spicynujac

Trust me, I was outraged when the Manila Field Office closed in 2019, essentially ending DCF processing for all but a few special cases. I spent quite a while trying to come up with a scenario that would allow us to squeak in under the far superior and much cheaper DCF visa rules (both of us moving to Mexico while we underwent processing was the best option). If you don't currently have a job offer, you do not qualify. You could either try to purposefully create a situation where you qualify for DCF, or just take the path of least resistance, and get the I-130 filed ASAP. I did the latter. Yes, it sucks, but that's the path they are forcing us down now. Yes, Vienna will process your DCF case if you qualify, and no, you do not submit your I-130 to the USA first (there is about a year backlog of processing I-130s so that would make a DCF rather pointless). DCF is fast and easy, maybe lawyers don't get involved in it much because they aren't needed and he's not familiar with how it works?

If you fill out your timeline, you should get an accurate estimate of when your case will be processed. You can also search for recent approvals and see what their application date was. The VJ site combines data from multiple US agencies, the various lockbox processing offices, and live user info, and for us the estimate was accurate to within a few days. Plus you are helping out other users here. But yes at this point I'd expect your petition will wait in line for about a year before they process it. FYI, the US gov time estimates are just one of several items we encountered that were misleading, contradictory, or outright WRONG from the US immigration offices. There were 3 or 4 specific cases where if we followed the US Gov instructions our case would have easily taken 6+ months longer, but the forums here gave us the correct info. (For one, they tell you to wait to be scheduled for a visa interview by the embassy, when actually you have to log on to a website and schedule your own interview--how long would we have waited to be scheduled before we realized this? Could have easily been another year!) There is some outdated data here in the guides, but searching the forums for posts within the past year gives you good, current advice.

The US Immigrant Fee was $165 when we began the process, as listed here Our Fees | USCIS: Immigration Benefit Request New Fee ($) Old Fee ($) USCIS Immigrant Fee 220 165 Water under the bridge, I know, but I work in finance and have been tracking / planning this to the penny since day one, including which visas are cheapest/fastest/best (boohoo for the once ubiquitous DCF!). Total cost of CR-1 Visa filed in 2023 and obtained 3/2025: $1,215 to US Gov, $1,704 total including required medical exam. Yikes! I expect total K-1 visa costs are well over $2,000.

Haha!! Crazy! I thought you were nuts but you are right. Even though the instructions say the system will add a zero if and where one is needed, and it does so, visible on screen, appending "A-0######" to what you just typed, if you go in and type the zero yourself, it works! GOVERNMENT I.T. AT ITS FINEST! haha thank you! (Note, don't type the A just type the 0 in front of your 8 digit number, The system appending the A is ok but appending the 0 breaks things... good grief!)

Blasphemy! Don't ever say this to a southerner! Exist? You can even buy their uniforms and wear them at home. Welcome to the Piggly Wiggly Swag Store!

The system is automatically appending a 0 when I type in the 8 digit registration number printed on our visa. Guess I'll have to call them next week. Thanks.

Thanks! So there is no sealed packed used anymore? I've read in numerous places about special packets you are not supposed to open, but you carry to the US border agents when you enter the country. Is that needed for a CR-1 visa immigrant?

I'm confused about this fee. The instructions state: You must pay the fee online. The U.S. embassy or consulate will give you your: A-Number (the letter “A” followed by 8 or 9 numbers); DOS Case ID (3 letters followed by 9 or 10 numbers); Instructions for paying the USCIS Immigrant Fee; Immigrant Data Summary; and Sealed immigrant visa packet. We received nothing from the Manila embassy when passing the visa interview. The only thing which arrived in the mail was my wife's current Philippine passport with an immigrant VISA stamped inside, expiring in 5 months. We have no "A-number" We have an NVC case # beginning MNL2024 which may be the DOS case ID (which we have had going back to the beginning of this process) We received no instructions for paying the Immigrant Fee We received no "data summary" whatever that is We received no sealed packet. In fact the only way I even knew this fee existed is from the forum here. Are we supposed to receive any of the above? Are we ok to pay the fee without those things? Will we have any issues entering without the above and only a CR1 visa? FYI we also received nothing when she passed her medical test and my wife is worried about being asked for proof of a clean medical when she enters the country. Another confusing step in this process where the government rules aren't intelligible. I'm hesitant to pay when I am missing 4 of the 5 items the government says we should have for this fee, as it is considered nonrefundable. (PS as for the fee amount, I wouldn't expect it to increase any time soon as it just saw a substantial increase over 40% to $235 a few months ago).

I'm in the same boat as OP (self employed, no health insurance). Is there a possibility for your wife to work somewhere at least part time that would provide health insurance for your family? Health care in the USA is extremely expensive and is tied to the workplace, due to arcane rules put in place in the 70s. So your best bet is getting it from the workplace, if you can. Plenty of places don't require a lot of experience and provide health insurance for part time workers (Starbucks, Trader Joes, etc.) This is probably what we will do when we have kids (that's also the time I most need the wife at home so I realize it's a catch-22!)

The K3 thing is ridiculous and needs to be called out when it is "recommended" here. I think they have processed something like 3 in the past decade. You have FAR better odds of winning the powerball (and then you probably wouldn't care about immigrant status!) But remember, there are plenty of non-immigrants who meet someone while in the USA and decide to get married. A completely normal and even expected way for things to go. My neighbor met his Colombian wife when she was here on one of these summer work visas working at an amusement park (lots of national park area jobs are staffed with these 20-somethings as well). It's very normal and even expected that a significant percentage of 20 somethings would meet their spouse while living and working overseas for months or years, and then adjust their temporary visa into a permanent one through marriage. Heck, I briefly dated an au pair here. If we stayed together, marriage was definitely on the agenda. But especially around college age--If I was a parent and my child went overseas for a semester abroad or temporary work, I would certainly anticipate a marriage is a strong possibility... Trying to put yourself in the shoes of someone else and conclude how and what (and WHEN!) their feelings are is almost impossible. Of course, marrying someone in less than 3 months after you arrive or something.. that's a red flag ( I assume this is where the waiting 90 days advice comes from). But I think this will always be a gray area that can be exploited. And it's not hard to understand why some look to cut corners when the legal route is so absurd.

The nicest grocery store I've ever visited in the USA is a Wegman's. They might be limited to the northeast / midwest. I heard about them for years and stopped in when I was visiting Lancaster, PA. The prepared deli foods are gourmet and incredible. They serve fresh cold pressed juice made daily. All the fresh fruits and veggies you can imagine (lots of international). Other than that, everything else (including Whole Foods) is a big step down. Publix is nice in my area, but I don't really have a preference. I go wherever is convenient and/or has a good sale. There's always Costco. I frequently go with my neighbor, and the prices are slightly cheaper, but ONLY if you end up consuming the giant package of whatever you bought before it goes bad. I'm not sure I would pay for my own membership, but if you have a bigger family, it's worth it. Their products are high quality and their policies are very consumer friendly. Aldi / Trader Joe's (related companies) are small but carry nice products at a good price. Aldi's is more rotating stock where you see a variety of new items every week and TJ is more the same popular products every week, but they have good fresh produce, fresh flowers and great potted plants. (TJ and Costco are both a great place to work by the way--if ours was closer I would consider getting my wife a job there!) The health insurance alone would be worth it! My general plan at the grocery is buy almost everything along the outside walls--the refrigerated items, which are REAL FOOD, and skip items in a box, jar, or can.

Oops ignore this advice... this is related to a form DS260, a different form that what you asked about and also a different visa type... looks like you have some good advice in the thread here or can call the embassy at the #s above.

We had our DS-260 form "re-opened" (I think it is locked after they review and approve it) so that we could change my wife's listed name from her maiden name, which we originally applied using, to her new married name. (This is not strictly needed--the embassy officer can do it at the interview--but the embassy advised us they could open the file for editing and we could go ahead and fix it so we did. Interview passed successfully by the way) There was no "new" barcode generated. All our info was the same, including our case #s, etc. They just updated an old DS-260 form with a new one. My advice would be to call the new embassy office which recently opened at (+632) 7792-8988 or (+632) 8548-8223 or (703) 520-2235 (1=english,option 3, 3, 5) - [the phone contact as of March 2025] and ask them what to do. In my experience, they answer promptly, and would give you the most timely advice.

The VAST majority of your time in this process is simply waiting months and months for anyone at US Immigration to even touch your application. And while I haven't heard of US staffing cuts, most federal agencies are currently being trimmed, so this could be even worse going forward. The marital visa process is the same regardless of where and how you marry. BUT the Utah marriage allows you to file your paperwork (US Form I-130) IMMEDIATELY (they email you a copy of the marriage certificate) instead of waiting weeks or months before you get the Philippine certificate in hand. Of course, you could also go to any country, say, Taiwan or Japan or even the USA, and marry there and you would be in the same immigration situation. But the thing about the Utah marriage is it's so fast and easy, (only requirements are provide a witness, state everyone's name and pay $50). You could I'm not sure it will be any faster. The reason to hire an agency would be because you can't or won't fill out the forms yourself. My advice would be download the USCIS I-130 form, look it over, and see if that looks like something you could easily fill out yourself. In my case, I've lived at the same address for a decade, never been married, and file all my taxes on time, so it was something I could fill out in about an hour. Then you wait like a year and a government agent spends a few minutes looking at your forms and approves or rejects them. But the key is getting in that paperwork ASAP to start the clock.

After investigating further, Philippine visa-free travel to Ecuador was revoked during Covid. It is rumored to return within the next year or two (?) Until it is, they want a face to face interview and $50 for a Filipino visitor visa. Normally I would skip it, but we have the opportunity to book an Ecuador tour this year at an extremely reduced price. It would cost us several thousand to wait until next year, so we might get the dadgummed visa. We can schedule a visa interview upon arrival in the US, as there is an Ecuador embassy in our US arrival city so it won't be a huge inconvenience.

The Utah online marriage seems like the best option. You can apply within a day or two of the marriage, as they email you a copy of the marriage certificate. It's a legal marriage just as if two Americans marry each other in any American state. I haven't heard of any difficulties with it, other than some brief confusion years ago when it was first announced, which was quickly clarified. Even if you already are planning a PH wedding as your post hints at, I would probably do the Utah civil marriage, followed by a PH religious ceremony. That's what we did, and it allows you to apply immediately, bypass some marriage regulations (Utah only wants your name and $50, much easier than my state or the PH), and lets you pass the time by planning a nice ceremony and celebration there. Then you end up with the superior (and much cheaper) IR-1 visa (not to mention the peace of mind holding an immigrant visa over a non-immigrant K-1 visa with all the uncertainty in the US now). The only thing out of the ordinary / more difficult than a "standard" visa if there is such a thing, is your past divorces. You need additional documentation for each of them. But otherwise, it shouldn't be hard to do on your own. Most people here are DIYers. I actually think a lawyer can slightly slow down the process, as they will not do things like file forms within 24 hours of eligibility as we did, as they have a backlog of clients and a review process, but it may give you peace of mind if you don't mind the additional expense.

So we were allowing foreigners to enter the US without being vaccinated, and then months or years later requiring the vaccination? Haha that's not how diseases work. The whole point of requiring innoculations at border entries is to stop global transmission of exotic pathogens. Getting a shot after you already arrive somewhere does nothing. Sounds like an utterly silly rule that served no purpose. Good to see it removed, but at this point anyone planning to emigrate to USA has probably already gotten the shot and it's a 4 year old pandemic so pretty much water under the bridge... I mean, can one even GET a covid-19 vaccine at this point? Sounds like a meaningless requirement. AFAIK immigrants could opt for the Sinovax or Sputnik which were traditional vaccines, as risky as getting the annual flu shot, and not the AngloAmero-RNA-modifying gene therapy injections masquerading as vaccines. But of course those were made by people from "bad" ethnic backgrounds so they weren't options for American citizens lol.

We had good luck finding appointments on 3 different times at midnight Philippines time (we had to reschedule because the new system is NOT at all clear that you are booking multiple appointments for multiple purposes--they will present vague acronyms and expect you to know that one means biometrics and the other means personal interview and we didn't realize we had booked different appointments on different dates for different things). We checked 4 different times and on 3 of those days they had appointments open up right after midnight. Good luck!

I realize this forum isn't the best place to ask about Ecuador's immigration rules, but A) The website listed for the Ecuadorian Embassy in the USA ecuador.org is down or hacked and B) No one answers the Ecuadorian Embassy DC Phone (there appears to be an Atlanta number also which had a suspicious recording when I called it). I am planning a trip to Ecuador with my wife, who holds a Philippines passport, and a US Permanent Resident. Normally Philippine passport holders require a visa to enter Ecuador. However,I know there are often exceptions, where those who hold US permanent resident status are often treated as US passport holders for immigration purposes (IE Canada allows one to freely travel as a USA citizen would if one holds USA permanent resident documents). Does anyone know what rules apply in Ecuador? The visa costs to visit Ecuador are pretty ridiculous, and we won't travel there if they are collected.

JAL is very nice but they don't fly to Cebu. China Airlines will ticket over the phone but it was $100 more... Had no luck this morning but tonight it worked! $1266 R/T to Cebu. Just gotta keep trying for a week or two... maybe the same guy programmed USTravelDocs? :D :D But I've had luck in the past calling the airline directly. Sometimes even with a nice surprise on the price.

Does anyone else consistently have ticketing issues booking international flights to the Philippines? I've been on Turkish Airlines and China (Taiwan state carrier) Airlines the most. I've also done EVA Air and Starlux (both Taiwanese), though the latter only flies regionally, or to the US west coast. I think I've done China Eastern once. Prices ranged from $1,000 to $1,250 R/T (if you know how to search--ITA Matrix and Skyscanner are your friend). However, recently the major carriers I use won't issue tickets for the quoted price. Turkish Airlines refuses to show itineraries from ATL to CEB, even though they still advertise that route. Flights From Istanbul to Cebu | Turkish Airlines EVA Air and China Airlines both give errors on checkout that the ticket cannot be booked (recurring over several days). I tried booking their flights through a third party site like Orbitz and the same thing. The flights and prices display but when you try to check out, it won't issue a ticket. (It's before entering credit card info. You can duplicate the error with bogus names on any computer and see it won't reserve the ticket. So it's a reservation or ticketing bug on their end. For example, EVA AIr says Some error occurred during the booking process. System is temporarily unavailable.) I've had this issue before, but usually if you tried again for several days, it would work, but not this time. I travel frequently internationally, and used to work in the industry, but for some reason these flights to Asia can be difficult to book. I flew to Tokyo 3 months ago through Canada's Westjet and had similar issues where the priced itinerary wouldn't ticket for several days, and then finally worked one day. By the way Turkish Airlines was by far my favorite. They offer a free tour of Istanbul or a free NICE hotel room on stopover, and you get to break up your trip into two 10 hour segments, making it much more manageable. The food both onboard and in Istanbul is excellent and the carrier experience is good, unless something goes wrong, in which case you'll wish you didn't fly Turkish, but overall it's generally better than using the American carriers. They have had extremely long check in lines in Cebu though. Like almost 2 hours standing in line. I don't even know how it's possible to check people in that slowly. I can always pay more and fly westward via Philippine Air, I guess (for more money and their domestic service makes me hesitate) but I'm curious if anyone else is having these issues. There are few choices of routes which have tolerable layovers, which are basically the Taiwanese carriers, so I'm down to the final option of considering using Spirit or Frontier to connect to the west coast (even if it goes well, you must pay for ALL luggage, and self-transfer through security at the connecting airport!). Has anyone gone this risky route? Oh, I should add I used to go via Qatar Airlines which also had nice service and a free stopover option in Doha, but for the past couple of years their pricing has not been competitive.

??? As I understand it, there is no difference in the married naming conventions in the Philippines and the USA. I see this question come up frequently as if it’s some type of culture barrier, but the norm in USA is for the wife to keep her maiden name and adopt the husband’s last name. Is that not the norm in the Philippines as well? https://guides.sll.texas.gov/marriage-in-texas/name-change @Crazy Catoutlined the options available to you above. If you are trying to copy what most Americans do, historically that is: Wife1st WifeMaiden HusbandLast If you personally prefer one of the other options, choose from the list above. But the “standard” or “norm,” particularly in Christian weddings, is to keep your maiden name and adopt your husbands last name. That’s what all my friends and family in the US have done, and what at least 95% of cases I saw working in our probate court reflected, though there is a growing trend of the wife keeping her own last name, particularly in non traditional or non religious weddings. I just don’t get why this notion of different naming conventions keeps popping up when the two systems are identical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden_and_married_names In Massachusetts, a Harvard study in 2004 found that about 87% of college-educated women take their husbands' name on marriage, down from a peak before 1975 of over 90%

It's very country specific, as countries which are more prone to fraud get more scrutiny, but assuming Thailand and the Philippines have similar processes, I wouldn't worry at all if I were you. We have not yet passed our interview in PH, but from everything I've seen, records of prior trips, photos of meeting in person, and boarding passes for multiple visits should be sufficient. However, adding a name to a bank account is not very substantial proof. If you are truly concerned, think of it from a contrarian view--would it be difficult for someone perpetrating fraud to provide this type of evidence? Making an overseas flight and taking photos together --> Time intensive and expensive Making a 5 minute phone call and having a call center agent type a name into an account field --> Almost no effort. Not to mention it can be undone with another 5 minute phone call at any point in the future. Which paints a more convincing picture of a bona fide marriage to you?

If I'm reading your timeline correctly, @Nathan Alden, Sr. you are still waiting on your I-130 petition to be approved and thus haven't even completed form DS-260 yet, so this should be even easier for you. When your I-130 petition is approved, fill out the DS-260 visa application using your wife's new married name. Then you don't have to make any *changes* to any immigration documents at all. Just fill out everything based on her new PH passport. Your estimated timeline date is October 2025 for I-130 approval. You will easily have her new passport by then. It was a very simple and cheap process for us. But if she's trying to begin using a totally different name than the one she was born with, yes, that is more involved and really has nothing to do with marriage or immigration so it must go through the proper legal process as it involves issues of public safety and trust.

I always get confused with these PH name change threads because people act like the PH assigns marriage names in some unique way, but they handle them EXACTLY the same as the convention where I am from (American south) which is also the standard in Scotland / Ireland and I believe most English speaking nations, so it's pretty straightforward for me and I don't get the long explanations about it (the name change convention, not the process). Wife's maiden name (last name) becomes her new middle name, and she takes the husband's last name. Her old middle name is dropped. That's how all my friends and family back home are named, so it's nothing new for me. The only thing I've ever seen differently is if the wife doesn't want to change her name at all, which is what happens in either PH or USA if you don't bother to contact any government agencies to change your documents. Your marriage certificate serves as proof of the name change. (In the PH the Report of Marriage is the domestic version of a foreign marriage certificate). From what I've read here, it's very desirable to have the green card issued in your wife's married name, in other words, change her documents to reflect her new married name BEFORE the visa interview in Manila. I think it's already been answered in this thread, but what we've done is: 1) obtain the Report of Marriage from the local PSA office (we went in at 5 months, they said it wasn't ready yet, went back 6 weeks later and they gave us a copy). 2) obtain Advisory on Marriage from PSA (couple of bucks) and background check with both names/alias from National Bureau of Investigation. 3) Registered for a visa interview date in March in Manila 4) Took existing PH passport and ROM to Dept of Foreign Affairs and applied for a new passport in married name (about $15) 5) Within 3 weeks we got the new passport back. Uploaded new passport, along with ROM, police check, and PSA Advisory on Marriage to CEAC website. 5a) We called the embassy and they reopened the Form DS-260 that we could edit through the CEAC website. I logged in, changed 3 fields: Current name: new married name. Prior names: Yes / maiden name. Passport #: changed to new #. Saved. From what I've read this step is optional and the embassy officer can do it at the interview, but since we called and were told to do this, we did it ourselves. 6) Will bring both original passports and original of all the newly uploaded docs (ROM, Advisory on Marriage, police clearance) to the interview. This shouldn't cause any change to our scheduled interview as we have the same case # as before. Not exactly simple, but straight forward, unless you are trying to change your wifes name to something unconventional. Only if you are rejecting the normal name convention of accepting your last name and keeping her maiden name. Which also requires court approval in the USA in my state. We already have a PH passport with my wife's married name and it cost <$20 for the whole process, which is way cheaper than even getting a new driver license in the USA.