Questions around wife's eventual visa interview

[Nathan Alden, Sr. 17]

Hi, all. My wife and I are still waiting on the approval of my I-130 (filed June 20, 2024). Recently, I've been reading up on any changes to the timelines, procedures, etc. from when I had looked into all of this last year. I feel like I have things mostly handled but I did have a couple of questions.

1. I've read in some other posts that it's difficult if not impossible to get the medical exam scheduled before the visa interview and that the consulate knows this. Should she proceed to the visa interview even if the medical isn't completed? What will the embassy say in that case (e.g., will a rescheduled interview cost us another year-plus of waiting?)
2. Same as #1 except regarding the sputum test.
3. She's currently living in Cebu City but since she has nothing tying her to this island, I've advised her to consider moving to the Manila metro area to be closer to the embassy for when this rigmarole goes down, or to live somewhere very, very cheaply (she's comfortable doing this already) and then travel to Manila for potentially quite some time while the long-running medical testing, interview, and CFO shenanigans play out. Advice on this course of action?

One aside for those interested: it has been many, many months since filing the Report of Marriage with the San Francisco consulate. Despite this, the PSA still reports there is no record on file. We're trying to get her name changed. The bureaucracy in this country is unbelievable to me at times. It looks like it might even be six months to a year to get the marriage registered with the PSA. I'm going to have her check again soon. She needs to get her name change taken care of!

Edited Tuesday at 01:47 PM by Nathan Alden, Sr.

[Edward and Jaycel 1,382]

10 minutes ago, Nathan Alden, Sr. said:

I've read in some other posts that it's difficult if not impossible to get the medical exam scheduled before the visa interview and that the consulate knows this. Should she proceed to the visa interview even if the medical isn't completed? What will the embassy say in that case (e.g., will a rescheduled interview cost us another year-plus of waiting?)

 

The medical is actually very easy to get scheduled at SLEC. We found multiple options available when we went on their website to schedule for Jaycel. If by some chance you have difficulty getting it done before the interview, they now allow you to do the interview without it and will issue her a 221(g) Refusal, pending receipt of the medical exam. It's the same if she gets flagged for sputum testing. If that happens she can go to the interview and will be refused pending completion of the medical.

 

14 minutes ago, Nathan Alden, Sr. said:

She's currently living in Cebu City but since she has nothing tying her to this island, I've advised her to consider moving to the Manila metro area to be closer to the embassy for when this rigmarole goes down, or to live somewhere very, very cheaply (she's comfortable doing this already) and then travel to Manila for potentially quite some time while the long-running medical testing, interview, and CFO shenanigans play out. Advice on this course of action?

 

I moved Jaycel to Manila in an AirBnb for the 3 weeks it took to get everything completed (Medical, interview and pickup of visa at the LBC Mall of Asia branch) It worked out great. Then she went home to say goodbye to her family for a week, went to Cebu to get her CFO and then departed Manila for the US a couple days after that. 

 

16 minutes ago, Nathan Alden, Sr. said:

One aside for those interested: it has been many, many months since filing the Report of Marriage with the San Francisco consulate. Despite this, the PSA still reports there is no record on file. We're trying to get her name changed. The bureaucracy in this country is unbelievable to me at times.

 

We filed our ROM at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco in December. Monthly we have been emailing the DFA to get the transmittal details of them sending it to the PSA and have been getting the runaround. Just yesterday we finally got someone to tell us what is going on. This is what they said:
 

We apologize for the delay of the transmittal of your Report to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Please be informed that we are still waiting for the new original sets of registered reports from the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco as the initial reports we have received were photocopies.

Thank you for your understanding.

 

So the consulate sent the photocopies of the reports and kept the originals when they were supposed to send the originals and keep the photocopies... (Gotta love that Philippine Bureaucracy)   

[Choo.143 4]

2 hours ago, Nathan Alden, Sr. said:

Should she proceed to the visa interview even if the medical isn't completed?

 Starting May 19, 2025 this wont be an option, from the US Embassy states: Any missing Documents, NO VISA INTERVIEW. See photo

[Edward and Jaycel 1,382]

3 minutes ago, Choo.143 said:

Starting May 19, 2025 this wont be an option, from the US Embassy states: Any missing Documents, NO VISA INTERVIEW. See photo

WOW.... They just started allowing this recently and they're changing it already. Thanks for catching that!

[Nathan Alden, Sr. 17]

8 hours ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

 

The medical is actually very easy to get scheduled at SLEC. We found multiple options available when we went on their website to schedule for Jaycel. If by some chance you have difficulty getting it done before the interview, they now allow you to do the interview without it and will issue her a 221(g) Refusal, pending receipt of the medical exam. It's the same if she gets flagged for sputum testing. If that happens she can go to the interview and will be refused pending completion of the medical.

 

 

I moved Jaycel to Manila in an AirBnb for the 3 weeks it took to get everything completed (Medical, interview and pickup of visa at the LBC Mall of Asia branch) It worked out great. Then she went home to say goodbye to her family for a week, went to Cebu to get her CFO and then departed Manila for the US a couple days after that. 

 

 

We filed our ROM at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco in December. Monthly we have been emailing the DFA to get the transmittal details of them sending it to the PSA and have been getting the runaround. Just yesterday we finally got someone to tell us what is going on. This is what they said:
 

We apologize for the delay of the transmittal of your Report to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Please be informed that we are still waiting for the new original sets of registered reports from the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco as the initial reports we have received were photocopies.

Thank you for your understanding.

 

So the consulate sent the photocopies of the reports and kept the originals when they were supposed to send the originals and keep the photocopies... (Gotta love that Philippine Bureaucracy)   

Thank you so much for the details! This helps a lot.

 

As far as the ROM, in your case, what was the result? Did the consulate expedite sending the originals to PH?

[Edward and Jaycel 1,382]

Just now, Nathan Alden, Sr. said:

As far as the ROM, in your case, what was the result? Did the consulate expedite sending the originals to PH?

 

No we just got that message 2 days ago and as of then, the DFA is still awaiting the originals from the the Consulate for all reports from the month of December.