top_secret

Based on a quick, incomplete and uneducated check of Hong Kong divorce laws. It appears that if she has been resident there as an OFW for at least 3 years then she 'might' be able to get divorced in Hong Kong. If she has not been resident in Hong Kong for three years but is able to extend her contract and hit that three year mark then that 'might' be her best option. Better confirm that with someone who knows about Hong Kong though. Unless the "ex"husband has any options outside the Philippines and is cooperative there is no such thing as divorce under Philippine law.

I hope you are aware there is no divorce in the Philippines. It may be a big problem. Where is the husband and is he cooperative? Is he Filipino or non-filipino? Those are critical details. Since divorce simply does not exist under Philippine law, maybe she should investigate her options for divorcing in Hong Kong if she is resident there. I know nothing about Hong Kong divorce law or if that is possible though. If she is not able to get a foreign divorce then her options in the Philippines are grim. There is annulment which is expensive, can take years, and is not even guaranteed. An I129f can not move forward until she solves the very serious divorce problem.

If they suspect that someone isn't really comprehending English and has only memorized a few words and the correct one-word answers to the questions, then they are supposed to repeat and rephrase any of questions during the interview until they are satisfied that the applicant either fully understands the question or does not understand English. Someone here recently posted that their spouse had failed due to lack of English comprehension even though they had successfully completed the reading and writing portions. For an applicant with extremely weak English skills the follow-up question videos might be extremely helpful. Not much use for anyone whose English is moderately proficient or better.

Congratulations!! That's very good advice. My wife has also been going through that and a whole lot of other YouTube videos and finding them exceptionally helpful and confidence building. In addition to the civics questions, YouTube have a bunch of mock interview videos covering a wide variety of things that might come up and just what to expect at a N400 interview. There are also some that cover follow-up vocabulary questions they might sometimes ask if they suspect someone’s English comprehension is low beyond the simple English reading and writing tests. There's like a million of those types of videos on YouTube and they are indeed an excellent resource. Just search"N400 Interview" or "N400 civics" on YouTube.

The bank is mistaking you as a visitor rather than a Permanent Resident. It is an error the bank needs to correct rather than filling a W8-BEN. By signing a W8-BEN you would certifying under penalties of perjury that you ARE NOT a US Person. As a US Permanent Resident you ARE a US Person so certifying that you are not is illegal. Your situation differs from EatBaluga's spouse because they were still in the process of adjusting status and therefore NOT a US Permanent Resident yet. But you ARE.

If he is now living with you than your address IS his correct current address. Whatever different address is on any kind of ID is his previous address and no longer current.

Renewing online is by far the best option if she can. I 'think' it can be done all online if she has a helper in the Philippines. There are probably agents who would facilitate that for a fee too but I couldn't personally recommend any. If she cant renew online and is overseas, she can get a NBI Clearance through the Philippine Embassy. For UAE the instructions are here. https://www.abudhabipe.org/_files/ugd/7dae58_6d9059a0d13347d69b01606a183614ce.pdf The Philippine Embasy has the info here. https://www.abudhabipe.org/notarialservices (scroll down the page to "NBI / Certificate of Good Conduct") A CENOMAR is a requirement. Sometimes they are inconsistent about actually asking for one when Filipino's interview outside the Philippines but they can ask and it's easy to get so best to have one. The PSA Serbilis web site https://psaserbilis.com.ph/ is where she can get a CENOMAR online and also her Birth Certificate if she needs one. It could be ordered online with a credit card and delivered to UAE.

The embassy will probably issue the visa before long, but alas, they are highly unlikely to give you any useful information while you wait.

Does a round trip originating from overseas offer the same price advantage? There's nothing to stop you from flying your round trip starting from the US and him taking the first leg of a round trip on the same flights as your return and then him canceling the return.

Currently they are scheduling interviews for persons DQ in February of 2024 and those interview dates are 2 months out. So the backlog is currently 9-10 months. Hopefully they are making progress on the backlog but It may still be a bit early to get a medical done for someone with a June 2024 DQ date. If you know she has scarring in her lungs and is highly likely to get tagged for sputum testing then it does make sense to get the medical completed early. But keep in mind that a the medical for someone tagged for sputum testing is only good for 3 months from the results date of the test. They don't get 6 months. So the timeframe would be something like 3 months for the sputum testing followed by 3 months validity of the medical. It's still 6 months but the window of usability is only 3. So that makes guessing when to do it in advance a little more difficult.

Same advice still holds true. I'm sure it is very stressful to be left hanging like that that but there is no cause for concern yet. Mysterious delays in visa issuance by US Embassy Manila happen with some regularity and everything still turns out to be fine. My own wild speculation is that maybe sometimes they want to authenticate some document with PSA or some other Philippine Government entity and obviously that would happen on Philippine time. But that's just a guess. It's probably impossible not to feel anxiety but it's still well within the broad range of what is "normal" for US Embassy Manila and nowhere near where you need to start worrying. Hopefully it will be "issued" soon.

That's what we had to do. There has been no problems.

If she wants to change her name and is able to get her foreign passport changed, it is WAY, faster, easier, cheaper and better in every single way if she can do so before her interview. It will not affect her case in any way. If she waits until she gets to the US she will have to change her name dozens of times, dozens of places, later on. USCIS, Social Security, State DL, banking, bills, insurance, employers, titles,leases, etc etc. Its a huge hassle and will literally take years to change her name in the US. If she can just change a single passport before her interview it all goes away and everything is automatically correct from day one in America.

Earlier some in this thread were goofing off with this phenomenon. Reading tea leaves is fun when nothing exciting is happening. I seriously don't think it reveals any secrete information, but perhaps it does reveal the 'Touched" status updates that USCIS previously used to give. In any case, a week AFTER my wife's appointment was set and without correlating to anything known about her case, the "updatedAt" date changed. Presumably revealing that they did 'something' behind the scenes at that particular time. Earlier some in this thread were goofing off with this phenomenon. Reading tea leaves is fun when nothing exciting is happening. I seriously don't think it reveals any secrete information, but perhaps it does reveal the 'Touched" status updates that USCIS previously used to give. In any case, a week AFTER my wife's appointment was set and without correlating to anything known about her case, the "updatedAt" date changed. Presumably revealing that they did 'something' behind the scenes at that particular time. Earlier some in this thread were goofing off with this phenomenon. Reading tea leaves is fun when nothing exciting is happening. I seriously don't think it reveals any secrete information, but perhaps it does reveal the 'Touched" status updates that USCIS previously used to give. In any case, a week AFTER my wife's appointment was set and without correlating to anything known about her case, the "updatedAt" date changed. Presumably revealing that they did 'something' behind the scenes at that particular time.

I had heard recent reports that seemed unusual. Thank you for helping to clarify what is going on.

It seems the first one misunderstood adjustment of status.😆🤣. If Vegas person wasn't willing or able to sponsor her in the first place, I assume she is now overstayed and is, as they say in the Philippines, "TNT" (tago ng tago). Living constantly in hiding due to her overstayed visa. In all, it is a pretty good outcome for a scammer case. The advice given by others is probably most critical. Time spent together in person is most important for both for USCIS and for actual relationship building. USCIS understands that anyone can fake anything online and even in person for a few weeks. There is a bit of wisdom in their mindset.

We (Philippine and US Citizens) got married in Costa Rica and could highly recommend it as having very easy laws for non resident foreigners getting married, pretty generous visa free entry, and it was just a great place for a honeymoon too. As others have mentioned, my wife flew from the Philippines on Turkish Airlines. Manila-Istanbul-Panama-San José. All visa free transit on her highly challenged Philippine passport.

It's impossible to know without knowing the foreign nationality involved. Because there are so many different variations of foreign nationality laws and different foreign laws regarding names. It could range from losing their old citizenship altogether, to not even recognizing a US Passport obtained by naturalization and everything in between.

YouTube has some decent videos with follow-up type questions if it was something like "Have you ever voted in a Federal election? No. Why not? Because that would be illegal....." Apparently, beyond the basic reading and writing test, USCIS is supposed to ask follow-up questions if they suspect the person has merely memorized the correct simple one word answers but doesn't understand the English meaning of questions. My own wife was going through some of the follow-up question videos and did not do as well on some of the English comprehension as even I would have thought. She found the YouTube videos covering that scenario to be helpful.

My wife recently took a new job that required a thorough background check. She had listed her high school and a 2-year associate degree on the application. Both from somewhat obscure schools back in the Philippines. The college degree was in a field of study not related to the current job and was not a requirement. To my surprise the company doing the background check actually did directly contact her high school and college back in the Philippines. In neither case did they request any grades or transcripts. They simply confirmed that she had indeed graduated in the years she had listed on her application and that her diplomas were authentic. They apparently tracked down the schools' contact information on their own since my wife had only provided names of the schools and dates of graduation. I always had the idea they never actually verify high school graduation but apparently they do sometimes. If a particular degree is a core requirement for a job, then I imagine they will want transcripts, foreign credential evaluation, etc. If it is just information that is asked on the application but not a strict requirement then I would just fill it out accurately but not worry too much about it.

Assuming they have a US Passport, that would be the main thing.

Just thinking out loud, and not claiming any knowledge on the subject, but if one card is "correct" according to all actual circumstances and the other card is not, shouldn't the incorrect one be returned to USCIS with a letter pointing out their mistake? Just because USCIS makes a mistake does not absolve the beneficiary of the mistake.

Have you double checked spam, that they have the correct e-mail etc? I think Feb 12 should have got one. I haven't seen many complaints of exceptions. If you wife got an interview date and your stepdaughter did not, then definitely request and expedite for your stepdaughter. The embassy would almost certainly correct an oversite like that.

I cannot remember any specific cases here on VJ where anyone was ever successful getting the meeting requirement waived. Even some cases with very difficult medical situations and a lot of cases affected by rona-virus travel bans were unsuccessful getting meeting requirements waived. USCIS would not even consider difficulty arranging child care as being an extreme hardship.

It seems like this batch made it up to about the 3rd week of February 2024. I saw a report of a February 20 DQ date receiving an interview letter and a February 21 DQ date not receiving one yet. It's at least promising that they seem to have made more than a months progress in the last month but they still have a long way to go to reduce the backlog.