MANILA VJ THREAD

[jorel&meme 0]

hey swellington! thank you very much!

[25ford 0]

We are now done with the CFO. Trying to find a way to buy airline tickets now. One Travel did not help. It seems they keep making bids that the airlines say are too low and will not cooperate. Trying TFI tours now. Philippine airlines wil not sell tickets if the cardholder is not in the travel party. I might have to get the money to her and let her buy the tickets.

[phirephly 0]

We've run aground while trying to gather documents. We have two that we need still:

-- Birth certificate

-- Annulment

For the bc, we had to do the thing where we take the city hall copy to the nso, now we've been waiting for a long time for the nso to make their version of it or whatever. Is there a way to get a status on this or get things moved along? We've emailed them a few times already and we're not getting any sort of response back - not even "not done yet" types. So as of now, we have nothing to present to the embassy. It was initially indicated to us that this would take a week. It's been a few weeks now.

For the annulment decree, we have the original, but I would much much prefer to give them something like a certified copy in case they lose it or damage it, etc since the paper is so thin. Where do we go to get a certified copy of the decree, what is the process for doing it? We don't have any idea where to start on this and she's not even sure it's possible. Anyone know if we can do this, and if so, how it would be done?

Thanks! ttyl,

mich

[Pinay Wife 47]

Phirephly, your fiancee can apply for BC on-line at www.ecensus.com.ph

The BC will be delivered to her house in 3-5 working days after she pays the fee at the bank.

Go to the court that issued the annulment decree to get certified true copies.

Edited June 5, 2006 by PatientlyWaiting

[phirephly 0]

Phirephly, your fiancee can apply for BC on-line at www.ecensus.com.ph

The BC will be delivered to her house in 3-5 working days after she pays the fee at the bank.

Go to the court that issued the annulment decree to get certified true copies.

thanks for your reply!

however, we can't get the bc from ecensus yet because it's not yet converted at the nso. last time we tried to order from ecensus, they told her that she hadn't been born. from what i understand, ecensus gets the certs from the nso (like our marriage cert). nso didn't have her bc, just the city hall of the city where she was born. so she had to go there, get the bc from them, then have a courier deliver the bc to the nso. now she's just waiting for them to convert it from the city one to the nso one. this conversion was supposed to be done in a few days, but it's been a few weeks now and they haven't contacted her and won't even reply to her emails. if we order through ecensus and it's not there, we just lose our money. she doesn't want to go there yet 'cause it's far away and she's concerned they'll just tell her nothing. so i was hoping there's a way to push it forward or a more direct email address for her to email to get an actual response back (i'm not sure what address she's emailing now). when we finally get all that settled, then we can order from ecensus. do you know how to move things along to that point a little faster? hopefully...

ok, the court will do this? great. that's kinda what i was thinking, but she didn't seem so sure, so i wanted to find someone that had already done it so i could properly reassure her to do it... are there forms/fees associated with that? probably, huh? do you recall what they were? would she just talk to a clerk at the court or something then? ttyl,

mich

[Pinay Wife 47]

x x x nso didn't have her bc, just the city hall of the city where she was born. so she had to go there, get the bc from them, then have a courier deliver the bc to the nso. x x x when we finally get all that settled, then we can order from ecensus. do you know how to move things along to that point a little faster? hopefully...

ok, the court will do this? great. that's kinda what i was thinking, but she didn't seem so sure, so i wanted to find someone that had already done it so i could properly reassure her to do it... are there forms/fees associated with that? probably, huh? do you recall what they were? would she just talk to a clerk at the court or something then? ttyl,

mich

Hi Phirephly,

It will take time if your wife does not have a BC record with the NSO. The process takes months. The Local Civil Registrar (LCR) of the city where your wife was born will send a copy of her BC to NSO then NSO sends it back to LCR, then back to NSO again. The long wait happens because both the LCR and NSO would wait until they have enough documents gathered before sending them to the courier (they want to save on courier expenses). The only way to speed things up is if your wife knows someone from the LCR and NSO who would take the time to check on her papers and if she offered to pay the courier fees between LCR and NSO.

As for the certified copies, I brought with me a copy of my annulment papers to the Branch Clerk at the court that decided my case. The Branch Clerk then took out my case record from their files and made photocopies of the documents from their case folder and he certified them as true copies.

I only paid for the cost of photocopying and a little fee. I think I spent less than P500.00 for 3 copies each of the following:

1) Decision

2) Certifificate of Finality

3) Certification

Hope this helps.

[phirephly 0]

x x x nso didn't have her bc, just the city hall of the city where she was born. so she had to go there, get the bc from them, then have a courier deliver the bc to the nso. x x x when we finally get all that settled, then we can order from ecensus. do you know how to move things along to that point a little faster? hopefully...

ok, the court will do this? great. that's kinda what i was thinking, but she didn't seem so sure, so i wanted to find someone that had already done it so i could properly reassure her to do it... are there forms/fees associated with that? probably, huh? do you recall what they were? would she just talk to a clerk at the court or something then? ttyl,

mich

Hi Phirephly,

It will take time if your wife does not have a BC record with the NSO. The process takes months. The Local Civil Registrar (LCR) of the city where your wife was born will send a copy of her BC to NSO then NSO sends it back to LCR, then back to NSO again. The long wait happens because both the LCR and NSO would wait until they have enough documents gathered before sending them to the courier (they want to save on courier expenses). The only way to speed things up is if your wife knows someone from the LCR and NSO who would take the time to check on her papers and if she offered to pay the courier fees between LCR and NSO.

As for the certified copies, I brought with me a copy of my annulment papers to the Branch Clerk at the court that decided my case. The Branch Clerk then took out my case record from their files and made photocopies of the documents from their case folder and he certified them as true copies.

I only paid for the cost of photocopying and a little fee. I think I spent less than P500.00 for 3 copies each of the following:

1) Decision

2) Certifificate of Finality

3) Certification

Hope this helps.

yes, very helpful patientlywaiting, thank you i hope it's helpful to others too... don't want to be greedy. I don't think we knew how many steps there were to sending it back and forth over and over again. she did pay to have a courier take it from the LCR to the NSO the first time. So I guess now it's stuck in that limbo state of subsequent transfers. I hope it's not too many months... our NOA2 expires in september. I'll have to see what she thinks about getting more involved in the process to help courier things along. IF they would at least reply to her, then we could try to get in there and get more involved... at least catch it on one end or the other and speed it along.

That's great info about the annulment documents. Sounds like it's pretty quick, easy, cheap, and painless (especially compared to the bc ). Thanks for your help! I'll make sure I pass the info to her. ttyl,

mich

[phirephly 0]

New Interview list Posted!

http://philippines.usembassy.gov/wwwfvisa.pdf

It goes up to about MNL2006635XXX ttyl,

mich

[Pinay Wife 47]

x x x ... our NOA2 expires in september.

mich

Phirephly, the validity of NOA2 is automatically extended by the embassy.

[windchaser_4 0]

Trust me it takes months for the BC to get corrected/done, also when they send it back from the NSO in Manila to the LR they won't send it 24 hour mail even if you offer to pay for it. It's just the normal 1-2 weeks snail mail. From the LR to the NSO in Manila they send it 24 hours.

Added a link to list the NSO offices in Manila.

http://www.census.gov.ph/data/aboutnso/centralofcs.html

Not sure if it's the one you guys need but my fiancee used the telephone number 011-63-2-713-70-63 for the NSO in Manila who is correcting her BC, I would guess it's the same Department. You can also ask the LR for a phone number to the NSO. E-mails are a waste of time. They ask for the number of your BC when you call also. It's been 3 months for us already and it will be one month more according to the NSO. They really take so long to do a simple request.

You are also better off if you need more than one copy to ask them to send you a couple more when they get it done, It's cheaper and faster IMO.

Edited June 16, 2006 by windchaser_4

[phirephly 0]

hi windchaser, thanks for your reply (I'm assuming it's for me ). Yeah... I'm getting a bit annoyed with myself that I didn't think to ask her to get these things done earlier - especially when we were waiting for months for the petition to get approved. Yes, this is pretty frustrating that all we want is a simple bc and it's taking forever just to prove that she's been born! Thanks for the contact number, we may have to start pounding on that. Yeah, as far as I can tell, we haven't received any useful email response from them yet.

What do you mean that we should ask for multiple copies at the same time? We were planning to just go through ecensus (using the same addy that patientlywaiting provided above) when the bc is *finally* at the NSO. From what I understand, you can order multiple copies of documents there. Is that incorrect? Is there some other way that we should be ordering our documents so that we can order them in "bulk"? Thanks and ttyl,

mich

Trust me it takes months for the BC to get corrected/done, also when they send it back from the NSO in Manila to the LR they won't send it 24 hour mail even if you offer to pay for it. It's just the normal 1-2 weeks snail mail. From the LR to the NSO in Manila they send it 24 hours.

Added a link to list the NSO offices in Manila.

http://www.census.gov.ph/data/aboutnso/centralofcs.html

Not sure if it's the one you guys need but my fiancee used the telephone number 011-63-2-713-70-63 for the NSO in Manila who is correcting her BC, I would guess it's the same Department. You can also ask the LR for a phone number to the NSO. E-mails are a waste of time. They ask for the number of your BC when you call also. It's been 3 months for us already and it will be one month more according to the NSO. They really take so long to do a simple request.

You are also better off if you need more than one copy to ask them to send you a couple more when they get it done, It's cheaper and faster IMO.

[windchaser_4 0]

What do you mean that we should ask for multiple copies at the same time? We were planning to just go through ecensus (using the same addy that patientlywaiting provided above) when the bc is *finally* at the NSO. From what I understand, you can order multiple copies of documents there. Is that incorrect? Is there some other way that we should be ordering our documents so that we can order them in "bulk"? Thanks and ttyl,

mich

What i mean is you can ask the LR and pay for 2 or 3 copies from the LR/NSO, when they get done making a BC they would send you the others along with the one you applied for. All on NSO paper, least thats what we did. All the BC are made by the NSO so either way you would still be going thru them on the eCensus site. We payed P120 each i think. Just saves some time and if you were going to use the ECensus site with your credit card it will save you money to do it thru the LR as well, I think it's 20 bucks a copy for a US Citizen thru the Census site.

It's up to you, just a suggestion. Either way it will get done the right way.

[phirephly 0]

okey dokey. thanks! yeah, i was definitely going to have her do it there 'cause i guess she can use an ATM (BPI? not sure) and then we don't have to pay that extra $20 and all those other fees. We noticed that fun stuff before. Yikes. Plus plus plus. That's why we're going to get a bunch so we have ones to keep when she comes here too - not even going to hassle with that anymore when she's finally here. ttyl,

mich

What do you mean that we should ask for multiple copies at the same time? We were planning to just go through ecensus (using the same addy that patientlywaiting provided above) when the bc is *finally* at the NSO. From what I understand, you can order multiple copies of documents there. Is that incorrect? Is there some other way that we should be ordering our documents so that we can order them in "bulk"? Thanks and ttyl,

mich

What i mean is you can ask the LR and pay for 2 or 3 copies from the LR/NSO, when they get done making a BC they would send you the others along with the one you applied for. All on NSO paper, least thats what we did. All the BC are made by the NSO so either way you would still be going thru them on the eCensus site. We payed P120 each i think. Just saves some time and if you were going to use the ECensus site with your credit card it will save you money to do it thru the LR as well, I think it's 20 bucks a copy for a US Citizen thru the Census site.

It's up to you, just a suggestion. Either way it will get done the right way.