Hello!
I'm a Filipino who recently immigrated into the US last 2023. I had to leave a lot of stuff behind, namely finishing my college degree (which I'm going to be done with soon!) and my then-girlfriend, now wife. My wife and I married through a Utah remote marriage and I'm now planning to file an I-130 for her to apply through the F2A route (although I'm planning to naturalize by 2028 and get the category upgraded to IR-1 since I don't see the F2A priority date becoming current anytime before that).
I have a few questions regarding the whole process:
1. My wife and I agreed to not have her surname changed until she reaches the US with me. Thus, we're considering skipping reporting the marriage to the Philippine consulate in San Francisco since, having extensive experience with bureaucracy with the system in the Philippines. Will this decision be a non-issue when it comes to the whole process of filing her papers on the US side?
2. The relationship my wife and I share go back to 2021 where we met online, all the way up to 2023 where we formally began dating before marrying this 2024. However, my wife is under 21, also contributing to the choice to marry in the remote marriage because of the strange rule in Philippine marriage law (a spouse must obtain parental consent if they are 18-20 years old or parental advice if they are 21-24 years old). However, here in Maryland (and, in extension, Utah), the spouse must only be 18 or above to marry without parental consent. Is this also a non-issue on the US side?
3. Given everything we have above, are we all set to begin filing for her I-130, or is there something we're missing before we do so?
Thank you!
