wantmybaby

We successfully completed the dual citizenship this past Saturday at the Philippine consulate outreach in Needham, MA.  It was pretty straight-forward.  First, we emailed an application for an outreach appointment, plus all the documents that will require, to the email address they give for that.  When they were able to, they then sent the appointment time, which was 10am to 11am.  We brought all the original documents and copies, plus the passport photos and the $50 cash.

We got there early (9am) and it was already busy, with them already processing stuff for whoever's early.  They were selling Filipino food in the back, which was nice.  There was a special line for dual citizenship, which we were in for maybe 45 minutes before being done.  Then, we waited around about 2 hours until they swear in everyone they had processed so far, around lunchtime.  In the end, there's 3 pages stapled together, all notarized.  I guess you'd need all 3 if traveling with them?  Kind of annoying, so a passport will come in handy.

They were well prepared, with copy machines, stuff to take passport photos, etc.  Far more efficient than something like the DMV.  :-)

It looks like we could have done a walk-in passport application afterwards, but she was tired and it was very busy there by then, so we're like it's no rush anyway, let's do that at the next outreach.  Manchester NH has one in July, so that should work great.

So, literally on the same day, she turned in the application for the dual citizenship, did the oath taking later that day, then yet later that day applied for the passport (which I would assume is then mailed to you)?

With the ROM done, now it's time for us to get her dual citizenship taken care of as well as get a new Philippines passport.  I'm wondering which approach would work best, as I don't know how long doing it by mail versus going in person takes, and whether in person visits can get it all done the same day.

1. Collect all the documents and the 9225 forms, bring to the consulate in NYC... do I understand correctly they can take the papers and do the oath taking that same day?  Or, do we submit the papers then would have to come back at some later date?  If the latter, then we might as well just do it by mail so we only need one trip.

2. Do it by mail, then wait for oath taking appointment.  One detail I haven't been able to find yet is how long it takes after that for the oath taking appointment.

3. Do it at an outreach event (which requires an appointment).  I see there is one in Needham, MA 2 months from now.  And just over a month from now, in Albany... that's not much closer to NYC but I hate driving/parking in NYC so I would actually prefer driving to Albany.  But, same questions here as for visiting NYC -- is application and oath taking all at once that same day?

And, the passport... can that be applied for in person at the same outreach event, or consulate visit?  Or, would she separately apply for the passport after the oath taking is all said and done and we are back home?

We got the response.  The package was sent off on Feb 9, and it arrived today March 2 (so 3 weeks was actually accurate).  They included all our original documents plus our original ROM form had some additional stuff on it... some signature, some number that began with ROM-NY. and date of registration written on it as Feb 22.  I guess that's it?  It's slightly underwhelming as I was expecting some fancy new official-looking certificate or something.

So, now we get to go figure out how to file the dual citizenship stuff.  Horray.  Thanks for all the help.

6 hours ago, Hank_ said:

You can order the the birth certificate online

 

https://www.psaserbilis.com.ph/Default.aspx

Awesome!  No more sending money to relative and having them go on an all-day trip to CDO, then mailing them back.

On 2/7/2019 at 7:22 PM, Hank_ said:

That is directly from the Philippine embassy website

 

No. 7 is your wife's birth certificate not yours.   "Filipino spouse"

 

http://www.philippineembassy-usa.org/philippines-dc/consular-services-dc/faq-dc/#marriage

Oh!  Sorry, I wasn't sure whether to interpret that to mean "the spouse of the Filipino", or "the spouse who is the Filipino". Well, we don't have an original of her birth certificate anymore, so we won't be filing the forms any time soon.

6 hours ago, Hank_ said:

You don't need certified true copies of the BIO page of the passport or the visa.   Just of the marriage certificate  AND  birth certificate if you don't have an original to send. 

 

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

1. Four (4) original duly-accomplished Report of Marriage Contracted Abroad form, typed or printed legibly in black or blue ink, signed by both husband and wife. Wives should indicate their maiden name as the last name. If submitting by mail, the completed forms must be notarized.
2. Covering letter (handwritten or typed), addressed to the Consular Section, indicating service/transaction requested and telephone number or email address for contact details
3. One (1) original or certified true copy and four (4) photocopies of the Marriage Record (original will be returned)
4. One (1) original or certified true copy and four (4) photocopies of the Marriage Certificate or Contract (original will be returned)
5. Four (4) photocopies each of the passports of both spouses
6. Four (4) photocopies of additional proof of Philippine citizenship of the Filipino spouse/s (greencard, valid visa, notice of action, work permit, dual IC)
7. One (1) original or certified true copy and four (4) photocopies of the birth certificate/s of Filipino spouse/s.
8. Notarized affidavit explaining the reasons for delayed registration if ROM is filed more than a year after marraige
9. Self-addressed return envelope, with appropriate stamps for express or priority mail with tracking numbers via US Postal Service, if Report of Marriage is to be mailed back. For applicants from the Caribbean Islands, pre-paid mailing envelope from DHL.
10. Processing fee of $25.00 (non-refundable), payable in cash or money order made payable to "Embassy of the Philippines" (or "Philippine Consulate General", if application is made at one of the Philippine Consulates General in the U.S.).Personal checks and credit cards are not accepted.
11. For applicants residing in U.S. territories or other countries within the jurisdiction of the Philippine Embassy, applicants should enclose a treasurer’s, manager’s or certified check issued by a local bank that has a corresponding bank in the U.S. (the US National Bank Association is not a correspondent bank), payable to the courier of choice, in U.S. dollars, to cover cost of mailing, and a corresponding self-addressed courier’s address label. Personal checks are not accepted.

Interesting... you appear to be quoting a different web site though.  On the NYC consulate page, it had said:

"First Set – Original Report of Marriage (ROM) application and certified true copy of documents."

So, taken literally, that does mean a certified true copy of every document that can't be an original, which is why I thought that is what must be done.  So, hopefully they accept what you have in this different set of rules?  By the way, which birth certificate were you referring to?  I wasn't planning on sending one.  I could send mine easily enough, but getting another copy of my wife's would take weeks or more to get someone to acquire it and then mail it back to us.  It looks like your item #7 indicates it would be mine, which is different than the rules at the NYC consulate which didn't mention it.  But, I'm happy to send mine along anyway just in case.

We attempted to get "certified true copies" of everything, and the notaries all utterly refuse to do it.  Even if I bring the originals and let them make the copies to sign, they won't do it.  They say only the "issuing authority" of each document is able to certify true copies.  So, I could do this for the marriage certificate and divorce decree (at a cost of $20 each for the fancy gold stamp), but this is utterly impossible for the 2 passport data pages, and the K1 visa page... the only way to get a copy of a passport is to get a new passport. And, forget the K1 Visa entirely as that already expired.

What do we do?

Is going there in person to the consulate with the originals the only option?  If we do this, we only want to make ONE trip as it will require time out from work and take up 2 days... is there anything else we would need to bring to make this all work successfully on the first trip?  Also, we want to do the dual citizenship thing as well, so would it be possible to do all on the same trip?

I'm seriously pissed... this is just letting them know about a marriage, it shouldn't be that difficult!  In the US, one marriage certificate with a fancy stamp is enough proof.  It's even more bureaucratic than the US government.

Excellent, that's much better than I was thinking it would be.  

Oh, they want a self-addressed prepaid envelope.  Do you know what they put in this and what size and postage it would require?  Just business sized envelope?  It says prepaid as priority mail, not sure how that works, hopefully it will be obvious when I take all this to the post office.

Thanks!

Thanks.  So, one last detail I need to make sure I get right is the "4 copies" thing.  For marriage certificate and divorce decree, can I just send one original with the fancy $20 stamp on it, and the other 3 "certified true copies" by a notary (the copies would include just photocopying the original fancy stamp)?  Or can all 4 of each document be a certified true copy by a notary of the fancy stamp document?  I don't want to have to pay $160 for 8 original documents with the fancy gold stamp, not to mention it takes a while to get divorce decree copies from the court house.  I have exactly one copy of each of those fancy stamp documents and I'd prefer to not have to get any more.

As for the other stuff they need, I have no choice I guess but to copy them (and notary certify as copy).  I'm not sending original K1 visa, passport, etc.

Hi, I know this gets asked about a lot, but this is almost more difficult than actually getting the K1 visa in the first place.  We were married in 2012 and didn't file the ROM, so we want to do so now so that my wife can proceed to get her dual citizenship.  Our info:

- We got married and live in NH, so I understand we can mail stuff in to the NYC consulate.

- I (the American spouse) am previously divorced once, so I guess that changes what they need.

- My wife (the Filipina) was not previously married.

- No children.

- When we got married in 2012, that changed my wife's name; she moved her maiden name to her middle name, then my last name became her last name.  e.g. "A B C" became "A C <mylastname>".

- A couple years ago, she obtained US citizenship (also with that new name) and has a US passport.

So, given that, here are my questions on the ROM form itself:

1. Sorry to be dense, but on Line 6 what does "civil status" mean.  I understand it is the civil status prior to marriage, but... I literally don't know what civil status refers to.

2. Line 12/13, we have no witnesses, at least none that are legally documented anywhere. We were married by our pastor and his wife was there (but the document only mentions him at the "marriage performed by" line).  Leave blank?  

3. Line 14, what does "Name of officiating/solemnizing authority" mean?  State of New Hampshire?  God?  Pastor's name? I have no idea.

4. Line 15, what does "Title and office of solemnizing official / accepting authority" mean?  Again, I'm baffled... is this different from Line 14?  My pastor doesn't even use "Reverend" before his name.  Title of who or what?

Again, sorry for what should be obvious, but they don't give hardly any useful instructions on this form.

5. For the "affidavit of delayed registration", what would I put for a reason on question 2 for the delay?  "We didn't know it was needed" is that okay?

The rest of my questions are about the "instructions" here:

http://www.newyorkpcg.org/the-consulate/our-services/civil-registry/report-of-marriage

6. Requirement 2, "marriage contract or certificate"... any reason why the 1 page certificate with fancy stamp issued by the town hall would not be enough?  It lists number of prior marriages and who performed, but no witnesses.  It is not possible to get the original certificate; this is a special certificate they produce on demand at the town hall based on the state's records.

7. Requirement 3, "valid passports"... This is obvious for my US passport, but what about my wife's?  Do they want a copy of her expired/invalid Philippines passport (invalidated when she became a US citizen)?  Or, her US passport with a different name on it? Or both?

8. Requirement 4, "proof of Filipino citizenship of applicant at the time of marriage".  I'm not sure what they're asking for.  The examples are odd: "US naturalization certificate" didn't happen until several years later, so why do they suggest that one?  "Permanent resident card"... well, that's expired and I think they took that, and was obtained after marriage too.  They suggest "valid visa", well the K1 visa expired after 90 days and isn't valid today.  I'm confused!

9. Requirement 6, "additional requirements when one or both parties have previous marriages"... I have an official divorce decree, is that the "foreign divorce decree" they ask for?  Hopefully they don't need it "recognized by the Philippines court".

10. Every copied document must be notarized, all 4 duplicate copies?  Do I need to include 4 stamped marriage certificates and 4 stamped divorce decrees?  (This is nuts.  It costs $5/page for notarization, and each marriage certificate or divorce decree is at least $20.)

11. Does anyone have a sample "cover letter"?

12. Is it really "3 weeks" processing time as suggested?

Thanks very much!

6 hours ago, Hank_ said:

The Philippine passport became invalid the moment your wife took the oath for U.S. citizenship.   (only citizens of a country can be issued a passport)  To acquire a Philippine passport now your wife will have to complete dual citizenship.

 

ROM is easy, you complete the forms, provided the requested documents and mail it to the consulate .. no trip.  If your wife wants her new passport in her married name ROM will have to be completed.

 

As for acquiring dual citizenship and a new passport that will require a trip to the consulate or attend an outreach event near you.  

 

Former Filipino citizens can own land, just a restricted amount. 

Awesome, thanks!  So, when you say former Filipino citizens can own land, you're referring to those who have not filed for dual citizenship?  Is the restriction removed if she's a dual citizen?  (The amount of land is large, like 250 acres.)

Hi, I know questions are asked about dual citizenship quite a bit.  But, I have some specifics I can't easily find.  My wife became a US citizen 3 years ago, and her Philippines passport also expired at about that time too.  We want to get her dual citizenship established so that she doesn't have any trouble owning property (we could be acquiring some farm land from her family).  Does the Philippines passport matter at all with this and that it is expired?  Would we need to renew that too, and in what order (or same time)?  Her name also changed so her Philippines passport has her old/Philippines/pre-married name, so I'm not sure how that affects this or if her renewed passport should be getting her new/married name.  Oh, and we didn't bother to report the marriage in the Philippines... we were going to, but looked up the details and were like "wow this is excessively complex and annoying, plus a trip to NYC" so we didn't bother.  

What would be the correct way to proceed, preferably with as little or no travel to the consulate in NYC as possible since it is 6+ hours away, and my anxiety level goes up exponentially with proximity to NYC, not to mention we would both have to use a vacation day.  (We don't have days to spare next year as we're making a trip back to the Philippines which will use most of them up.) 

Thanks!

We got the green card in the mail on Monday. Yehey!

So.... looks like we're pretty much done. My lovely wife will be updating her Philippines passport in a few months (didn't do the name change thing yet), and applying for citizenship in January.

The online status was just updated to:

New Card Is Being Produced
On September 22, 2015, we ordered your new card for Receipt Number EAC********, and will mail it to the address you gave us. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address.

The status had previously been that it was forwarded to "local office".

Yehey!

Have any "Case Was Received At My Local Office" folks gotten any further updates?

I am pretty sure that when you get a notice for an interview you are not aware if your case is transferred or no. This time you all got notified that your cases were transferred somewhere, to me the fact that your case is in the local office, doesn't necessarily mean you will be getting an interview, because from all the people that I read on here that got called for an interview never received a notice their case is transferred to their local office. I think maybe in they know your local office can handle the petition they will go ahead and send it there. We all know how much work CSC has to do now with two+ months of transferred cases

Well hopefully this is a good sign then. Our local office has never looked busy at all whenever we've been over there. It's clean, quiet and not a whole lot going on.

Why would it go to the local office? was your evidence scanty or something?

I don't know. That is why I am asking the question here. Our evidence was massive, about an inch thick... 150 sheets of paper.

Hey,

Seems like it is at your local office, I mean that is what they state! I'm guessing that you might get your interview letter soon, or a RFE, hopefully the former!

Ian

Is that the normal part of the process? It goes from CSC to local office, then what?

Thanks!

Now, the online status has been udpated again (after previously being transferred from VSC to CSC. It says:

Sorry for the dumb question, but what does this mean? I thought either VSC or CSC handles this. To me, "local office" means the office in Bedford, NH. And, I did not think they handled I-751.

Thanks!

I'm only stating that based on what happened to the June 2014 filers who were transferred from VSC to CSC. It seemed like most, if not all, had to do a second bio.

Whatever for would another bio be needed? It was done the first time at our local office (in Bedford, NH). It's not as if we can fly to California for another one. The NH office should still have the info (as well as VSC still have it).

Oh, and our online status shows we were transferred as well (no letter in mail yet).

You go to the country recorder and request certified copies.

I'm still trying to figure out if they really need the "marriage license" into addition to the marriage certificate. I went to the town hall which is able to issue marriage certificates, and they said they can't do that. She called around and found I could go to the NH Vital Records and request a copy for $15, but only if I show them documentation from the Philippine embassy (I guess the web site counts) demonstrating why I need it. They don't normally give it out.

So, is it REALLY needed? The certificate already has the number of previous marriages on it for each of us. What info are they looking for?

To quote the embassy's web site again, just to make sure I understand what they are asking for, it is:

- One (1) original or certified true copy and four (4) photocopies of the Marriage Record (original will be returned)

- One (1) original or certified true copy and four (4) photocopies of the Marriage Certificate or Contract (original will be returned)

I'm assuming "marriage record" means "marriage license"? Does it mean something else?

Thanks!

Yes the forms on the consulate website are what you use, make 4 copies with original signatures.

SASE Self Addressed Stamped Envelope Then send you a copy of the ROM form stamped with recording data from recording your marriage at NSO.

After you were married your state doesn't want you to bring the signed marriage contract into the county recorder (or such for your state)?

Once the signed contract is out of our hands, we don't have it anymore to make copies of. I'm not sure where else we'd go to get a copy of that. Whenever I've wanted proof of marriage, they print out, stamp and sign a new marriage certificate.

Ugh.... sorry... form and instructions are confusing... at here:

http://www.philippineembassy-usa.org/philippines-sf/links-sf/other-links/consular-services-sf/faq-sf/

it says we need (among other things that I understand):

"Four (4) original duly-accomplished Report of Marriage Contracted Abroad form"

- Is this the PDF they have there called "Report of Marriage.pdf"?

"One (1) original or certified true copy and four (4) photocopies of the Marriage Record (original will be returned)"

- What's that? In New Hampshire, the state can on demand produce official stamped marriage certificates, that's it. There is no separate "marriage record" versus "marriage certificate".

"One (1) original or certified true copy and four (4) photocopies of the Marriage Certificate or Contract (original will be returned)"

- See above question...

They also want an SASE to mail back the "Report of Marriage", whatever that is. I'm not sure why I'd want back the forms I just sent them. What do they send back when the report is acknowledged?

Thanks again!

Thanks very much! Hopefully they won't mind that the marriage was 3 years ago. At first glance, the form looks confusing... I'll search for answers before asking for some specifics on the fields.