spicynujac

If you want to stay longer than a year and are married, a resident visa is not all that difficult (compared to the US). Current initial (probationary visa) cost for 13(a) resident visa is $150 USD. Permanent retiree visa with some special benefits like PhilHealth costs if I recall around $1,500. But I think it's more common people just remain indefinite "tourists". You can just travel abroad together once per year and get the balikbayan stamp on your re-entry. For shorter stays between 30 days and 1 year just pay the fee to extend your free 1 month tourist visa. There is no limit on total days, only consecutive days. https://immigration.gov.ph/faqs/ I am a foreign national under a Temporary Visitor’s Visa, I can stay legally in the Philippines for thirty (30) days however I want to extend my stay, how do I go about this? Foreign nationals who are admitted with an initial stay of thirty (30) days may apply for a visa waiver first, granting an additional stay of twenty nine (29) in the Philippines. Thereafter, you may apply for one (1) month, two (2) months or six (6) months extensions at least one week prior to the expiration of your valid stay. How long can I extend my in the Philippines? 36 months (USA)

I submitted a report of marriage to the San Francisco consulate. The only original document mailed was an apostilled marriage certificate, which was returned in around a month, and photocopies of our passports and birth certificates. I'm not sure why a green card would be sent. Working authorization is irrelevant to marital status. Looking at the NY consulate web site, there is no mention of a green card. The Philippines doesn't know or care about that and it's not relevant to civil registration. Are you following the instructions on their website (newyorkpcg.org) ? It takes around 6 months for the Philippine Statistic Authority to officially record the marriage.

What is your specific concern about buying the ticket? You have no timeline so we can't see what stage of the process you are in. If it's time to travel to the US and your documents are in order, what are you worried about? A VPN is used to obfuscate or alter your apparent online location for internet services which are restricted or priced geographically. For example, one can use a VPN to access "Netflix Columbia" and pay a cheaper rate than one would from their actual location in America. Airlines do not charge different prices based on where one lives. Why would you do this to purchase a plane ticket?

Form Form Description Classification or Basis for Filing FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY2024 I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) All Classifications 5.2 4.6 8.0 12.1 13.9 9.3 I-130 Petition for Alien Relative Immediate Relative 8.6 8.3 10.2 10.3 11.8 11.2 Median time in months. So a fiance visa filed a year ago was approved 2 months faster than marital. But keep in mind the marital visa is for most far superior and over $1,000 cheaper than K-1. I do find it bizarre that strangers are sometimes given a higher priority than wives, but not much about our immigration system makes sense... But I wouldn't make any assumptions about timing going forward--the visas often leapfrog each other. And a lot depends on chance. If we were sent to *ANY* other service center than the one we got, our case would likely be approved already...but we are still waiting at 12.5 months-- luck of the draw. I have no regrets going marital.

We sent photocopies of both our birth certificates, which were accepted (still pending recording in the official Manila PSA records, which takes months, but the consulate contacted us about a different issue and they said everything was in order). I don't believe it asks for originals. The only thing original is the marriage certificate (and the notarized Report of Marriage form). Just follow the rules of the SAN FRANCISCO consulate if you did a Utah online marriage.

The US is asking for any additional evidence that your relationship is bona fide, to make sure there's no scheme for someone to enter the country on a ruse (this occasionally happens, often with fiance visas. I even know people who have entered, and one even became a US citizen, through sham marriages first obtained with a fiance visa. There is a case before the Supreme Court right now about an MS-13 Hispanic gang member who got an American woman to apply for a visa for him, with authorities arguing that they did not have a legitimate relationship, despite obtaining a marriage certificate after his arrival in the US). One benefit of the marriage visa vs fiance is you are already married to the person in question, so you have a much more serious relationship and a very low bar to prove that it is legitimate. Also, they scrutinize different countries differently. The authorities realize in the Philippines, you're typically looking at an middle aged or older white man marrying a younger Filipina bride. Not a lot of shenanigans or gang entries going on there, and it's not a high risk country for visa fraud. While the US can theoretically ask for more information if they choose to, they really are just collecting basic data from you, and want to know the names and dates of births of people applying at this point, and make sure your marriage certificate is valid before passing you on to be processed. Where you really need to have strong evidence proving a true relationship is with a fiance visa. That said, I think I included a copy of our last boarding passes together showing we visited recently, and considered that as proof of the ongoing relationship. Fun fact: A couple of years ago my credit card company was offering a $50 bonus if I ordered another card for someone in my household. I gave them my dog's name, and to this day, he has a working credit card. US immigration knows which types of proof are meaningful and which are not. If you're paying $1,000 for a ticket, flying 20 hours in a plane and spending a week with her, that's pretty strong evidence. If she and my dog both have similar looking pieces of plastic that were issued for free, that means absolutely nothing. The investigators have seen lots of fraud, and they know which types of evidence is meaningful and real, and which is weak and does not demonstrate any true relationship. If you really need to give your wife a way to spend money drawn on an American bank, you can get a credit card with her name on it (huge red flag personally) but printing her name on a plastic card as some type of "proof" of your relationship is a waste of time. Also, don't overthink the I-130. It's a basic government form. We spent 2 days on it. Day one I read and saw "honey I'm going to need a copy of your passport and the full names and places of birth of your parents." Couple of days later I filled everything in and submitted. Get it in and then you have a year to worry about the next steps. If you are delaying because of the name, apply in whatever name is currently on her ID documents and it can be changed to your married name at the next step a year later (according to what I've read here).

I'm just a few months ahead of you and can tell you that in all the pointless WAITING you have ahead of you, you will probably read enough here and eventually figure out most of your questions. One big complaint I have with VJ is some of the guides are outdated and there are far too few stickies (the Philippines thread should DEFINITELY have a thread about Report Of Marriage and the course and CFO stamp your spouse will need to exit the country--she will NOT be allowed to leave the Philippines without this once she gets a US visa in her passport! I don't even see the point of a specific Phl thread if it's not gonna include stuff like that!) My advice is get the I-130 filed ASAP and then start to work on the other issues. Your I-130 will likely sit in a pile somewhere for a year until anyone even touches it, and only then does the US Gov't start doing anything about your application (technically it's just a petition / waiting mechanism for your actual later visa application. Get it in TOMORROW!). As for the name change, personally what I would do is file using her married name (her current first name, current last name, your last name). I did NOT do this on form I-130 because we had zero documents showing that name (including the Utah marriage certificate) and that seemed weird to do, but I've read here that you can either do that OR use the new married name on the NEXT form (DS260, about a year later) regardless of how you filled out the I-130 so that's what I plan on doing. Other than her taking your last name, I would leave any other name changes alone for now (her voluntarily wanting a different name than the one her parents gave her is a whole other can of worms that should be separated from her immigration process). The next step (take your time, no rush, it took us 6 months to collect everything) is to gather the documents for the Report of Marriage to the Philippine Consulate in Utah. I don't know why this isn't a sticky here, but your wife will HAVE to report the marriage to PHL gov't before she is allowed to leave the Philippines so make sure you A) Send your Utah marriage certificate to get Apostilled by the Lt Gov of Utah, and B) start collecting the required docs like your birth certificate and have your wife do the same and allow 6 weeks for her to mail them to you (or go visit her). This was a huge packet, that was more paperwork than the US visa! But it's not hard. And I'm not worried at all about the processing time, it's just something you want to do in advance of your US interview. I think you are overthinking the name stuff. My wife is using whatever name is on her ID, and then once we get the Report of Marriage back we will get a new Phl Passport with my last name (costs like $15). I guess at that point we would USE her last name, but there won't be much more USING to be done (buy the plane ticket in that name I guess?) Basically K.I.S.S. and don't create problems where you don't need to. Do only what is required. 6.1 You don't need Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR) for the USA at all. You need it for Philippines authorities only. USA is land of divorce, they don't care if your spouse has been married before or not! 7.3 The only original document you send is Apostilled marriage certificate and one notarized application form (plus copies of everything--there is a printed cover letter on the SF Consulate website explaining it all). 7.4 Apostille stamp is something placed on your marriage certificate by the Utah Lt Governor, for a fee. Mail him your certificate, a month later you get back the red apostille stamp on it. 7.5 Maybe I got lucky, but mine was approved without both parties signing. The instructions are unclear. If you can PM me I have a suggestion though. Getting the Phl notary was overpriced and done incorrectly anyway. 8.1 Yeah we are anticipating 2 years total. It's absolutely infuriating and the US should be embarrassed, but it is what it is. Personally what we did was: visiting her family, visiting her in the PHL, visiting her in a third country (Taiwan, Japan), doing a prenuptial photo session and formal engagement & wedding ceremony there (the Utah event we considered a civil union that we did not consummate, I later did official proposal and all that), and planning the wedding there can be fun and a GREAT way to stretch out the time. My other friend who did this went abroad and lived with his wife during the waiting (and had a baby and a first birthday before he even got an interview). The bottom line is it is not as overwhelming as it seems, just get the I-130 form filed NOW. There is so much waiting time that you can easily prepare the next steps in advance, and doing them one by one it's pretty simple as long as you don't have any out of the ordinary situations (like you are unemployed or something). Oh the other thing that is a huge can of worms is the US income tax situation. The US gov't has made it annoyingly difficult to apply for a tax ID # which your wife needs, which I've done by mail in the past, but is now an extremely obtuse process, and we went on several wild goose chases trying to follow their rules using supposed "IRS acceptance agents" who knew nothing about what we were attempting to do (apparently there is one guy in Clark who can do it). The bottom line is we settled on filing income taxes "married filing separately" and then later when the wife gets here I get the joy of re-doing up to 3 years of old tax returns as "married filing jointly" but I will get several thousand dollars back from Uncle Sam then! The only good thing about the long wait is you get a giant tax break beginning the year you marry!

FYI to anyone considering this, after checking basically every country in the VisaJourney Timeline search, there is not a single country with a significant shorter wait time from NOA2 to visa issued vs. Philippines (I believe Japan was maybe a couple of months faster but definitely not worth relocating for). I ignored countries like Monaco that did not have a sufficient number of cases to form an opinion. On the bright side, that means PHL is not really any worse than any other country for immigration waits. Or to put it another way, that all American consulates abroad are equally slow I was surprised at how long the wait was in Mexico, which we strongly considered relocating to.

I'm confused. If 1) spouse is a resident of a third country (Philippine citizen but working abroad for a cruise line in Singapore, where we are awaiting a job offer) there is no option to interview there? She must return home to PHL? Or 2) the other option would be us moving to Mexico now and waiting until approval. Are you saying this isn't allowed? I'm asking what is the process for informing the US gov't of the new residency and the best time to relocate if we chose option 2. If Mexico grants residency and we choose to wait out the process there why wouldn't it be allowed to interview in Mexico City? We would be physically closer to new home, could spend more time together, and historically have a shorter wait for interview since Manila is facing a severe backlog. I know of 2 couples who have temporarily lived in Mexico while processing US immigration docs (and one who did so using DCF filing when that was allowed). This is a fairly common practice AFAIK.

What is the process for interviewing in a different country and when is the best time of the process to relocate and initiate this? Checking the timelines here is not very encouraging... Mexico is showing around 1 year from NOA2 to interview date. Taiwan varies a lot at 3-11 months. It appears waiting up to a year for interview is the "new normal" of our broken immigration system. Might be better to just stick with Manila but it's good to know the options.

I have not done this but my only advice would be: A) Consider your girl travel to any country first, so she has proof of tourism in her passport (Taiwan is visa free and my PH partner just got visa approval for a trip to Japan for her first trip out of the country). Japan visa was pretty easy, needed a bunch of documents from me and around 1500 PHP fee with 1 week processing time. The main fear immigration authorities have is someone is coming to stay long term and work while unauthorized. B) Have heard from multiple sources that Netherlands is a good choice. I would also look in to whether Spain is a good option, considering the Spanish ties to PH. I do believe you must enter on the country that issued you a visa (or be prepared to prove that you will be heading there and spending most of your time there if you enter via another EU country). Yes it's a bit of a pain, but it's a walk in the park compared to the USA's system Generally if you follow all the steps you should be approved.

If one of you is a US Citizen, consider marrying online via Utah online weddings. From that point on you are already legally married in the eyes of the US, and you can apply for spousal visa CR-1.

FYI K1 visa is fiance visa. Marriage visa is CR1. As someone stated above CR1 is typically better/faster/cheaper (though speed is about the same for both). But be clear which path you are taking before you start it, as it is a long road (~2 years).

Philippines is taking around 1 year from NOA2 approval to interview date. Is it possible to select another country for the visa interview? Is residency required in that country? If not, I would select something close by SEA, easy to travel to. If so, spouse may soon be working abroad, and could either select that country or we would relocate to Mexico while waiting approval. What is the process and any issues/delays with doing this? (Bonus is that we would avoid the troublesome TB test in Manila!) Our status is filed for spousal visa last year and we are nearing NOA2 approval date (anticipated in the next couple of months).

I'm sending all the documents via email to the travel agency. Partner had good idea of putting a password on the tax return. So if the email isn't deleted or file gets in the wrong hands at a later date, it cannot be easily opened. She is going to the agency today to give them the password to the docs I emailed. Mac Preview allows one to easily set a simple password for a pdf file.

I'm planning a trip with my Filipina partner to Tokyo, Japan, which sadly requires a visa for PH citizens. Instead of applying at the embassy, it appears you need to apply through a short list of accredited tour agencies (there are 3 in Cebu). The documents they need from the trip sponsor (me) include bank account statement, income tax return, and government ID. My concern is that I don't generally provide all 3 information points: Government ID #, bank account #, and date of birth, to *anyone* in my country (I don't think I've given anyone a bank account statement ever, except other banks) and feel a bit wary about providing this to a PH tour agency. I'm not terribly worried about ID theft, other than just having typical old school American privacy concerns about providing sensitive information needlessly, particularly considering how much one could do with all 3 of those matching informations. I suppose the entire idea of an accredited tour agency is one trusted by foreign governments for discretion and accuracy, but it still makes me a bit uncomfortable, especially after a recent trip to Phillippines and Turkey ended up in some fraudulent charges on my international bank card (that I only used at hotels and ATMs) (Schwabb Bank Fraud department was super) Has anyone done this? Filipinos are generally honest people but the potential for large fraud here is worrysome. I routinely deal with financial information at my job, and I'm sure these workers see these documents every day, so perhaps I'm worrying too much, but it's a rather onerous requirement for Japan to impose. I'm also worried about the Filipino authorities preventing my partner from leaving the country for the first time under the new September 2023 immigration rules. And maybe the worrying about the travel agency is moot because Filipino Immigration might demand those same documents at the departure desk anyway.

Hard to believe this post is over a year old. It seems the final interview step being broken is not a temporary problem. Are citizens required to do the embassy interview in their country of nationality? Of residency? Is it possible to schedule it for a nearby country ( I would pick Taiwan due to ease of travel there but I don’t think they have relations with the US so maybe another Asian country?) filipina partner is currently applying for crew work abroad so she may be able to prove residency outside PHL soon if that makes a difference. Just hoping to head this problem off in advance. It’s ridiculous to have to “expedite” a case or contact my congresscritter. Another possibility would be both of us relocating to Mexico once we get the second Notice Of Action letter. Another benefit would be avoiding St Luke’s X-ray machine !

Allow them some time to process. It hasn't even been a month yet. Can you even be sure they have received your letter in the mail yet?

Actually the opposite--the CR1/IR1 is far simpler, cheaper, and generally faster than the K-1. The K-1 will cost you many hundreds of dollars more (possibly thousands with pending fee increases), not to mention additional paperwork filings, etc. and your marriage will be in a sort of grey zone until the US gov't is confident it's going to last (you have to go to interviews proving it's a legit marriage once back in the USA, file a bunch more documents, pay hundreds in fees for each one, etc.) versus the CR1/IR1 which is simpler, faster, easier, requires less documentation, and upon entry to the USA your foreign bride has all the benefits an American spouse has (except voting). Plus it's the general consensus of the forum that CR1 is superior, as long as you are ready to commit to marriage. I was in the same boat as you this time last year (even asked my Filipina gf who I got to know very well during covid-19 lockdowns if she would do the online marriage before our first physical meeting but she was reluctant). We treated the online Utah ceremony as a civil union, applied for the visa, and then later travelled there for the romantic proposal and planning of a ceremony for her friends and family to enjoy. Then an additional trip back for the ceremony. If you do it this way, then the 2 year waiting period is slightly more manageable because you have mini-goalposts spread out during the process instead of just years helplessly waiting for a bureaucrat to process your file. Note that you have to be together DURING OR AFTER the Utah wedding BEFORE you can file for a US spousal visa, so if you don't complete the Utah wedding while you are both together on this trip, you will need to visit her again before you can start the long US visa application process (you will need passport stamps to show physical presence together). By the way if you do the Utah wedding option, I HIGHLY recommend Rev Chris at Universal Heart Ministry. I wasn't expecting an emotional event, just checking boxes for a bureaucratic form, but he made the event extra special and followed up with a very nice card for something absurd like $50. Just remember at some point you have to register your marriage with Philippine authorities (it's been a year and we still haven't started) and otherwise just follow the guides here. Fully remote is fine, you just have to be physically together as man and wife once, so visit either DURING or AFTER the Utah ceremony. Finally, ignore the occasional pessimism on the forum (people accusing you of fraud, people defending the US government's ridiculous immigration system, etc.); it's actually a superb resource. Best of luck to you!

The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) requirements are not easy to understand and there seem to be no official websites that discuss how it works (there is cfo.ph which is supposedly the official government site but you can only link directly to a couple of specific pages there (item 3 below), with no general website.). Since it's so relevant to the Philippine forum, perhaps it warrants a sticky? My situation: American husband waiting for Philippine wife's US visa. Getting the CFO certificate seems to require (for trip to the USA): 1) valid visa 2) a copy of my passport 3) completion of a pre departure seminar (the forums here seem to indicate they are in person only, but the CFO website has a site to view the videos online with no mention of in person requirements) Online Pre-Departure Orientation Seminar (PDOS) – for Filipino Emigrants to the United States of America (USA) (cfo.net.ph) 4) Report of Marriage Abroad (ROM) Step 4 requires a lot of other steps. I must first mail our marriage certificate to have it "apostilled" and returned to me. Then wife must mail me her PH birth certificate, which I mail along with mine and the apostilled marriage certificate, in quadruplicate, to the PH Consulate in the USA, and then eventually receive a Report of Marriage Abroad (ROM) which the Philippine authorities will ask for if they see a US VISA in her passport. A lot of paperwork, a bunch of fees, but I will do it if I absolutely have to. Is the above correct? Is step 4 absolutely necessary for her to leave for the USA? We are considering a trip to Taiwan next month. It seems she needs government permission to leave the Philippines so this may also require CFO certificate, particularly if she mentions she is flying abroad to visit her foreign husband (also will they harass her about not yet registering in the Philippines as married? Should she say husband or fiance? Threads here say you are "single" in Philippines until you record your marriage with the Statistics Office.) How difficult is this going to be? Is she still going to need a copy of my passport, completion of the seminar, etc.? Should she even mention me at all? This will be a short week long trip. Finally, I have read in a thread here that Does this mean a CFO certificate is good for multiple trips? Once we obtain a CFO certificate for a meeting in Taiwan can that be used on future trips abroad? Can it be used for her emigration flight to America?