top_secret

Since my wife's N-400 is pending in San Diego, I tried to get a gage on how fast things are actually going here recently. Searching VJ, some Facebook Groups and Reddit, I came up with 26 self reported cases that have already received interviews in San Diego in 2024. Here are the stats on those 26 San Diego cases. Number of days days from filing to interview in 2024. Average time: 141 days Median time: 133 days Fastest time: 77 days Slowest time: 230 days # of cases in less than 4 months: 11 # of cases 4 to 6 months: 11 # of cases over 6 months: 4 @Basil123 @Californiansunset @MdosSantos @ccc_

You do know there is no divorce in the Philippines?

I think basically there was a period where there was widespread abuse of the practice of converting to Islam solely to avail a Sharia divorce in the Philippines. It is more of a political issue rather than a religious issue. Rapid Visa put up a really good article on the issue non-Muslims converting to Islam and getting a Sharia divorce in the Philippines. https://rapidvisa.com/converting-islam-legally-divorce-philippines/ They include an actual example of a denial letter from US Embassy Manila.

I've heard of that request a handful of times during the rona era when CFO somehow had themselves involved in even tourist travel. They reserve that requirement for people they decide to give a really hard time. Like if you p' them off or if they decided they are suspicious about some guy for whatever reason. I haven't heard of any examples recently and even when they did ask it was rare. Pretty much a non issue.

Menu > Account actions > File a form online > N-400, Application for Naturalization

With a European divorce degree that is accepted by the US, Philippine recognition of the divorce is not necessary. For your NBI Clearance, the Embassy will accept it as either married or single, but they will be strict that you former husbands surname is listed. Either your NBI Clearance must incorrectly list you as still married and include your former husbands name. Or, it could list you as single, but you must still have you former husbands surname listed as an AKA. The strict part is that your former husbands surname must be listed somehow. Marital status is determined by different documents. As far as NBI is concerned, you will probably have different results with different offices. Some may just let you put any AKA you say with no justification at all. Some may be strict, want to see documents with the AKA, don't accept the divorce as a reason for an AKA, and list you as still married with your husbands. Luckily the Embassy understands this.

For relationship evidence we did almost exactly what you said. We had multi-page pdfs and used descriptive file names for strait forward evidence. But if explanation was required we included a simple cover page in those pdfs with a short description of what we intended to show. The gole was to make the case quick and easy to review. It is worked for us.

My wife and stepdaughter flew through Taipei with their Filipino passports just last week. Taipei is super easy transit. Actually, before and after we were married, my wife traveled with her young daughter all over Southeast Asia. At least half a dozen ASEAN countries plus Japan and Korea with tourist visas. At no point EVER, did any airline or immigration agent so much as even ask the slightest question about custody. They don't even have the same last names in their passports. Mom and kids are good to go in Asia.

Worst case is they somehow calculate the date one day different then you did. So they sit on it for six months and then reject it for early filing. Then you have to start all over again with a new application and another long wait, just for trying to save a day or two. Definitely not worth the risk.

Oh the calendar is wide open for scheduling CR/IR-1 interview dates. Plenty of days. Just no one can get the Embassy to ask NVC to send the cases over so no one can claim those dates

You could get the online tax return transcript pdf's instantly. I imagine USCIS prefers those anyway for online submissions since the pdf's strait from the IRS have basic security that would make any tampering evident.

Korea is visa free transit for Filipino passports. Philippine law grants a single mom absolute sole custody of her children. She needs no authorization from anyone, to take her children anywhere she wants, for any reason. She will have no trouble at all transiting Korea or traveling with her kids.

I'm still keeping my San Diego list. No recent updates and a good number of still open cases. I'll update any San Diego cases I see move. My wife has to wait until the end of October just to meet the 3 year rule. I'm working on the theory that those who are already time qualified, and easy cases, are getting super quick approvals from San Diego these days.

We did just that and chose "passport" because it was a DFA certified copy of a passport. It worked for us.

It varies immensely. Hence the wise 4 hour recommendation. At LAX TBIT, a terminal I know extremely well, it took my wife and stepdaughter 2 1/2 hours to emerge. The reason for the delay? Like three 777's from China arrived about 20 minutes earlier than their flight. Had weather or air traffic conditions ever so slightly rearranged, that order of arrival, processing times would have changed by hours.

It really depends on the tax situation of those filing. Our case is perhaps an extreme example but our return was literally over $10,000 more by us filing jointly rather than me filing separately. I would not have been able to file head of household. Other people may see less benefit but most of the time a return for married filing jointly is going to be larger.

The hard copy N-400 receipt notice arrived today. Which is dramatically faster than the time it took for the I-751 to arrive. Return address National Benefits Center, Lee's Summit MO, but actually mailed from San Bernardino CA.

If you are the petitioner just use whatever name you actually intend to really use in your daily life. If you dont want to use your husband's name then you don't have to, and if you do want to us his name then the sooner you start using it on everything the better. It won't have any impact on the immigration case one way or the other. For filing taxes you can file as married filing separately without doing anything, but you may get a much larger return filing as married filing jointly. For the Philippines, your husband can get a certified copy of his Philippine Passport from any DFA office. It costs P150. You can submit the certified copy of his passport with a paper 1040 return, a letter electing for your husband to treated as resident for tax purposes, and form W7. They would then issue your husband an ITIN you can use filing taxes while you wait for the immigration case. In some cases it can make a HUGE difference in the amount of your tax return. https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-7 https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-spouse

It won't update until about a week or two before you actually receive the card. Then it will literally say "Card is being produced".😀 If you are concerned whether the $235 immigrant fee was credited correctly and the payment applied to your mom's case just try imputing her A-Number and DOS Case Number again as if you would try to pay a second time. When you click "next" you will get an error message. "The USCIS Immigrant Fee has already been paid for this person. If this person has not received their Green Card yet, create a USCIS Online Account to verify or update their mailing address." You can do that without committing to anything or entering payment information again. It confirms that the payment is correctly applied, everything is fine and the only reason you are still waiting is because USCIS is slow..

I think technically she is supposed to "update" her CFO. A walk-in is probably all it takes and I 'think' it can even be done online. If she still has her old counselors e-mail or WhatsApp I'd try messaging them directly.

Well, our meaningless estimated time until case decision dropped another month today. Now it stands at only 6 months. So we moved up 3 whole months in just the last 3 days. If this rate keeps up I think we will be done by next week.😆🤣😂

After you wife has been living here in the US for 3 years she would first have to naturalize as a US Citizen before she could sponsor her parents as IR5.

She should get a return appointment slip like this the last day of specimen collection.

This fantastic service is included at no extra charge.

Lately there have been few complaints about CFO and they seem to be working more or less quickly and efficiently. You will still probably see a lot of horror stories online from the rona era through about summer 2023 when they had a total meltdown. They have since scaled back their mission and things seem better now.