Passport Name Change in NY city

[dvensel1 5]

Hello all!

I have yet another stoyr regarding dealing with the Philippine consulate. But first, some background.

The day after Thanksgiving we received a notice that my wife Ana's Temp. green card was approved and we'd receive the card in 2-3 weeks. We got it the very next Monday. Hurray! Done! The best part is that it was in the name we originally used and were told was not allowed. Apparently it was allowed. We have had her name legally changed anyway just in case a situation might creep up on us.

So now we decided to have her name changed on her passport. This was simple enough and required us to fill in the form provided on the Philippine consulate's web site. Done. We headed to new York city because all passport activities need to be done in person due to them switching over to the new e-passport and the bio are to be taken there.

After an 8 hour trip in a car and on a train we arrive and find the consulate on 5th ave. We told to report to an office that's not marked anywhere on the door and head on in. The lady there listened to us and then handed us the form to register the marriage with the Philippine NSO. We had done this way back in June after we were married. She insists that we do this even though I hand her the completed Marriage Registration FROM THAT VERY OFFICE and signed by appropriate authorities. The lady still says we have to do this. But then, in her native language, my wife tells her we aren't going to do it a second time because it might confuse the consulate to see two of them relagated to one marriage. NOW she understands. She sends us on our way to the lower floor where we join several people in various stages of conducting business with the consulate. After about 10 minutes we figure out how to go about getting a number in line when a nice filipina lady tells us how to go about doing it - because no one in the consulate had done this for us yet.

Now my wife is called and the girl tells her the form is wrong. I explain that this form came from their website and was stated that the form we had was the only one to be used by them for this purpose. I lose this argument anyway. My wife takes the form and fills it in. Upon turning it in the girl asks her for a photo to be used. At this point I produce a copy of the instructions that clearly state that no photos will be needed because they will do the digital photo thing right then and there in the consulate along with the other bios. The girl further states that we need to make 5 copies of everything we brought them, including the marriage registration. I make one each and they're happy now - but it's a different girl we go to after this too.

We take our seat and wait to be called for her bios and payment. She goes up to have these done and pays the fees and we're on our way. We were there about 1½ hours. She also gets her old passport back - which we had been told would be retained by the consulate.

SO.......we're done. At least to this point. It brought back memories of Cebu when I had to go there to get my ECC papers because I had been in the Philippines for over 6 months. It was like all the rules posted on all the Philippine web sites were wrong or outdated. Updating could surely expedite all processes if they do that and save themselves countless hours and wasted time. Just putting the right forms up would help. And an updated list of documents required would too.

Conclusion: If you need to go there in 5th Ave. in NY city, call them first to see what you need and if you can, have your foreign spouse speak to them in their native tongue so there's no loss in communication. If not, be prepared by bringin everything you have amassed to this point so you have it right with you. We did, and it still didn't help that much. But at least it backed up a lot of things so we had the prooof we needed to continue with this endeavor.

We now have her temp. green card, she has a job, her passport hasbeen changed, the marriage is registered and all if well with the world. It's been a long haul. But she's worth every second of it.

[NikLR 13,227]

~~moved to moving here and your new life from IR1/CR1 process and procedures~~

Edited December 10, 2015 by NLR

[Tahoma 2,292]

Great story...thanks for sharing it.