No appointments, are we screwed?

[Joseph V 10]

Long story short, we finally manage to get the visa fee paid this weekend.
We are currently trying to get an interview appointment for first week of June, as well to schedule the medical for next week, but Ustraveldocs is showing not available appointments.

We were trying to get everything done from May 15 to June 20.

Is there any specific day/time i must check the UStraveldocs website to get an appointment, or is it completely random?

Edited May 8, 2023 by Joseph V

[MarJhi 959]

8 minutes ago, Joseph V said:

Long story short, we finally manage to get the visa fee paid this weekend.
We are currently trying to get an interview appointment for first week of June, as well to schedule the medical for next week, but Ustraveldocs is showing not available appointments.

We were trying to get everything done from May 15 to June 20.

Is there any specific day/time i must check the UStraveldocs website to get an appointment, or is it completely random?

Our immigration attorney scheduled us 2 separate interviews in Manila a week out. We had to cancel the first one because it was in conflict with another appointment, but he got the 2nd appointment a week later. I don't know exactly how he managed to get appointments so easily, but he was emailing us the appointment times at 7pm (Arizona time) on Sunday, which would be 10am Monday morning in Manila. So I would suggest trying first thing Monday morning in the Philippines, seemed to work for our attorney.

[Joseph V 10]

4 hours ago, MarJhi said:

Our immigration attorney scheduled us 2 separate interviews in Manila a week out. We had to cancel the first one because it was in conflict with another appointment, but he got the 2nd appointment a week later. I don't know exactly how he managed to get appointments so easily, but he was emailing us the appointment times at 7pm (Arizona time) on Sunday, which would be 10am Monday morning in Manila. So I would suggest trying first thing Monday morning in the Philippines, seemed to work for our attorney.

Ahh i see, ill keep trying in the morning then.

Where your appointments too apart from the date your lawyer got them?

[MarJhi 959]

14 minutes ago, Joseph V said:

Ahh i see, ill keep trying in the morning then.

Where your appointments too apart from the date your lawyer got them?

Not sure of the wording of your question.

 

On Sunday February 26th our attorney emailed us to tell us he got us an interview for March 9th. Unfortunately we had to have him cancel that interview because my fiance had her first day of her medical at St. Lukes and an appointment to pick up her NBI clearance that same day. He was able to reschedule the interview exactly 1 week later on March 16th.

[Joseph V 10]

42 minutes ago, MarJhi said:

Not sure of the wording of your question.

 

On Sunday February 26th our attorney emailed us to tell us he got us an interview for March 9th. Unfortunately we had to have him cancel that interview because my fiance had her first day of her medical at St. Lukes and an appointment to pick up her NBI clearance that same day. He was able to reschedule the interview exactly 1 week later on March 16th.

Can you do the medical without having an appointment with the embassy schedule?

 

[Kawika & Michelle 108]

Keep checking the USTravelDocs website to schedule your appointment. We scheduled our back in March and the current available slots were for June & July. There were occasional slots that opened up prior to that due to cancellations or reschedules, but you can't really count on getting those slots as there are tons of other people who are constantly watching the website to snag those earlier spots as well. I was lucky enough to be able to move us up from June to May. I imagine at this point the currently available slots will be in August to start with & you'll have to try to snag any openings that may or may not become available before then. There was at least one time that I checked on available appointments when the website indicated that no appointments were available, so I suggest you just keep checking until the embassy opens up additional slots for you to sign up for.

 

I'm not sure if the medical exam requires that you have an appointment already or not...in our case we signed up for the first available appointment as soon as we paid our MRV fee. And then we scheduled our medical exam for as soon as possible thereafter to allow us to take advantage of any potential openings that might have come before our initial appointment time.

[Joseph V 10]

Finally just landed an appointment for the interview.
St Luke's appointment is already set for next Monday.
Woot Woot!!!!
Now question is

Gf interview appointment is 12 days of her schedule flight back to her overseas job.
Will that be enough time to get her passport with the visa ?

On 5/8/2023 at 5:44 PM, Kawika & Michelle said:

Keep checking the USTravelDocs website to schedule your appointment. We scheduled our back in March and the current available slots were for June & July. There were occasional slots that opened up prior to that due to cancellations or reschedules, but you can't really count on getting those slots as there are tons of other people who are constantly watching the website to snag those earlier spots as well. I was lucky enough to be able to move us up from June to May. I imagine at this point the currently available slots will be in August to start with & you'll have to try to snag any openings that may or may not become available before then. There was at least one time that I checked on available appointments when the website indicated that no appointments were available, so I suggest you just keep checking until the embassy opens up additional slots for you to sign up for.

 

I'm not sure if the medical exam requires that you have an appointment already or not...in our case we signed up for the first available appointment as soon as we paid our MRV fee. And then we scheduled our medical exam for as soon as possible thereafter to allow us to take advantage of any potential openings that might have come before our initial appointment time.

 

[IWander 589]

13 hours ago, Joseph V said:

Finally just landed an appointment for the interview.
St Luke's appointment is already set for next Monday.
Woot Woot!!!!
Now question is

Gf interview appointment is 12 days of her schedule flight back to her overseas job.
Will that be enough time to get her passport with the visa ?

 

Probably not

[top_secret 2,417]

18 hours ago, Joseph V said:

Gf interview appointment is 12 days of her schedule flight back to her overseas job.
Will that be enough time to get her passport with the visa ?

 

I think @Kawika & Michelle just got their visa in 10 days.  12 days would hardly be guaranteed because there are just to many variables, but it is possible.  If she is staying in Manila, for absolute earliest possible pickup from LBC it's been recommended by some to have the passport sent for pickup at the Mall of Asia office (Pasay) since that would be LBC's most direct stop.

 

Also make sure she has CFO worked out.  If she is working overseas she may have already completed CFO for that, but they may want her to update it from PDOS to GPC now that she has a visa.

[Kawika & Michelle 108]

On 5/15/2023 at 4:09 PM, top_secret said:

I think @Kawika & Michelle just got their visa in 10 days.  12 days would hardly be guaranteed because there are just to many variables, but it is possible.  If she is staying in Manila, for absolute earliest possible pickup from LBC it's been recommended by some to have the passport sent for pickup at the Mall of Asia office (Pasay) since that would be LBC's most direct stop.

 

 

Our interview was on May 4th...we went with premium delivery to her home in the province of Cebu (near Toledo City). It never made it there so she had to arrange with LBC to hold the passport package at the Cebu office on the morning of her flight (12th). When she got there, they had no idea where the package was (despite her calling the day before & having them put it aside). Luckily they were able to find it in time for her to make it to the airport to make it for her flight at noon that day.

 

On 5/15/2023 at 4:09 PM, top_secret said:

Also make sure she has CFO worked out.  If she is working overseas she may have already completed CFO for that, but they may want her to update it from PDOS to GPC now that she has a visa.

 

 

As far as I understand it, the CFO is specific to the country AND the individual the person is going to see. We had to go through the CFO process back in 2020-2021 prior to our initial meeting in Costa Rica. The documents required is specific to your situation & the counselor you are assigned. It definitely needs to be completed before they will allow her to leave the country.

[Joseph V 10]

55 minutes ago, Kawika & Michelle said:

 

 

Our interview was on May 4th...we went with premium delivery to her home in the province of Cebu (near Toledo City). It never made it there so she had to arrange with LBC to hold the passport package at the Cebu office on the morning of her flight (12th). When she got there, they had no idea where the package was (despite her calling the day before & having them put it aside). Luckily they were able to find it in time for her to make it to the airport to make it for her flight at noon that day.

 

 

 

As far as I understand it, the CFO is specific to the country AND the individual the person is going to see. We had to go through the CFO process back in 2020-2021 prior to our initial meeting in Costa Rica. The documents required is specific to your situation & the counselor you are assigned. It definitely needs to be completed before they will allow her to leave the country.

Those are great news. We already got the medical done, her police clearance and just waiting for Singapore police clearance, hopefully we get it on time.

I'm guessing is better if we get a more recent letter of intent of marriage to bring to the interview as well.

[Kawika & Michelle 108]

48 minutes ago, Joseph V said:

I'm guessing is better if we get a more recent letter of intent of marriage to bring to the interview as well.

 

Yes. I believe that is part of the guide they have here on the site. We re-did it in March (when I last visited) so I could sign it personally & give it to her in person to take to the interview. As noted, our interview ended up being in May. 

 

For the CFO...she will either need the paper certificate (which my fiancé had with her) or she will need to go to the local CFO office to get the sticker added to her visa. They supposedly updated the system on May 1st to forego the use of the sticker in favor of a digital certificate, but up through our departure from the Philippines, the immigration officers were still looking for the sticker or original paper certificate.

[Joseph V 10]

A sad update. 

2 days prior our interview,  we got an email saying that wven tho qe booked an interview,  we were not eligible for one, as is been over 4 months since the Approval date and that if we wish to continue we could send a letter stating why we didnt got the interview sooner.

[IWander 589]

14 hours ago, Joseph V said:

A sad update. 

2 days prior our interview,  we got an email saying that wven tho qe booked an interview,  we were not eligible for one, as is been over 4 months since the Approval date and that if we wish to continue we could send a letter stating why we didnt got the interview sooner.

Did you get this email unsolicited or did you make an inquiry?

[Joseph V 10]

8 minutes ago, IWander said:

Did you get this email unsolicited or did you make an inquiry?

This is the email they sent to my fiance.