US Immigration from Philippines

One of our good friends in the Philippines was a former Merchant Marine who had married a Filipina with a son. They were married 10 years before he passed away and that was about 5 years ago. Maybe just before covid.

Now, I know it's too late for her to get a widow's visa and I don't know if she'd want that anyway. She does qualify for SS spousal benefits though, but SS won't send benefits to the Philippines unless she is a US citizen or has at least been in the US 5 years or more.

I don't believe he adopted the son who is 22 now. The Merchant Marine pension stopped when he died.

Is there any kind of visa she or the son might qualify for or any other benefit I may be missing?

Has anyone heard of VSF Global being part of the visa process? My fiance said she scheduled via vsfglobal.comwhich gave her payment information to go to a RCBC bank to complete payment.

Once payment is confirmed she is instructed to go to:

https://www.usvisascheduling.com/

Has anyone heard of this? Is it a scam?

Does anyone have any experience with requesting a K-1 visa to be reissued from the US embassy in Manila? My fianc e and her two children were not able to meet the deadline for departure. The PDOS at CFO really screwed with her. They were closed one time on her scheduled day, so she had to go to the end of the list and wait another month, then they told her two children didn't need the "stamp" because of their age. Then, after she was there (finally) for her scare seminar, they told her she needed the children's visas to have the exit tax stamp too. She finally got that done with a week before the visa expired, and then had a medical emergency that kept her hospitalized past the expiration date. She kept telling me to leave her because she wasn't going to make it here by the expiration date. I told her I didn't want a government rule and bureaucracy to dictate my happiness and family composition.

We sent the requirements to the VAC about three weeks but haven't heard anything. The CEAC website simply says her visas was issued, not that they received it back. I can't find a website to track the progress, much less to detail anything about timeframe or costs. I'm pretty sure they'll have to do the St. Luke's medical exams again, plus I'm sure there's some sort of processing fee, if they agree to reissue her visa.

I'm not a patient person to begin with, so not knowing if the VAC has officially received all the paperwork required on the State Department website, no communication from the consular's office, no timeframe, and nothing else, I'm getting antsy about the process, the communication, and how much longer I will have to wait to have my family together finally.

I didn't know about this option - the I-864W until I applied. The kids are here now, last Thursday. So, I guess they are now US citizens, but what do I need to do to get proof? Thank you!

My sister, a household member, has agreed to be a joint sponsor with me, however I'm not sure if she should use the I-864 or I-864A. She was not required to file taxes due to her SS income level. I noticed on the I-864A no option to indicate that, such as on the I-864, Part 6, line 17.

Would it be better to use the I-864 so she can note no tax filing required, and submit evidence to support that? If she is required to use the I-864A because she's a household member, is it acceptable to just submit evidence explaining the reason for no tax transcript?