Backpackers

We're approved. NOA1 April 1, NOA2 June 22. I came to the Philippines to visit for a week and apparently that pushed the luck our way. Congrats to other approvals and we wish you luck to those still waiting for NOA2.

To the OP:
At this point, you have nothing to complain about anymore. You need to put your expectations in check, and you also need to communicate your expectations to your wife, instead of just assuming she's going to fulfill your expectations automatically. Marriage is a give and take and from the outside looking in, it looks like you're being unfair.
She's meeting your physical needs, she's working hard, she's buying $400 worth of groceries every month (and I'm willing to bet that's more than all of your utilities cost, combined), she's taking care of the household chores, and she's trying hard to save up her money to buy herself a car so you won't have to go out of your way to drive her so far to work and back every day...in essence, she's doing you a favor in the long run, and you're complaining that you have to pay the rent and live in a smaller house (how small, who knows).
Look at the drastic changes she's made in the past 6 months compared to how she was in your December post. And now you're whining about her not contributing more to the household finances so that you can get a bigger house and start a family. You have no business starting a family with her right now. You need to settle in, let go of your ridiculous expectations (which it sounds like you just aren't ever going to be totally pleased with her until she morphs into the woman of your dreams). Get real. You're dealing with a human being coming from a different country/culture and who has her own expectations for you and herself, and her own goals. It looks like she's at least trying her best right now to gain some independence as well as to contribute to the household. Just work on being a couple and making THAT work FIRST, before you bring an innocent life in-between the two of you.
If you want to have a baby with her, do you expect her to stay at home with the baby until it's old enough to go to kindergarten? Are you going to complain about her being a housewife and not contributing to the household finances then?
You just sound like a really poor communicator with unrealistic expectations. You're lucky she changed her behavior and attitude at all since December. How about you find things to be grateful for and try to understand why she's doing what she's doing, instead of you finding new things to be unsatisfied with?

To be fair, you too are being unfaithful in the marriage. It doesn't seem like a healthy / productive marriage either way.
If it were me, I'd be focusing on resolving the personal issues before tackling the immigration ones. Take a moment to step back, take a deep breath and really determine what you want in life, without noise and panic influencing the decision.

So have you got an approval of a NOA2 or not? If not and you just sent in the paperwork you can expect about 4 months to get the NOA2 then you can start the process in the Philippines. My wife is from a remote part of Mindanao and when she picked up her visa, she had it sent to Davao City and she just picked it up there rather than waiting a week for it to get to her.
Once you get the NOA2, you will then get your MNL# about 24-48 hours later. Once that happens your fiance can pay the visa fee at a BPI bank, then about 24-48 hours later you can schedule the interview at the embassy.

The above poster has helpful remarks, but I feel I should point out that lately, the NOA2 to MNL# period is around 3 weeks.

1) Paying the visa fee; no it does not need to be paid within the 4 months, BUT there is no benefit in delaying and there is a plus to paying it immediately as it alerts the embassy to your intent, this takes care of the extension of the I-129F petition issue ... the embassy only needs to see intent/activity to automatically extend the petition for up to a year. The visa fee is only good for a year, as is your approved petition
Once you have your NOA2 (Approval Notice) your case file will go to NVC, there it can take upwards of a month to get your MNL#.
2) Yes basically. You have up to a year to complete the visa process, whether you pay the visa fee or not, the clock started ticking when the petition was approved. No benefit to delay paying the visa fee.
3) Once the visa is issue you have UP TO 6 months to enter the USA - from the date of the medical, not the date the visa was issued.

When I was on there, I only looked at the dates close to FAST.
From what I recall, dates up to a month out were available, and there was one opening only 3 days later. We were able to do medical and interview one week apart.
We JUST had our interview yesterday, and it was scheduled on the 10th.

I see the First Available Appointment Is Friday May 27, 2016.

Schedule available is usually a month out ... usually

He was shopping for a boyfriend. He contacted a number of guys and then met each for a day and picked one. That is okay with you? Your relationship is not developed at all. One day together and you decided to marry? And presumably after he met you he went and met someone else. It seems like you are not taking marriage seriously. Why don't you slow down and get to know each other more now that you are exclusive? And spend a LOT more time in person together. You haven't even had time to fight and see if you can make it through.
If you already started the visa process, I don't think it has a high chance of being approved at this point.

If you're not certain of one another and, as you keep saying, not in a rush then why are you filing so soon? Take some time and get to know one another in person. What on Earth would you do if you rushed in to a marriage with someone you barely know, move to a country where you only know that one person and rely on them for literally everything and turned out you were two totally different kettles of fish and couldn't stand one another? Surely it would be better for you both to take the time, take a vacation together, live under the same roof for a couple weeks a few times a year or so and see if it really does feel right. You'll know as soon as he starts picking his nose or you put the loo roll on the wrong way. Little niggly things matter as much as the bigger things and they usually present themselves after longer periods of time spent together when you're genuinely relaxed around each other.
Just a thought.

May I respectfully suggest that if you do not know if you love each other, then you take some time to think about whether marriage is the right step for you both? That's a personal opinion, and I mean you no offense.

Personal oppinion/advice: you are not ready to get married to him, you've not reached the appropriate relationship stage. Don't file for a K visa, just let your relationship develop.

hi Backpackers! I am following your timeline because we have the same notice dates! And both from PH too!

For those of you who have recently scheduled an interview, how does the scheduling work?
If you have your NVC, you can schedule online...but what do the available dates look like? Are there any same month scheduling options? It seems like I read somewhere that anytime you schedule, it will be in the following calendar month. I was wondering if this is true, is it a scheduling rule or just that the interviews for the current month are always full?
Any recent information would be appreciated.