GaryKO

You sure do come up with some wild assumptions based on very little information!
The OP is planning to file a K2 visa for his fiancee daughter, the biological father does not want the child to go to the US with her mother. The OP asks.... "What's our recourse?"
The correct answer is: Your fiancee does not need the biological father permission to file a K2 visa, or his consent for the mother to take the child out of the Philippines. Do what your doing, try to convince him that his daughters place is with her mother, and the both of them would have a better chance for a good life in the US.
The OP said "They take turns taking care of the baby." He did not say the father is helping to support the child, or the father is providing money for food, shelter, clothing, medical attendance, education and transportation in keeping with the financial capacity of the family. He probably keeps the baby while the mother works and he sits at home all day and drinks tanduay all day! Yeah I can make some wild assumptions also.
This is the way the fathers constitutional rights to visitation works. It's up the the mother and father of the child to come to a agreement on what visitation will be, and with that comes the duty of the father to provide support for the child. "No support then no visitation". If they cannot come to a written agreement on visitation and support then the father would need to ask the court to decide. The court will allow visitation unless the father if found to be unfit, but they will also order support for the child. I applaud the OP's fiancee for allowing the father to have contact with his daughter, most unwed mothers don't allow this, they end all contact with the former boyfriend.
I know several single moms in the Philippines, my wife's older sister is one. Believe me it's not easy. Try supporting yourself and a baby on 10,000 PHP a month. To shame a mother for wanting a better life for herself and her baby is shameful. I'm proud of the OP that he is willing to accept his fiancee as being a single mom, and be willing to provide her and the daughter with a family style life, and give them both more opportunity than they would have in a poor country.
Some of you either think that the OP fiancee should leave the daughter in the Philippines, or that the OP should look for another woman that does not have kids, that I find remarkable!
As for anyone being blacklisted most times it is the man who has to leave the area for his own safety, if he does not step up to the plate and give his support, and do the right thing. Having a baby out of wedlock sometimes screws up both peoples lives, but with strong family support things seem to work out in the end. What is important is the mother and child they have the hardest row to hoe, the man.....well he will probably get another girl pregnant, and maybe even get married one day. Maybe he will learn some day if he wants kids then get married and have some.....

Because there is no divorce in the PI when this topic comes up people get so confused, even Filipinos don't understand the process of annullment, what the process is to end a marriage recorded in the PI, after a divorce in another country. The family code of the Philippines is not well written and does not address the OP situation. The OP really needs to seek the advise of a PI lawyer before she goes tries to get dual citizenship...
1. The family code of the Philippines is for Filipinos only.
2. The OP is a US citizen now, the family code no longer applies to her.
3. She was US citizen at time of her divorce, she is just as divorced in the PI, as in the USA now.
4. She is no longer a Filipino citizen, so she can't have her divorce judicially recognized, get annulment, as of now she is no longer married in the PI.
5. What happens if she gets her Filipino citizenship back? Will she be married again to husband #1? If she get re-married will the marriage to husband #2 be null and void in the PI, because she still married to husband #1? The family code does not address this.
She needs to talk to a lawyer in the PI before she gets dual citizenship, or she may end up in a catch 22 situation, I am sure there is a way to do this and be able to get her dual citizenship and have her divorce recognized, just I don't know exactly how, and no one here does either...

If you get a divorce in the US and you are the one seeking the divorce (the plaintiff) then the Filipino citizen can have the foreign divorce recognized by the Philippine court. What you want to ask about is recognition of a foreign decree of divorce by the Philippine courts, she will need a lawyer for this. This is the easiest, quickest way and least costly.
As a American citizen, if you get a divorce in the US then you will be divorced, you do not need a annulment in the Philippines. The Filipino citizen is the one who would need to have the courts recognize that foreign divorce in the Philippines, before she would legally be divorced in the Philippines and free to remarry.

There is a 10 day waiting period from the time the marriage license application is filled out until a marriage license is issued. The application is posted on a bulletin board for 10 days to give notice of the planned marriage in case someone wants to object to the marriage.
Have your Fiancee ask the Local civil registrar if it would be possible for her alone to apply for the marriage license, since you are out of the country and would have a problem being in the PI for the time needed to complete this process. They allow this sometimes, and do it a lot with Filipinos getting married if one of them needs to travel a distance so both can fill out the application in person. Just have your Fiancee ask about this and what documents you will need to send in advance, and what documents you need when you arrive in the PI to get the marriage license.

The CFO is still very necessary, and for the most part does a good job. Some that do not understand the ugly truth about the Philippines think this process is just a way for the government to make a few more pesos. The truth is every year thousands of Filipino women leave the PI seeking a better life by marrying someone from another country. A lot of the marriages are arraigned, or brokered by illegal matchmaking agencies. While mail order brides is illegal in the PI, it still goes on there, because in other countries it is legal. The reason the CFO asks all those questions, and wants all those other documents is because they are trying to find out if a third party introduced the Filipina to their husband, or future husband.
The arranged marriages is clearly a form of human trafficking. Lots of these women go to Korea and Japan, and some wind up being nothing but cooks, maids, babysitters, or even worse forced into the sex trade and prostitution. The CFO tries to find out if someone is coercing them to contract marriage with a foreigner, and if getting married is really what they want to do. A lot of women are 18 to 25 years old and they think they will be helping their family by marrying a foreigner. Even the women family in some cases is the very ones who is encouraging her to get married.
The CFO cannot look at someone and tell if they are a victim of human trafficking, so they try to find that out during the interview. If there are any red flags, the interview and the request for more documents can seem like a interrogation more than a interview. If the woman is 18-25 years old, there is a large age difference, or her husband or fiancee has divorced more than one time, and she can't answer simple questions about him can set off alarms.
Under Philippine law, Filipino women who are going overseas as fiancees and spouses of foreign nationals are required to attend the CFO's guidance and counseling program to help them make informed decisions regarding their marriage to foreign nationals and to prepare them for their adjustments in cross-cultural marriages. Attending the program is a per-requisite for the issuance of a passport.
I think the counseling program is about the only tool the Philippines has in identifying Filipino women who are mail-order brides, or women who are getting married for the wrong reasons. That why it is still necessary.

The CFO is still very necessary, and for the most part does a good job. Some that do not understand the ugly truth about the Philippines think this process is just a way for the government to make a few more pesos. The truth is every year thousands of Filipino women leave the PI seeking a better life by marrying someone from another country. A lot of the marriages are arraigned, or brokered by illegal matchmaking agencies. While mail order brides is illegal in the PI, it still goes on there, because in other countries it is legal. The reason the CFO asks all those questions, and wants all those other documents is because they are trying to find out if a third party introduced the Filipina to their husband, or future husband.
The arranged marriages is clearly a form of human trafficking. Lots of these women go to Korea and Japan, and some wind up being nothing but cooks, maids, babysitters, or even worse forced into the sex trade and prostitution. The CFO tries to find out if someone is coercing them to contract marriage with a foreigner, and if getting married is really what they want to do. A lot of women are 18 to 25 years old and they think they will be helping their family by marrying a foreigner. Even the women family in some cases is the very ones who is encouraging her to get married.
The CFO cannot look at someone and tell if they are a victim of human trafficking, so they try to find that out during the interview. If there are any red flags, the interview and the request for more documents can seem like a interrogation more than a interview. If the woman is 18-25 years old, there is a large age difference, or her husband or fiancee has divorced more than one time, and she can't answer simple questions about him can set off alarms.
Under Philippine law, Filipino women who are going overseas as fiancees and spouses of foreign nationals are required to attend the CFO's guidance and counseling program to help them make informed decisions regarding their marriage to foreign nationals and to prepare them for their adjustments in cross-cultural marriages. Attending the program is a per-requisite for the issuance of a passport.
I think the counseling program is about the only tool the Philippines has in identifying Filipino women who are mail-order brides, or women who are getting married for the wrong reasons. That why it is still necessary.

If you get a divorce in the US and you are the one seeking the divorce (the plaintiff) then the Filipino citizen can have the foreign divorce recognized by the Philippine court. What you want to ask about is recognition of a foreign decree of divorce by the Philippine courts, she will need a lawyer for this. This is the easiest, quickest way and least costly.
As a American citizen, if you get a divorce in the US then you will be divorced, you do not need a annulment in the Philippines. The Filipino citizen is the one who would need to have the courts recognize that foreign divorce in the Philippines, before she would legally be divorced in the Philippines and free to remarry.

So your high morals and standards does not allow you to marry a much younger woman, but the same morals and standards do allow you travel 8000 miles to find a wife and marry someone from another race and bring Amerasians kids into the world? That would be against lots of peoples morals! The fact that lots of people would not consider a mixed race marriage would keep you from doing so? You don't think men who marry a much younger woman took in to consideration what the future holds for both of them? What would your wife do if you died early? My wife would be very well off, if I died tomorrow or die in a nursing home.

Divorce in USA, make sure you are the one who files for divorce, that way she can have the foreign divorce recognized in the Philippines. You do not file for annulment, she just needs to have the foreign divorce judicially recognized in the Philippines. This is good for you too, that way both can remarry in the Philippines if the want too.
If you can agree on things, you can get divorce papers on the internet, and file them with your court office yourself and save hundreds.

She is probably starving to death, take her to a Filipino grocery store!

She is probably starving to death, take her to a Filipino grocery store!

I lived in the Philippines for about 4 years I know a little bit . The civil court system is for those who can afford it, most cannot. This father clearly cannot afford to go to court and prove he is the father of the child to get visitation rights, and the woman cannot afford to file suit for support. So that is how the system works for poor people. They agree on visitation and support or they do not.
The way I look at things is, if a father wants to be a part of his kids born out of wedlock life then be the father needs to help support those kids, if he is not willing to do that then he is not much of a father, the mother would be correct in keeping her kids away from a low life like that.
My wife has a 4 year college degree and was a elementary school teacher in the PH making $4800.00 a year, in the US she is going to school to get her teaching certificate here, she has a job as a pre-school kindergarten teacher and she now makes about $20k a year. Talk to her about opportunity in the Philippines.

You seriously need to do better research.

According to Atty. Christine Florido of Philippine Legal Counseling:


My sister-in-law supports herself, her son, Mama, Papa, and Lola on less in the province. People learn to make due with what they have and work hard to stretch those resources to their limits.
This attitude of living in the US as being superior to living in the Philippines is beyond racist. It is untrue. The lifestyles between the two are different but one is not superior to the other. There is just as much, if not more, opportunity for the young woman to succeed if her kano boyfriend moved to the Philippines. There are plenty of people that live in the Philippines as well as, or even better than, many middle-class and affluent families do in the US. A foreign woman in the US has to deal with language barriers, racism, and our rather anti-immigrant society; All of which makes it more difficult for her to succeed outside the home until she acclimates or moves to a community that is atypical of normal American culture.
I don't believe I have ever met a woman that didn't claim an ex was anything but a deadbeat, especially when she's talking about him to her new beau. How about you actually do some legwork and hire a local private investigator (a common job here for expats by the way) to find out the truth behind the father's status and financial situation.
How likely is it that this woman doesn't have friends and family that are going to gossip about her kano boyfriend and her future move? I wonder just how the posters on this board would feel if the advice they give just ends up getting this poor woman beaten or killed. Women are murdered here in Manila for far less and the people responsible get away scott-free. A unmarried mother has about the lowest social status of anyone in the Philippines. I've witnessed homeless men treated with better respect. No one is going to come to her aid if something goes wrong without a lot of money being used to buy the influence required. Is the OP ready to start paying for legal bills to get the courts and local officials involved?
In the end, what matters is that, yes, the women can legally move the child outside of the Philippines with the help of the US government providing a visa. The woman has to accept though that she does so at a risk to herself and her child if she ever returns to the Philippines and opens her family up to reprisals, all depending on the resources, tenacity, and spite the father holds over the mother. The OP has to consider all of the legal, financial, and moral implications involved in severing a father from his daughter regardless of legitimacy. I honestly question the veracity of the responses given in this thread if the situations were reversed and a woman wanted to take her daughter from the US and separate a father from his flesh and blood. I find the awful pro-American/anti-Philippine bent on this forum rather disgusting at times.

You sure do come up with some wild assumptions based on very little information!
The OP is planning to file a K2 visa for his fiancee daughter, the biological father does not want the child to go to the US with her mother. The OP asks.... "What's our recourse?"
The correct answer is: Your fiancee does not need the biological father permission to file a K2 visa, or his consent for the mother to take the child out of the Philippines. Do what your doing, try to convince him that his daughters place is with her mother, and the both of them would have a better chance for a good life in the US.
The OP said "They take turns taking care of the baby." He did not say the father is helping to support the child, or the father is providing money for food, shelter, clothing, medical attendance, education and transportation in keeping with the financial capacity of the family. He probably keeps the baby while the mother works and he sits at home all day and drinks tanduay all day! Yeah I can make some wild assumptions also.
This is the way the fathers constitutional rights to visitation works. It's up the the mother and father of the child to come to a agreement on what visitation will be, and with that comes the duty of the father to provide support for the child. "No support then no visitation". If they cannot come to a written agreement on visitation and support then the father would need to ask the court to decide. The court will allow visitation unless the father if found to be unfit, but they will also order support for the child. I applaud the OP's fiancee for allowing the father to have contact with his daughter, most unwed mothers don't allow this, they end all contact with the former boyfriend.
I know several single moms in the Philippines, my wife's older sister is one. Believe me it's not easy. Try supporting yourself and a baby on 10,000 PHP a month. To shame a mother for wanting a better life for herself and her baby is shameful. I'm proud of the OP that he is willing to accept his fiancee as being a single mom, and be willing to provide her and the daughter with a family style life, and give them both more opportunity than they would have in a poor country.
Some of you either think that the OP fiancee should leave the daughter in the Philippines, or that the OP should look for another woman that does not have kids, that I find remarkable!
As for anyone being blacklisted most times it is the man who has to leave the area for his own safety, if he does not step up to the plate and give his support, and do the right thing. Having a baby out of wedlock sometimes screws up both peoples lives, but with strong family support things seem to work out in the end. What is important is the mother and child they have the hardest row to hoe, the man.....well he will probably get another girl pregnant, and maybe even get married one day. Maybe he will learn some day if he wants kids then get married and have some.....

Yeah this is kind of what a Filipino citizen would do if divorced from a foreign spouse. File a recognized divorce decree from the Phills court with NSO and get a updated CENOMAR showing the former marriage then the divorce/annulment of marriage. If that is what they are telling the OP to do, then they maybe they think he is a former Philippine citizen.
I know what the rules say about filing for a marriage application, but this is the way it works in the Philippines. If you have a relative that lives in another municipality then you can use their address for the application. What matters is the address match the district. The Filipina just says she is living with her Aunt, Cousin, Brother, Friend... ect if asked. After you get the marriage license then you can be married anywhere in the Phills. This happens a lot, Filipinas meet their soon to be husband in Manila and they start the process of getting a marriage license there. Funny you mention Quezon City as one place that quit accepting the embassy affidavits, this was the number one place in the Philippines to apply for a marriage license because you could download the application online and fill it out ahead of time, and they were easy to deal with. They would even let only one person file the application if the other party lived far away, like the USA..... Just don't confuse the local registrar with the facts, that you have a previous marriage to a Filipino.

1. Although divorce by Filipinos is not recognized in the Philippines; divorce by the foreign spouse of a Filipino is recognized in the Philippines.
2. A person that is not a Filipino citizen cannot get a CENOMAR.
3. He was married and divorced in the USA he is subject to US laws and not the Family Code of the Philippines.
4. Ever since the landmark Supreme Court ruling on Republic vs. Orbecido (G.R. No. 154380, October 5, 2005), recognition of divorce in the Philippines has been defined more clearly.
Under Art. 26 of the Family Code, it is stated:
“Art. 26. All marriages solemnized outside the Philippines, in accordance with the laws in force in the country where they are solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except those prohibited under Articles 35(1),(4), (5), (6), 36, 37 and 38.
Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law."
It is this second paragraph of Art. 26 that enables a Filipino spouse to remarry once his/her foreigner spouse obtains a divorce.
Alicia V. Sempio-Dy, in her book Handbook on the Family Code of the Philippines, explained the background behind the second paragraph of Art. 26:
“Under the second paragraph of the above Article, where a Filipino is married to a foreigner and the latter thereafter obtains a valid divorce abroad capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall likewise have the capacity to remarry under the Philippine law.
The provision was not originally approved by the Civil Code Revision Committee but it was presented and approved at a Cabinet meeting after Pres. (Corazon) Aquino had already signed the Family Code as Exec. Order No. 209. Hence, the President promulgated another Executive Order No. 227-amending Art. 26 of the Code by including this provision as a second paragraph therein.
The idea of the amendment is to avoid the absurd situation of a Filipino as being still married to his or her alien spouse, although the latter is no longer married to the Filipino spouse because he or she had obtained a divorce abroad which is recognized by his or her national law.
The amendment will also solve the problem of many Filipino women who, under the Philippines Civil Code, are still considered married to their alien husbands even after the latter have already validly divorced them under their (the husbands) national laws and perhaps have already married again."
I think the OP has already confused the local registrar where his wife resides by telling them that her fiance was married to a Filipina and divorced, and how to clean things up at the NSO. I can see they really know the law if they are telling him he needs a CENOMAR.
Lots of myths about marriage and divorce laws in the Philippines, just remember the Family Code of the Philippines is for citizens of the Philippines.
I had zero problem getting married in the Philippines, lucky I had a local registrar that knew the law and accepted my divorce papers.

You know what I ment NSO not NFO, I just did this year, what your doing, so I speak of from experience.
You have a Marriage Cert on record, "Cenmar", that shows you were married to a Filipino citizen, I have 2 of them on record. Divorce papers show you are divorced. What you need to get a marriage license in the Philippines is not a cenomar, its a Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Marry from US Embassy.

You are making this way more complicated than what it is. Based on personal experience all you need is "Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of Legal Capacity to Marry" from US Embassy and citified copies of your divorce papers in order to get a marriage license in the Philippines. The problem is the Local Registrar may interpret the rules different. Normally the Philippines recognizes divorce by a foreigner, the Filipino ex-spouse is the one who needs to have the divorce recognized by Philippine courts in order for her to be free to remarry.
Normally there is a ten-day waiting period before the marriage license is issued by the registrar's office. In some instances the fiancée may apply in advance for the marriage license with the local civil registrar. The American citizen must then obtain the affidavit of legal capacity upon arrival in the Philippines and file it immediately with the civil registrar where the fiancée applied for the marriage license. A marriage license cannot be obtained by a fiancée without presence of the prospective spouse.
Some get confused about the marriage application and the marriage license, marriage applications are applied for all the time in the Philippines by only one of the parties because it may be almost impossible for one of them to travel to apply in person together, they only need to pick up the marriage license together. If one Local Registrar will not do that, then check with another municipality, all you need is a local address to apply for a marriage license.
Don't worry about NFO that is for Filipino citizens.

Oh I see the problem now! You are not aware that the Philipine congress amended the Family Code. It was always easy in mixed marriages for the alien spouse to divorce his Filipino spouse in another county then remarry in the Philippines without having to get the Philippine court to sign off on the divorce. Now I'm sure there were some cases where they owned property or maybe kids involved or other reasons that caused the need to get the Philippine court to approve foreign divorces. In the majority of cases the alien spouse only needed the divorce decree to get a marriage license in the Philippines.
The Supreme ruling you reference which states that a foreign divorce decree be recognized before it can be enforced by the court in the Philippines made in one sided, the alien was free to remarry anywhere, but the Filipino spouse could was not free to remarry unless first getting the foreign divorce recognized in the Philippines, even in the foreign country where the divorce was granted.
This was amended a couple of times and most recent this year. Now marriage in cases where divorce is validly obtained abroad the alien spouse and recognizes divorce obtained by the alien spouse in another country without the need to seek judicial recognition or enforcement of the foreign judicial degree of absolute divorce.
The amended law overturns the 2001 ruling and now make it easier for the Filipino spouse it puts both the alien spouse and the Filipino spouse on equal playing fields. Now if the alien spouse divorces the Filipino spouse in a foreign country all the Filipino spouse needs to send a copy of the divorce to the Philippine embassy in the country where the divorce was obtained. The measure also provides that the registration of the Foreign Judicial Decree of Absolute Divorce in the Civil Registry shall be sufficient enough for the issuance of marriage license.
Some restrictions still apply, like if a Filipino marries another Filipino then later becomes a citizen of a foreign country then divorces his Filipino spouse the new changes would not apply.

I know this is hard to understand, but the only time you need the Philippines to judicially recognized a foreign divorce is if your a Filipino citizen, or a former Filipino citizen and not a US citizen at the time you were married in the PI, if you were a US citizen at the time you were married in the Philippines then later divorced in the US then you don't need the Philippines to do anything special to recognize your divorce, they already recognize it because your a non-citizen and your not subject to Philippine law concerning divorce. You are free to remarry in the Philippines.
As for as the Filipino spouse it depends if they are still a green card holder, or a US citizen, or a Dual Citizen . This is who would need to have judicial decree in Philippine courts to declare the Filipino spouse qualified to remarry.
Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law. Some exceptions to this apply.
As for as US citizens are concerned they treat a divorce to a Filipino citizen just like any divorce to a non-Filipino citizen. You just show all your divorce papers when you file for the marriage application. That is the only time it will come up, and of course at the CFO.
Been there and did all of that, never had a problem.

This is correct, the marriage certificate, and the divorce decree "judicial decree" from us court.

Exactly the way it works in the Philippines, don't matter if your getting a marriage license or doing other business with national, region, or local government tell them what you need and then do what they say you need to do.
I found many years ago no law, rule or regulation is written in stone in the Phills, how they interrupt the laws in different parts of the Phills may differ greatly. Some may think paying a judge a couple of thousand peso's to release a marriage license early is a bribe or it is illegal, this is crazy. Your a visitor in a foreign country all you can do is ask, and then do what they tell you to do. It's their country they know the laws better that a visitor does.
When I was married in the Phills on our planned wedding date the weather forecast called for 100% change of heavy rain and local flooding. Since we were having a outside civil wedding this was bad news, during the pre marriage counseling the judge that was doing the counseling suggested we get married a few days early to avoid getting the wedding and the reception ruined because of the weather. I told him that the 10 day wait would not be up until the 11th of the month and we getting married on the 12th. He said no problem with that, it's just a notice to get anyone a chance to object to the wedding, this is more for locals not real important for a foreigner. He did not ask for a bribe he was happy to allow this.
If you have plenty of time "3 weeks" then by all means follow the family code of the Philippines, but if you are time limited then have your fiancée check with the local government officials, explain the situation and see if anything can be done to speed up the process. In the end if you have get a NSO "CENMAR" (MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE) you will have a legal marriage, this is all the Embassy cares about, not if you waited 10 days.
If anyone has knowledge of someone who had a visa denied, or a marriage declared void because they did not wait for 10 days for the marriage license to be released I would like to hear from them............

Yes and Yes, if TSA can't open locks they will cut them off. I never lock my bags. You can carry snacks in carry on.

If the airport tax in the Philippines piss you off, then you better not check your US ticket. All the taxes are added to your ticket price, so maybe you did not notice.
The U.S. government imposes an "excise" tax of 7.5 percent of the fare on all domestic tickets. By Department of Transportation (DOT) rules, airlines must include that tax in their advertised fares.
Airlines can omit other government fees and taxes from their published fares, but the government requires that airlines collect them at the time you buy your ticket. Taxes and fees include $3.30 per flight segment, with a maximum of four segments charged on any round-trip ticket, plus a $2.50 fee per departure to fund security—a fee that might be going up soon.
Individual airports are allowed to impose "passenger facility charges" (PFCs) up to $4.50 per departure, with a maximum of four fees per round-trip ticket.
U.S. government taxes and fees on international tickets are much higher.
The government charges a departure fee of $14.50 and an arrival fee of $14.50 on international flight tickets—again, collected when you buy the ticket.
The U.S. also charges returning passengers $7 for immigration, $5 for customs services, and $5 to fund animal and plant inspections. These, too, are collected when you buy a ticket.

This happens all the time. A lot of older people cannot speak Tagalog or English. The Embassy will provide a Interpreter for most Filipino dialects, instructions are: Embassy personnel are available to provide assistance at each stage. Applicants who require interpreters must inform the interviewing officer on the day of their interview. There is no need to bring a relative or a friend to act as an interpreter as the Embassy can provide language assistance when an applicant requests for it.