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What does anyone know about the process of getting married in the Philippines? There's no CENOMAR here, so how do you prove that you're eligible for marriage? Does PSA accept scanned copies and emails for filing? It's nearly impossible to send something to the Philippines in my experience. I saw there's a premarital counseling requirement. Can that be done by video call? Would it be acceptable to have your Filipina fianc e act as a Power of Attorney so she could sign on my behalf? If I have to be present to originally sign everything, it looks like it could take 6-8 weeks between all the different filings at the different agencies. Who has that kind of time?

How do people go to the beaches and get married? There's a lot of that.

Hi,

As the title says, are both RoM and AoM required for CR1 visa interview. My interview is coming up at the end of July. However, I only have the receipt of the RoM, is this sufficient? If not please advise me on what I can do.

I decided to work with a visa agency that specializes in the Philippines for my fiance currently living in PH. They told me a K-1 would take 14 months and a CR-1 would take 16 months until shes here with me.

I went onto the USCIS website and it said 8.5-30 months based on field office location for a K-1. I am in Massachusetts so would mine go through the Vermont field office? The Vermont field office said 30 months on the USCIS website. The California office said 8.5 months. Then correct me if wrong it could be months more to get through NVC?

On the USCIS website it says 17 months for a CR-1 for service centers if its only an IR (immediate relative) and 66 months for all field offices if not an IR. Is a spouse an IR immediate relative?

Then it would have to go through the embassy in Manila for who knows how long?

Can this be right? is the wait that long?

Shes in her mid 30's I'm in my early 40's. We both really want to start a family as soon as possible due to our age...whats the best thing to do and what are the actual wait times. Thanks so much.

Hello all,

I finally get my oath ceremony next month (6/11) at Room 310 of 26 Federal Plaza Downtown NYC. I was doing some Googling and found some reported that no guests were allowed and they had to wait outside in the streets.

However I am not sure if this was due to Covid or if that has been relaxed now in 2025. Any recent experience would help, thanks!

The Journey So Far...

Last episode, I finally got my K1 after a ton of admin processing and delays requiring a second medical. I had some worries over these new registration requirements but was ultimately assured and learned that because I'm going via plane to the USA, I'll automatically just get an i94 (thanks, media, for overhyping the difficulty of going across the border).

The Questions of Now

So I have three boxes I want to ship -- either via FedEx or UPS. It's the last of my stuff and includes a menagerie of gaming consoles. Some of which have internal batteries. It also may include one laptop (haven't decided yet if I want to just throw it in my carry-on). How do I go about sending it over the border? Do I have to fill CBP 3299? Do I have to wait until the i485 has been processed or approved? For the manifest, do I need to itemize every single item? For gaming consoles, certain cables are of course considered a part of the bundle (AC adapters, TV connectors) but do I need to list those separately, and if I have a RWY converter to HDMI is that counted separately? Like, how itemized are we talking?

On the note of i485, I want to make sure, do we get married and then fill that out as soon as we've gotten married? What happens after that?

I appreciate the responses in advance. I just hate that my mind is so... literal. @^@