US Immigration from Philippines

Hello Everyone!

It s been a long journey and I m finally a naturalized citizen.
Filed for my naturalization in May 2024 and now I am finally done but my young dependent is not and I need to file for N-600 for her but there is a fee again? I thought they get it automatically at no cost I don t qualify for any waiver fee last time I checked.

Soooo .I was going to post how efficient and responsive some of the PI government offices were to my panicked emails (Bureau of Immigration and Bureau of Animal Immigration) and they were. Everything went smoothly with our cat (aside from the extra $400.00 to Philippine Airlines).

and then we got here on Sunday with a holiday on Monday. Gave my passport and the sealed packet (I applied for the 13A in America) to immigration on entrance and was told to go to the Bureau of Immigration in Intramuros about 1 1/2 hours from our home and P5000 for the car/driver within 7 days (remember, Monday was a holiday). Thank goodness we started on Tuesday. We got there and were told that everything was in order and they directed us to the Bureau of Quarantine to have my passport stamped. It was nearby so we stopped by. Turns out that I needed to be screened by one of their doctors even though I had all the tests done in Hawai i but they were fully booked and were unsympathetic about our travel time and expense. Sooo .back we go at 6 on Wednesday morning to get the first appointment. They checked all my documents and everything was good except that I did not have a blood test done for Syphilis! Took the blood test and 1 hour later learned that I do not have syphilis! Whew! I was really scared there for a while I also needed a polio vaccine booster! WHAT?? Got the stamp in my passport and we were ready to go back to Immigration except they CLOSED BECAUSE IT RAINED LAST NIGHT and was drizzling that morning! We hired the guy to drive us back AGAIN on Friday because this needed to get done and we had furniture scheduled to be delivered on Thursday. I kept checking the weather reports in panic all day on Thursday. The heavy rain predicted never came and the forecast was better for Friday oh did I mention that Friday was declared a no work holiday for parts of Manila and the Philippines, so I really did not know if the BOI would even be open! Anyway, Joan and I were awakened by torrential rain about 1 in the morning! So much for sleep that night! Friday morning turned out to be a very pleasant day and the office was open. My ACR-I was finally approved after the usual "go here go there stuff" but we need to call (land line only) and then go back AGAIN to pick up the card in about ten days. P20,000 later! Here are my take-aways:

Remember that the 13A visa is just that: a visa.It allows a 59 day stay. It does not provide residence status. The ACR-I card does (think of it as a green card in America).

Save yourself some heartache and travel/expenses: you will need to have a medical screening and review of your documents even if everything was completed in the US (be sure to include a syphilis test in your blood tests!) Schedule your screening for early in the morning, do what you need to do, get your passport stamped THEN go over to the Bureau of Immigration! Bring your marriage certificate and your spouse s passport. You will need to make photocopies of five things including the stamp, last entry date and visa from your passport. Copies at the Bureau cost P25 each. OH! Cash is ok at immigration but not the Bureau of Quarantine so load up on Gcash. You can also create an online account and pay by credit card.

and that is the saga so far!

Background

I'm American, wife is Filipino. We're married for 2 years, had baby in Philippines. We're now "conditionally IR-1" and got an interview date. We have her uncle as a financial sponsor.

Need help:

What updated documents do we need for the interview from me and her uncle?

So far I can think of W2s, tax transcripts, 1040 tax form, 6 months of pay stubs.

Are we missing anything?

I'm scheduled to have an interview on October 29th in the Philippines. Unfortunately, my fiance and I did encounter some financial issues that sets us back quite a bit. I don't even have m medical scheduled yet. I wanted to try re-scheduling instead but there's are no available dates that are open yet. Would it be safe to cancel it to have it re-scheduled instead? Or would it be better to just keep waiting for dates to open so I can reschedule?

My apologies if this is in the wrong category.

My wife has entered the United States under an IR1 visa. There is no stamp in her passport and now her employer is asking for the stamp. How do we go about getting this stamp?