Can we have a sticky on Philippine CFO? CFO sticker good for multiple trips?

[spicynujac 23]

The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) requirements are not easy to understand and there seem to be no official websites that discuss how it works (there is cfo.ph which is supposedly the official government site but you can only link directly to a couple of specific pages there (item 3 below), with no general website.).

Since it's so relevant to the Philippine forum, perhaps it warrants a sticky?  

 

My situation: American husband waiting for Philippine wife's US visa.  

Getting the CFO certificate seems to require (for trip to the USA):

1) valid visa 
2) a copy of my passport

3) completion of a pre departure seminar (the forums here seem to indicate they are in person only, but the CFO website has a site to view the videos online with no mention of in person requirements)

Online Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) – for Filipino Emigrants to the United States of America (USA) (cfo.net.ph)

4) Report of Marriage Abroad (ROM)

 

Step 4 requires a lot of other steps.  I must first mail our marriage certificate to have it "apostilled" and returned to me.  Then wife must mail me her PH birth certificate, which I mail along with mine and the apostilled marriage certificate, in quadruplicate, to the PH Consulate in the USA, and then eventually receive a Report of Marriage Abroad (ROM) which the Philippine authorities will ask for if they see a US VISA in her passport.  A lot of paperwork, a bunch of fees, but I will do it if I absolutely have to.

 

Is the above correct?
Is step 4 absolutely necessary for her to leave for the USA?

 

We are considering a trip to Taiwan next month.  It seems she needs government permission to leave the Philippines so this may also require CFO certificate, particularly if she mentions she is flying abroad to visit her foreign husband (also will they harass her about not yet registering in the Philippines as married?  Should she say husband or fiance?  Threads here say you are "single" in Philippines until you record your marriage with the Statistics Office.)  How difficult is this going to be?  Is she still going to need a copy of my passport, completion of the seminar, etc.?  Should she even mention me at all?  This will be a short week long trip.

 

Finally, I have read in a thread here that 

 

Quote

The workaround for this is to register for CFO as a tourist, maybe several months before getting to the consulate stage for a K1 or spouse visa.  No visa is required when registering for CFO if the applicant and their foreign partner have an upcoming trip to visit visa-free countries.

 

Does this mean a CFO certificate is good for multiple trips?  Once we obtain a CFO certificate for a meeting in Taiwan can that be used on future trips abroad?  Can it be used for her emigration flight to America?

[IWander 589]

1 hour ago, spicynujac said:

The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) requirements are not easy to understand and there seem to be no official websites that discuss how it works (there is cfo.ph which is supposedly the official government site but you can only link directly to a couple of specific pages there (item 3 below), with no general website.).

Since it's so relevant to the Philippine forum, perhaps it warrants a sticky?  

 

My situation: American husband waiting for Philippine wife's US visa.  

Getting the CFO certificate seems to require (for trip to the USA):

1) valid visa 
2) a copy of my passport

3) completion of a pre departure seminar (the forums here seem to indicate they are in person only, but the CFO website has a site to view the videos online with no mention of in person requirements)

Online Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) – for Filipino Emigrants to the United States of America (USA) (cfo.net.ph)

4) Report of Marriage Abroad (ROM)

 

Step 4 requires a lot of other steps.  I must first mail our marriage certificate to have it "apostilled" and returned to me.  Then wife must mail me her PH birth certificate, which I mail along with mine and the apostilled marriage certificate, in quadruplicate, to the PH Consulate in the USA, and then eventually receive a Report of Marriage Abroad (ROM) which the Philippine authorities will ask for if they see a US VISA in her passport.  A lot of paperwork, a bunch of fees, but I will do it if I absolutely have to.

 

Is the above correct?
Is step 4 absolutely necessary for her to leave for the USA?

 

We are considering a trip to Taiwan next month.  It seems she needs government permission to leave the Philippines so this may also require CFO certificate, particularly if she mentions she is flying abroad to visit her foreign husband (also will they harass her about not yet registering in the Philippines as married?  Should she say husband or fiance?  Threads here say you are "single" in Philippines until you record your marriage with the Statistics Office.)  How difficult is this going to be?  Is she still going to need a copy of my passport, completion of the seminar, etc.?  Should she even mention me at all?  This will be a short week long trip.

 

Finally, I have read in a thread here that 

 

 

Does this mean a CFO certificate is good for multiple trips?  Once we obtain a CFO certificate for a meeting in Taiwan can that be used on future trips abroad?  Can it be used for her emigration flight to America?

CFO is not single use.  

[JMPM 507]

I flew to Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand with my wife before our paperwork actually started. I married her in the Philippines. She only did her CFO like a few months before her interview at the embassy but that was like a year later.

[top_secret 2,417]

ROM and CFO are Philippine Government requirements.  The US government does not care.  She is very unlikely to get out of the Philippines with an immigrant visa in her passport without CFO.  If you are going to Taiwan it would be safest if you met in the Philippines and departed together.  If traveling together and she DOES NOT have an immigrant visa in her passport yet, she might get sent to secondary by Philippine immigration but she would probably be fine to go without CFO.  Just get to the airport early and don't be surprised if that secondary interview happens.  But she should pass.  Traveling by herself to Taiwan would introduce a somewhat greater risk of being offloaded than if you were together, depending on a number of other factors.  There are cases of people getting CFO without filing a ROM but expect to be given a hard time from them.  The tourist CFO workaround you mention is no longer an option since they have entirely stopped doing CFO for tourists.  If she wants to take your name it very much simplifies things if she changes her Philippine passport before her interview and that would require a ROM.

 

How were you married in the US.  Was it a Utah online marriage,some other proxy marriage or was she actually here?  The requirements mentioned for the ROM seem more complicated than usual.  It varies depending on which consulate handles wherever the marriage took place but using the Utah online marriage as a common example, you can order an Apostilled Utah marriage certificate online and the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco has relaxed it's requirements for original documents and is now accepting photocopies of birth certificates and all but one of the notarized copies of the ROM. You could do the notarized copy in Taiwan or she could mail a notarized copy of the ROM.  PhilPost is 'probably' reliable enough for that and costs like $3 Ph to US.

Edited November 4, 2023 by top_secret