Mogambi

Why hasn't he been back for over three years?

I'm sorry that you're sad. But it's a shame that your fiance didn't read the rules. If so, he could have made a trip there, even for a week, before filing. Now maybe your only option is to withdraw the petition and start over, AFTER he comes to visit you. And make sure you document it well, boarding passes, photos, etc.

If you've already been away from him for three years, you might have to wait some more, but have faith. If it's real love, you can survive a bit longer to be together.

But no way around it, he needs to return to the Philippines.

I would suspect at this point you will have to pay the visa fee again, and schedule another interview.

But yes, you should have gone. They would have done everything else, and made you submit the AOS when you had it.

But bummer, and yes, as Hank said, never trust the USPS to send mail to Philippines. That letter might take two months to get there.

I would have him immediately resend it via FedEx, and being the process of scheduling another interview.

So there won't be 'dire' consequences to your not showing up, but you still should have shown up

There could be customs and taxes due if you're sending goods. But for documents only there will be no charges on the Philippines side.

DHL can sometimes be cheaper and they're also reliable to get to Ph.

Forget the post office. Letter I sent to my fiance would take 8 to 10 weeks to arrive there. And some never did.

That's correct, you're wrong in saying they do not accept Co-Sponsors, but I guess it's a good wake-up call to know that they don't HAVE to.

Appeal. What do you have to lose? Somewhere posted here recently on VJ that they were denied their visa because the CO didn't believe the relationship. It seemed clear that they just got a horrible CO, in a bad mood. They appealed, had another interview with another CO and it was approved.

I think you can try that route, it can't hurt. Ask for another interview. Tell them you believe your evidence was enough, and it should have been accepted. Maybe they'll let you try again. Might be a long shot, but better than starting over.

Did they tell you WHY they didn't accept your Co-Sponsor?

My fiance's visa was approved and we have it in hand. She's coming here August 8th. Although we aren't really planning on any of her family to be able to come over, I'm just curious if anyone here has done that? It seems like tourist visas from Ph are very hard to get? Just exploring how feasible it might be to even bring over her mother perhaps.

Just curious how hard it is.

Just want to make clear, because this was a huge point of stress when we filed our K1, you need to check, many countries will not issue police reports to non-nationals. In those cases, you will not be required to obtain one. My fiance lived and worked in Thailand and Kuwait, but was back living in the Philippines when we got engaged. Thailand police report was available, so we had to get it (it was a pain). But the Kuwait one is not given to non-nationals. So I was stressed for months, trying to find out how we could get it, because no one here or anywhere else just said 'not needed'. It took me months, consulting lawyers (they all had NO clue about it, just said to go the Kuwait embassy, who said no way, you can't have it). So here I am stressing forever thinking this is going to prevent our Visa. FINALLY I get someone at the US Embassy who states 'oh we know you can't get it from Kuwait, so don't worry about it, we won't ask for it, but you'll need the one from Thailand'.

Phew.

So my point is, according to the rules listed for Saudi, if you fiance leaves Saudi Arabia, she will no longer be able to get the Police Report. Which might make things easier.

Of course, maybe not a bad idea to get it while she's is there either way, if it's not too hard.

She should check which countries offer Police Certiicates. Some of the middle east countries, like Kuwait, will not give them to people who have already moved out of the country. Here is what it says about Saudi Arabia. Note that they do not give Police Reports to non-Saudis who have already left the country. This is the same for Kuwait. SOOOOOO if you happen to move back to Philippines and process your application from there, the US Embassy will not require a police report from Saudi Arabia, because you cannot obtain it. However, if you are processing in Saudi Arabia, you'll need to get it it sounds like:

Police Records

Police clearances are available for Saudi citizens and resident third country nationals. Saudi citizens currently residing overseas must return in person to process the police clearance.

Saudi citizens and third country nationals residing in the Kingdom process the police clearances by first obtaining a police clearance request letter from U.S. Embassy Riyadh, U.S. Consulate General Jeddah, or U.S. Consulate General Dhahran. This police clearance request letter, signed by a consular officer, must be attested by the Saudi Ministry of Affairs (current fee is SR30). The applicant must then appear personally with a passport-sized photograph and a national ID or residency permit at the regional Criminal Investigation Department for fingerprinting. Fingerprinting for women is done in a separate room. The police clearance should be available for collection after a week or two.

Police clearances are available for Saudi nationals residing outside of the Kingdom. The expatriate Saudi citizen obtains the police clearance by returning to the Kingdom and obtaining a police clearance request letter from U.S. Embassy Riyadh, U.S. Consulate General Jeddah, or U.S. Consulate General Dhahran. This police clearance request letter, signed by a consular officer, must be attested by the Saudi Ministry of Affairs (current fee is SR30). The applicant must then appear personally with the attested police clearance request letter, a passport-sized photograph and a national ID at the Regional Criminal Investigation Department for fingerprinting. Fingerprinting for women is done in a separate room. The police clearance should be available for collection after a week or two.

Police clearances are unavailable for third country nationals who no longer reside in the Kingdom.

The optimal time to conduct these procedures at the police stations is 10:00 Saturdays-Wednesdays.

Hiring a lawyer might not be a bad idea for an appeal, as a lawyer (I believe) can actually accompany you to the appeal and speak on your behalf. BUT you need to check on that.

I just don't agree with the others here that sending your fiancé money could possibly be a red flag. Almost all of us here have sent money to our fiancé's abroad and most guides talk about sending in money remittences as evidence of a relationship. I struggle to see how that could possibly be seen as a red flag. Since the point of the I-34 is to show that you are capable of supporting your fiancé when he/she comes over, how is starting to help support them before they get here a bad thing?

Someone explain how that can be a red flag.

Tax transcripts are fine, and for us, I just sent in my printout of the return my accountant emailed me, not 'original', and it was fine. There aren't really original tax records these days, it's all filed electronically.

I wrote in the real estate amount anyway, just writing it in is all you have to do, no other documentation needed, so it can't hurt.

Not a bad to send in your bank account info now that you already have it, but yeah, you probably didn't need it.

Since you aren't back in that country able to commit crimes there, a police report that's up to 6 months old I can't imagine would be a problem. But I would think that document could even be older and be OK. Again, if you're already outside the country, and haven't been back, then as long as the police report was issued after you left the country, it should make sense that it's still valid.

I think someone else posted that the NBI was good for six months, so I'd think you're at least save with that number.

Yeah no problem at all. IF it even came up, you would just say what you posted here, the truth, that you wanted a safe dependable address for your important papers.

Definitely no problem. A Mailing Address and Permanent Address are often different for people for the exact same reason.

http://tinyurl.com/7enyvq8

Unfortunately that link seems to indicate that possession of child pornography IS considered a crime of moral turptitude. So now the question is, if it's the petitioner that has been convicted, is it something that can stop the visa in the way it could if it was the beneficiary? Probably only a lawyer can tell you.

I just printed out screen captures of various Skype chats. They never asked to see them.

Unfortunately this is most likely one of the crimes they would consider 'moral turpitude' or whatever it's called and very likely cause for the denial of a visa. For sure you need to talk to an immigration lawyer to figure out how best to proceed.

Child Pornography (I know the circumstances, just calling it was the conviction was for) is about one of the most serious of crimes here, they take it very seriously.

But usually, moral turpitude crimes are property crimes, murder, serious drug offenses. But this might be tricky...

You have no choice but to be honest, and yes, it would be much worse if YOU were the one with that past, so actually good question, how his record will affect you I'm not sure...

Pay for an hour or two with an immigration attorney for sure.

Oh we're actually done with the interview and CFO and we have our visa, I was just curious...

There are so many Visaya speakers in Manila. My fiancé constantly can tell as soon as she starts talking to someone, and it seems most of our cab drivers are Visayan. And English is very widely spoken. She would have no problems in Manila.

Ah OK, thanks. Was just curious, hadn't really thought of the NOAs as 'packets' since they are a single page

In Manila I almost never found myself in a place where everyone I was dealing with didn't speak enough english to get by. So I wouldn't worry about that.

Without diving in too far, can I ask why she has to 'stay' in Manila? The medical takes two days, she'd have to stay overnight. But couldn't she return home, and then just go to Manila for the interview? Seems weird that she has to stay in Manila for a month. Many people just travel there as they need.

Just curious, since they refer to the packet sent to the fiance as Packet 3. Why 3? Was there at some point a packet 1 or a packet 2?

My fiance didn't know how to swim either. We have a condo in Manila that has three big pools, and two months ago they were offering swimming lessons so she signed up. Pretty cute, it was almost all little kids, and then my fiance. But she had fun, and feels more comfortable in the water. I think the assumption that since you live near the ocean you learn to swim. But lots of areas of coastline aren't conducive to swimming, and my fiance grew up in Mindinao, not near the ocean.

I think many Filipinos don't know how to swim.

Well if the CO asks why there aren't more picture of you with family, then just tell the truth, what you have told us.

Do NOT however, go there and attempt to shoot a ton of pictures in short notice. Ideally you'll have pictures with time and state stamps and they show a variety of timeframes. Not always possible (for a person who has only visited once for example).

Just do your best. 20 photos should be more than plenty. And again, the trick with all the records, phone logs, emails, etc, is to be selective, choose a set that covers the widest timeframe as possible (from as early on as you have, to the most recent before the interview).

Also you can use 'liquid' assets as well to help, like savings and checking accounts depending on how much is in them, can help offset a lower income.

Unfortunately the review process varies greatly. Some people seem to have gone into review and emerged 2 weeks later. For some people, months have gone by and they are still in review

Pray and hope for the best. But there isn't much you can really do except wait....

Do not hire an attorney. They will make you do all the work too, and just check over your paperwork. You have to do most of the legwork, gathering documents, photos, filing out forms. There is very little the attorney will do that you can't find help here for free!

But forget about the ASAP part of your post, be prepared that it will take 8 to 12 months probably. At least 6, if everything goes as fast as it possibly can!

Sounds like the NVC is a bit behind in assigning case numbers is all. I wouldn't panic yet. Ours took a couple of weeks after the USCIS forwarded them the paperwork. I think actually it was closer to 20 days to get a case number. Sounds like they backed up.

Be a bit patient, I'm sure they'll get to it soon.