W199

Yes, I paid for everything, my MIL has no money.

In my case, my Wife has only been here for 2 years and hasn't even applied for removal of conditions yet (too early). We also have no kids. My MIL is only 2 years older than me and quite healthy. She also was brutally honest and told them she didn't own any farm land, etc. to tie her to the Philippines.. But they were very fair in evaluating all the circumstances, risks, and other key things and approved her VISA

Yeah, its kind of disrespectful for them to make them come to an interview if they know in advance that they will deny them. When someone come from the province or another Island, it is expensive for hotel, travel, time-off, and so forth. A 2-stage approval approach would be good. Where they either deny you or then allow you to schedule an interview. It could reduce their interview load as well. But I suspect, they just don't have time to review the data twice given they have thousands of applicants per day.

My MIL's 4-5 questions in the manila embassy were extremely well crafted, each one based on her previous answer, and it was clear the officer granted the tourist visa based on her answers. Of course, the DS-160 and the background check had to have no red flags as well.

Well, no criminal ever thinks they are guilty or what they did was so bad, and every lawyer thinks they are right especially when you pay them. Its weird that you think your crime should not count as CIMT, yet you do not want to even anonymously disclose it (which could be useful as some may have experience or such with it). >> The closest offence under US law is explicitly not considered a CIMT. The brief from our attorney argued: I don't see why this is relevant or even a point of law. "closest" implies it is not the same crime so that doesn't apply. Law doesn't work by "closest crime". Its very specific. And I don't know any law or requirement that the CIMT law does not apply if you are convicted of a CIMT in your country but in USA, it would be considered a different type of crime. >> so some aspects can be considered a CIMT and some cannot. You are admitting that some aspects of it are CIMT. Therefore, I don't see why you think the officer made a mistake. The visa officer has a wide range of discretion and arguing a technicality is not likely to be a way to win the case, IMO. Seems like you should file a waiver with an abundance evidence of why they should overlook the crime, rather than telling them they made a legal mistake. But that is just my guess, you should follow your attorney.

My MIL recently got approved, but she never got denied before. She is just a retired farmer in the province who even had to use a translator for the interview. They just asked her a few questions. The embassy and the visa officer were all very kind, friendly, and helpful. This has always been our experience with the USA embassy in Manila. Why your MIL got denied and how to overcome the issues are impossible to answer with the information or lack thereof that you provided. It may be something simple or something impossible to overcome.

Only potential issue with HSBC for some people might be they bumped up their minimums needed to avoid fees for their premier account. Their premier account is what gives you and your family free premier accounts anywhere in the world where they have branches, including in the Philippines. Plus it gives you really great service with the premier team in the Philippines and USA. However, since their interest rate, like most banks, is not good, in order to meet the minimums, I just park some stock in their HSBC brokerage account as well as VMFXX, the highest yielding money market account. HSBC also has a feature where they will let borrow $10K USD in an emergency at any branch in the world for premier customers. I personally like that safety umbrella when I am travelling in the Philippines.

When people ask me when I am traveling, I usually say some unexpected Country to throw them off, because its none of their business and they are usually just looking for money.

Did you marry in the Philippines? If so, did you get a PSA marriage certificate? then you can just apply at the Philippines embassy nearest you. Its easy. If you married outside of the Philippines, did you file a ROM with the embassy, and then get a PSA? If not you need to do that first and that will take many months. Don't expect a passport for a long time. Otherwise, wait for US citizenship and get a USA passport

The closest to the Embassy is Bayview Park Hotel, right across the street plus the distance if you need to walk to get to the pedestrian overhead crossing bridge. It is pretty cheap if you can get a good deal, and what I like about it is that it si very safe with a doorman whi keeps a careful eye on who comes in and leaves, and lots of cameras, room vault, But the free breakfast is terrible, and the rooms are a little old and outdated, and the pool is tiny. There may be many airbnb that are even cheaper, but I'm not a fan of the airbnb's that I've checked out in that are .. mostly due to no doorman, slow elevator, creepy hallways, check-in, etc... But perhaps there are some nice ones? On the last visit, we stayed at Diamond Hotel. It is the most expensive hotel in that area, but still was only about $110 including a great breakfast spread, .. for me the extra cost was worth it. But for a simple stay Bayview Park will be good enough unless you want some luxury. The really even cheaper hotels in the area are probably just fine, but I wouldn't stay there myself. A little farther away there are a couple of similar and decent hotels as Bayview and with better breakfasts. Depends if your priority is to be as close as possible to the embassyl

My Wife is from the Philippines, and I see this all the time and hear many stories of Filipino girls like you. You choose the worst of the worst Americans to marry because that is who you could find or who found you. You think they are from USA so it will give you a better life for you and your family, and think that they will be nice to you and that you can still have a happy life. You don't even know who they really are. You don't have a clue as to the reality of moving back to the USA in a poor area, with a person who has limited intelligence, emotionally unstable, a long list of baggage, and is ultimately going to very abusive to you and ruin your life. You'll likely end up as being abused house cleaner, additional income, and babysitter for his kids, with horrible cheap meals, crappy car if any, and a horrible set of friends and associates. Don't you see these other bad Americans with other Filipino girls and see how they end up? - You will have a very hard time getting a K-1 or CR-1 VISA approved. - You will have even a harder if not impossible time getting the CFO to approve it. - If you make it past that, it is very unlikely you will be married (or even alive) long enough to get your 10 year green card, let alone citizenship. Just saying ... Of course, like every other victim they always say "he's different, etc..."

That's why I prefer Fidelity. It will automatically withdraw from your money market account, such as SPAXX or FZDXX .. And I use Schwab and E*Trade as backup.

The Philippine CFO is checking the criminal record before they issue a certificate due to abuse and killings for Filipinos overseas. I can only imagine what they will say when they see a 10 page FBI report and a a box full of criminal records. ...

To clarify, I mostly use the instant global bank transfer between the banks when I plan to transfer the money to another locak bank in the Philippines. But what I recommend too is to get free accounts at brokerage companies like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and E*Trade. You can get 4% or so in their money market account (if you don't invest it), and their ATM card can be used in the Philippines to give you free withdrawals (they rebate the fees for both the local ATM machine and Fidelity) with top exchange rates. A regular bank will charge a large amount for an international withdrawal, plus the fee the local bank will charge. They have have free wire transfers too, free bill pay .. all the same as a bank except you get high interest rates, free international ATM, etc.. I don't know most people use banks and get only 0.003% interest in most cases and pay high ATM fees.

Besides HSBC, there is the Philippines bank, PNB, which has a branch in NYC. You can have accounts in both USA and Philippines and easily transfer money without using a remittance company. I use HSBC. Its much safer than dealing with compliance issues.

How many times has he been arrested, is it 30 times in 24 years? Do any of those cases involve a minor child? Domestic violence? Felonies?

Great, if it was me, I would include it ... p.s. When I was traveling to Montreal to meet my Fiancée (she traveled there so we can meet often while waiting for the K-1), I tried to get my travel history but Canada refused. Only Canadians can get it it appears. But during her interview at the Manila embassy they noticed she had a Canadian visa to meet me ... and her interview was a quick breeze.

Besides the boarding passes, do you have admission records, such as I-94 when you visited him in the the USA? If so that might be good in lieu of passport stamps which I don't think they give you anymore.

I assume she gotten her dual citizenship? Keep in mind the PDIC (The FDIC equivalent in the Philippines) is only $20K (up from $10K last March), so I wouldn't keep much money in a single bank there. The remittence companies like XOOM work great but their exchange rate is not the best, and like you said the big issue is compliance issues which can be a nightmare if you transfer too often or a large amount. I don't use them anymore. International wire transfers are too expensive and take too long. Instead what I do, is I opened an HSBC, USA bank account in NY/NJ. They in turn opened me a HSBC Philippines bank account, all for free. They did this all while I was in the USA. They provide a private banker in both USA and the Philippines that I can easily contact if I have any issues. With their app, I can literally instantly transfer USD back and forth from the HSBC USA branch to HSBC Phiiippines, again all for free, and with the market exchange rate. Then I can do a local (pesonet) transfer from HSBC Philippines to more local banks in the Philippines (since HSBC is only in Manila). Any issues, I just contact my banker ... Once my secure ID battery died or debit card expired, and they just fedex me a new one. Now, this all takes a little skill using all the apps and so forth .,, but you can aways call them for help. You do need a minimum balance in the HSBC account to get all this for free, but all I did was to transfer some mutual funds to the HSBC brokerage and that balance covers the minimum. I think there are other international banks, such as citibank they might offer similar transfer services. But I think only HSBC will open up the remote bank accounts remotely for you. Note, as a non-resident you are restricted from depositing PHP into the local bank account from external sources. But once she is living in the Philippines she can convert it to a resident account. It will be very easy to move money back and forth, and when you run into issues, which you always will, their support will help.

What was the nature of the derogatory info that they denied your I-751 on? Was it related to a divorce?

I am referring to first time visitors from high-risk countries. In those cases, they are sent to secondary inspection. Immigration literally looked at my fiancée's VISA and said "oh, this is your first time to enter, please go to secondary". This is the group of people that I was referring to that had very high rate of return to their our country. Therefore, I don't think it will be easy for him to go to Canada as a tourist based on the info provided. And it risks a lot of money for the plane ticket, hotels, and meeting there only to be rejected. While I was waiting the 4 hours for her to get out of secondary, there was a younger girl with her dad from Pakistan asking for help. Saying her mother is visiting from Pakistan and she is bringing them a lot of gold for gifts, but it has been 4+ hours. LOL. The officer told her "it will take as long as it takes". While I was waiting for my fiancee they got a phone call and then they quickly left the airport .... My fiancee almost didn't make it ... they checked everything ...

My fiancee got a VISA to meet me in Canada. But that was only because I had enough income to sponsor her and we had a K-1 pending. She had to prove she had a pending K-1 when she arrived. Canada sent back about 1/2 of the new VISA holders, including a older guy in wheel chair with his "alleged" son .. a lot of people from Nigeria, Paksitan, etc.. got sent back ... Its like they make it easy to get a visa (no interview was even required) but make it very hard to enter on arrival. Renting a nice condo wasn't expensive with airbnb for a few months ... while she lived in Canada and I visited her each weekend until the K-1 was approved ...

Unfortunately, this is all fantasy and wishful thinking. Doctor notes, waivers, etc are all not going to work. And you don't have enough money to make the several trips required, not to mention even if you did, you can't travel with your medical condition. Also, seeing his graduation degree and passport is not enough to not end up like you did with the guy from India. First steps are to get your medical and finances in shape. Then meet him several times, and see if you even get engaged or not. You already nearly broke up with him once. BTW, do you have enough income required to qualify to petition someone? And how did you meet him?

They are not going to ask you to explain your joint sponsor's tax transcript to them.

When is the rescheduled N-400? Did it already pass? Did you try to go to it and explain? Or did they not even let you in the door?