rumors

[ram1009 42]

I'm going to dispel a couple of rumors.  I call them rumors because I heard them from word of mouth rather than a regulation book.  Both rumors involve a group called the Commission on Filipinos Overseas or CFO.  This group has managed to convince the US embassy in Manila that all K1 (maybe others) applicants need to attend one of their classes before being allowed to leave the country.  The first rumor is that upon completion of this class the K1 applicant's passport will be appropriately stickered as proof of compliance.  FALSE!!   Upon completion of the class the K1 applicant receives a piece of paper saying they have completed the class.  This paper (hopefully) will be accepted as proof of compliance by the embassy CO who will then issue the visa, everything else being in order.  Once the visa is issues the CFO will then place the sticker in the K1 applicant's passport.  I have my doubts that the CO will accept a piece of paper as proof.  We'll see.  The second rumor is that K1 applicants over the age of 59 need only sign up for the class and need not actually attend.  FALSE!!  My fiance is 69 and sat through 3 hours of "class" today.  I hope readers will adjust their planning accordingly.

[Greenbaum 12,258]

Statement 1 - You are required to take the CFO class and upon completion one of two actions will take place. If the beneficiary passport is not available at the CFO class then they receive a certificate, that paper thingy that you reference in your rant. The certificate is not a USEM requirement and the US Embassy could care less. Once the beneficiary has received their passport they return to any CFO location wiIh the certificate and the CFO sticker is placed inside the passport.  The beneficiary will be checked at the Filipino immigration and will not be allowed to leave the Philippines without. If the beneficiary has their passport for the class upon completion the sticker will be inserted

 

"As a Filipino emigrant, or those who have been granted an immigrant-class visa, you are required by the Philippine Government by virtue of Article 19 of Presidential Decree No. 442, to register with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas before leaving the country to settle in a foreign land. "
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...onals&catid=140
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...-visa&catid=139
 

Statement 2 - Yes everyone attends but older applicants do not need an appointment. 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Greenbaum

[geowrian 22,335]

There is no requirement nor need to show the certificate to the CO. They will issue the visa regardless of CFO....many people even do the seminar after getting the visa.

 

The sticker & cert are a PH-only things...the US does not care about it.

Edited July 30, 2019 by geowrian

[ram1009 42]

7 minutes ago, Greenbaum said:

Statement 1 - You are required to take the CFO class and upon completion one of two actions will take place. If the beneficiary passport is not available at the CFO class then they receive a certificate, that paper thingy that you reference in your rant. The certificate is not a USEM requirement and the US Embassy could care less. Once the beneficiary has received their passport they return to any CFO location wiIh the certificate and the CFO sticker is placed inside the passport.  The beneficiary will be checked at the Filipino immigration and will not be allowed to leave the Philippines without. If the beneficiary has their passport for the class upon completion the sticker will be inserted

 

"As a Filipino emigrant, or those who have been granted an immigrant-class visa, you are required by the Philippine Government by virtue of Article 19 of Presidential Decree No. 442, to register with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas before leaving the country to settle in a foreign land. "
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...onals&catid=140
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...-visa&catid=139
 

What you say makes sense but it isn't what happened today.  My fiance had her passport with her and was refused a sticker because she did not  yet have her visa.  Instead she was given the "paper" and told to return for a sticker when she has her visa.

[geowrian 22,335]

1 minute ago, ram1009 said:

What you say makes sense but it isn't what happened today.  My fiance had her passport with her and was refused a sticker because she did not  yet have her visa.  Instead she was given the "paper" and told to return for a sticker when she has her visa.

I think he meant visa instead of passport.

[Greenbaum 12,258]

2 minutes ago, ram1009 said:

What you say makes sense but it isn't what happened today.  My fiance had her passport with her and was refused a sticker because she did not  yet have her visa.  Instead she was given the "paper" and told to return for a sticker when she has her visa.

Maybe something has changed since we interacted with CFO. Hank or geowrian maybe able to address this.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Greenbaum

[Hank_ 9,173]

It is not required by the embassy that a visa applicant attend CFO   ... BEFORE .. their visa interview, and the CO  during the interview has ZERO interest in seeing a CFO-GCP seminar certificate .... ZERO, NADA.. ZILCH!    Heck the embassy doesn't care if a visa applicant ever attends CFO, they do make note on the embassy website about attending CFO, but that is just a courtesy.

 

Only reason there are "rumors" to attend CFO-GCP before the interview is because of the limited appt openings with CFO.

 

You are mixing your "rumors", should stay with the facts.    For CFO-PDOS those 60 and OVER do not need to attend the seminar, they need only register to get their sticker.   Same is not said for CFO-GCP seminar

 

And lastly the CFO sticker will NOT be affixed in the passport until AFTER the visa has been issued.   CFO has NEVER issued the sticker and affixed in a passport until after the visa was issued.

 

As the man says -  Just the facts ma'am.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Hank_

[payxibka 10,044]

11 minutes ago, ram1009 said:

What you say makes sense but it isn't what happened today.  My fiance had her passport with her and was refused a sticker because she did not  yet have her visa.  Instead she was given the "paper" and told to return for a sticker when she has her visa.

Sticker won't be placed in the passport unless the Visa is already in the passport.   What happened is normal .  My wife attended CFO after her Visa was issued 

Edited July 30, 2019 by payxibka

[Hank_ 9,173]

32 minutes ago, Greenbaum said:

Statement 1 - You are required to take the CFO class and upon completion one of two actions will take place. If the beneficiary passport is not available at the CFO class then they receive a certificate, that paper thingy that you reference in your rant. The certificate is not a USEM requirement and the US Embassy could care less. Once the beneficiary has received their VISA in their passport they return to any CFO location wiIh the certificate and the CFO sticker is placed inside the passport.  The beneficiary will be checked at the Filipino immigration and will not be allowed to leave the Philippines without. If the beneficiary has their passport WITH VISA for the class upon completion the sticker will be inserted

 

"As a Filipino emigrant, or those who have been granted an immigrant-class visa, you are required by the Philippine Government by virtue of Article 19 of Presidential Decree No. 442, to register with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas before leaving the country to settle in a foreign land. "
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...onals&catid=140
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...-visa&catid=139
 

Statement 2 - Yes everyone attends but older applicants do not need an appointment.    

For CFO-GCP all attendees need an appt.     GCP is for fiancee and spouse of USC

 

For CFO-PDOS  those 60 and older do not need to attend the seminar, only need to register to get the sticker in their passport.      PDOS is for all other immigrant visa types

Edited July 30, 2019 by Hank_

[Just Paul 4,591]

24 minutes ago, ram1009 said:

My fiance had her passport with her and was refused a sticker because she did not  yet have her visa.  Instead she was given the "paper" and told to return for a sticker when she has her visa.

That happens when you take the class before getting the visa.  My asawa took the class before getting the visa and returned to get the sticker without an appointment.  You can also arrange to get the sticker at the airport.

[ram1009 42]

25 minutes ago, Hank_ said:

It is not required by the embassy that a visa applicant attend CFO   ... BEFORE .. their visa interview, and the CO  during the interview has ZERO interest in seeing a CFO-GCP seminar certificate .... ZERO, NADA.. ZILCH!    Heck the embassy doesn't care if a visa applicant ever attends CFO, they do make note on the embassy website about attending CFO, but that is just a courtesy.

 

Only reason there are "rumors" to attend CFO-GCP before the interview is because of the limited appt openings with CFO.

 

You are mixing your "rumors", should stay with the facts.    For CFO-PDOS those 60 and OVER do not need to attend the seminar, they need only register to get their sticker.   Same is not said for CFO-GCP seminar

 

And lastly the CFO sticker will NOT be affixed in the passport until AFTER the visa has been issued.   CFO has NEVER issued the sticker and affixed in a passport until after the visa was issued.

 

As the man says -  Just the facts ma'am.

 

 

 

 

Hank, as I said in my original post I want to dispel rumors.  Up until now rumors are all I have had to go on.  Today I got a dose of reality.  It's not me mixing things up, I'm just reporting the mixup.  Facts aren't easy to come by when filtered through people.

[ram1009 42]

16 minutes ago, Paul & Mary said:

That happens when you take the class before getting the visa.  My asawa took the class before getting the visa and returned to get the sticker without an appointment.  You can also arrange to get the sticker at the airport.

It was correctly reported that class appointments were scarce so it made sense to get this out of the way ASAP.....or so we thought.  In so doing we caused my fiance to take a second trip to CFO.  I realize that doesn't sound like a big deal but for her it means sitting on a bus for as much as 8 hours in a day.  Getting the sticker at the airport is cutting it a little thin for me.  It has trouble written all over it.

[ram1009 42]

1 hour ago, Greenbaum said:

Statement 1 - You are required to take the CFO class and upon completion one of two actions will take place. If the beneficiary passport is not available at the CFO class then they receive a certificate, that paper thingy that you reference in your rant. The certificate is not a USEM requirement and the US Embassy could care less. Once the beneficiary has received their passport they return to any CFO location wiIh the certificate and the CFO sticker is placed inside the passport.  The beneficiary will be checked at the Filipino immigration and will not be allowed to leave the Philippines without. If the beneficiary has their passport for the class upon completion the sticker will be inserted

 

"As a Filipino emigrant, or those who have been granted an immigrant-class visa, you are required by the Philippine Government by virtue of Article 19 of Presidential Decree No. 442, to register with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas before leaving the country to settle in a foreign land. "
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...onals&catid=140
 
http://www.cfo.gov.p...-visa&catid=139
 

Statement 2 - Yes everyone attends but older applicants do not need an appointment. 

FYI, neither of your links works.

[Hank_ 9,173]

40 minutes ago, ram1009 said:

Hank, as I said in my original post I want to dispel rumors.  Up until now rumors are all I have had to go on.  Today I got a dose of reality.  It's not me mixing things up, I'm just reporting the mixup.  Facts aren't easy to come by when filtered through people.

Most don't have issues in that regard with CFO, so it must be a isolated rumor passing through.    Plus the CFO website is fairly clear on the process, all one must do is not confuse/mix CFO-GCP with CFO-PDOS.

 

I try to keep my website up to date also

 

 

[ram1009 42]

4 minutes ago, Hank_ said:

Most don't have issues in that regard with CFO, so it must be a isolated rumor passing through.    Plus the CFO website is fairly clear on the process, all one must do is not confuse/mix CFO-GCP with CFO-PDOS.

 

I try to keep my website up to date also

 

 

Until today I hadn't heard of GCP & PDOS and didn't know you had a website until a few seconds ago.  Still don't know where it is.