top_secret

While not directly applicable to Immigration, Social Security quite specifically does not care about middle names so that at least gives you some idea about the US Government's general attitude towards middle names. https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0110205120#:~:text=A middle name or suffix,shown on an SSN card. Also, for the sake of argument there is no "Middle Name" field on a US Passport or US Green Card, while there IS a separate "Middle Name" field on a Philippine Passport. So, I suspect that the "Surname" and "Given Name" fields on your Philippine Passport and your US Document are identical but the Philippine Passport just carries an additional field of information that does not have an exact equivalent in the US.

My wife actually got a new passport photo done in Peru since that's where we happened to be on vacation together when her I-130 was approved and we were preparing embassy paperwork. It was very easy. I think we paid 20 Sol to a passport photo photographer in a mall to take the picture and give us five 2"x2" prints plus he sent the .jpg copy to my wifes WhatsApp. By default he wanted to do European size photos and we had no luck explaining 2"X2" but he finally figured out "Americano" size photos. Someone suggested later that we should have just asked for 50mmX50mm but in any case we worked out the size issue. Back here I tiled the digital photo six each on 4"x6" prints uploaded to Walmart and now we have a lifetime supply of expired passport photos for like $1.50.

After all the rona lockdowns, travel bans and with all the recent renewed publicity of offloading cases in Filipino news media and social media, CFO seems to have morphed into something far beyond what it was originally. A big percentage of would-be Filipino tourists are now afraid to go near an airport without a CFO certificate. All of which is resulting in backlogs. Probably the difference between when Chancy went through in 2021 and now, is that then they were taking people in the order they applied, and now they seem to have have introduced a "triage" step. It seems they are only accommodating people who are travel ready and planning to travel immediately. Which sucks for planning but I suspect they are still taking people in the immediate short-term future if they actually have visa on hand. My friend’s wife hasn't head back yet after submitting her documents minus the visa. She submitted her DS-260 barcode page in lieu of a visa. We'll see how that flies, but it sounds like she will be asked to come back when she has a visa. Even if that is the case, by signing up now, she has established communication with her assigned counselor so hopefully it would just take an e-mail with a visa to get it prioritized and moved to the front. Plus, although she did it by accident, it did let her book an in-person appointment in July AND online-only and at least so far there doesn’t seem to be any consequences from booking both so she does also have a confirmed appointment in Manila in July.. On doing Saint Luke's before one has an interview letter, they got first hand confirmation from someone who went through this week that they are indeed still accepting waivers and it was no problem to complete the medical without a scheduled interview other than the risk of it expiring.

Thanks for the update. I have a friend who is not on VJ, whose wife is at the same stage waiting for an interview date, and she just submitted her documents to the counselor yesterday. They haven't heard back yet. I suspect it may be totally at the counselors descension. Prior to her signing up for the online-only CFO she had signed up for in-person CFO in Manila by mistake and was given a July appointment date and instructions that very specifically mentioned applicants without visas. Upon realizing she wanted the online-only CFO, she was able to sign up again from correct link but her July appointment in Manila apparently still stands too. So, it seems online and in-person CFO are separate operations and in-person seems to specifically allow applicants without visas according to their instructions. My friend’s wife has applications pending in both, so the July in-person appointment in Manila seems like a backup. (???) I’ll update whenever they find out anything.

I was getting SSSS inbound from the Philippines like 6 or 8 trips in a row. It's really meaningless from there since immigration and the airline are checking boarding passes but security doesn't. I assume it may have been due to frequent short trips??? US Immigration does not care at all. TSA would only be an issue if you got it on a connecting flight in the US. Back in the old days purchasing a one-way ticket was a risk factor towards getting SSSS. I believe that is no longer the case in the US but who knows what criteria they use in other countries.

A little bit far but says they do walk-ins????https://co.jefferson.tx.us/dclerk/passports/pp.htm

Just an idea. Asking leading questions in that way could also be a somewhat stereotypical attempt to see if someone will spill something when answering, commonly employed by graduates of DickTracy Junior Detective Interrogation School. It's possible that officer just randomly asks everyone questions like that just to see how they would answer. There are some officers out there like that.

The consulate with jurisdiction over the area where the marriage took place, is the Philippine government entity that should know if the overseas marriage is valid or not. PSA wouldn't know what the legal requirements are in Utah or even what a Utah marriage certificate is suppose to look like. In the case of Utah, the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco has consular jurisdiction and is in a position to be able to directly deal with non Philippine agencies and is supposed to knowledgeable of local laws related to civil matters in the area they cover. I our case, marrying in Costa Rica we had to file our ROM in the Philippine Embassy in Mexico City since they hold consular jurisdiction over Costa Rica.

That is an option as well. ROM's can be submitted at the DFA ASEANA office in Manila. Although they still forward it to the consulate for processing anyways. So there is actually an additional layer of Philippine Government bureaucracy if it is submitted in the Philippines.

I think @Kawika & Michelle just got their visa in 10 days. 12 days would hardly be guaranteed because there are just to many variables, but it is possible. If she is staying in Manila, for absolute earliest possible pickup from LBC it's been recommended by some to have the passport sent for pickup at the Mall of Asia office (Pasay) since that would be LBC's most direct stop. Also make sure she has CFO worked out. If she is working overseas she may have already completed CFO for that, but they may want her to update it from PDOS to GPC now that she has a visa.

The issue with the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco not accepting ROMs for online marriages was only a temporary suspension while PSA evaluated the legality of such marriages. They have now resumed accepting ROM's normally and the legality of such marriages in the Philippines was apparently settled once and for all in the process. If one is opposed to filing the ROM or cannot for some reason there are certainly folks who have successfully made it through CFO without it. But expect to at least get a hard time from CFO on the issue. The timeframe to get a PSA copy of the ROM is probably more like 3 or 4 months now. There were some major backlogs at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco last year that seem to have improved lately. Once the consulate is done with it, the time for PSA to process it is similar to what they take to process a marriage certificate from a LCRO. The wait is not really an issue anyways because no matter how slow the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco may be, USCIS is still slower. So, there is still plenty of time to change a passport or prepare for CFO while a visa petition is processing. There is no need to have a ROM to file a petition for a CR-1 visa.

She's been here in the US for some time now. She didn't need an AKA for my name since she was listed as married and my name as husbands name. She did need an AKA because her birth certificate was legitimated with her fathers surname sometime after it was registered so she needed an AKA with her mother's surname. In your situation I understand that the embassy would accept either an NBI Clearance as single with AKA with your husbands name,OR an NBI Clearance as married with your husbands name. The embassy is not so concerned about marital status on the clearance as they are that you have your husband's surname on there somehow, since it is a name you are legally entitled to use whether you chose to or not.

I can assure everyone that under all my clothes I am completely naked.

You could have a religious ceremony or a renewal of vows in the Philippines if you want an event to involve family and guests. You cannot remarry in the Philippines because you would already be married in Utah and a primary legal requirement for marriage in the Philippines is that both parties are not already married. You also cannot have two marriages and file for a CR-1 visa without legally ending one or the other marriage. The ROM with the Philippine consulate in San Francisco fulfills all legal requirements in the Philippines just the same a PSA marriage certificate from a marriage there would..

My wife showed our Costa Rica marriage certificate. NBI accepted that and issued her NBI Clearance as civil status married and my name as husbands name. They were the only Philippine government office that did so without a ROM.

They have now been rather heavily tested and are being accepted by both the US and the Philippines for all purposes. It sounds like you have correct information. it's a very attractive option.

My wife just got hers at the NBI office in Pampanga. Any NBI office could do it, the main branch might be where you can get it fastest. But if you are in Japan I think you have to go through the Philippine Embassy.

The answers to those questions would be very country specific.

ordi Ordinarily I would consider flightaware as reliable but it looks like it is seriously at odds with several other usually reliable flight tracking sites which makes it suspect in this particular case. FlightStats has the actual air traffic control time updates and says that flight is early. https://www.flightstats.com/v2/flight-details/BR/52?year=2023&month=5&date=12&flightId=1187865998 flightradar24 has independently crowdsourced ADS-B data too and shows that one as early. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/br52#3042397f I'd say just park wherever you need to park and walk or take whatever transportation you need to take to be waiting right there where she will come out. Time she will spend in immigration could vary widely so it could be a while, her phone probably won't work and you couldn't be 100% confident she work out wifi.

We had originally planned to file K1 based on the notion that it was "faster". While preparing for that, the disadvantages of the K1 process and the advantages of the CR1 process became very obvious and we abandoned the K1 idea, got married, and went all in on the CR1 petition. That was certainly one of the best decisions I ever made. In our case it actually resulted in her getting here at least a year sooner, though that was due to luck and differences in how the embassy was handling cases during rona lockdown silliness. I suspect time frames would be more similar between CR1 and K1 today. In addition to the benefits of CR1 others have mentioned, being married while waiting on the visa process we filed taxes as "married filing jointly" resulting in an increased tax return by over $10,000 vs me filing as single waiting for my fiancée. That would have been at least 2 tax years if our case hadn't moved so fast. With no adjustment of status my wife will be able to naturalize as a US citizen at 3 years from the date she entered and that's it. We are 100% finished with USCIS. Having to go through adjustment of status would extend that time frame substantially so with a K1 visa you signing up to have USCIS involved in your lives for a very long time. She got a Real ID drivers license within a few weeks of entering US. She got a job, bank account and credit cards in her own name. Lastly, USCIS has proposed massive increases in fees that would hit those adjusting status from K1 visas the hardest. They haven’t set a date for the fee increases but it seems very likely that 'soon' the cost of going through the whole k1 and adjustment of status process is set to double. With Utah online marriages being well established as accepted by USCIS, it would be possible for you to marry your Filipina fiancée online almost immediately and prepare, but do not submit, a complete ready to go online I-130 petition with all needed documents. You still would need an in-person meeting after an online marriage but you could literally fly to Manila meet at the airport and click "submit i-130" on your phone thus avoiding possibly months of Philippine government bureaucracy involved in a Philippine marriage and meaning you could at least get to work on a preparing a spousal visa petition right away.

Is the concern that you might need an AKA for your husband's surname even if you have not used his name on any paperwork???? If that is the concern, usually the embassy would still require an AKA or listed as husbands name in that situation, because even though you haven't used your husbands name, it is still a name that you legally could use. They say they want an AKA for any legal name, whether you used it in real life or not. In the case of my wife she had no problem obtaining her NBI Clearance as civil status married and with my name as "husbands name" with just our overseas Costa Rica marriage certificate. At the time she got her NBI Clearance our report of marriage was not yet filed and she had no Philippine documents or ID whatsoever that showed my name. NBI was happy with only the foreign marriage certificate.

CFO is whatever the "counselor" says it is. They absolutely have the authority to make up rules as they go along. First look at what RO_AH mentioned about the difference between minimum requirements and possible additional requirements. Did the counselor actually come back with a secondary request for police clearance after submission of the minimum basic requirements? They certainly could, but it's less common on a visa case. They usually reserve some of their crazier requests for applicants wanting to travel alone to meet sponsors or partners not connected to a visa petition.

I suspect what she has will work just fine. Once she has a US Green Card the entire CFO issue becomes moot. A US Permanent Resident does not require CFO.

As you can tell they tend to change all the rules for everything like every other week in the Philippines. But when my wife went through CFO, her counselor issued the QR Code online certificate almost in real time during an e-mail exchange. There was never any paper anything and the sticker never materialized and was never needed. I would guess whatever certificate worked for your wife last time should still work just as well now. There is also an online process for e-certificate reissuance since the first ones had expiration dates but not 100% certain it can still get it done in a day. https://manila.cfo.gov.ph/Certificate_ReIssuance_And_Sticker_Request/

Our recent package went through similar steps. From "Shipment is en route to local delivery team" to actual delivery was overnight for us so maybe there is hope. What number are you using to track it with or how did you get the tracking number? I think you are the first to report tracking the passport/visa since the switch from 2Go to LBC so it would be good others to know how it actually works for LBC.