considered an "easy" embassy for K-1 interviewees. They suggest that the chance of success is high even if the applicant and petitioner haven't met in person for very long, and that the U.S. citizen petitioner doesn't need to attend the interview.

 

Whereas Cambodia (where my fiancee successfully interviewed) and Vietnam and other countries in the region are considered "hard," and U.S. citizen petitioners are strongly advised to be present for the interview or risk their fiancees being thrown to the wolves alone at the interview and rejected.

 

My question is : why is this? The Philippines is impoverished and has no shortage of scammers and scheming Filipina "dragon ladies".  There are a lot of Filipinas on online dating websites specifically looking to match with Western men. Many Filipinos grow up wishing to get to the USA at all costs to improve their lives and reunite with their aunties and cousins who have married Americans and moved to the USA. There's also sex trafficking and prostitution from the Philippines, as there is from other countries in the region.

 

My uninformed "gut" instinct and expectation would have been that there is a lot of marriage fraud from the Philippines and that Manila should be a very hard place to interview. What makes it easy and why is it easy? 

I totally agree on the scammers, "dragon ladies" .. women that pursue a foreigner as a way to get a green card and a better life.  Those types of women are still there, and I know of a fair number of men that got scammed, and had their hearts broken when the Filipina "ditches him" the moment she has gotten what she wants.    <<< But this is true of many countries.<   But I know many, many more couples that have great marriages and very happy lives.    And I know thousands of couples married to Filipinas.

 

The Philippines was listed as a "high fraud" country for years, (quality ink jet printers don't ya know), not sure it is anymore, haven't checked.  The fraud issue was relating to phony documents; a variety of official documents.  Over the years the Philippine government itself has taken major steps to make fraudulent documents much more difficult to create.   Even to this day the embassy is very watchful with documents and they are very quick to demand new documents and have them delivered directly from the government entity.

 

I believe the embassy has gotten very good at spotting the "dragon ladies"     And for those in real relationships the embassy has gotten very good at spotty those too.   I was there with my wife for the complete visa process in the Philippines .. it was a great experience and I will say -   The U.S. Embassy in Manila is not a difficult embassy for those that have genuine relationships and provide all the required documents.

 

But if your documents are not lined up  like little ducks in a row .. watch out.   And if they think the relationship is not genuine .. they will drop the big hammer.    I saw that during the time we were at the embassy as well.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by Hank_

[Falcon Cara 378]

21 minutes ago, Hank_ said:

 

The Philippines was listed as a "high fraud" country for years, (quality ink jet printers don't ya know), not sure it is anymore, haven't checked.  

Was listed where?  

 

As far as I know USCIS or DOS has never released a list to the general public of "High Fraud", if they actually do have one.

 

I have never heard of PI being on the "High Fraud" list, and seems as if fiancé/spousal visa have always been rather easy to obtain, I have known people who have went for K1 as far back as 20 years ago.

 

We all know Tourist Visa are difficult to obtain, but others like spousal and fiancé were easy and don't forget when the USA was importing Registered Nurses right and left back about 20 years ago until they finally halted around 2007.

[dnavinnie 132]

3 hours ago, Hank_ said:

I totally agree on the scammers, "dragon ladies" .. women that pursue a foreigner as a way to get a green card and a better life.  Those types of women are still there, and I know of a fair number of men that got scammed, and had their hearts broken when the Filipina "ditches him" the moment she has gotten what she wants.    <<< But this is true of many countries.<   But I know many, many more couples that have great marriages and very happy lives.    And I know thousands of couples married to Filipinas.

 

The Philippines was listed as a "high fraud" country for years, (quality ink jet printers don't ya know), not sure it is anymore, haven't checked.  The fraud issue was relating to phony documents; a variety of official documents.  Over the years the Philippine government itself has taken major steps to make fraudulent documents much more difficult to create.   Even to this day the embassy is very watchful with documents and they are very quick to demand new documents and have them delivered directly from the government entity.

 

I believe the embassy has gotten very good at spotting the "dragon ladies"     And for those in real relationships the embassy has gotten very good at spotty those too.   I was there with my wife for the complete visa process in the Philippines .. it was a great experience and I will say -   The U.S. Embassy in Manila is not a difficult embassy for those that have genuine relationships and provide all the required documents.

 

But if your documents are not lined up  like little ducks in a row .. watch out.   And if they think the relationship is not genuine .. they will drop the big hammer.    I saw that during the time we were at the embassy as well.

 

 

 

 

Well said @Hank_...I just married in the Phillipines to a girl with the biggest heart I have ever met. I did meet some scammers but that happens in almost every country in the world.

[geowrian 22,337]

6 hours ago, Hank_ said:

I totally agree on the scammers, "dragon ladies" .. women that pursue a foreigner as a way to get a green card and a better life.  Those types of women are still there, and I know of a fair number of men that got scammed, and had their hearts broken when the Filipina "ditches him" the moment she has gotten what she wants.    <<< But this is true of many countries.<   But I know many, many more couples that have great marriages and very happy lives.    And I know thousands of couples married to Filipinas.

 

The Philippines was listed as a "high fraud" country for years, (quality ink jet printers don't ya know), not sure it is anymore, haven't checked.  The fraud issue was relating to phony documents; a variety of official documents.  Over the years the Philippine government itself has taken major steps to make fraudulent documents much more difficult to create.   Even to this day the embassy is very watchful with documents and they are very quick to demand new documents and have them delivered directly from the government entity.

 

I believe the embassy has gotten very good at spotting the "dragon ladies"     And for those in real relationships the embassy has gotten very good at spotty those too.   I was there with my wife for the complete visa process in the Philippines .. it was a great experience and I will say -   The U.S. Embassy in Manila is not a difficult embassy for those that have genuine relationships and provide all the required documents.

 

But if your documents are not lined up  like little ducks in a row .. watch out.   And if they think the relationship is not genuine .. they will drop the big hammer.    I saw that during the time we were at the embassy as well.

My only regret is that I have but 1 upvote to give. Very well said.

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

Special Historical Relationship...

[jskibo 588]

Long history of special relationships

 

Up until we closed Subic Bay Base the Navy allowed a fixed amount of Filipinos to join every year.  

[Hank_ 9,174]

..  or until Duterte was denied a tourist visa.    

[Falcon Cara 378]

1 hour ago, jskibo said:

Long history of special relationships

 

Up until we closed Subic Bay Base the Navy allowed a fixed amount of Filipinos to join every year.  

My wife uncle joined navy years ago, he never had been to USA when he joined.

 

 He is retired now with a large pension and has a mansion in a private subdivision, he made out like bandit with US Citizenship for him and all his kids, they all still live in Philippines.

[Sarge2155 4,587]

On 8/18/2019 at 11:16 AM, dnavinnie said:

Well said @Hank_...I just married in the Phillipines to a girl with the biggest heart I have ever met. I did meet some scammers but that happens in almost every country in the world.

@dnavinnie Congratulations please keep us posted on your progress throughout your visa journey!