!!**UPDATE**!!

[John+Lourdelie 28]

Ok, some of you may know that my fiancée had her interview on April 13 and was told that she was approved. Well, we waited and waited and never got notice from 2GO that her visa was being delivered. Based on other timelines we were expecting that she would have her visa by April 18th (she was staying in Manila) and be able to fly here on the 19th. How wrong we were. On April 18th I called the embassy to see if here visa had been printed. I was told that while all of her documentation was in order and her interview went well and she had in fact passed her interview, the consular officer had not yet signed off on her visa printing and was holding her visa for a reason that they were not allowed to tell me over the phone. They told me to just wait and her visa would be printed soon. Ok, so I am pissed off but I will wait a little longer. I call back on the 20th and check again. Still nothing and no movement and there is no telling when my fiancée's visa will be approved for printing. I think the CO is asleep at the wheel. Since it is the Holy Week and the embassy is closed on Thursday and Friday I decide that the only way for me to proceed is to go the the Philippines and confront them my self. I booked a flight out of Phoenix on Friday night and arrived in Manila on Sunday morning. Monday, April 25th, we went to the Embassy and again inquired about her visa. It still has not been printed and we were again told that everything was in order and there was no reason for the hold up. I asked if there was anything I could do, talk to her superior, talk to the CO, etc. She told me that I could write a letter to the CO requesting an expedite. I am thinking, ask for an expedite! It has already been 2 weeks since her interview approval. What needs to be expedited? So I write my letter basically begging the CO to send her visa for printing since I am leaving the Philippines on April 30 and want my fiancée to be on the flight with me. We leave hopeful and upset. Nothing on Tuesday on the 2GO website so Wednesday we go back to the Embassy to inquire again. They are closed. The IV unit is having training that day so there is no one there. Still nothing on the 2GO website on Wednesday. We go back to the Embassy on Thursday and viola, they tell us that her visa is out for delivery. Now if you were told that your visa was out for delivery you would think that means that the courier has it. Well, not if that is what the Embassy tells you. It means that the Embassy is getting everything together to eventually give to the courier. So we wait some more. Remember that my flight leaves on Saturday and it is Thursday. The courier does not have her visa yet. She does not have her CFO sticker yet. I do not have a plane ticket for her yet. Friday morning at about 8:30 I check the 2GO website and it says that they have her visa in the manifest. We call them and ask about delivery time. They tell us that the requested delivery location is not allowed (Robinson Mall, even though it is selectable when you setup your interview) and we have to have delivery to another location in Manila. Also it won't be delivered until Saturday. All hope is lost at this point. But then my fiancée asks if we can come down to the main office and collect her visa. They tell us that we can pick it up after 5pm. Ok, now we are onto something, but there is still the issue with the CFO stamp. The CFO office will be closed by the time we get the visa. I remember that Tahoma mentioned that there was a CFO office at NAIA so we called there and the gentleman said that he was not sure if we could get the stamp at NAIA until he looked at her documents. After collecting the visa and making sure that all the information on it was correct, we went to NAIA and attempted to find the CFO office. Everyone that we talked to pointed us in a different direction. Upstairs, downstairs, over here and there. After about an hour we finally got to the right person (CFO is inside the secure area so he had to come out to us). He looked at her docs and had her fill out the form. All of a sudden we realize that we don't have a passport photo for the CFO registration form. He tells us that it is not necessary. He takes her passport and goes away then returns with the sticker and stamp inside. Wonderful. Almost there now. We just need a ticket on the same flight was me. I ask the information desk where I can purchase a ticket for my airline and he send me over there. Nope not over there. So we ask someone else and they send us over here. Still not the right place. Another security person tells us to go to the 4th floor and it is there. So to the 4th flooor we go even though that seems a little odd to me. Well it is not there either. That is the airline flight operations. The man there is nice and tells us that you can not buy a ticket at the airport. I am shocked. You can not buy a plane ticket at the airport? How ridiculous!!! He give us the number to call for reservations. When we get back to the hotel. I call and the reservation desk is closed from 6:30pm till 9:00pm. I wait and call back at 9:15 and finally after all that has happened get a reservation on my flights with a seat next to me for my fiancée. Just need to print the confirmation at the hotel and it is done. She tells me to be sure that we are at the the airport 3 hours before the flight departure time. I am thinking, 3 hours. That is pretty early, but it is needed. Any less and we might have missed the flight.

We arrived POE Honolulu on 30 April 2011. It took about 45 minutes to clear immigration and customs. There were no problems at all. Very smooth. Arrived in Phoenix, Arizona at just after midnight on May 1, 2011.

Thanks to all that helped during this portion of our process. Now onto Marriage, AOS, AP, and EAD. The journey continues. Just hope it gets a little smoother from here.

:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:

John and Lourdelie

[Charles-n-Erica 2]

Wow! That is quite some story! Glad it all worked out for you in the end!!

Where was the 2Go main office? I might just try to pick up there also.

[lee&jeniebee 23]

Ok, some of you may know that my fiancée had her interview on April 13 and was told that she was approved. Well, we waited and waited and never got notice from 2GO that her visa was being delivered. Based on other timelines we were expecting that she would have her visa by April 18th (she was staying in Manila) and be able to fly here on the 19th. How wrong we were. On April 18th I called the embassy to see if here visa had been printed. I was told that while all of her documentation was in order and her interview went well and she had in fact passed her interview, the consular officer had not yet signed off on her visa printing and was holding her visa for a reason that they were not allowed to tell me over the phone. They told me to just wait and her visa would be printed soon. Ok, so I am pissed off but I will wait a little longer. I call back on the 20th and check again. Still nothing and no movement and there is no telling when my fiancée's visa will be approved for printing. I think the CO is asleep at the wheel. Since it is the Holy Week and the embassy is closed on Thursday and Friday I decide that the only way for me to proceed is to go the the Philippines and confront them my self. I booked a flight out of Phoenix on Friday night and arrived in Manila on Sunday morning. Monday, April 25th, we went to the Embassy and again inquired about her visa. It still has not been printed and we were again told that everything was in order and there was no reason for the hold up. I asked if there was anything I could do, talk to her superior, talk to the CO, etc. She told me that I could write a letter to the CO requesting an expedite. I am thinking, ask for an expedite! It has already been 2 weeks since her interview approval. What needs to be expedited? So I write my letter basically begging the CO to send her visa for printing since I am leaving the Philippines on April 30 and want my fiancée to be on the flight with me. We leave hopeful and upset. Nothing on Tuesday on the 2GO website so Wednesday we go back to the Embassy to inquire again. They are closed. The IV unit is having training that day so there is no one there. Still nothing on the 2GO website on Wednesday. We go back to the Embassy on Thursday and viola, they tell us that her visa is out for delivery. Now if you were told that your visa was out for delivery you would think that means that the courier has it. Well, not if that is what the Embassy tells you. It means that the Embassy is getting everything together to eventually give to the courier. So we wait some more. Remember that my flight leaves on Saturday and it is Thursday. The courier does not have her visa yet. She does not have her CFO sticker yet. I do not have a plane ticket for her yet. Friday morning at about 8:30 I check the 2GO website and it says that they have her visa in the manifest. We call them and ask about delivery time. They tell us that the requested delivery location is not allowed (Robinson Mall, even though it is selectable when you setup your interview) and we have to have delivery to another location in Manila. Also it won't be delivered until Saturday. All hope is lost at this point. But then my fiancée asks if we can come down to the main office and collect her visa. They tell us that we can pick it up after 5pm. Ok, now we are onto something, but there is still the issue with the CFO stamp. The CFO office will be closed by the time we get the visa. I remember that Tahoma mentioned that there was a CFO office at NAIA so we called there and the gentleman said that he was not sure if we could get the stamp at NAIA until he looked at her documents. After collecting the visa and making sure that all the information on it was correct, we went to NAIA and attempted to find the CFO office. Everyone that we talked to pointed us in a different direction. Upstairs, downstairs, over here and there. After about an hour we finally got to the right person (CFO is inside the secure area so he had to come out to us). He looked at her docs and had her fill out the form. All of a sudden we realize that we don't have a passport photo for the CFO registration form. He tells us that it is not necessary. He takes her passport and goes away then returns with the sticker and stamp inside. Wonderful. Almost there now. We just need a ticket on the same flight was me. I ask the information desk where I can purchase a ticket for my airline and he send me over there. Nope not over there. So we ask someone else and they send us over here. Still not the right place. Another security person tells us to go to the 4th floor and it is there. So to the 4th flooor we go even though that seems a little odd to me. Well it is not there either. That is the airline flight operations. The man there is nice and tells us that you can not buy a ticket at the airport. I am shocked. You can not buy a plane ticket at the airport? How ridiculous!!! He give us the number to call for reservations. When we get back to the hotel. I call and the reservation desk is closed from 6:30pm till 9:00pm. I wait and call back at 9:15 and finally after all that has happened get a reservation on my flights with a seat next to me for my fiancée. Just need to print the confirmation at the hotel and it is done. She tells me to be sure that we are at the the airport 3 hours before the flight departure time. I am thinking, 3 hours. That is pretty early, but it is needed. Any less and we might have missed the flight.

We arrived POE Honolulu on 30 April 2011. It took about 45 minutes to clear immigration and customs. There were no problems at all. Very smooth. Arrived in Phoenix, Arizona at just after midnight on May 1, 2011.

Thanks to all that helped during this portion of our process. Now onto Marriage, AOS, AP, and EAD. The journey continues. Just hope it gets a little smoother from here.

:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:

John and Lourdelie

Good Grief!!! I was tired just reading this. You guys are good at getting things done, that is for sure, nice work!!!

Lee

[John+Lourdelie 28]

Wow! That is quite some story! Glad it all worked out for you in the end!!

Where was the 2Go main office? I might just try to pick up there also.

2GO office is Durian Park, Domestic Road, Pasay City

I would call them and let them know that you want to pick it up though.

John

[TBoneTX 43,048]

Holy ever-lovin' mackerel. Congratulations, si man!

[PAGE 11 14]

Congratulations! What a roller coaster ride. Glad it's going well for you. The best thing is you're together now.

Good luck on the rest of your journey.

[graceroxas 17]

Congratulations to the two of you!

Did you ever find out the reason for the delay in printing her visa? What was the CO's issue?

Grace

[Don and Venus 2]

Way To Be!

[John+Lourdelie 28]

Congratulations to the two of you!

Did you ever find out the reason for the delay in printing her visa? What was the CO's issue?

Grace

They never did give us a satisfactory reason for the delay. Personally, I think the CO just dropped the ball.

John

[KaynPhil 1]

WOW!!! Good for you.. Congratulations!!!

[Channah&Aaron 51]

; Holy Cow, what a stress!! But everything turned out great!! I am so happy for you guys, and yes, hopefully your journey will go more smoothly after the first part

lol Good luck!

[max+patricia 24]

Congrats!

How was POE in HNL anyway? Can't imagine it's too stressful, it's a pretty sleepy airport! Glad you guys made it

[John+Lourdelie 28]

Congrats!

How was POE in HNL anyway? Can't imagine it's too stressful, it's a pretty sleepy airport! Glad you guys made it

HNL was a breeze. No waiting at immigration and customs. Longest wait was the baggage transfer xray.

John

[max+patricia 24]

HNL was a breeze. No waiting at immigration and customs. Longest wait was the baggage transfer xray.

John

Good to hear. Always wondered how it'd be connecting over there... figured not too bad, I've seen TSA asleep there more than I've seen them working! Island time...

Glad your girl is home Take care