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TheResistance

Another Bullet Scam

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Philippines
Timeline

I mentioned how this bothered me months ago.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/573599-the-manila-airport-bullet-scam/

It happened several more times to people since. Now with my fiancee heading out to the airport in less than 24h, an elderly couple, one in a wheelchair, were marked with the scam. Seriously????

http://loyaltylobby.com/2016/04/20/whine-wednesday-bullet-scam-at-manila-airport-still-going-strong-even-disabled-seniors-become-victims

This world filled with too much evil.

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Filed: F-2A Visa Country: Philippines
Timeline

I saw that as well as told my wife and daughters to keep a watchful eye with their bags. Keep us posted how your fiancée's trip went. Safe travels!

iUhVm4.png

-=MY FAMILY'S VISAJOURNEY=-

08/27/14- POE:LAX

09/05/14- Rec'd SSN in mail

09/15/14- ELIS status chaged to OPTIMIZED

09/23/14- ELIS status CLOSED

09/26/14- GC received

F2A VISAS FOR WIFE & 2 DAUGHTERS LIFE IN THE USA

10/14/14- I-130 sent to Chicago Lockbox 05/29/16- POE:JFK

10/17/14- Packet received 06/06/16- SSNs received

10/22/14- NOA 1 & routed to VSC

12/03/14- NOA 2 & routed to NVC (PD 10/17/14)

06/29/15- NVC letter received with Case # & IIN

06/30/15- Agent appointed via phone

07/01/15- Email received re:Choice of Agent

07/12/15- AOS & IV fee paid

08/14/15- AOS papers mailed

09/03/15- DS 260 submitted

09/18/15- Civil documents submitted to NVC

11/09/15- Received checklist re:NBI clearance

11/12/15- NBI clearances submitted

12/30/15- CASE COMPLETE!!!! :dance:

02/27/16- Received interview letter via email

03/31/16- Medical Day 1-COMPLETED

04/01/16- Medical Day 2-PASSED!!! :dance:

04/05/16- USEM Interview=221G re:NBI clearance-addition of misspelled name in marriage certificate as an AKA for wife :shocked:

04/19/16- Mailed new NBI clearance with AKA via 2GO

04/21/16- 2GO document out for delivery to USEM

04/22/16- Case touched, still AP

04/27/16- CEAC status changed ISSUED :dancing:

04/30/16- Visas on hand!!!; ELIS fees paid

05/03/16- CFO done: Immigrant Data Summary detached in all visa packets :ranting:

05/06/16- Visa packets and passports returned to USEM via 2GO

05/10/16- Visa packets received at USEM

05/13/16- Resealed visa packets received

05/29/16- POE: JFK

Worrying is wasting energy on the things that you can't control, leave everything in God's hand.

THINK LESS, PRAY MORE.

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Philippines
Timeline

I will. She has two luggage bags with no pockets, locked with TSA locks. Purse and personal item. She be keeping her eye on everything as she can.

I will post back here if she has an incidents, or hears of anything while there.

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Filed: AOS (pnd) Country: Philippines
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We cannot really tell who will fall prey of this heartless individuals! Very sad for the elderly couple.

Just use luggage with no pockets or use luggage sleeves (these are available in the malls) or simply tape pockets with packaging tapes. These thing happens during the xray process of the luggage. Be extra careful that no one other than you touch your bags, keep those eyes on your bags always. I was travelling last week and totally forgot about all the news last year, now here we go again.

AOS/ AED/ AP:

(California Service Center, Chula Vista, San Diego, CA)

Filed: Aug 29

Receipt Date: Sept 2

NOA 1 Date: Sept 12 (received text/email)

NOA 1 copy rcvd: Sept 16

Biometrics Notice Date: Sept 17, received Sept 24

Biometrics Sched: Oct 5

Successful walk-in: Sept 26

Oct 13- Case ready to be scheduled for interview

EAD/AP approved - Nov. 1/2 / Received EAD/ AP Combo Card- Nov. 15

50days from NOA1/ 64 days from receipt date.

January 30-  USCIS Ap update, Interview sched on March 3, 2017

Jan 31 - received USCIS letter/ Notice for interview 

March 3- Interview, approved on the Spot

March 8 - received GC

Dec 2018 - To file ROC

 

My Blogs:

I-129F Petition Process

Medical Requirements

Medical Exam Experience

US Embassy Manila K1/K2 Interview Preparation Requirements and Instructions

Interview (K1 with 2 K2s)

CFO Guidance and Counseling (applicable to applicant from Philippines only)

My K1 Visa Journey

8 August 2015 - Sent I-129F Packet thru USPS

17 August 2015 - I -797C Notice date

20 August 2015 - Received printed copy of NOA1 dated Aug 17.

2 September 2015 - APPROVED! (14 working days from receipt date)

Dec. 21-22 - Medical DONE!

Jan 11, 2016 - Interview- APPROVED!

Jan 15 - Visa ISSUED!

Jan 21 - VISA ON HAND! (8 working days from interview)

March 21 - CFO / PDOS for K2s

June 1, 2016 - POE

July 18, 2016 - Married

I am his and he is mine from this day until the end of my days..

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Filed: Other Country: Philippines
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Most Filipinos I met were nice but at least a couple of them scammed me on my trip to Cebu. From what I understand Manila is worse. When my fiance goes there I am telling her to take taxi everywhere and stay in nice hotel to avoid bad area.

But overall even though I'm no expert on my one trip to your country I found the people hard working, morale, and well worth respecting.

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Filed: Timeline

Haha take a taxi... a few taxi rides in Manila, I swore I would wake up in a alley missing a kidney.

It's easy to get inside of luggage. Just take a pen or nail and push it through the zipper of the luggage. The zipper will split apart and open. Giving access to the inside of the bag. Then even if the zipper pulls are locked together you can pull them over the open part and reseal the bag.

AOS Filed : July 12
NoA Date : July 29
Bio. Appt. : Aug 11
RFE for AOS Sept 6
RFE response Sept 13
RFE #2 NOV 5 (114 days)
RFE hardcopy arrived Nov 9 2016

Had 3025 transcribed by a civil surgeon.
Mailed back to uscis
127 days=485 . . 89 days=EAD
Nov 16 2016
Nov 27 New Card Being Produced

Nov 28 Approved

Dec 2 Card mailed

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Filed: Other Country: Philippines
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All the Philippines is managing to do with how they handle these "bullet scams" is make the gubermint look like bigger idiots... if that is possible.

Hank

"Chance Favors The Prepared Mind"

 

Picture

 

“LET’S GO BRANDON!”

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Philippines
Timeline

Most Filipinos I met were nice but at least a couple of them scammed me on my trip to Cebu. From what I understand Manila is worse. When my fiance goes there I am telling her to take taxi everywhere and stay in nice hotel to avoid bad area.

But overall even though I'm no expert on my one trip to your country I found the people hard working, morale, and well worth respecting.

My fiancee says Grab or Uber would be easier and cheaper, because the taxis kept trying to rip her and her friends off and be spending time arguing with them. If you need more info, let me know and I will get it out from her.

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Philippines
Timeline

An update.. my fiancee got here safely with no immigration or customs, or scams to interfere. She arrived here last night. Manila to Japan to Detroit, MI, arriving in Raleigh, NC. Time to get her those Sonic Drive-in corn dogs.

She did tell people in the Manila airport who wanted to "help" with her bags to go away. Yea, do not mess with her. She did what she had to in order to avoid someone touching her stuff, and demanding money for "helping" anyway, even if they were to just help.

Edited by TheResistance
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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Philippines
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Haha take a taxi... a few taxi rides in Manila, I swore I would wake up in a alley missing a kidney.

It's easy to get inside of luggage. Just take a pen or nail and push it through the zipper of the luggage. The zipper will split apart and open. Giving access to the inside of the bag. Then even if the zipper pulls are locked together you can pull them over the open part and reseal the bag.

Indeed. Also the luggage itself, if a fabric, easy to poke it and slip something into a small hole. She got plastic, metal ones that would be more evident if anyone would try and damage it.

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Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Philippines
Timeline

It isn't an isolated case of a few bad apples. Philippine culture is permeated with bad character. The USA has been busy since I was born slaughtering people all over the globe, so this is not to say that the USA is some moral paragon. The topic of this thread is Philippines, and specifically these kinds of predatory behaviors.

In the 1950's Philippines was at or near the top in SE Asia in numerous social indices like per capita income and education. Now, they are at the bottom. Look at Singapore, who was behind them at the time by some measures. Koreans came to Philippines for better work. Now Singapore is top in the world for education and nearly the top in per capita income. Korea is not far behind. The average IQ is 108 in Singapore, and in Korea 106 compared to Philippines at 86. Japan was already ahead, and just widened the lead by a lot. Their countries sparkling clean compared to the ghastly pollution in the Philippines. Filipinos are going by the hundreds of thousands to such countries in order to work as menial staff - and sending the money home because these are top jobs for Filipinos.

Philippines is ranked as a world leader in corruption and murdered journalists. Those two are closely related. If you report corruption, you'll be murdered. If you take bribes to write stories about things like "rescued" prostitutes, you get bribes. The prostitutes are kidnapped from the bars they work in by the busload, taken to a military base, held for ransom, and returned to work the next day after the ransom is paid. It is the police who are involved in human trafficking: kidnap for extortion, and then it is reported as "rescuing" human trafficking victims so they can get moved up on the US State Department list for anti-trafficking efforts. Human trafficking of prostitutes, by the police, in the name of fighting human trafficking. Try writing an article about that in the Philippines. You will be killed.

The airport employees cannot do this bullet scam without the administrative officials not only knowing about it, but approving. It would end tomorrow if they wanted. All they need is CCTV that works and an administration who wants it stopped. The mayor of Labangan and three others were murdered at the airport just over two years ago. They did not catch it on the CCTV cameras because they weren't working. Two years afterwards, and they can't even stop their employees from planting bullets in passenger luggage.

Despite being the laughingstock of the world in so many ways, Filipinos are inculcated from birth with "Filipino Pride". Children are lavished with ostentatious birthday parties with a giant poster of themselves, parents borrowing money to pay for it all - and there isn't a single piece of paper in the home or set of pencils/pens/markers to write and draw with. We can buy 5,000 pieces of paper and three dozen pens for less than an impoverished family spends on a birthday party. Went to kindergarten today? Let's have a graduation ceremony! National narcissism - heaping praise upon ourselves without accomplishment.

The last time Philippines took an international test, in 2003, their 8th graders finished 41st and 42nd out of 45 countries in math and science. Saudi Arabia tested higher in science, which, if you know anything about them is just too incredible to believe. That was over a decade ago and at about the same time less than 1% of Filipino students passed the High School Readiness exam at the target proficiency level. Things have gotten worse since then, despite how hard that is to believe.

Taguig is the national large-school leader at 68% mean score for elementary and 57% for secondary in 2015. The problem is that a 75% score is PASSING. So you have the national leader producing a FAILING average. This is a somewhat decent overview from a outside source (UNESCO) but frankly, there isn't enough frankness and in the face of these appalling scores we have the government sailing off into politically correct nonsense instead of reading, writing, and arithmetic:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002303/230331e.pdf

In the schools you have parties, balloons, ribbons and medals, parades - anything except study. They mirror countries like North Korea with all the mindless pomp and crowd psychology "We're so great! We're so great!" while millions starve to death. The students are not taught to think critically because the government and elites do not want critical thinking. They want mindless automatons, and the system is cranking them out my the millions.

The envy of the first world and narcissistic justification for their own poverty is aptly summed up in the expression that "Money Grows on Trees" in the first world, It is not industriousness, thrift, scholarship, self-sacrifice, etc. that make a person well off. That is, it isn't VIRTUE. Because to acknowledge so would be to point to the national character and say THAT is what needs to be changed. Not for the President. Not for the airport police. But the entire country.

What does the Philippines lead the world in besides corruption and murdered journalists? Overseas foreign workers and immigration for marriage. The receipts sent home have caused a perverse increase in the growth rate recently. It is not from capital investment and labor productivity. Philippines has a 60-40 rule on foreign investment so that dummy corporations can be set up to skim profits off anyone trying to invest in the Philippines. Government has insane regulations, permitting, and taxes in order to fully employ parasitic bureaucrats. So there is very little foreign investment in the Philippines other than that exploiting extremely cheap labor - so cheap that it justifies the corruption, bureaucracy, and taxation there.

Singapore has no such restrictions, It welcomes foreign investment, has low taxes, and gets out of their way. They were HAPPY to bring foreign companies to Singapore and have them managed by people who know what they are doing. So Singapore residents could train into such positions and gear their educational system towards high-end employment in those industries. In Philippines a high school degree is the equivalent of a grade school education there, and you can get a college degree in how to be a waitress in the Philippines.

Over 400 college programs failed to produce a SINGLE graduate who could pass their very lame Teacher Certification Exam in 2015. You read that right: NOBODY passed in these 400 + programs:

http://www.prc.gov.ph/uploaded/documents/LET0315ps.pdf

How can you have HUNDREDS of college programs without a SINGLE graduate passing the teacher certification exam?! It defies belief! But in a narcissistic culture of pride-without-accomplishment = pride-without-virtue... this is not an exception. It is the rule. They just added on two more years of schooling in the Philippines in order to get a high school degree, which are currently not worth the paper they are printed on. There is a big surge in hiring of... unqualified teachers. Before you add more years to schooling, you need to fix the national disaster in having teachers who do not even take courses in the subjects that they teach.

I love my family in the Philippines. I want to move there permanently. We have built a house. But the kidnap for ransom threat prevents us from living in it, along with all the other problems. We can't start a business there because it is essentially impossible with me being a US Citizen and the staggering quantity of paperwork and bribes involved. Everywhere I turn it is bad character. Until Filipinos look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge the problem is staring right at them, there is little hope for change.

I know, I know - "Not all Filipinos are like that". "Americans are murdering innocent people." Etc. It takes good character to admit you have a problem. Humility is good character, not pride. Despite Filipinos supposedly being so religious, and the Bible emphatically denouncing pride as a deadly sin - that is the national motto! Filipino Pride! A deadly sin!

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UGH....we are going to PI in June... :huh:

Mahalo/Salamat!

Steve and Joan
Met on Facebook 2/24/12
Met in person 6/5/12
Second visit 10/2/12
Engaged 10/3/12
NOA10/15/12
Third visit 12/10/12
Joan got her passport! 2/20/13
NOA2 4/24/13
Fourth visit 5/28/13
CFO 5/30/13
Embassy Interview APPROVED 6/6/13

Joan passed through immigration in Hawaii! She's home! 6/13/13

MARRIED 8/24/13

AOS, EAD and AP petitions sent to Chicago via Express Mail

EAD/AP Received 11/13/13

AOS Interview APPROVED 11/26/13

2-year Green Card in hand 12/5/13

ROC (I-751) sent to CSC via USPS Express Mail 8/31/15

ROC check cashed 9/4/15

ROC Biometrics 10/1/15

ROC Approval 4/6/16 (waiting for actual card)

Permanent Green Card Arrived 4/14/16
Naturalization Interview 2/22/17 APPROVED!

Oath Ceremony 3/21/17--Joan is a US Citizen!

Dual Citizenship 7/7/22 Joan is now a Dual US/Filipino Citizen!

Kayak small lagoon crop 10 72 for VJ.jpg

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