US Immigration from Philippines

I'm hoping the corporate wisdom can give us some counsel on this. My wife decided to keep her maiden name because the Philippines makes it such a hassle to change it. She would have had to separately apply and change ( and pay ) for at least 13 different things. Now she's a little concerned and is thinking of changing it to my name. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Our petition has been at NSC since Oct 3, 2021. Thanks in advance.

We are having my fianc e's and her kids passports/visas shipped to SM premier. How long should we expect to wait before picking them up?

Also she already had CFO telecounseling and was instructed to send copy of visa once received. They also said it would take up to two weeks to get the certificates. Is this accurate?

Hi guys. I just want to ask what should I do to make an expedite interview appointment for my parents in the Philippines? We ve been calling US Embassy Manila, but they always say that there is no slot yet. My parents medical will expire on April 5,2022. And they need to be here before that day. Is there anyone here rescheduling interview appointment for their love ones?

My fianc attended her K1 visa interview on the morning of January 20th and was approved (according to the adjudicator). Her and her daughter's passports were taken and they were given pamphlets about their approval and what to do next. This was by far the easiest step in our journey.

If you've seen any of my previous topics, you might recall that we started the process back in 2018. Everything went pretty smoothly until we got to St. Luke's. During the medical exam, she was flagged for sputum due to some "cloudiness" on her chest x-ray. 6 1/2 weeks into waiting for the sputum culture results, she received a call from SLEC to come back. I knew what this meant... but then again, I had no idea just how bad this news was. When my fianc got back from St. Luke's, she called me up, absolutely distraught by what they told her - she was told that out of the 3 sputum samples she provided, 2 were clear, while the 3rd one indicated TB bacterial growth.

They then informed her that she would need to do 18 MONTHS of DOT. I questioned whether she misheard them, because this absolutely shocked me - the timeframe was 3x what I read others say they had to go through when found positive. Apparently, this turned out to be accurate, as they claimed she had some rare, semi-drug-resistant strain. But... she was completely asymptomatic. I just didn't know what to believe.

In any case, I didn't see any path forward other than complying with the treatment. She had to relocate to Manila and show up in person at SLEC every weekday to take a cocktail of drugs that made her consistently feel ill to the point of struggling to make it back to her apartment without passing out. Her reaction to the meds were so bad on that first day, I wasn't sure she'd be able to endure the treatment... 18 months of it.

Strong willed as she is, she somehow got through 12 months of treatment, and then... the pandemic started. St. Luke's emailed her prescriptions and pretty much said 'good luck finding these'. They claimed they would reimburse her for the medications she had to buy out of pocket, if she presented the receipts once they re-open (liars).

Eventually, in November 2020, her DOT was finally completed. During the treatment process, my fianc was required to submit a fresh sputum sample every 3 months - oddly, other than that one initial sample that sparked this treatment, every one of the additional samples she provided for the next 18 months were negative for TB. Either the meds were doing an excellent job, or... I'll let you do your own speculations on that.

After treatment was completed, SLEC cleared her for travel (with 3 months validity), but... USEM was now closed due to the pandemic. Despite explaining our situation in great detail, USEM repeatedly denied our request to expedite. Our medical results, as well as our visa fees, expired. 'Next time, wait until you can secure a K1 interview before proceeding with the medical exam' USEM said. Wow.

We wouldn't be able to get another K1 interview date until November 2021 - one year later. So, she went to St. Luke's again for what would technically be her 3rd medical exam, brought all her previous records of treatment and vaccination. Guess what happened...

Flagged for sputum. Again. Yes, I'm serious. 8 more weeks of waiting, with the possibility of being sentenced to DOT again. Honestly, if that had happened, I think that might have been the end of the line. How could I expect her to endure that again?

8 weeks passed, and thankfully no call this time. About 7 weeks into waiting for results, I randomly checked the USEM website and saw open interview slots for the entire later half of January 2022. Even though we weren't quite out of the woods with the sputum results, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity - I scheduled for the 20th, which was 3 days after she was scheduled to come back to SLEC for sputum results.

Fast forward to today - I think the nightmare may be finally over, but I'm so traumatized by the whole experience that I almost feel numb about it, like I'm still not quite sure it's safe to celebrate. Hopefully, the CFO process is stress-free.

Aloha All.... I was hoping to get some feedback for an idea I have. Who has some good information to offer me in regards to obtaining a 9A Visa from the PH and still maintaining my place in line for our K1 Visa?
If I submitted all the necessary documents to the PH to obtain a 9A Visa would the USA find out about it and ultimately squash my K1?

We were married this past November in Costa Rica and have yet to file the paperwork to make it official as i'm still hesitant to throw away the time invested in the K1. I

n my perfect world i'd file the ROM with the PH, get my Visa and still be eligible for the K1 because the USA is still unaware of my marriage because I never notified them or filed documents with them to make it legal.
Am I missing something here? Too much wishful thinking on my part? I'd appreciate any solid insight any of you may have on this. Mahalos in advance....