M J

I'm sorry but I don't believe a word of this story. Normal response of any person would have been to go to police (I don't see any communication issues here to do so) and not to write about it on an immigration forum. Right - murders, heroin... ridiculous.

I'm still amazed that even in the most twisted/abusive/life-threatening for the beneficiary situations you still see the magic word VAWA.
Edit: To add something to my post that could actually be useful to the OP: if this is indeed your situation - walk out of the house and go to a women's shelter.

Two sentences max.

I'm so confused. Can anyone tell me who is on first??

Generally, a person or couple must pay into the system in order to benefit from the system. To be eligible for social security retirement benefits, a person must have 40 work quarters. IF you are the petitioner, you guarantee to reimburse any means-base benefits that your mother would receive. You should be financially responsible for your parents.

Why should US taxpayers have to support foreign nationals who have never paid into the system?

If the US continues to find ways to reward those who thumb their noses at our laws, this country is going to fill up with a bunch of uneducated people, whose children (being USCs) will drain resources from the tax pool (without having contributed to same) and make a mockery of current visa laws. Having a child on US soil (or airspace) should not come with a free ticket to stay here and do whatever one wants. First decision to be made by our wimpy Congress...end anchor babies! If you are here as a tourist, student or illegally, and have a child within our borders (or airspace), congratulations! Now, go home (first, after paying your hospital bill! If you don't pay it, you are NEVER coming back to this country legally until you do). We should be rewarding those who have or are playing by the rules. If we don't, why should we expect any else to do the same? It is more than tiresome to continue reading about some new memo or some new idea that circumvents our current laws and rewards irresponsibility.

I missed where it mentioned about orphaning the children.
There's no reason the children cannot go with their parent(s); in fact, they should if they are young and still need their parent(s) to look after them. Family unity should take precedence over staying in the USA.
Then again, parent(s) going down these paths and putting their children in such precarious positions are questionable as parents.

Hey, everybody who wants to live in the US just hop across the border with your pregnant wife and hide out until she gives birth. Then you, the out of status alien, can live off your children's benefits and not worry about being deported. Of course you can't work or drive but that's ok because the US taxpayers are supporting you indirectly by supporting your USC children whose benefits and food stamps you use to support yourself.
What sort of responsible parent would want to live their life in a country where they can't support their family and have to leech off their minor children's benefits. I would certainly want a better life for myself and my children.

So I hear we can't call people illegals anymore, it's not politically correct.
I can agree with this, they should be called by something more appropriate.
Criminals. They should be treated no less than by that standard, regardless of circumstances.

Only children born to parents of legal status get citizenship here would solve this.
Then the whole family could be easily deported with no fuss, no muss, as well they should be.

I don’t think anyone here on VJ does not feel for the illegal immigrants. But my wife will tell anyone what she had to go thru to get here legally, and so have I many years ago. It is not fair to us legal immigrants to help people for no regard of our immigration laws. They know exactly the law, and they brake it anyhow, under the pretense of bettering there life’s. I know many illegals living and working many years in the U.S. having many children, and getting many benefits. NOT FAIR

Why would the first thing that crossed your mind in such a situation be to ask about VAWA on an online forum?

OH MY GOD.
YOU MADE $125,000. YOU PAID $68,000 CASH FOR A TRUCK. YET YOU CAN'T COME UP WITH $1,100 TO MAKE YOUR WIFE LEGAL? #######????
Guess having the truck was more important than having the wife live securely in the US.

Long term unemployment is up to 3.9 million, an increase of 1.2 million since he took office. Total fed debt is up 63%. Public debt is up 95%. Gas price is up 80%. Home ownership is down 2.4%. Food stamp recipients are up 48%.
Stats are fun, eh? And meaningful, when you include more than just the ones that suit your purpose.

The DS-160 is the only form that needs to be complete by the applicant now for the interview, this form is not used for the medical at St. Luke's.
St. Luke's lists everything required by them on their website.
The embassy instructions letter (online) lists everything required by the embassy.
One last thing to be aware of is CFO which is solely a Philippines requirement but must be completed to exit the country.
Follow the flashing arrow below for more information and links to the complete process.

Keep it short and sweet and include dates of meetings. That should be good enough to fullfill their requirement.
Good Luck

Cover letter should cover this for case worker to understand where is what. Case workers do not really have all day to read all those love stories, all they want is to be sure at this point that you have met in person in the past 2 years, they need to see location and dates and proof of it in the evidence section, long story can confuse them, no point in make it harder for them to process the case

Understand what they are asking is a declaration of how you met in person.....NOT how your first came to know about each other.
Two sentences, the size of the box where to put the answer is all they need. Two sentences.

I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing, but I haven't met a filipino who is camera shy. They love taking pictures and love being in the picture. Americans aren't as photogenic unless we're celebrities or like to pretend we're famous. Granted, this is the digital age and you longer need to purchase film and then pay to have it developed, but good golly, can we put the camera down for a moment, forget about posing and just enjoy the moments for what they are instead of it turning into an audition?

I totally agree with this. It also amazes me how many petitioners leave it up to the beneficiary to compelete all the paper work. I could never imagine leaving that up to my fiance to do. Especially since English is not her first language, even though she knows it very well. I will and have done anything I can to be with my Fiance and eventually bring her here to be with me. I never once was too busy to do what was required. What is a little sacrifice now for a lifetime of happiness? Was it a hassle? Yes, and some things have taken longer than I liked, but I always did what was required. I was even initially denied after waiting 5 months, so I started over and spent even more time researching, gathering info, double, and triple checking everything. All I did was think how in the end it will all be worth the effort and compared to most trials in life, this is really not that big of a hassle or too much to ask of me to do. If this process is too much for someone to do, then imagine what will happen when other bigger obstacales are encountered down the road in life. Honestly, if this is too much for someone to do, then I have to question how important the relationship or person is to the petitioner.

I totally agree with this. It also amazes me how many petitioners leave it up to the beneficiary to compelete all the paper work. I could never imagine leaving that up to my fiance to do. Especially since English is not her first language, even though she knows it very well. I will and have done anything I can to be with my Fiance and eventually bring her here to be with me. I never once was too busy to do what was required. What is a little sacrifice now for a lifetime of happiness? Was it a hassle? Yes, and some things have taken longer than I liked, but I always did what was required. I was even initially denied after waiting 5 months, so I started over and spent even more time researching, gathering info, double, and triple checking everything. All I did was think how in the end it will all be worth the effort and compared to most trials in life, this is really not that big of a hassle or too much to ask of me to do. If this process is too much for someone to do, then imagine what will happen when other bigger obstacales are encountered down the road in life. Honestly, if this is too much for someone to do, then I have to question how important the relationship or person is to the petitioner.

One should never ever do that. Even the embassy recommends one not to quit jobs, sell properties,etc until visa in hand.
It is unacceptable for both.
This process is basically paperwork, or getting documents to fill out more paperwork and waiting.
Personally I think this relationship needs more work in the relationship corner more than immigration paperwork. Perhaps a reset and time out while priorities are reexamined.
The immigration process sis easy and will pale compared to the real work of holding a relationship that is now in front of you and not just on Skype

Although might be okay in concept but a wee bit risky for anyone here to step out on that cliff with their personal information in general, much less while they're waiting for the government to approve immigration to the US for their family. Be careful folks.