Samuel and Marvic

Thanks, much appreciated for the feedback. I wasn't really worried too much having spend the last few years lurking the site gathering info and all, just wanted to make sure I'm using the right verbage since the guides use an example of a single couple with no kids rather than the one I'm in. Far easier dealing with the US-side of things than I did with the Philippines, I'll say that for sure!

I just had a quick question regarding what to put into the 'Current USCIS Status' and 'Expires on' field for my wife and child who came in under K-1/K-2 visas respectively. They entered the country back in December of last year, and due to some financial restraints I was unable to file until just now. When I was first going to submit, I know that I would have put "K-1 Visa Holder" and the original expiration date of the i-94 (3/2/13 if I recall), but now I'm not sure if I need to put something like "Overstay" in the expiration field or what?

We were married on January 1st so we're within compliance of the i-94 requirements, I just wanted to make sure I'm putting the right info in before sending the paperwork off. Thanks for any help you guys can provide!

We are pleased to inform you that a fiancée (K1) nonimmigrant visa was issued to the applicant on November 20, 2012.

The visa packet will be delivered to the applicant’s designated address by guaranteed courier service. Please allow 7 to 10 business days for the courier service to complete its delivery.

Visa delivery inquiries may be directed to the 2GO Customer Service Department at telephone number (63) (2) 528-7136.

I don't know about you guys...but I certainly believe in miracles. I'm in tears right now.

Hm... after rereading this... the issue is that the clause says once she enters the US soil, i dont know if they will check her passport and stuff from LAX to SAN, Never having done this before ( this is my first and only marriage ) I just want to make sure.

Her port of entry is LAX, so all of her stuff for immigration legality purposes will be checked then. From there, the flight from LAX to SAN is domestic so they'll just need her identification (which she may as well use her passport for that) with no immigration officer involvement. Worst case scenario, they'll double-check her passport to verify she has a legal stamp granting entry to the country, but that'll be a quick 10-15 second ordeal that shouldn't require any kind of questioning from TSA security when heading into the terminal.

LOL

Lovin them ladyboys, are we?

Lol, no she's ALL woman for sure! Her daughter definitely proves that for sure!

***

The whole situation here has been rather taxing emotionally and mentally on me, goes without saying. I'm keeping my head up and focusing on the good of everything we've been through thus far, staying positive and praying that the Consular Officer assigned my case has a "hot streak" and approves us very soon. It's all I can really do at this point, and in the meantime I'm going to not waste a minute with my fiance. It's been an amazing journey so far, and as we keep going forward even despite the pain and struggle we've had to endure, I'm putting one foot in front of the other and reminding her all she means to me.

Sorry for the stress everyone, I appreciate the kind words for sure. Things have just come to a major breaking point with my fiance right now, and trying to keep hope together for us. If I'm to be candidly honest, she's having doubts about the whole process, we've been fighting for it for so long that she's talking about potentially stopping it altogether because she misses when things were simpler and our time apart is getting to her (not to mention her cultural sense of obligation to her family). I know saying that around here is practically a death sentence to some, but I'm keeping the faith that things can pull through for us.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and throwing all the prayers I can into the air that some consular officer responsible for our case by chance sees ours and can bless us with a Christmas miracle a little early...

Do you happen to know if those USA numbers allow me to use the same extension numbers to reach an IV rep?

I really wish I could relax at this point, it's just stressful that we're coming close to the holiday season and I really want to be able to spend Christmas with my girls. Had the non-USEM processes gone smoothly she would've been on her way here months ago, and yet here we are and my fiance is at a breaking point due to the stress (which in turn is causing additional stress on me I suppose). I'm trying to relax for sure, but when I just want straight answers when it's something so very basic and simple that needed a follow-up, it's really hard to be patient after being in this process for so long and seeing quite a few people getting their approvals and marriages after applying the same time we got our NOA2. Trying to breath here, promise!

Okay, NOW I'm starting to get frustrated with the embassy itself. I've been calling nonstop for the last four hours to the IV number (632-301-2000 Ext. 5184/5185), and thus far none of my calls have connected. I've blown through a good 10 dollars in long distance since I can get the automated voice to dial the extension, but then when I do that it rings twice and then disconnects. I've already e-mailed them about this case a few times, but I know that getting someone on the phone can have more impact than just sitting on my thumbs hoping they read an e-mail instead of skimming over it for keywords. Really gets on my nerves that the embassy can get away from flat-out ignoring phone calls like this, you'd think there'd be some sort of "service standard" they'd want to follow or something to at least address calls they receive.

Hahaha, 8:1 odds you say? Well, may the odds ever be in my favor!

Thanks for the responses all, believe me when I say I am not the one frustrated with the USEM. My fiance has been dealing with the stress of dealing with inept government workers on the Philippine side not knowing how to do their job. More specifically, we actually did in fact submit the correction paperwork over 4 months ago; however thanks to the oversight of the local registrar, we had to start the 3-week process all over again because they submitted the wrong forms to the NSO and thus didn't have the right documentation on file the first time around (none of the paperwork aside from the NBI have been simple and straightforward, we've been getting hassles at every turn). She's had to fly back and forth several times to Bicol from Manila, all the while having to care for her daughter whom we're bringing in with a K-2 visa (no issues on her stuff thankfully).

I guess you could say I'm playing the part of a dutiful future husband by being patient for the both of us, lol. Still, it is still frustrating that things like birth certificate corrections and requests are so simple in the US but are nearly impossible to do within a reasonable timeframe there. I think the biggest aggravation I have is if the process didn't take SEVEN WEEKS (same process twice) to get the correct birth certificate, we would have had everything right then and there for the interview.

Does the corrected birth certificate already in the US embassy? If not try; to called the embassy and inquire if they got the corrected NSO birth certificate. And if ever they got it always follow-up them 2 to 3 times a week to make sure that it is being forwarded to the CO. In that case the CO will review the document and that your visa will be approve and release.

Thankfully I did confirm that they did receive the birth certificate via an e-mail a few days ago. I called last night (Friday morning) to verify it was forwarded to a CO; I'll be following up on Monday to confirm this as well. It's all I really can do at this point, so hopefully enough squawking will get that released to us before Christmas.

Being frustrated with USEM for something that is not their fault is silly, you all had about 5-6 months during the petition stage of this process to correct the BC....

Like I mentioned before, we started the correction process back in May (when we discovered the issue when she was getting her passport). Had the LCRO and NSO done their job correctly the first time, we would've had the thing in hand months ago. I don't blame them by any means, but seeing as we're done dealing with the NSO, I guess all of her "energy" needs to be directed somewhere, lol. She just wants us to be together for the holidays, and I certainly want that as well; I'm just hoping and praying it doesn't take much longer.

Did you get extra copies of the BC to bring to the states? If not, now that you have time while you wait, may be a good idea to request extra copies... you will need them from time to time.

I made sure we requested an additional 6 copies "just in case" lol. The less I have to deal with the NSO in the future the better, I say!

Not me, but excuse me while I vent a bit. My fiance is getting rather frustrated and upset with the whole immigration process, no thanks in part due to the ridiculous process it has taken to get her corrected birth certificate taken care of. She was listed as male rather than female on her BC, and we got it corrected one day too late for the interview, so we were given a 221G to submit the corrected one via NSO Pasay. We submitted it and it supposedly arrived on the 9th of November.

What are our chances of getting the visa by the end of the month at this rate? I know that it varies from case to case, but I'm just wanting to hear what the average timeframe people have been having with documents sent from the NSO to the USEM. That was the only thing that was missing, and they said they had everything they needed.

using my uid it says invalid

ok last thing to do is to call the embassy, i didn't want to bother them due to the fact it hasn't been a week yet and all i really do want to know is if the document was received.

Knowing how 2Go works (or any courier service for that matter), sometimes their tracking information slips through the cracks and the information could very well be received in advance of any notification. I can't count the number of times I've sent or received packages from 2Go, UPS, etc. that would either not show tracking information or would be showing as "leaving" when it's already arrived where it needed to go.

Call 2Go first to confirm if the tracking number is correct, and if you could get an update on the status. If it is at least shipped, confirm the approximate timeframe for delivery. Once that date is met, call the embassy and verify it was received.

As for the embassy itself, don't be timid in dealing with them. It's not like you're demanding for an approval or anything, you are simply wanting to comply with their request for documentation and want to be assertive that they have received those documents. At worst, it hasn't arrived yet. They're much faster to get on the line than the general inquiries phone number (most of my calls last more than 5-10 minutes, and that's even when dialing in), so just make the call and get your answers. It may not be the one you want right away (ie they don't have it), but they do keep records of your calls so you can show that you are being proactive in taking care of their request.

i used it almost every day for 3 years when my wife was still in Manila

it was very rare for us to not get a message from one another

not saying it never happened buy was rare. not sure why you had trouble with it

could it be your ISP?? i was on verizon at the time with one of those little "sticks" that goes in a laptop

It's the phone app that does this to me, when I'm at my PC it works fine (however I'm not really at my desk too often so I usually chat through my phone). It may be my phone, I dunno, but I use Verizon for it as well.

Chikka is not the best, but it at least allows you to be able to send texts to Smart and Globe with decent turnaround time. I used to use Pinger, but they discontinued the free texting for the Philippines. The good news about it though is since it is a PI number, the rates for responding are comparable to any other local number (you have a number assigned to you when you sign up).

One caveat I have towards Chikka is that unless you refresh the application fairly consistently, it will in fact disconnect from the network and any messages sent to that number for you will be lost in the ether (happens every 15 minutes it seems :/).

I knew about the menstruation thing, but I had no idea about the sexual contact thing (and I scour these boards like crazy due to the complicated mess my specific case had gotten into, lol). I suppose I can use this to tease my fiance since she couldn't stop telling me how all these girls were with their significant others while going through the medical process this week.

Congrats!

Nice to hear! With RA 10172 we're breathing a little easier over here, but I'm certainly going to get all that stuff in the system at least so if there are questions asked.

Congrats again, and good luck in your trip!

Congrats, I'm happy for you!

...so you knew this question was coming, did they ask about your Affidavit of Explanation for the birth certificate?

Demanding people give you a straight answer, even in their own experience, wouldn't guarantee you'd have the same experience. Any answer you get in this thread will not be grounds for admission or excuse should the immigration officer you deal with decides to either be lax or strict that day and hold you accountable.

If you're that strapped for cash that you cannot afford a $30 extension, I'd hate to think what you're going to be able to do for an Affidavit of Support should you intend to marry whomever it is you're going to go see.

For the last three hours or so, I've been getting nonstop e-mails (about one every 2 minutes) for notifications on a Philippine Embassy review being updated. I checked and it only appears that four were actually submitted (which were in reality two with duplicates each). I wasn't entirely sure if that would be reported here or not, but just wanted to give a heads up in case your e-mail system is going crazy.

Thanks!

And we're in!!

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=841692&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino signed the new law extending the power of local civil registrars to correct errors in birth certificates without any court order.

Correcting errors in date of birth and gender in birth certificates no longer needs court approval.

Republic Act 10172, which was signed by the President last Aug. 19, amended several provisions of Republic Act 9048.

It extended the coverage of exemptions to requirement of judicial approval for correction on entries in the birth certificate.

Under the new law, the city or municipal registrar may correct clerical or typographical errors in the day and month of date of birth or gender without a court order.

The previous law did not include the entries on date of birth and gender among the exemptions on court approval requirement and only specified entries on first name and nickname in the civil register.

Apart from this, the new law also specified where the fees for corrections in the birth certificate should go.

“The fees collected by the city or municipal civil registrar or consul general pursuant to this Act shall accrue to the funds of the Local Civil Registry Office concerned or the Office of the Consul General for modernization of the office and hiring of new personnel and procurement of supplies, subject to government accounting and auditing rules,” read Section 8 of RA 10172.

The new law is a consolidation of Senate Bill 3113 and House Bill 4530 that Congress passed last May 30 and June 5, respectively.

This is going to be huge for a lot of people here, spread the word to those who have birth date or gender issues on their BCs!

I'll give this visa process credit: I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about Philippine law in the last three weeks staring at the amendment to RA 9048 that's inevitably going to pass as law.

For those of you unaware of my past issues, my fiance has her gender incorrectly listed as male rather than female on her NSO-certified birth certificate. Normally under these circumstances, she would have to go through a judicial order and we'd pay through the nose (20Kp+) to get it corrected, with a processing time ranging from 6 months to a year (allegedly). Spending weeks trying to figure out a solution to expedite the process, I stumbled across this little treasure:

http://www.senate.gov.ph/lis/bill_res.aspx?congress=15&q=SBN-3113

AN ACT FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY OR MUNICIPAL CIVIL REGISTRAR OR THE CONSUL-GENERAL TO CORRECT CLERICAL OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS IN THE DAY AND MONTH IN THE DATE OF BIRTH OR SEX OF A PERSON APPEARING IN THE CIVIL REGISTER WITHOUT NEED OF A JUDICIAL ORDER, AMENDING FOR THIS PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED NINETY FORTY-EIGHT

Long story short: it eliminates the judicial order and makes the process as long as a typo on the first name (less than a month!). As of the last status, it was sitting as follows:

7/19/2012 Enrolled copies of the consolidated version of SBN-3113 and HBN-4530, sent to the Office of the President of the Philippines, for the signature and approval of His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III;

For those that are unaware, the Philippine law states that any bill that has been sent to the President and has not been signed nor vetoed within 30 days automatically becomes law as if it were signed. To compound on this fact that the timeframe has lapsed, two additional bills that were sitting on his desk that were sent at the same time have been designated with Republic Act numbers (The Data Privacy Act and the People's Survival Fund). Next in that list in numerical order? You guessed it: The Clerical or Typographical Error amendment here.

This isn't just huge for my fiance and I (which I swear is a gift from God with its timing), but it will greatly help those who are also experiencing issues with their birthdates or genders on their birth certificates being wrong. I've been hounding the NSO on an almost daily basis asking "is it here yet? is it here yet?" so I can submit the forms as needed right away for it.

Anyways, I'm just rambling because this will inevitably be updated when the law is put into affect so that those who need it can know exactly what to reference when they go into the Civil Registry to get their information corrected. Fingers crossed it is tomorrow, but you never know!

Ummm...now that I just said that...did anyone else happen to know the rule that bills automatically become law after 30 days if they aren't signed by the President?

http://www.senate.gov.ph/about/legpro.asp#Final_Legislative_Action

Final Legislative Action

After both houses have given final approval to a bill, a final copy of the bill, known as the “enrolled bill,” shall be printed, and certified as correct by the Secretary of the Senate and the Secretary General of the House of Representatives. After which, it will be signed by the Speaker of the House and the Senate President.

A bill may become a law, even without the President’s signature, if the President does not sign a bill within 30 days from receipt in his office. A bill may also become a law without the President’s signature if Congress overrides a presidential veto by two-thirds vote.

......

7/19/2012 Enrolled copies of the consolidated version of SBN-3113 and HBN-4530, sent to the Office of the President of the Philippines, for the signature and approval of His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III;

......

AN ACT FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE CITY OR MUNICIPAL CIVIL REGISTRAR OR THE CONSUL-GENERAL TO CORRECT CLERICAL OR TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS IN THE DAY AND MONTH IN THE DATE OF BIRTH OR SEX OF A PERSON APPEARING IN THE CIVIL REGISTER WITHOUT NEED OF A JUDICIAL ORDER, AMENDING FOR THIS PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NUMBERED NINETY FORTY-EIGHT

...keep us in your prayers people, it's possible I may have just had a miracle take place. I'm checking the news like a hawk on the 20th, the unthinkable may happen...

Want to see something extremely frustrating?

http://www.senate.gov.ph/lis/bill_res.aspx?congress=15&q=SBN-3113

This right here is the Senate's approval of the aforementioned amendment to the birth certificate clause to include gender changes not needing a judicial hearing. The kicker? It's sitting on the freaking President's desk since July 19th! The one thing that could take this alleged year-long processing time and strip it down to three freaking weeks is being held up by a freaking pen! >_<

Sorry, I just have to vent because I'm getting aggravated that people who got the NOA2 the same time I did are already getting visa approvals this week; if it weren't for this stupid hold-up, I could've easily had her here as soon as next week. It kills me that something this ridiculous is holding everything up! Argh!!

All he needs to do is sign the freaking thing, and then after the 15-day waiting period we'd be scott free!!

Just curious: How was your fiancee able to obtain her passport while having incorrect info on her BC? Maybe the day my fiancee went the clerk was just being extra-stubborn. Hahaha.

The clerks vary from day to day in their leniency I think. The first time my girl went there, they wouldn't process her because she didn't have a government-issued Photo ID at the time (Postal ID didn't count), so she had to get her old high school yearbook and school ID for that. It was after that when we discovered the discrepancy with her birth certificate she had on hand. They basically said they can go ahead and process her passport, but it would be tricky to renew unless we got it fixed.

I guess some days are just better than others for them. Too bad this (http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2012/02/03/bill-allows-correction-birth-details-without-court-orders-204120) hasn't passed yet, it'd be nice to not worry about going through a court judgement to get something fixed that seems so simple, ESPECIALLY since it adds so much unnecessary processing time to the process.