top_secret

General global responses do not apply in this particular case. Philippine law is unconditional and without the slightest ambiguity that an unmarried mother has absolute sole custody over her child born out of wedlock. Period. US Embassy Manila is 100% totally aware of this and abides by Filipino law. As do all Filipino authorities when exiting the country. She needs nothing whatsoever from the father and everyone knows and accepts that. It's irrelevant if the father is on the birth certificate or the child has the fathers surname. The proof of the mothers sole custody is on the child's birth certificate indicating the parents were not married.

Yep. Something like 100% you will get referred for sputum testing. Saint Luke's could care less what any other outside doctor or authority said or did, so don't waste your time worrying about that. If the treatment was successful you should pass sputum testing easily.

I should also be more specific. They were not denied at the interview. Rather, they were refused with a 221g requesting proof of a meeting they could not possibly answer. No way to resolve it but to start over.

I now have seen 2 actual real world cases that were denied at the interview over not meeting in person before filing the I-130 after a Utah online marriage. They even had fairly solid rona-travel-ban excuses. It didn't make any difference. They are starting the I-130 over from scratch which is a very sad situation. Both cases made it all the way through USCIS and NVC. The issue wasn't even raised until the interview. Like a year and a half was lost and hearts are broken. Follow the advice given above. The lost filing fee is nothing compared to lost time.

As a general rule of thumb, CBP will be quite strict about any prescription medications that are scheduled controlled substances. But, they could generally care less about any non-scheduled prescription medicines. I feel extremely confident that no one ever got any grief over 5 or 10 non-scheduled asthma inhalers. CBP would only care at all if they suspected they were counterfeit or if they were commercial quantities. Even if they were just fishing for a reason to hassle someone they wouldn't do it over a few asthma inhalers. I wouldn't have the slightest qualms about carrying them myself.

You can also get your return transcript by paper letter in the mail without using ID.me at https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof-tra/start.do .

It sounds perfectly normal and like she did everything the embassy wants. Everything is probably fine. It's a guessing game how long the embassy would take from the time she sent in everything. For US Embassy Manila? 1 week would be incredibly fast. 2-3 weeks might be average. 6-8 weeks is probably unlikely but not unheard of.

I was able to get "Ask Emma live agent" to e-mail me the pdf copy of a biometrics notice that was missing and not visible online due to some ongoing glitch. I would definitely take the other advice given here first, but I was surprised how easily we got the missing notice from "Ask Emma". It's also worth a try.

I am assuming this is the Philippines(???) based on the circumstances and usage of middle names. My wife and stepdaughter have the same name situation, although it was not for a tourist visa or drop box application. Stepdaughter has no middle name and she has mom's middle name (grandma's surname) as her surname. I am sure that is not an uncommon name situation in the Philippines for a variety of reasons. In our case, and on an immigrant visa, not a B2 visa, US Embassy Manila never even questioned it in the slightest. We were prepared to document and explain it but they never even brought it up. To date, there has never been the slightest question traveling internationally or arriving in the US from overseas trips where the daughter has mom's middle name as her surname. I wouldn't want to predict any particular outcome but I would speculate that US Embassy Manilla sees that so often they would easily figure it out and would not see it as unusual. However, whether or not it would make a difference on a B2 dropbox visa application I could not even guess.

The reason that estimates vary wildly without any obvious rhyme or reason is because actual outcome times vary wildly without any obvious rhyme or reason. It is completely true that there are normal cases that have finished in just 9 months or less and it is also completely true that there are normal cases have taken 3 years or more. Sometimes with no outwardly obvious difference in the cases. Anyone claiming they can make an accurate prediction in advance is not being truthful. You could make guesses based on the experience of others but that is no guarantee your case would be the same.

The Utah marriage is all you need for US immigration. So long as your divorce is recognized by the US it does not matter what the Philippines says. No problem getting the visa with a Utah marriage certificate. CFO would give you an extra ration of difficulty but would eventually let them still pass.

The parish will issue a new baptismal certificate based on the ledger that the church holds. It's as valid as the original.

It is at the discretion of the interviewing consul and often depends on how late they were registered too. Being late registered at 15 years old is more likely to draw requests for additional evidence than being late registered at 5 years old. Schools in the Philippines are often good at keeping records. At least to the extent that paper records survive tropical humidity and typhoons. Request her "form 137" from both elementary and highschool. If they can't come up with that they may at least give a certification from DepEd that she attended. My wife also pretty easily obtained her baptismal certificate by simply messaging the local parish on their Facebook page. The other evidence you mentioned is good too. It should pass but the more evidence she brings, the more certain the outcome.

The e-mail IS the "letter". They won't mail a paper letter. Just print the e-mail. Congratulations.

It's not quite that complicated to file the ROM or change your Philippine passport. It can all be done mail, and ordinary mail between UK and the US is reasonably fast and reliable. They generally tell you it takes 6 months to a year to file a ROM and have it available from PSA but 3 months is probably more realistic in practice. Ours took less than 2 months. If you DO want to use your married name, changing your Philippine passport now will be faster, easier and cheaper even after you factor in the additional step of filing the ROM. My suspicion is that the mistake of the birth place on your passport would not cause a major problem since your birth certificate would be the definitive legal document that establishes your birth place and I don't see that the mistake on your passport invalidates it as a Philippine passport. But if it were me, I would still start fixing both that and the name now since if you are just now filing the I-130 there is plenty of time and it would save trouble later on.

I also agree with those who say it's a bit premature to start worrying to much about the possibility of a positive test result. While it is theoretically possible,,,, I think it is also fair to say that a positive sputum test is unlikely. For the vast majority it turns into an annoying and frustrating 2-3 month delay but nothing more. Once she is actually told when her results date is, you could already go on ustraveldocs and start trying to schedule a new interview a few days after that.

You can try to get their vaccination e-cert here. https://vaxcert.doh.gov.ph/ How successful that is without a copy of the LGU card kind of depends on how well the LGU did its record keeping. As far as I know SLEC will require documentation that COVID vaccination is at least started and will not do it there.

Has he been successfully extending his visa until now even with an expired ACR-I card????? If his visa is still current he should count his blessings and renew the ACR-I card. He definitely needs to go to BI for ECC exit clearance. Figure out for sure that his visa is current before you even approach them though.

Who is the ACR-I card holder and what is their visa status having an expired ACR-I card? If they need an ACR-I card at all they may require ECC exit clearance from BI.

My wife's birth certificate was annotated with a name change. We submitted the annotated birth certificate itself as the legal name change document along with a brief explanation.

Although it is a pdf with a QR code these days. They did eliminate the actual stickers.

The consul notified my wife how much money I make.🤣

In the Philippines, US Embassy Manila would generally require a married woman to include her husbands name in her NBI Clearance (police report) whether she actually uses the name or not. Because it is a legal name name that she could use. If there were any further background check on a married woman in the Philippines they would automatically include the husbands name as well. 100% certain it will not cause any delay. One can literally show up the day of their interview at US Embassy Manila and explain that they have changed their passport to their married name and ask at the pre-interview document check that their DS-260 be updated. It takes them 10 minutes to do. It's just that simple. Or, if they wait to get to the US, it is $540 for an I-90 to change the name on the green card. That could take over a year. Social Security doesn't want to change a name of a permanent resident based on a foreign marriage certificate that does not explicitly change the name. The state most likely won't do anything until USCIS and Social Security does. They ask that the green card be changed first. In the meantime one is accumulating new documents from state, work, insurance, banking etc all in the old name. They will be facing hassles of traveling with documents that may be in maiden name or married name. If they wanted to change their name It's a big mess that doesn't get resolved easily. Or, they could have paid the $23 and changed their passport in the Philippines prior to their interview. Very highly recommended and definitely will not cause any delay at all.

You could change your name at any time during the process up to the day of your interview, or not at all if you don't want to. However, if you DO want to change your name, the only document that counts is your Philippine passport that you bring to your interview. Your green card and social security card will be issued in that name. It costs P1200 (~$23), including the expedite fee, and takes a few weeks to change a Filipino passport. It costs USD $540 and can take over a year to change a US green card once it's issued, plus all the other documents generated in a year in the US. On other words. If you DO want to change your name, it will be far far far easier and cheaper to just change your Filipino passport now. But there is no requirement that you change your name at all.

Well since we will be mailing our packet tomorrow I guess it's time to start a September 2023 thread. Our 90 day window started the last week of July but we were out of the country last month so we put it off until we got back to avoid any surprise biometric appointments or missed notices. It looks like we will be sending in.... G-1450 credit card authorization. G-1145 E-notification. I-751 of course. Copies of their green cards, front and back, and passports. Copies of California Real ID Driver Licenses for my wife and I plus California Real ID card for my stepdaughter all at the same address. IRS tax return transcripts of our 2022, 2021, and 2020 joint US tax returns. Statements from our joint checking account showing joint ownership of the account and direct deposits of both of our salaries plus payments of bills in each other’s names. However only the last 5 months. Prior to that we had separate accounts and just shared expenses. Dated photographs of our family together in numerous places at intervals throughout our time together in the US, plus photos of my almost 80-year-old American mom meeting her Filipino in-laws on vacation in Manila. Copy of a California car title showing joint ownership and two years joint car registration. Copies of various car insurance notices and proof of insurance listing both drivers, covering almost the entire period they have been in the US. Copies of both of our 401K’s beneficiaries with each listing the other spouse as beneficiary. Copies of our Visa, Mastercard and Discover credit cards showing joint accounts. Copies of various club cards and membership cards showing joint accounts. Copies of various airline boarding passes and receipts for vacations we took together. Copies of my stepdaughter's continuous registration from our address in our neighborhood’s public elementary school for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. The school registration lists both of us as emergency contacts with full authorization to pick her up from school. Copy of my stepdaughter's California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress test results showing two years results with her living at our address and enrolled in our neighborhood public elementary school. Paystubs for my wife periodically throughout her time in the US showing her continuous presence at our home address. We’ll be double triple checking everything this evening and probably send it by Priority Mail flat rate mailer ("if it fits, it ships") to Phoenix drop box in the morning. I'm hopeful that is good enough, however notable deficiencies would include not having any joint lease or other paperwork associating both names with the house. All of our health insurance is separate since my wife and I each get it from our employer and neither plan is any good for adding the step-daughter so we just pay her insurance separately out of pocket. No kind of joint utility bills or anything like that and as I mentioned only the last 5 months have we had a joint checking account. I also didn't bother to get any affidavits from anyone. I guess we will find out if it was good enough in like 2025 or something.