Tourist Visa for Mother in Law from Philippines

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

14 hours ago, W199 said:

All the CO is going to see and think about is that she has strong ties to the USA with her daughter and you there, and that is going to be living at your house .. Unless she has some status there such as a professional job in Manila, high salary,  husband and kids there that is very compelling for her to return, then its not a very likely chance.   All the common sense and reasoning and "proof", letters, affidavits, etc.. you have while she will return won't help, you won't be allowed to paint the picture that you want, they don't use that type of reasoning and thought process...   They are going to take a quick look at her background and know very quickly if she falls into the bucket of the people who go and never return regardless of whether it makes any sense for them to do so (such as being able to do it legally through her wife).  In summary, she have very strong ties to the USA, so  unless she has very high status, and life story, etc.. the CO won't find her eligible, .e.g. having more ties to the Philippines ...

 

 

She has been a housewife for 40 plus years, never worked since she got married and she is still married, her husband is now retired from a American owned company based in Philippines, He is Electrical Engineer.  She does have 4 other daughters all live in Philippines. 

 

Of course she will be living at my house in Texas, It's huge and I have plenty of room upstairs, it just me and wife living here, It would be silly to have her stay in a hotel. I have 4 full baths and like 4500 sq ft house.

[Boiler 45,585]

On 9/29/2024 at 9:50 AM, DELTAFOXTROT said:

She is 69 years old

Has she looked into Travel Insurance, can get tricky for old people.

 

Will someone be escorting her, I know some Airlines have services to help.

 

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

30 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Has she looked into Travel Insurance, can get tricky for old people.

 

Will someone be escorting her, I know some Airlines have services to help.

 

I haven't looked into travel insurance, I got it for me one time and it was a scam, I used Safety Wing and needed to be hospitalized in Philippine and they paid nothing, I had to have it to enter Philippines during Covid it was requirement for non citizens. I may look into it, but her mother is healthy, but you never know.

 

She is flying with my wife friend mother, they are supposed to book the trip in December and come to USA in April or May. 

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

Update: I canceled my trip to Cancun for Wednesday, Rainy and possible of tropical storm or hurricane forming and it looks like crappy weather for the next few days in Cancun, rebooked for end of October, fingers crossed weather clears up by then in the area.

 

I am not flying to Philippines either, just gonna enjoy the sunny skies at home.

[Boiler 45,585]

SafetyWing (Managing General Agent), Ltd, a Turks and Caicos registered managing general agent, is the plan administrator for certain insurance products underwritten and offered by SafetyWing Insurance I.I., a Class 3 and Class 5 Puerto Rico domiciled international insurer.

 

No end of the big names who do Travel Insurance.

[W199 335]

1 hour ago, DELTAFOXTROT said:

She has been a housewife for 40 plus years, never worked since she got married and she is still married, her husband is now retired from a American owned company based in Philippines, He is Electrical Engineer.  She does have 4 other daughters all live in Philippines. 

 

Of course she will be living at my house in Texas, It's huge and I have plenty of room upstairs, it just me and wife living here, It would be silly to have her stay in a hotel. I have 4 full baths and like 4500 sq ft house.

As I said, the mentality, and decision making process of granting a tourist visa to someone in a high risk and fraud country that has strong ties to the USA (her daughter, your house, etc..) is not going to be what you expect.  It is infuriating and frustrating. They have very strict guidelines which transcend common sense and fairness. The fact that she is coming over to the USA by herself, never workeed, has presumably adult kids (no little kids to take care of), doesn't have a job to come back to, probably can't support herself without your help and the tickets, and I presume "not rich living in Makati", etc.. is not going to get her a VISA unless you have a lot of other factors that you have not revealed. Remember, to get a tourist vias you do proving why you are going to the USA is not what is required to get a visa. Hencing proving she will visit you and stay with you means nothing. The CO is required by law/regulation to presume the applicatant is trying to immigrate. The requirement is the applicant must prove why they will not immigrate, and return to their Country.  How can your MIL prove that that she will return to her adult children in the Philippines rather than stay in the nice 4500sqft comfortablel house with her favoriate daughter married to the American with potential medical issues? She has 1 minute to prove it  .. and just saying she has her husband and adult kids isn't enough. Countless of other people in her shoes have done the same and "changed their mind" after arriving. So they ruined it for honest people like ourselves.     I presume she has not traveled to Europe, Canada, etc.. yet either? Its going to be a very hard and unlikely sell.  

 

I'm not trying to be a jerk .. I'm just telling you what its like and how the CO's think and their requirement.  It's not going to be the common sense that you are thinking.

 

I hope you prove me wrong ...  If you do, I might try it for my MIL too. But otherwise, I'm not going to waste what I think will be a waste of time and money and create trauma and dissappointment.

 

 

 

[W199 335]

2 hours ago, Boiler said:

SafetyWing (Managing General Agent), Ltd, a Turks and Caicos registered managing general agent, is the plan administrator for certain insurance products underwritten and offered by SafetyWing Insurance I.I., a Class 3 and Class 5 Puerto Rico domiciled international insurer.

 

No end of the big names who do Travel Insurance.

There are several webpages that do a good job in comparing them and compete for a good price.  Usually I use https://www.squaremouth.com/  

[JKLSemicolon 414]

12 hours ago, DELTAFOXTROT said:

Of course she will be living at my house in Texas, It's huge and I have plenty of room upstairs, it just me and wife living here, It would be silly to have her stay in a hotel. I have 4 full baths and like 4500 sq ft house.

Not trying to nitpick but from a CO’s perspective (who sees things through the lens of everyone tourist visa applicant having possible immigrant intent), saying that she will be living at your house has a very different meaning than saying that she will be staying at your house when she visits.

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

4 hours ago, JKLSemicolon said:

Not trying to nitpick but from a CO’s perspective (who sees things through the lens of everyone tourist visa applicant having possible immigrant intent), saying that she will be living at your house has a very different meaning than saying that she will be staying at your house when she visits.

I am not going to interview, I am using US terms and southern terms on this board.

 

 

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

12 hours ago, W199 said:

There are several webpages that do a good job in comparing them and compete for a good price.  Usually I use https://www.squaremouth.com/  

I am not worried about health insurance for her mother, my wife has  group of pinays she talks to and all of them have had their parents or visit on tourist visas, I will let her figure all that out.  As I said her mother is in good shape if she wasn't I wouldn't let her come to the USA.  I do have bank so money really isn't an issue for me.

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

15 hours ago, W199 said:

As I said, the mentality, and decision making process of granting a tourist visa to someone in a high risk and fraud country that has strong ties to the USA (her daughter, your house, etc..) is not going to be what you expect.  It is infuriating and frustrating. They have very strict guidelines which transcend common sense and fairness. The fact that she is coming over to the USA by herself, never workeed, has presumably adult kids (no little kids to take care of), doesn't have a job to come back to, probably can't support herself without your help and the tickets, and I presume "not rich living in Makati", etc.. is not going to get her a VISA unless you have a lot of other factors that you have not revealed. Remember, to get a tourist vias you do proving why you are going to the USA is not what is required to get a visa. Hencing proving she will visit you and stay with you means nothing. The CO is required by law/regulation to presume the applicatant is trying to immigrate. The requirement is the applicant must prove why they will not immigrate, and return to their Country.  How can your MIL prove that that she will return to her adult children in the Philippines rather than stay in the nice 4500sqft comfortablel house with her favoriate daughter married to the American with potential medical issues? She has 1 minute to prove it  .. and just saying she has her husband and adult kids isn't enough. Countless of other people in her shoes have done the same and "changed their mind" after arriving. So they ruined it for honest people like ourselves.     I presume she has not traveled to Europe, Canada, etc.. yet either? Its going to be a very hard and unlikely sell.  

 

I'm not trying to be a jerk .. I'm just telling you what its like and how the CO's think and their requirement.  It's not going to be the common sense that you are thinking.

 

I hope you prove me wrong ...  If you do, I might try it for my MIL too. But otherwise, I'm not going to waste what I think will be a waste of time and money and create trauma and dissappointment.

 

 

 

Only way she can prove she will return to her country is by being old and her daughter being a US Citizen and not doing a petition to have her mother live in USA.  Philippines has a history of approving tourist visa for older people, It just the way it is.  I have seen way too many parents get approved for tourist visa from Philippines, my wife has about 8 other pinay girls in her group of friends.

 

I have been to the US Embassy in Manila myself, Actually been part of the visa interview, I have sit back and watched and listenend to other K1 and other tourist visa interivew go down, I can tell you that the CO already has his or her decision made on most of the visa applications even before the visa interview starts. 

 

The questions are too short, and too easy to answer, at least on the pre approved cases they are. If you get up to the window at the US Embassy in Manila and the CO ask you a handful of questions and then he/she approves or denies that means you were part of the pre approved or pre denied. 

 

In our case it should be a slam dunk approval based upon history of US Embassy in the Philippines approving tourist visas for the old and rich. 

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

15 hours ago, Boiler said:

SafetyWing (Managing General Agent), Ltd, a Turks and Caicos registered managing general agent, is the plan administrator for certain insurance products underwritten and offered by SafetyWing Insurance I.I., a Class 3 and Class 5 Puerto Rico domiciled international insurer.

 

No end of the big names who do Travel Insurance.

Now it all makes sense they are based outside of the USA.  I had a motorcyle accident, My wife had to fly from USA to Philippines to take care of me, In Philippines even in a private hospital (Better ones compared to Public) you have a watcher that stays in room with you and they feed you, bath you, change your sheet, go get your medicine (they have pharmacy in hospital and when you need something the doctor gives you a script and you send someone to pharmacy to buy it and then the doctor or nurse will then inject you with it.)  By the time my wife had arrived I already had surgery, and she got there the next day after my surgery to repair my bones.

 

Once my wife arrived we decided to file a claim with Safety wing and first call was to an American Place, and after filing claim I had a doctor take over the case and he sounded like he was in a some 3rd world country and had very poor English skills. He wanted all our medical bills, passport info, etc so my wife took pics and sent to them and first thing he said it needed to be scanned and sent in, who has a printer or a scanner in their hospital room.  

 

When my wife arrived in Manila from USA she had her sister fly to Manila and meet her there and then they both flew to the city I was hospitalized in to take care of me, Wife spent 9 weeks with me 24/7 in the hospital room, I paid for the sister a hotel room at night, since they only furnish one bed in the room for a watcher.

 

If I ever get medical stuff like that again, I will do my due diligence and make sure they are US based.

[top_secret 2,425]

On 9/27/2024 at 5:56 AM, DELTAFOXTROT said:

The US Embassy is very accommodating to US Citizens, and when I did my K1 interview they had a seperate line for American Citizens that I could enter so we didn't have to wait in line, and I think I was the only American there that day. VIP treatment.

 

 

US Embassy Manila banned US Citizens from attending the interviews of spouses, fiancées, family members, MIL etc in 2020 "because of rona-virus".  AFIK that ban has yet to be lifted.  I have yet to hear a single recent account of any US Citizen being allowed in for any visa interview. I have heard multiple recent accounts of US Citizens being forced to stand outside when they showed up for their spouse's or fiancée's visa interview at US Embassy Manila. The separate VIP line has apparently been replaced with a security guard who says "you have to wait outside".   No recent accounts for MIL's though.

[Lil bear 4,239]

43 minutes ago, top_secret said:

 

No recent accounts for MIL's though.

Or for tall,  gregarious, young for their age VIPs with extraordinary connections either? 🤪

[DELTAFOXTROT 56]

1 hour ago, top_secret said:

 

 

US Embassy Manila banned US Citizens from attending the interviews of spouses, fiancées, family members, MIL etc in 2020 "because of rona-virus".  AFIK that ban has yet to be lifted.  I have yet to hear a single recent account of any US Citizen being allowed in for any visa interview. I have heard multiple recent accounts of US Citizens being forced to stand outside when they showed up for their spouse's or fiancée's visa interview at US Embassy Manila. The separate VIP line has apparently been replaced with a security guard who says "you have to wait outside".   No recent accounts for MIL's though.

I would use the "Elderly" Provision per us Embassy in Manila"

 

Accompanying persons

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Attorneys are not permitted to accompany clients into the waiting room or to their interview. The following persons may accompany a visa applicant to their interview:

• Applicants may bring ONE interpreter if they do not speak English or Filipino well enough for an interview.
• Applicants may bring ONE person to help if they are elderly, disabled, or a minor child.

U.S. Embassy Manila, Philippines - MNL (state.gov)