Dogwood_Poet

The property I am planning to build on is in my in-laws family and we will sign a lifetime lease for the rest of my life, then they can keep the house. I have no children or other family to leave it to.

But I am looking at the SRRV retirement visa for myself, for reasons I prefer to keep to myself for now.

I know this may not be the place to ask, but I am looking at the retirement visa requirements for US citizen retiring to Philippines.

I plan on having a place to live already paid for before I go, so I should be able to live well on my retirement income. My question is: Is managed type II diabetes considered on the income requirements? It shows two levels of monthly income depending on being healthy/active or having medical problems.

I am keeping my sugar levels under control with medication and diet/exercise.

I am just now beginning to look at moving, but I will probably not be doing anything for a couple of years while I get savings built up and my place in the Philippines completed and paid for so I will not have any housing expense once I get there.

Thanks everyone for their help!

If you are just sending correspondence, letter, card, WITHOUT anything valuable enclosed you can us the postal service as long as you are not in a hurry.

I have never had a letter lost, but don't be surprised if it takes up to two months to get anywhere out in the provinces.

But, usually it will get there eventually as long as you don't put money, gift card etc inside

The skin test is not recommended for Filipinos because so many have received TB vaccinations. My wife has had positive skin tests and after the last one, she was told never to let anyone give her a skin test again due to the chance of a severe reaction in the area of the test. It seems the more times you receive the test and have a reaction, the more sensitive you are to the test.

Her x-rays are clear, so she is free of TB. But Filipinos should always ask for alternative methods if the need a TB test once they get to the states.

Even if you do not have enough income at the interview, they will give you time to find a sponsor or prove higher income, so you do have a chance to either get records of current income/second job or find a sponsor.

I am self-employed, so they wanted us to get a co-sponsor and we turned in the papers a few weeks after the interview and we got the visa no problems.

One of the reasons the person mentioned in the thread about taking a job in Florida is the fact that California requires additional training before a nurse can work there.

Anybody had any experience with the newly opened Laguindingan Airport? My wife has been home visiting her family and the new airport has opened since she arrived. Her family lives only about 30 minutes from the new airport, so it should be a lot easier to get there.

I just wonder if there is any growing pains with the new airport or has everything been running pretty smooth? The only hitch I have heard is they still do not have the IFR equipment installed so bad weather can be a problem.

They are promoting it as an international airport, so maybe someday there will be flights direct to there without having to spend a day in Manila waiting on a connecting flight!

Thanks!

_{No problem with them approving the visa, you will just have to wait until the sputum test is finished. Be glad they are letting you to go ahead with the interview. They made my wife wait until the test was complete before they would do her interview.}

She will not be able to travel until you submit the joint sponsor's papers. Once they get the papers it should not take long to issue her visa.

But there is nothing you can do until that happens.

Since they held her passport she cannot travel & I would not recommend asking for it back as that could cause even more delays.

Sounds good, I like PayPal. But can you use it at a bank like an ATM, and withdraw php against it?

Yes, you can even reset the pin from the PayPal website.

I ordered the card and once I received it & activated it, I mailed it to the Philippines.

Once it got there I could reset the pin to whatever they wanted

PayPal doesn't charge ATM fees unless that has changed lately, but you still have to pay the 'out of country' fee at the ATM in the Philippines.

I have used a PayPal debit card from my account, you can request a second card, so I got one in her mother's name for them to use. But now they have started charging an 'out of country' charge of 200-250 PHP per transaction, so it is not as good a deal.

The good thing about PayPal is you can just put enough money in the account they need to prevent any danger of a lost card.

Plus PayPal allows for fee-free transfers to your account if you mark it 'to family' and use a bank account for the transfer so we can transfer money from my wife's PayPal to my account and have the money available in minutes.

If you get a 221g you just need to bring/send in what is requested.

That is why they recommend copying everything in your application. You don't need certified copies, just something for them to look at if they do not have what they want right there where they can put their hands on it.

Better to carry a lot of extras they don't need, than to have to wait & get something you didn't have.

That is true, some cases are chosen at random for AP, or maybe when the case was reviewed by a supervisor, a closer look was requested.

So, until you are notified the visa is in production, you are not totally free & clear.

My wife had to do a follow up at the local health clinic after she had to do a sputum test.

They just had the TB nurse interview her at the clinic and had her do another chest x-ray to be sure she was OK.

This was no charge to us from the clinic

Have you already been approved? your timeline is confusing since is shows dates that have not happened yet. If the interview is set for the date on your timeline, you can't be sure everything will go OK.

As for buying a ticket, DON'T do it until you have at least passed the interview, or better yet, have visa in hand. There are quite a few things that can happen even after the interview to slow up the visa, it can be randomly selected for review which would add several weeks to when the visa is sent.

Sorry, but it is a ####### shoot to buy the ticket without visa in hand, especially if you have only a few days before you plan to leave.

Did they have her setup a pin number for the card? I know there would be fees, but could she withdraw the money at an ATM?

Or since it is a Visa product, she should be able to get the money at her bank just like a cash advance from a regular Visa card.

Also, I don't know of any law that restricts the amount of money you can get from a card, I work at a music store and we have sold $5,000 guitars using credit/debit cards. More than likely, they didn't want to eat the 3-4% fees credit card companies charge to process the transaction or the wanted to get the credit from doing the financing. Many dealers make as much or more on financing a vehicle than they do on the sale.

Thanks! I think it will be easier to wait until she comes home. One of our local friends called Chicago and said they were the closest office & they let her go there. My wife is planning to fly back to Chicago and I will meet her there and us do a little sightseeing. Maybe we could stop by and see, the worst they could say is no.

After Kathlene comes home, it will be a year or two before she goes back, so we have plenty of time to get it done. I was just surprised it was going to be such a hassle in the Philippines, we thought any DFA office could take care of it.

Her Philippine passport is already in her married name as we got married in her home town, so it shouldn't be much trouble at all getting it renewed.

My wife is visiting her family in northern Mindanao and she went to the DFA office in Cagayan de Oro about renewing her passport and taking her dual citizenship oath and they told her she would have to do that in Manila.

How long would it take for her to do that and could she do that the day before she leaves to come back home to save a trip to Manila and back? I know she probably not be able to get her passport that day, but could they mail it to her family and then they send it to her?

Or would it be best to wait until she flies home and try to do it in Chicago? We live in Kentucky, so we are not in Chicago's area, but some friends have gotten passport renewal there anyway. She will be flying into Chicago, so we could do everything while were are in town.

She is going to be staying a few more weeks, so we have some time to decide what to do.

I told my wife before she came to western Kentucky that the summers were worse than in the Philippines.

She didn't belive me until her first upper 90's 80%+ humdity late July day.

When I went to see her for the first time, she was worried about me being too hot, I told her it was cooler than the June/July heat in Kentucky I just came from!

Or just reschedule your oath taking until after you travel and eliminate all headaches.

Just a thought

Being married will decrease her chances of getting the visa as they will say she has intent to immigrate if you are a US citizen living in the states.

It is on the applicant to prove she does not have intent to immigrate.

Just a thought, if you waited the full 12 months to pay the fee would you get a full two years on the green card from date of payment?

Could be a sneaky way to beat the ROC fees after two years and go straight to citizenship application.

Just thinking out loud . . .

Nothing to worry about. Sounds pretty straight-forward, so no need for an attorney, just read the guides and feel free to ask questions and you will be fine.

Getting used to everything, but I miss the drop-down window on the bottom to jump forums. i.e. go to 'Off Topic' from 'Philippines'

You are several months away from the embassy receiving your petition. It first has to be reviewed by the service center, then after it is approved it will be sent to the embassy.

Give yourself a few months at least for the approval, than another couple of months until you get scheduled for interview.