top_secret

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.

For a Filipina traveling alone as a TOURIST, Philippine Immigration will often ask about available funds and may even ask for proof. Filipinos call it "show money". But even then, not such a large amount as the oddly specific $4500, and that is only for traveling as a tourist. Traveling on fiance or immigrant visas, there is no such requirement. As others have said, the only reason I ever heard of any K1 or CR/IR visa holders being denied boarding by Philippine immigration if for not having completed CFO or some glaring discrepancy in their paperwork or passport. That happen somewhat regularly. Never for not having funds. I agree with J.M.'s assessment of the possibilities, or she had not completed CFO and misunderstood why she was denied boarding. But the facts matching what was stated at face value simply is not possible.

We put it all together and named the file like "Marrige_Certificate_and_Certified_English_Translation.pdf".

What we have experienced is that for a "foreign born person", if any relevant USCIS immigration document (green card, naturalization certificate etc) comes chronologically after the marriage certificate then Social Security is digging in hard and will accept only the name on the more recent immigration document and will NOT accept the marriage certificate as a name change document if it differs from the more recent immigration document. My wife has been denied changing names based on the marriage certificate multiple times both as a LPR and as a Citizen because it does not match her immigration documents.

PSA doesn't really take 7 months to process a ROM. They just tell you that so you won't hassle them. 1-2 months to process it after the consulate finishes is more typical. AFTER the SFO consulate returns the original stamped ROM to you, you can check the progress towards being sent to PSA by emailing oca.crd-us@dfa.gov.ph . In the email, ask if the "Transmittal Details" for you ROM are available yet and attach a PDF scan of the stamped ROM you received back from the consulate. If they reply with the "Transmittal Details" (1) REFERENCE NUMBER (2) DISPATCH NUMBER (3) DISPATCH DATE (4) TRANSMITTAL DATE It means PSA has it and if you can get someone competent at PSA (?) they can issue the ROM. I feel that changing her full name will be an issue in the Philippines. I do not think it would be easy. In marriage she would ordinarily drop her middle name, change her maiden last name to her middle name, and assume her husband's last name. Alternately, she could only take your surname. Or, she could even drop her name entirely and become "Mrs husband's full name". There is also a ruling that she could retain her full maiden name "as-is". It is not just custom, it is actual Philippine law. I do not personally know of any option to change her name otherwise, other than the almost non-starter Philippine court process. Anything requiring any kind of court process in the Philippines takes ALLOT of time, money, risk, and a really sketchy lawyer. According to Article 370 of the Civil Code of the Philippines............ https://amslaw.ph/philippine-laws/civil-law/civil-code-of-the-philippines(4) ARTICLE 370. A married woman may use: (1) Her maiden first name and surname and add her husband’s surname, or (2) Her maiden first name and her husband’s surname, or (3) Her husband’s full name, but prefixing a word indicating that she is his wife, such as "Mrs." If she is planning to assume her married name within the norms of Philippine law it will be incredibly helpful and many times easier and cheaper if she can change her Philippine passport BEFORE her interview. The US will issue the visa, the green card, the social security number and every other US document derived from those in whatever name is in the passport she brings the day of her interview. If you are trying to accomplish a name change that is outside the norms of Philippine law then just wait until she gets to the US but be aware that changing a green card once it has been issued with a different name is costly and time consuming. (though probably far less costly and time consuming than doing a nonconventional name change in the Philippines)

If you are actually living full time in the Philippines you can file it at the DFA ASEANA office in Manila. https://consular.dfa.gov.ph/services/consular-records/crd-requirements/crd-report-of-marriage They still would forward it to the consulate with consular juristiction but it can all be handled in person from Manila.

Here is what we did which was easy and effective. We used a template for printing labels in MS Word to produce pages of photos. Specifically Avery 6572 https://www.avery.com/templates/6572 which is 15 "labels" per page. Then for each cell I opened pictures in irfanview (or any other photo editor), cropped the relevant part, and copied and pasted into the cells of the label templates. Then for each cell I typed a very brief date, names and description below each photo. Finally I saved it as pdfs. We had 4 pages encompassing 60 photos covering events chronologically throughout my wife and stepdaughter's stay in the US. It was only 4 pages but I feel it would be instantly visually compelling to anyone in support of their case. Thier Removal of Conditions was approved unusually fast, so whatever we did worked.

The other exception is for those who get sent for sputum testing. In those cases the medical and visa expires 3 months from the results date of the sputum test.

You Filipino Citizenship is what's important since it is what passes Filipino Citizenship to your child. So Citizenship Filipino. I assume you were born Filipino and were not naturalized in the Philippines, so naturalization does not apply. Answer N/A

What has been happening with CR1/IR1 and some other family category cases at US Embassy Manila for a while now is so called "mass expedites' whereby the embassy has been sending out large batches of unrequested approved expedites as a way of repurposing the expedite system to allow self scheduling of ordinary cases. It introduces an additional layer of chaos but many CR/IR cases are self scheduling now and the embassy does seem to be making huge inroads into their backlog. The backlog does now seem to be well under the 8-12 months it was recently.

It just means she will automatically receive "all" of the shots (at no extra cost). Most likely two, or possibly three shots in each arm 🤣. She will survive and everything is fine.

I'd still try it. I'd bet it would work. I once put a Mint Sim is an old Pixel 2 I had laying around that very specifically was NOT supported by Mint, did not pass their IMEI check and it instantly worked just fine anyways.

"Psychological incapacity" is a rather vague but commonly used legal excuse for annulment in the Philippines. If it triggers the personal evaluation it's just a money grab and an extra day of hassle from Saint Lukes. No really big deal.

The separate document they are probably looking for is an "Advisory on Marriages" or a "CENOMAR". She may make it past NVC by highlighting the annulment annotated on the Marriage Certificate but she won't make it past the Embassy without one. They are strict on that point so do go ahead and order one. You can get one by ordering a "CENOMAR" online at https://psaserbilis.com.ph/ or you wife can pick one up at a local PSA office. Order a CENOMAR and whatever document she receives (Advisory on Marriages OR CENOMAR) is what the embassy requires.

We just did this with my 12 year stepdaughter right after her mother naturalized. They wanted her personal appearance, her green card, her foreign birth certificate, her mom's naturalization certificate, her mom's CA State ID, her foreign passport for ID and entry stamps, proof of legal custody (which is her case was her birth certificate, might be different in other cases), and lots of proof that she was actually living here in the US with her mother. We initially supplied her health insurance papers with our address, some USCIS notices in her name at our address and tax returns showing we claimed her as a dependant. They were not satisfied with that and seemed fixated on school records to prove she had been living here so we got her school ID, attendance record, report card and enrolment record from her school. We did it at a Passport Agency with an urgent appointment for planned international travel within 14 days and for us that was a HUGE benefit since they returned all our evidence the next day, allowed us to e-mail the additional school records they requested the same day and issued the US Passport the next day. The Passport Agency kept her green card when they issued the US Passport.

Once you are already in their system you are unlikely to get a second shot with a different counselor. The best bet is to appease them and just give them what they ask for and get it over with. You could argue that you had to show a police report to get the 13A visa or if you still have a copy of that. If you are there and it is not easy to get a police report from the US try a NBI Clearance on yourself. Show whatever you showed for income on you Affidavit of Support on the immigration case. I think the most common outcome when they decide to hassle you like that is you throw them a few token replies, they dangle you for about a week and then still have to let you go.

Do be aware however that your wife may also face some blowback from CFO about not having the ROM filled. She could say you just filed one and they said it would take 6 months and show the Utah marriage certificate. They may hassle her a bit on that topic but ultimately they still have to let her go.

Congratulations!!

I wouldn't try it that close. Staying over the weekend sounds like its almost certainly required. It is 'almost' always two days minimum. Under the new policy the embassy might still let her complete her interview but give her a 221g for incomplete medical and that could cause a significant delay in the visa being issued.

They will also formally take walk-ins if you have an interview scheduled within 7 calendar days. https://slec.ph/#announcement (see the September 16, 2024 announcement)

The scheduling site has some kind of very low limit on how many times you can log in a day. I 'think' you probably exceed that so it gave you a 24 hour ban. Probably nothing you can do but wait until tomorrow and try again. It's ridiculous and that site is really awful but that's what the embassy has.

The 30% refusal rate is misleading because a not insignificant number of the approvals are simply lockbox renewals of existing B2 visas and therefore have a very high approval rate. The refusal rate for first time applicants is undoubtedly significantly higher.

Since you list your city as Honolulu you may be in luck because there is a local LBC Express office there. LBC is by far the best, cheapest, most reliable way to send documents to the Philippines. They could probably deliver to her airbnb or hold it at an LBC office in Manila.

More than likely a couple of decades and some less than perfect record keeping works to your favor.😁 You are probably good. But it might be worth ordering your Advisory on Marriages just out of curiosity to see what kind of tabs PSA has kept on you.

Social Security will want to see the Naturalization Certificate. That is pretty much the final word with them. If the naturalization certificate came AFTER the marriage certificate then they are no longer interested in the marriage certificate. There is no online option. Either you checked the box on the N-400 to have USCIS handle it (and it worked?) or else you must go in person. Depending on the office you may or may not need an appointment. We recently dealt with this exact topic with Social Security and at least our local office was as bad as any indiferent, almost hostile, government office I have dealt with in years. They make USCIS look like saints.