top_secret

In that post the authors wife got flagged for additional TB testing at her physical which in the Philippines automatically adds about another 3 month before they can interview. That is a longstanding risk in the Philippines. The poster who started that thread was one of those who received an expedite in January that they had not requested and did not want since they are nearing 2nd anniversary and want to be IR1 and get a 10 year green card. Other recent strangeness at US Embassy Manila is people receiving e-mails from the Embassy instructing them to self schedule on https://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ yet finding their case is not available there yet, and conversely people not receiving any e-mail or instructions yet finding that they ARE able to successfully self schedule on https://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ . There's allot of randomness at US Embassy Manila lately.

Time from DQ to interview letter is extremely embassy specific. Right now there are some embassies that still have HUGE backlogs measured in years, while at the same time other embassies where you would get an interview date 2 weeks after DQ. Looking at overall VJ statistics will be an average so probably not helpful on an embassy specific basis. I have been trying to monitor the Philippines since a friends case will be going there hopefully soon. As near as I can tell, based on anecdotal reports, things at US Embassy Manila are not bad, although there seems to be allot of strange things going on there with scheduling lately. In January there was no backlog at all and in fact quite a few reports of people being expedited who had not even requested expedites and in some cases didn't want to be expedited.. In February interview scheduling times seem to be creeping up a little bit at US Embassy Manila, but still seem not so bad. I've seen a few people very recently who said they have been waiting 1 1/2 to 2 months to get an interview date while other are getting it faster. Also worth noting that that is CR/IR cases. Some people with F2A/B and other categories seem to be in their own, possibly longer queue.

I'd think the ONLY way the child would get a B2 visa is if the parents had strong ties and presumably also had or were getting B2 visas. I think the consul would only consider the circumstances of the parents or absence thereof.

Elsewhere I saw a case reported DQ earlier today with a February 5 submission date. That would imply that theoretically the 2/7 crowd could make it before the weekend.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html 19 days again this week. Still further improvement over last week if you factor in the 3 day weekend.

If she had a previous NBI Clearance she may be able to renew it online without appearing. Go to https://clearance.nbi.gov.ph/ and try renewing. If that fails, my wife made an online appointment some time in the future, paid it, and then went down the next day without an appointment and easily talked her way in despite it being very clearly posted "no appointment today no transaction". YMMV. The appointment required rule seems as flexible as any rule in the Philippines. Failing that, 'usually' applicants can get a same day NBI Clearance by camping out all day at he NBI office on UN Ave in Ermita.

My wife and step daughter (CR-1 and CR-2) both got their Global Entry. There were no issues whatsoever related to them being CR green card holders. The application process itself can be cumbersome and time consuming but I think that applies equally to US Citizens or LPR's.

Planning to accomplish 'anything' on a strict tight schedule in the Philippines is full of pitfalls. In general, it's a 'tight schedule averse environment'. If she successfully completed and passed her physical at Saint Luke's, but Saint Luke's failed to transmit it to the embassy on time. The interview would likely still go on, with visa issuance pending resolution of the delay that was caused by Saint Luke's. Doing it all in 13 days is quite possible, not at all unrealistic, but,,, hardly guaranteed. Delay of transmission of passing physical results from Saint Luke's to the embassy on time is far from greatest risk to success.

Its happened from time to time. Usually it just results is a slight delay in the issuance of the visa.

Saint Luke's will transmit the physical results and vaccination records to the embassy. The consul will (hopefully) have it in their system at the time of the interview. The vaccination worksheet provided is just for personal records. But it is potentially very important after they arrive in America if they need proof of vaccinations for school or for work in a job like health care etc. So do keep it with other important documents.

Yea, I ran a few and it is consistently more so I guess there is no such thing as free😞, although it's still nowhere even near what a US driver would be paying if they included the same insurance.

Generally you insure the car and all the drivers in the household will be listed on the policy and included. Having the step-daughter driving will likely be much more expensive. (assuming she is a young driver) When you first arrive, here is one really cool thing we discovered about renting cars with a Philippine drivers license. When renting from Avis, when you select Philippine residency online (defined by Avis as renting with a Philippine DL), all of the usually ridiculously overpriced optional rental insurance is INCLUDED FREE. You can start a dummy reservation on https://www.avis.com/ to see this astonishing benefit to renting with a PH license. Just select residency Philippines, pick a car. You can toggle from PHP back to dollars. It takes you to "RENTAL OPTIONS". Skip all the insurance on the "Discount Packages" tab and go to the "Protection & Coverages" tab and voila, FREE rental insurance is preselected at no extra cost.. Maybe Avis figures it may be prudent to pre-emptively load up on insurance when renting to Philippine drivers license holders.🤣 We discovered this quite by accident when my wife rented a car with her Philippine license when she first arrived. It really comes out on the rental contract that way.

She might have several other arguments that she was not a California resident too. The wise move for most is to cut ties to California State if moving overseas. Lots of people get a virtual mailbox in a tax free state to maintain a US address and presence for banking, voting, drivers license etc. that is NOT in California .

OK, I get it. Yea, the safe harbor rule would apply. She shouldn't file a CA return.

She was domiciled in California, but a resident abroad last year? Or she moved back to the US from her UK residence and presumably UK domicile sometime during 2022?

There is also a VJ thread tracking that closely. I have a friend outside of VJ who also submitted on Feb 10 so I'm keeping track too on their behalf. Based on wild speculation and a few recent anecdotal accounts we are making a guesstimated prediction that a Feb 10 NVC submission would be reviewed around Feb 27.

Was your wife a resident of California at all last year or have any California income? If she was a UK resident, it would seem she was not a California resident so therefore wouldn't even need to file a CA tax return. If she was a California resident for part of 2022 she might owe CA taxes on worldwide she earned while a CA resident, but it seems unlikely she would have UK income during her CA residency.

Elsewhere I saw someone DQ today who had submitted their documents on Feb 1. So that would be the first case of documents submitted in Feb already being reviewed. I've seen a number of 16 and 17 day review times reported in the past couple of days so that would seem like where NVC is at right now. Continuing their ongoing trend of getting slightly faster every week. Although the coming three day weekend will cost a day.

Go ahead and make the request now. Just e-mail NVCExpedite@state.gov . Make the subject like :Request Expedite MNL1231231231 Beneficiary’s name and date of birth. Repeat it in the subject and explain your lease situation. Include a scan of the lease if you can. Financial hardship to the petitioner that a delay would cause would be a very good reason for them to expedite.

Lately US Embassy Manila has been handing out expedites for fairly trivial reasons or even randomly for no reason at all. If you email NVCExpedite@state.gov and explain the financial implications of you moving to the US sooner rather than later there is a reasonable chance USEM would approve your expedite. That would also give you total control over scheduling the interview. Even if you don't get expedited it should go quickly. Saint Luke's Extension Clinic's x-ray machine is always a wild card though.

On a FB group, I just saw two reports of people DQ today who submitted Jan 28 and Jan 29. Which is only a 17 or 18 day review time.

There is no backlog at all for CR/IR interviews at USEM these days. 2 to 4 weeks to get an interview date would be typical. If your case DQ Feb 6, it would be reasonable to expect to get an interview date at USEM 'soon'.

My cases are long finished with NVC, but a friend who is not on VJ just submitted everything to NVC for their CR-1 case on 2023-02-10. So I'm watching this thread on their behalf and will update whenever they get any news on their case.

I don't have any specific advice, but having heard of situations like this before, I previously wondered if it would help applying for the children's passport at US Embassy Manila if the mother was ever making a trip to the Philippines anyways. The theoretical advantage being that USEM at least is well versed in and fully understands Filipino custody laws. I can't call that advise since I never heard of anyone actually doing it that way for that reason, but it's one idea I had.

In our case we included a very brief narrative about a few key moments in the development of our relationship as part of our cover letter. Details like how we came to know each other, how long we have been communicating, when and where we first met, when and where I met her family, when and where we spent time together, when and where I proposed, and why we chose to get married when and where we did. It was only a couple of paragraphs and nothing explicit. I have heard of only one instance where the topic of '"consummation" of a Utah online marriage has been directly been raised in a CR-1 case. In that particular case, a pre-interview counsel/document checker (not sure of their title) was unfamiliar with Utah online marriage process and questioned the beneficiary about it. Upon having it explained, the pre-interview counsel/document checker concluded that it was a proxy marriage and asked the beneficiary if she had proof of meeting after the marriage. The beneficiary had photocopies of her husband's passport stamps with her. The pre-interview counsel/document checker looked at the dates on the stamps and everything was fine. '"Consummation" was satisfactorily proven by a photocopy of passport stamps in that specific case.