Bayareaguy

The passport # also works on the ustraveldocs tracking, though it seemed a bit delayed when it worked.

You sure sound happy.

A 29er today!

Looks like the employee handling our case ate their wheaties today, finally all issued.

I think people here need to get much more aggressive. Don't let them get away with anything. Acceptance of the status quo just reinforces them to continue their poor service.

K-1 visa is handled by the Immigrant Visa unit.

Well, there you go

But by all accounts, they seem to be taking walk-ins as if they were on this schedule...

http://manila.usembassy.gov/nonimmigrant-visa.html

Not sure if K1's are considered nonimmigrant or immigrant in this case (as they seem to classify them to whichever is the most inconvenient for you at the time), but here you go, if this hasn't been posted earlier.

Original Interview Date

When to Return to the Embassy

August 19, 2013

Any workday between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., until August 30, 2013.

August 20, 2013

Any workday between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., until August 30, 2013.

August 22, 2013

Same interview timeslot on August 30, 2013.

August 26, 2013

Any workday between 6:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., until September 6, 2013, except September 2, 2013.

SNAFU.

More cream of the crop...

They have some wicked smart people up in there...wicked smaaat....

Congrats Reg!

Our visas seem to be on the desk of an embassy employee who took the short bus to school...hopefully Lyn and the boys won't be too far behind you.

"Listed phone numbers may or may not be the actual working numbers at the time you call"

Somehow, you are supposed to know a number is changed, and what that new number is, without it actually being changed on the letter or website.

Pretty much falls in line with the immigration situation as a whole...those that don't follow the rules are catered for at the expense of those following the rules.

When they are safely on US soil, the hate mail campaign will begin.

Good, at least there appears to be movement.

I get a laugh about this:

Your visa is in final processing. If you have not received your passport in more than 10 days after your interview, please contact the Embassy call center at (02) 982-5555 and (02) 902-8930, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, to track the delivery of your passport.

So that tells me I should just continuously call the numbers and ask about the status until the visas are received.

You are not in an immigrationforum per say

you are in a political / social sub forum in which the more radical and off topic usually the better

Of all the things I could possibly be concerned about in a political/social forum, this ranks somewhere between street sweeper rights in Estonia and the councilman's race at the isle of St Helena.

Is that better?

Of all the things I would be concerned of on an immigration forum, this ranks pretty low.

Somewhere between what color fire trucks should be, and the weather forecast for Madagascar.

SNAFU, as usual.

I don't really agree with your assessment about taxes well spent, but you are intitled to your opinion.

I didn't think about that. Thank you for posting. I have to consider the fact that she will give up her passport for a short period.

Photocopies were acceptable.

It's not enough that they get both US and Philippine holidays off...now Philippine demonstrations are also fair game.

You'd think that with all the time off, the employees would be fresh and ready to kick ### when they get back to work...

Hahahaha, yeah right.

And since we are into calling people lazy here... I just googled USEM phone number, and came up with this: http://manila.usembassy.gov/contact.html

Well, to be fair, they must have changed that number fairly recently. I never saw that number when I was looking a week ago, it was listed as 214-571-1600, and nevr rang...so yeah, I guess the old number doesnt work. I'm guessing the real number was the 703 number for a quite a while while the 214 number was listed...cream of the crop at work...

I never saw that number until this thread a few minutes ago. I did get through eventually using the Philippine numbers on skype (after using up most of my skype credit ringing off the hook most of the time after transferring to the IV extension), to be told the visa still being processed, and it "may" be printed next week. No reason for AP was revealed.

The 214-571-1600 number is a piece of ### as far as I'm concerned...never rang whenever I called it.

And as for problems with the embassy, yeah there's the hurricane, as well as I would have to say you are not going to be dealing with the "cream of the crop" with any of them, if you get my drift.

And there you go.

To add to the above info on AA mileage flights out of Manila...

Photocopies of the passports were acceptable to purchase tickets.

AA seems to stick to the often cited, but not universally followed, "law" about outgoing flights needing to be purchased in person, not online or on the phone. Whether it is really a law or not, AA definitely follows it as if it is.

Good thing about using mileage for a flight: you can change your reservation without any fee. So it actually is very little risk (well, sort of, see below) to make a reservation before the visa is issued. And I would actually recommend making your reservation early, as there were not a lot of flights to choose from. It would probably be easier for a single traveler I'm guessing, as at time I looked for a flight for 3 (her and her boys), there was only one flight in a whole month+ of time I looked (from Aug 21-the end of september), so that is why I booked it even before we got the visa, supposedly a "safe" 3 weeks after the interview (though we now know that is not the case for some ).

Not so good thing: you can not just change it to any available flight, only to another mileage award flight, which are limited as I previously mentioned.

Not so good thing #2: While it's free to change the flight to another mileage award flight, remember that they require you to purchase the ticket (pay the taxes/fees on the award ticket) in person in the Philippines at their office in Manila...so, if you are in or near Manila, then it isn't much of an issue. If you are on another island, then it is going to be an added cost to get to manila to 1: get the refunded taxes/fees for the original ticket, then turn around and 2: pay the taxes/fees on the replacement tickets. Yes, they won't let you do that over the phone. The replacement tickets must be purchased within 5 working days of you reserving the new flight, so it isn't like you can just wait until right before the day of the flight to do this (unless of course your flight is going to be soon). I'm not sure if someone other than the ticketed person can do this, you might check if someone can do this for you if you have someone trustworthy in Manila.

When I called the other day to change the flight, there was nothing available until the end of October...so I just called everyday until something opened up in mid september...which I'm hoping we will have the visa by then. So, we are in essence risking the cost of the flight to manila and back to accomplish the "refund/buy new tickets" dance, which is around the same cost as changing purchased tickets on some airlines...and still way under the cost of buying 3 oneway tickets without mileage.

So, if you are in the Manila area and are considering using AA milage to get tickets, it is going to be pretty low risk, even if you need to change for any reason (and you have up to a calendar year to change flights). If you are not near Manila, then you should keep in mind the fact you need to show up at the office to get the tickets, but it is still a reasonable deal, if you have the mileage.

Still AP.

So they should bow down? LOL They pay taxes too FYI Improperly trained people occur everywhere.

Sure, and they should be fired and replaced with those who can do the job properly.