USEM CR1/IR1 Interview Documents CENOMAR PSA AoM

[Jason and May 79]

Question regarding documents for interview, specifically CENOMAR and PSA Advisory on Marriage.

 

The PHILS USEM pre-interview checklist is a bit confusing. It states, in part, “if you are single” to bring a CENOMAR, but then also says the CENOMAR is needed for CR1/IR1 interviews. 

 

It also says “if you are married” to bring an advisory on marriage. 

 

It appears a CENOMAR will detail past marriages and annulments, but the PSA help page says if you are married and request a CENOMAR, PSA will send you an advisory on marriage. 

 

What are the actual documents needed?

 

TIA 

[Crazy Cat 41,982]

****Topic has been moved to the Philippines regional discussion forum***

[Swafford25 20]

You need a advisory of marriages from PSA if your visa is CR1/IR1.

[top_secret 2,456]

You order a CENOMAR from PSA.  If PSA has you recorded as single you will receive a CENOMAR.  If PSA has you recorded as married you will receive an Advisory on Marriages.  Whatever you receive from PSA is what the embassy wants to see.

Edited May 19 by top_secret

[Jason and May 79]

From the members who've been through it, this was helpful! What the PHILS website has written was a bit confusing to me. Thank you for the replies!

[michaeljm116 2]

Bumping this topic:

 

So me and my wife just got denied a visa because we didn't have an "Advisory on Marriages". We got married online through the state of Utah.

 

on the screenshot posted above it literally says:

"If you are married: Your original marriage certificate, and English translation.  If celebrated in the Philippines – bring an Advisory on Marriage obtained from the PSA. You may visit the PSA website at https://psa.gov.ph to request this document. "

 

we should only need the Advisory on marriage "If celebrated in the Philippines" but we still got denied because of it.... 

[top_secret 2,456]

21 hours ago, michaeljm116 said:

Bumping this topic:

 

So me and my wife just got denied a visa because we didn't have an "Advisory on Marriages". We got married online through the state of Utah.

 

on the screenshot posted above it literally says:

"If you are married: Your original marriage certificate, and English translation.  If celebrated in the Philippines – bring an Advisory on Marriage obtained from the PSA. You may visit the PSA website at https://psa.gov.ph to request this document. "

 

we should only need the Advisory on marriage "If celebrated in the Philippines" but we still got denied because of it.... 

 

Did you have a CENOMAR?  You absolutely must have EITHER a CENOMAR OR an Advisory on Marriages.  No exceptions.  One or the other is acceptable depending on what PSA gives you.  Most likely you just need to order a CENOMAR from PSA to answer the 221g.

[michaeljm116 2]

2 hours ago, top_secret said:

 

Did you have a CENOMAR?  You absolutely must have EITHER a CENOMAR OR an Advisory on Marriages.  No exceptions.  One or the other is acceptable depending on what PSA gives you.  Most likely you just need to order a CENOMAR from PSA to answer the 221g.

We did have the CENOMAR and it was checked during prescreening. However according to my wife, during the interview they asked her if she had an Advisory on Marriages and she said no and that's when she got denied. I'll try sending in the CENOMAR again and see what they say.

[top_secret 2,456]

11 hours ago, michaeljm116 said:

We did have the CENOMAR and it was checked during prescreening. However according to my wife, during the interview they asked her if she had an Advisory on Marriages and she said no and that's when she got denied. I'll try sending in the CENOMAR again and see what they say.

 

 

I'm guessing that the "no" answer to the consul generated the 221g???  It's not fair because they are not at all clear in their instructions but probably, she should have handed over the CENOMAR in response to that question rather than answering no.

 

A CENOMAR and an Advisory on Marriages are essentially the same document.  The difference being, a CENOMAR means PSA has the person recorded as single or an Advisory on Marriages means PSA has the person recorded as married. However, the Embassy relies on the Marriage Certificate to determine if you are married or not.  The Embassies interest in the AOM or CENOMAR is only that it NOT show any undisclosed former marriages that are not legally ended.  The Embassy wants it as proof there is not a former Filipino spouse they forgot to mention.

[maryaaaaaaaaaaa 29]

12 hours ago, michaeljm116 said:

We did have the CENOMAR and it was checked during prescreening. However according to my wife, during the interview they asked her if she had an Advisory on Marriages and she said no and that's when she got denied. I'll try sending in the CENOMAR again and see what they say.

Sorry to hear about the denial. 
 

When you got married online, did you guys processed ROM (Report of Marriage) in USEM

in Manila?
 

If yes, civil registry should’ve been updated and she should receive AOM instead of Cenomar if she will go to PSA to obtain Cenomar. 

[michaeljm116 2]

12 hours ago, maryaaaaaaaaaaa said:

Sorry to hear about the denial. 
 

When you got married online, did you guys processed ROM (Report of Marriage) in USEM

in Manila?
 

If yes, civil registry should’ve been updated and she should receive AOM instead of Cenomar if she will go to PSA to obtain Cenomar. 

Nope I had no idea I needed to do that at the time.

 

I'm hearing that it takes like 6 months to get an ROM recognized by PSA and that it needs to be sent to the DFA in SanFrancisco.

 

Is that true? or is there some way to do it directly in the USEM?

[top_secret 2,456]

1 hour ago, michaeljm116 said:

1 hour ago, michaeljm116 said:

Nope I had no idea I needed to do that at the time.

 

I'm hearing that it takes like 6 months to get an ROM recognized by PSA and that it needs to be sent to the DFA in SanFrancisco.

 

Is that true? or is there some way to do it directly in the USEM?

 

 

 

I believe what probably went wrong here is that as far as US Embassy Manila is concerned an Advisory on Marriages is functionally identical to a CENOMAR.  Either will work.  Except, the consul asked your wife for an AOM.  She had a CENOMAR which would have worked fine.  But since the consul was negligent explaining that detail she logically answered that she had no AOM (without knowing to mention the equivalent document she did have).  I place the blame squarely on the consul for not explaining.

 

But, now that a 221g is issued.  It would take months to file a Report of Marriage, have it recorded by PSA and actually, really get an AOM.  It's not realistically happening and very fortunately not required anyways. What the Embassy needs now is the CENOMAR that existed all along but was not handed to the consul at the correct moment because the consul asked for it incorrectly.

 

Answer the 221g with the CENOMAR since that's what the Embassy really wants wether thas what they asked for or not.  Then, if you want to work towards an actual AOM as a secondary contingency, file a Report of Marriage with the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco since they are who processes ROM's for Utah Marriages

 

[spicynujac 27]

Wow, thanks for posting this.  It is *NOT* clear at all that a CENOMAR or Advisory on Marriage is required at the embassy interview and we certainly weren't going to bring one!  The government instructions should REALLY be updated to state this!

FYI, The processing time for the PSA to update their records is well over 7 months.  We filed (and received our stamped copy of) our Report of Marriage 7 months ago.  The documents say to check with the PSA in 6 months.  After 2 trips there (the bureaucracy requires you to wait in a long, long line twice) we found out that Manila has not processed the ROM yet.  So I guess we will try again in a couple of months.

 

The best general advice is to file the Report of Marriage early in the process.  We did so, pretty much right away, and we are expecting our final embassy interview within the next 6 months and still don't have it back!  We should get things handled before the interview, but not with much time to spare... For the OP, I would submit your Cenomar to the US Embassy and go ahead and file the ROM for the reasons below.

 

I don't know why ROM is not a sticky in the Philippines forum, but it's very beneficial and I believe required.  Some seem to indicate you can slide by without it, but your life will be much easier if you just go ahead and do it. It's bizarre to me the US doesn't want you updating accurate records with the Philippine authorities, and will accept a marriage certificate along wtih a contradictory statement you are unmarried (that technically could have been issued before any number of unreported marriages!).

 

ROM:  Required or at least preferred for permission for Filipina to emigrate via CFO.  There are threads here that say a minimum of a filed, but unprocessed ROM is required to exit the country.  Some here seem to imply you can eventually exit without this, but do you risk offload or at the bare minimum a tense stressful interview before your international flight, particularly at Manila airport ( I know someone offloaded last week, because her statement of financial support document was a copy and not an original.  Expensive and stressful).

ROM: Establishes you as married to a Filipina, and thus eligible for balikbayan benefits

ROM: Allows your spouse to change her name on her Philippine passport to husband's last name. This is cheap and fast in the Philippines, and will cost much, much more and take much longer in the USA, and you will need to change multiple documents if you wait.

ROM: Allows US Green Card to be issued with husband's last name, once the PSA processes the name change (7+ months)

ROM: When done before exiting Philippines, is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way of updating married name on all documents, US and PH.

Yes, there are alternate ways of doing most of the above but it's far easier, cheaper and faster to report the marriage and be done with it all.

 

I wouldn't risk trying to leave the country without filing a ROM.  Here is a thread last year stating CFO office requires a filing of ROM before issuing the stamp your spouse will need to exit the Philippines which confirms what I have read and heard:

 CFO GCP requires to submit the ROM which I do have a hard copy signed by both but not PSA copy since we are just starting and about to register the marriage certificate hard copy we got in both countries

 

If you search this forum, there are many threads here stating the requirement to file ROM before spouse can emigrate from the Philippines.  Some in this thread now are indicating it's not necessarily required.  Maybe so, but I see no reason to risk it, and it's silly to forgo the above benefits.

 

 

Edited December 7 by spicynujac

[top_secret 2,456]

I agree people should file a ROM but there are some couples who could never file a ROM or ever get an Advisory on Marriages, such as same sex marriages or persons with overseas divorces that are not recognized by the Philippines.  Those marriages may be fine for the US but are not recognized in the Philippines.  In our own case, our I-130 was approved so fast there wasn’t time to file a ROM and have it been processed in time, though we did file one.  So my wife took a CENOMAR to her interview.  There's also some hard headed types who are just opposed to having the Philippine Government involved in their lives. It's a Philippine government requirement and does not directly have anything to do with US Immigration.  The only reason the embassy requires a CENOMAR or Advisory on Marriages from every applicant is that they want to see that there are not any other marriages that were not included in the application.  In the land of no divorce, it is not unheard of that someone may have a previous Filipino spouse who they are no longer with but still legally married to, and forgot to mention that on a visa application.