US Immigration from Philippines

I posted this initially on another forum, and it was recommended that I post it here..

My Filipina wife wants to go on her 26 day dream tour of Europe. She is a U.S. 10-year green card holder. We will drive 10 hours for her Shengen Visa interview (Netherlands) in San Francisco in January. My concern is that they require proof that her tour, insurance and airline tickets be paid in full prior to arriving at the VFS.global interview. The Tour must be paid in full ($4650) before they will issue travel documents for the interview and only has a 10 day cancellation window. From what I've read, it can take anywhere from one to eight weeks to get a response about whether your request is accepted or denied.

She's had the same job for over 3 years, she makes a fairly good amount of money (~$60k), and has a healthy amount of money in the bank, so she meets all the basic requirements for being accepted.

There is nobody to talk to at the VFS.Global visa service about the chances of her being rejected as she is still a passport holder from a 3rd world country. If she is denied a visa, we are potential out over $6,000, which is the prepaid amount for the airline ticket, tour price, and insurance required (I'm looking into a refundable airline ticket to mitigate this amount a bit).

Does anyone have experience with the Shengen visas and how often people from 3rd world countries are denied?

If the chances of her being rejected are over about 10%, I'm thinking the risk of prepaying for everything is not worth it.

Thanks in advance.

My son received his expedited approved to post notification, but no interview letter. This was from November 1. I was told I needed to schedule an interveiw, but I don't how to do this. Can someone please direct me to a website? Thank you!

My Filipina wife wants to go on her 26 day dream tour of Europe. She is a U.S. 10-year green card holder. We will drive 10 hours for her Shengen Visa interview (Netherlands) in San Francisco in January. My concern is that they require that her tour, insurance and airline tickets be paid in full prior to arriving at the VFS.global interview. She's had the same job for over 3 years, she makes a fairly good amount of money (~$60k), and we have plenty of money in the bank.

There is nobody talk to at this visa service about the chances of her being rejected since she is still a passport holder from a 3rd world country. If she is denied a visa, we are out over $6,000, which is the prepaid amount for the airline ticket, tour price, and insurance required. Does anyone have experience with the Shengen visas and how often people from 3rd world countries are denied?

If the chances of her being rejected are over about 10%, I'm thinking the risk of prepaying for everything is not worth it.

Thanks in advance.

Is it necessary to apply for ROM? Or can we just skip it if I have just applied for N-400?

Hello!

I'm a Filipino who recently immigrated into the US last 2023. I had to leave a lot of stuff behind, namely finishing my college degree (which I'm going to be done with soon!) and my then-girlfriend, now wife. My wife and I married through a Utah remote marriage and I'm now planning to file an I-130 for her to apply through the F2A route (although I'm planning to naturalize by 2028 and get the category upgraded to IR-1 since I don't see the F2A priority date becoming current anytime before that).

I have a few questions regarding the whole process:

1. My wife and I agreed to not have her surname changed until she reaches the US with me. Thus, we're considering skipping reporting the marriage to the Philippine consulate in San Francisco since, having extensive experience with bureaucracy with the system in the Philippines. Will this decision be a non-issue when it comes to the whole process of filing her papers on the US side?

2. The relationship my wife and I share go back to 2021 where we met online, all the way up to 2023 where we formally began dating before marrying this 2024. However, my wife is under 21, also contributing to the choice to marry in the remote marriage because of the strange rule in Philippine marriage law (a spouse must obtain parental consent if they are 18-20 years old or parental advice if they are 21-24 years old). However, here in Maryland (and, in extension, Utah), the spouse must only be 18 or above to marry without parental consent. Is this also a non-issue on the US side?
3. Given everything we have above, are we all set to begin filing for her I-130, or is there something we're missing before we do so?

Thank you!