K1 Received in Manila Fiance told must have $4500 usd in personal account?

[Geoffery 2]

9 hours ago, W199 said:

If she doesn't have the CFO certificate, then no amount of money in her bank account will be enough. It just doesn't work like that.   They are 100% strict about needing a CFO certificate to leave. One you have it, there are no other requirements because all the requirements were already met to acquire the CFO.  

 

Just make sure she keeps the email receipt, sometimes the immigration officer will ask to see it. They did for my fiance. 

So our attorney feels she should have the money in travelers checks.

[Boiler 46,143]

46 minutes ago, Geoffery said:

So our attorney feels she should have the money in travelers checks.

Most people send their money electronically, how much is she bringing?

[DELTAFOXTROT 78]

1 hour ago, Geoffery said:

So our attorney feels she should have the money in travelers checks.

Travelers Checks? Haven't used them or seen them since the late 1980's

 

For a Fiance/Marriage visa she only needs CFO sticker in her passport to leave Philippines.

[Edward and Jaycel 596]

2 hours ago, DELTAFOXTROT said:

Travelers Checks? Haven't used them or seen them since the late 1980's

 

For a Fiance/Marriage visa she only needs CFO sticker in her passport to leave Philippines.

They don’t put a sticker in the passport anymore. It’s all done electronically now. At the end of the seminar, at checkout, they will send the certificate to the email address she used to register. At the airport, Immigration will likely want her to show them the email from CFO  on her phone and will ask her to open the PDF attached so they can see it. That’s what they did with Jaycel at immigration on her departure a few months ago. She does not have to put the money into travelers checks. That is not a requirement.

[J.M. 266]

4 hours ago, Geoffery said:

So our attorney feels she should have the money in travelers checks.

Have money for what?  It has been noted several times by knowledgeable people here that have been through this process that she doesn't need to show any bank account evidence or have "available funds" to depart the Philippines as a K-1.  They only money she needs is for the airport tax (1620 PESOS last time I checked), and some spare change for a bottle of water and baggage handler tips.  If she, or the attorney, is still insisting that $4500 USD is needed, despite everyone here saying it is not, something is amiss.  From the limited information here, my guess would be you would never see that $4500 or your fiancée again if you wind up sending it to her.  I'm not trying to be judgmental or negative.  I'm just going by the facts as you've told them.  I sincerely hope there is a misunderstanding and everything works out.

[top_secret 2,519]

5 hours ago, Geoffery said:

So our attorney feels she should have the money in travelers checks.

 

Even decades ago when travelers checks were a thing they were almost impossible to cash in the Philippines.  To be honest, that advice coming from an attorney sounds about as suspicious as if he advised you to transfer it in bitcoin.  Where did you find this guy?

 

There is no $4500 bank balance requirement to travel on a K1 visa.  It simply does not exist. Philippine Immigration can be very difficult and unreasonable in many ways but not like that.

[W199 364]

LOL,   Amex does even make travelor checks anymore.  https://www.americanexpress.com/us/travel/travelers-cheques/    ATM cards and electronic means have long since replaced them.  

 

Oh, ask your lawyer, "how about a floppy disk with her bank account info too"?

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 04:52 PM by W199

[Crazy Cat 42,353]

7 hours ago, Geoffery said:

So our attorney feels she should have the money in travelers checks.

There is something seriously amiss here......time for someone to come clean. 

[DELTAFOXTROT 78]

20 hours ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

They don’t put a sticker in the passport anymore. It’s all done electronically now. At the end of the seminar, at checkout, they will send the certificate to the email address she used to register. At the airport, Immigration will likely want her to show them the email from CFO  on her phone and will ask her to open the PDF attached so they can see it. That’s what they did with Jaycel at immigration on her departure a few months ago. She does not have to put the money into travelers checks. That is not a requirement.

So if one doesn't have a cell fone what happens from there?

 

They need to go to internet cafe and have email printed out?

[Edward and Jaycel 596]

2 hours ago, DELTAFOXTROT said:

So if one doesn't have a cell fone what happens from there?

 

They need to go to internet cafe and have email printed out?

 

There is an option at the CFO seminar to print it out there for an extra 20 Pesos or something but Philippine Immigration does not want the paper certificate. "Too easy to counterfeit" so they say. They want to see the email from CFO with the certificate attached. I guess if the person's fiancee does not have a smart phone before they get to this stage, they will have to get them one. Jaycel had the printed out certificate with her when she went through Philippine Immigration and the officer said, "No, show me the email from CFO."

[RO_AH 1,663]

9 hours ago, DELTAFOXTROT said:

They need to go to internet cafe and have email printed out?

Yes. That's what my wife did.

[RO_AH 1,663]

On 1/31/2025 at 11:54 PM, Geoffery said:

So our attorney feels she should have the money in travelers checks.

This is why you don't use attorneys for something that you can easily do yourself.

 

[Family 4,242]

1 hour ago, RO_AH said:

This is why you don't use attorneys for something that you can easily do yourself.

 

There is No Way a self respecting US based Immigration Attorney would ever condone that cash grab by the foreign fiancé 😂

 

I can only imagine the upcoming $$ attorney will asking for soon

[W199 364]

On 2/2/2025 at 6:13 AM, DELTAFOXTROT said:

So if one doesn't have a cell fone what happens from there?

 

They need to go to internet cafe and have email printed out?

In 2023, my now Wife did the online CFO, then went to the CFO office to get the CFO sticker for the passport. When she exited the Philippines with the CFO sticker in her passport and with the printed CFO certificate in hand as well, the immigration officer asked to see her receipt for the CFO.  She showed him the paper receipt we had ready. He said "No, I want to see the email receipt".  Then she had to find it on her phone.  He then went to the backroom by himself, and came back a few minutes later an let her proceed. I wonder what he did in the backroom and what would have happened if she couldn't dig up the email.

 

 

[top_secret 2,519]

4 hours ago, W199 said:

In 2023, my now Wife did the online CFO, then went to the CFO office to get the CFO sticker for the passport. When she exited the Philippines with the CFO sticker in her passport and with the printed CFO certificate in hand as well, the immigration officer asked to see her receipt for the CFO.  She showed him the paper receipt we had ready. He said "No, I want to see the email receipt".  Then she had to find it on her phone.  He then went to the backroom by himself, and came back a few minutes later an let her proceed. I wonder what he did in the backroom and what would have happened if she couldn't dig up the email.

 

It was 2021 when my wife did CFO and at that time they had just introduced the digital certificates.  Then you could pull up ALL of the information that had been submitted to CFO online with nothing more than the name and e-mail address and no kind of password or security whatsoever.  I would hope that by now they added some level of basic security (?) but I suspect BI can still pull up everything you submitted to CFO based on the e-mail address. However, I also suspect that if someone legitimately only had a paper printout that BI 'could' begrudgingly call someone or something and authenticate it some other way if they had to.   Asking for the e-mail is probably just easier for them.  In my wifes case, even though she had CFO, exit immigration didn't even ask for it or look at it at all.  Presumably because her passport was full of many stamps from previous travel.  The Philippines is the land of inconsistency.