US Immigration from Philippines

Hello

Does anybody here know how far the backlog is in Manila Embassy?

F2A petition june 2018 has been DQ'd since June of 2020. Now I will soon be taking my oath as a new citizen in this country.

I am having doubts whether to call NVC then to update my status or not. Afraid that my husbands papers might be pushed back at the end of the line and would take more years before he can come

Just weighing my options whether to do it or not. Thank you for those who will reply

hello,

after getting married in the USA via a utah zoom marriage and consummating the marriage in person, two questions:

1. do you have to file Report of Marriage with the Philippines consulate prior to filing the I-130, or is the fact the USA recognizes it enough?

2. to file the Report of Marriage with the Philippines consulate, what is all required? I already read their website, but it is confusing due to the following:

"If submitting the ROM by mail, item 20 in all four (4) duly-accomplished ROM forms must be notarized by a Notary Public."

- This is impossible if the Filipino is not in the country. How do you get around this for Utah Zoom marriage? She cannot sign it and have it notarized if she isn't here.

"Four (4) photocopies of valid passport of both husband and wife, together with any of the following:

For the Filipino National (proof of Philippine Citizenship) submit copies of Resident Alien Card/ Permanent Resident Card and/or Philippine Dual Citizenship (Birth Certificate/Report of Birth or Identification Certificate, Oath of Allegiance, and Order of Approval), copy of visa (if tourist, leisure or business purpose), job contract or working permit (if working abroad at the time of marriage)"

- Is her passport 100% required to file in this online marriage situation? She is still working on obtaining this, as she has never left the country or had a reason to get it prior to this (and the I-130) process. She does have a valid Postal ID card, but I assume this is not sufficient in this instance? Likewise, no visa exists yet of any kind, so not sure what to show for this.

I have also reached out to the consulate directly but have not heard back yet. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this process. I've also heard here and there that you need an apostille to certify the marriage certificate? is this still true?

I received this message on Feb 8th. My question is if my I-797 NOA2 expires after the 4 months on April 5, 2022.. do I need to extend this somehow ? or will it automatically be extended?

It appears that the NVC will not be forwarding it to the embassy anytime soon. .. Any recomendations on what to do?

Probably the best thing is to do is just make sure I have all the required documents and wait patiently like everyone else.

The problem with that is if we get some of the documents too early they will not be good such as the police clearances or divorce papers.. I believe those have to be within 6 months..I will need to double check the dates on those.

Dear Sir/Madam:

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General in MNL suspended routine visa services. The National Visa Center will not forward K1/I-730 visa petitions to MNL until they resume routine visa services. The U.S. Embassy or Consulate General will resume visa services as soon as possible, but they cannot provide a specific date.

For the most up-to-date information about the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General's operating status, please visit their website at https://usembassy.gov.

I thought some of you might be interested in my testimony about what the current CFO experience is like for K-1 Visa Holders. I've heard some strange stories about CFO representatives being intentionally difficult, invasive, stalling people's progress, etc. Thankfully, we didn't experience anything like this - the CFO representatives we interacted with were prompt, helpful, polite, and seemed to genuinely want to help us get our certificates ASAP.

I've heard that some people started the CFO process before actually receiving their visas - I found this to be technically possible. However, in our case, the first thing they requested was to be sent a copy of the visa in order to proceed (visa/passport of beneficiary, passport of petitioner). Maybe it depends on the representative you're assigned to, as far as that goes. In any case, no big deal - we waited a few days for her visa to arrive and submitted the requested documents.

Once that was emailed to the assigned CFO representative, they replied on the same day and provided their WhatsApp contact info, requesting my fianc to contact them through that method in order to schedule a telecounseling session. I think my fianc scheduled one for the next day. The telecounseling session lasted maybe 5-10 minutes, at most. There was some type of internet connection issue, so the CFO cut things short and decided they were satisfied with the discussion. They emailed a few more questions to my fianc - basic stuff like my citizenship and residency. They also requested a few photos of us together. After that, they sent the link to complete the registration and submit payment. As soon as payment was submitted, the temporary certificate was auto-generated and emailed to us within seconds.

Next, we had to create a CFO account for my fianc 's daughter. We made the mistake of registering her for the same CFO program as my fianc (GCP), when K-2s are actually supposed to registered for PDOS, citing the K-1 visa holder as the petitioner. This caused us to get stuck, as once you register, it won't let you go back and re-register that same person, even if you try to do it with a different email address. It tells you to wait 15 days before you can re-register. I sent an email to the assigned CFO representative explaining the error and they promptly replied, informing me that they deleted the registration and that we could proceed to register for the correct program.

Note that PDOS registration slots fill up pretty quickly - if you don't register between 7am - 9am Philippines time, you're probably going to need to wait until the next day - found this out the hard way.

After registering K-2 and emailing the prerequisite documents to the assigned representative, they replied pretty quickly (within 30 minutes). This particular CFO's preferred method of correspondence was strictly email. My fianc 's daughter is a minor, so CFO didn't request to speak to her. All they requested was copies of her visa & passport, passport of mother, and also my passport. I think the only questions that were asked were whether or not the beneficiary had previously received a CFO certificate and when did I originally migrate to the US (I didn't - was born here). Once those questions were answered, the CFO representative immediately sent the link to complete registration & payment. The whole ordeal from start to finish was done in less than an hour. It was almost shocking how accommodating the representative was.

Well, that's all - hope this is helpful to some people.

@Girandola

I received k1 Visa packet yesterday Feb 9 unfortunately we ripped the plastic to get the passport inside. Do i need to call the US embassy Manila and return it for resealing the plastic.
Thank you in advance.