top_secret

It seems you are asking what are the odds of someone getting caught if they were in contravention of Lao laws. No one here could probably even speculate. There is no direct mechanism whereby the US Government informs the Lao Government of former Lao citizens acquiring US Citizenship. With Lao immigration this would probably be settled with a cash gratuity handed off around a corner where there are no cameras. Lao Immigration is notorious for picking through the fine details of US associated Lao travelers looking for discrepancies that "need settled". Lao and former Lao citizens are wise to have their papers in order. The land borders are far worse than the airports. I have some "experience" with Lao Immigration myself and I know allot of former Lao refugees who have traveled back in more recent years and some who can never go back even to visit. They have plenty to say about Lao Immigration. Their advice would be to NOT have any discrepancies.

I just tried. No problem logging in here.

And then there are Filipino names where the middle name is essentially the same as a second last name as used in Central and South America although the order of the names is reversed, and a Filipino middle name is likely to be a common Spanish Surname, yet it is definitely a middle name and not a surname. This resulted in all kinds of confusion with "last names" when we were traveling in Central and South America on everything from COVID tests, airline tickets, to almost our marriage certificate (corrected and saved just in time). They inevitably put her middle name as her first last name and her actual last name as her second last We chose to just be amused by the confusion rather than to be offended and we realized it is an issue to be aware of. Like over a century ago, in a much less enlightened age, when my great grandfather immigrated from Europe, our family name contained an umlaut ü. At that time some border agent processing immigrants sternly told him that was not allowed and summarily assigned our family a "nice English name" instead which sticks to this day. Things could be worse. One trick that works on some computer forms that will not allow spaces, is to hold the Alt key and hit the numbers 0160 . When you release the Alt key the curser should advance one "space", leaving an "invisible" character that is not a space. (assuming a computer form does not allow spaces but does allow characters.)

Technically most Americans do have two first names and no "middle name" under Philippine conventions. The Philippines defines a "middle name" quite specifically as the maternal surname so it has legal meaning defining a persons kinship and the marital status of their parents. In America a middle name is just a second given name. It has no meaning other than differentiating you from someone else. This is apparent on Philippine passports where there are lines for surname, given names, and middle name, vs American passports where there is only lines for surname and given names. Middle names just follow the first name under given names. My wife was unmarried when my stepdaughter was born so she has my wife's surname. My stepdaughter also has a middle name in line with American conventions rather than Filipino conventions. But on her birth certificate, passport and every other Philippine document, she has two given names and no middle name, because her mother was unmarried when she was born. That has all kinds of legal implications for a Philippine citizen, good and bad, based just on the presence or lack of a middle name. Or, lack of a middle name may just mean you are a foreigner. NBI guy is correct and BI should be happy with the two given names no middle name situation.

A One thing you may discover about California DMV is if you ask 10 different workers there the same question you may get 10 differing answers. As far as IDP's or "International Drivers Licenses", California specifically DOES NOT recognize IDP's as valid at all for anything and in fact requires a foreign driver to produce their valid foreign drivers license. That should be written somewhere in the drivers handbook they might have offered you. They 'can' issue a drivers license for someone who does not have a Social Security Number. However I think it may be wise to just wait for the Social Security card. No need make things more difficult than they have to be. I wouldn't worry too much driving around California for a few weeks with a valid EU drivers license.

Discount on "NVC fees".😁 Only one $120 AOS fee. $325 X 2 IV fee.

Looking at courtly.com it seems almost certain they are officiating Utah online marriages. It looks like they are offering the whole thing for $449. Which is not as bad as some places I've seen. But you can go directly through Utah County and book an online ceremony with the county clerk for like $165 all in for licenses, ceremony, and certified marriage certificate. The end result and certificate is probably identical, so you could just decide if the a somewhat higher price for a separate officiant adds value or convenience to the process. https://www.courtly.com/pricing https://www.utahcounty.gov/Dept/ClerkAud/PassMarr/OnlineMarriage.asp https://www.utahcounty.gov/Dept/ClerkAud/PassMarr/MarrCeremony.asp

Awesome. That's going to be a huge relief to many. I was optimistic that the issue would eventually work itself out. There are already too many couples who have gone that route for it to not be accepted.

They have USCIS's definitions in the instructions. Such as they are.

USCIS, NVC or US Embassy Manila could care less about apostille for Philippine documents. They want to see Philippine documents that are certified by PSA. In fact there was an isolated case a while back where NVC rejected an Philippine apostilled document because they attached the apostille (which is not needed) with a tamper proof round metal eyelet that punctured a hole through the PSA seal (which is needed). So NVC rejected it.

The process for getting a certified true copy of a Philippine Passport from DFA like we used is here. It was 100 Pesos. https://dfa-oca.ph/passport/passport-requirements/passport-certification-process-and-requirements/

My wife went down to the local DFA office and got a certified true copy of her passport. It think it cost us 80 Pesos. That worked great for us. We just mailed it in with the return and letter electing for her to be treated as resident for tax purposes. ITIN was issued. I wouldn't send the real passport in since it can disappear into a black hole for months.

I think what USCIS probably most prefers these days is a big uniform stack of loose, single-sided, letter size paper that they can just plop down on a big industrial sized scanner and push the scan button one time without anything jamming up their document feeder or needing disassembled.by hand.

Buried deep in Saint Luke's web site they say what they are basing the expiration on. Apparently the rule is 3 months from the sputum result date rather than 6 months from when the physical took place. https://slec.ph/faq/us.php

It may make a difference if it is AOS or consular processing and may be very much at the discretion of the interviewer, but I-601 is not a sure thing.

I really think you will not have any problem at all accomplishing what you want. The rule is one year with no contact. The Embassy just got the case so you have a year until you are obligated to contact them. Lately USEM has been asking expedite cases to self schedule interviews on https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/ once the case is "Ready". If this is the case for you, and NVC or the Embassy does not schedule your interview, you can just wait to schedule the interview until you are ready. If NVC or the Embassy does actually schedule you an interview you can just contact them and ask to cancel or reschedule.

The Philippines doesn't have any special requirements for foreign children traveling with a parent. As a general rule, any time traveling internationally as one parent with a child, it is wise to carry a notarized letter of consent to international travel from the other parent and also the child's birth certificate. Although my wife has traveled in and out of the Philippines, the US, and about a dozen other countries with her daughter and never actually been asked for such proof. They have different surnames as well but it's never been an issue. But, it's still wise to carry a notarized letter and the birth certificate just it in case someone ever does ask. If you are both US Citizens you can go down to a BI office before your stay expires and just pay to extend your visas beyond a month . It's not a "penalty" for an overstay. It's just a visa extension fee.

CBP divides "pill issues" into two very distinct categories. Controlled substances and non-controlled substances. Birth control pills, allergy, blood pressure medicine, all that kind of stuff are in the category of non-controlled substances. There is some kind of memo that they should allow a 90 days supply of any sort of non-controlled substance prescription drug. In reality, for birth control pills or anything like that, it's almost inconceivable they would confiscate anything other than some gigantic huge quantity obviously for commercial sale. Anything short of utterly ridiculous is fine. Don't worry. OTOH, "painkillers" are a different issue. If we are talking ibuprofen, paracetamol or similar that is fine. Don't worry. But codeine, hydrocodone and/or anything similar or stronger, or even something like tramadol, tread very lightly. They are "Controlled Substances" and thus treated very differently. At the disgression of a CBP Officer they may allow 90 days supply with documentation that satisfies their disgression. Or, they could confiscate them. If undeclared, controled substances are a crime.

I'm trying to be optimistic. 😃 While certainly everyone doesn't get a combo interview, there are many who do. As with all things immigration, there's little rhyme or reason as to who get lucky and who doesn't.

I feel sympathy on the I-751. We have that joy to look forward to in 6 months. It seems like it may be the most amount of hassle for what should be the least important step. It is what it is though. We'll survive. The delay processing the I-751 shouldn't hold up naturalization though. You just file the N-400 whenever the time comes and hopefully get a combo interview. In that respect your wife can naturalize sooner overall. (started the 3 years sooner)

Is that to say the notice came a whole day after the last time you checked CEAC status?? If that's the case, rechecking CEAC status would be the first thing. As far as approval notification from the US Embassy I think ours only came 2 or 3 days after they already sent the visa and some have never received any notice from the Embassy. Lack of e-mail notification from the Embassy is meaningless. If you are checking CEAC in real time and it still says refused and the passport is tracking with LBC, maybe they do want something more (??) Just have to wait and see on that one. CEAC status should be the most reliable indicator of when it's approved.

You may be thinking of the MRV fee associated with K1, B2 and other non-immigrant visas and expires in 1 year. That's not at all the same thing as the IV fee on an immigrant visa. If the case is already transferred to USEM on one of those weird newfangled unrequested expedites that have been going on at USEM lately (????) you would probably be asked to self schedule the interview (??). In which case you could just not schedule the interview for up to a year if you are planning to delay. If you need more than a year, or if the NVC or the Embassy schedule an interview for you, just contact the Embassy and cancel until you are ready.

The specific requirements for Colombia are here. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Colombia.html Is the following note relevant as it might be a common issue??? Translations don't need notarized or apostille anywhere, just a self certification from whoever translated them.

I know someone recently who got a 221G for NBI with an AKA and it took about 4 weeks to get the visa. If the 221G was issued Dec 12 and you responded immediately, it is probably not unreasonable to hope for something soon. Although there were holidays in between, of course different people experiences can inexplicably vary wildly and nothing is ever guaranteed until it happens.

For K1/K2's they were handling normalish numbers throughout most of 2022 so it would seem they are more or less caught up. CR/IR has been caught up since 2021. There seemed a surge in other family categories in 2022. I think they are mostly caught up (?) B1/B2 the are showing 126 day wait time for interviews which implies they have at least made significant progress on that group.