Dogwood_Poet

I will be leaving in another hour or so to go to Nashville to pick up Kathlene! Right now she is somewhere over North America heading to Detroit, Michigan to land around 10 or so. After she goes through immigration she will board another plane to Nashville, Tennessee where I will be waiting at the airport!

Nearly fourteen months after turning in the first set of papers I can hardly believe we are going to be together! I don't think it will really set in until I hear from Kathlene that she is in the aiport at Detroit waiting for her flight to Nashville.

This forum has been a lot of help and support during this process and I thank everyone here for that.

We will be spending a couple of days in Nashville before we return to Kentucky, so it may be a while before I am back on the boards.

God Bless!

I got Kathlene a new RAZR v3XX for free after rebate by adding her to my Cingular/AT&T/INSERT NEW COMPANY HERE account. and for about $15 got an unlock code off eBay. Sent her the phone and for some reason, it gets a good signal with the AT&T sim, but her Touch Mobile sim only picks up in the city. (TM says she is too far from the tower) but I digress . . .

That way when she leaves for the US, she can just put the AT&T sim back in and be ready to give me a call once she lands in Detroit after she gets done with immigration. That way she will feel a little more comfortable as she travels and has to change planes in Detroit to meet me in Nashville.

Do ask about reception though, I have held my cheap LG phone next to the latest Motorola and I have 3 or more bars and they have no signal with the same provider.

Thanks for everyone's advice! My travel agent said she didn't need my info, just the confirmation, and I wanted to be sure. When I used an e-ticket when I was there last year I had to show the card I used.

I just want to be doubly sure there are no problems when Kathlene arrives at the airport.

Her flight will leave at 7am or so, so she will have an EARLY morning that day! Maybe that will help her sleep on the plane.

We are SO excited our new life is about to begin. We will have been married 16 months by the time she arrives in the US.

Hello,

I am getting everything booked for Kathlene to join me here in the next couple of weeks, and my travel agent said they would issue an e-ticket for her to use. They will e-mail me the ticket and then Kathene will print it out in the Philippines.

If I am correct, she will need a copy of the card I used to purchase the ticket and a copy of my ID as well.

Anybody else used an e-ticket in the Philippines and did you have any problems? She will arrive in Manila the day before she leaves for the US since her flight will be early in the morning so she can arrive at her POE in time to get processed and be able to catch her next flight to Nashville where I will be waiting for her.

Can she go ahead and pay the travel tax once she gets to Manila so she will have as little as possible to get done the next morning?

Thanks for everyone's help during this LONG journey!

I just contacted my travel agent about getting Kathlene's ticket and she said all Kathlene will have to do is pay the travel tax at the airport when she gets there. My agent is Filipino and she specializes in travel between the US and Philippines

Yes the visa is stamped Nov 30 and Kathlene said it was because of her medical, she is going to bring the letter the next time we chat and maybe I can learn more.

But everything is done and she will have her ticket in just a couple of weeks once I get everything arranged for me to be off work and all the travel arrangements complete, so we shouldn't have anything to worry about as to the expiration date.

Kathlene finally received her visa yesterday after having to submit an RFE after her interview. Her first interview in June had to be rescheduled while she went through a series of TB test, no TB just a shadow on the x-ray from a childhood illness.

So, they put a note in the packet that her visa expires Nov 30 because of her medical. Which shouldn't be any trouble because I plan to have her here sometime next month. But is this normal, if someone went six months past their medical waiting for approval, do they have to take the medical again, or is this because she had to take the TB tests and they just want to be sure she is free of disease?

Kathlene received her visa yesterday, she told me the DO NOT OPEN envelope has a mark where she opened the main envelope, but it is not open. how picky are they about the brown envelope? She is going to show me the next time we chat to see if I think we need to get it re-packaged.

KATHLENE HAS HER VISA ! ! !

I talked to Kathlene last night and she got her visa yesterday! That is less than a week from when we turned in the papers and that is to outside of Cagayan de Oro! They must have issued her visa the same day they received the papers.

Now we both have a lot to do in the next few weeks as I get her ticket and she says goodbye to all her family and friends and prepares to join me her in October!

(Both our birthdays are in October, so what a WONDERFUL birthday present for us both!)

If you do not use the first leg of a round trip, the second leg is automatically void. Also, I have read that airlines are now charging a fee for not using the return leg of a ticket.

The co-sponsor's papers will be submitted to the embassy Monday, how long before they should send Kathlene her visa?

This is the only thing they requested and the gentleman was very happy with Kathlene's answers at the interview. They had her pay Delbros, so I am hoping they will release the visa after reviewing my co-sponsor's info.

If you have a willing co-sponsor and are on the line, I would let them. It says in the instructions to submit six months pay stubs to prove income and that is what I did showing I am making over the requirements for 2007, but on my 2006 return it showed a little under the requirements since a third of my income is from self-employment and after deductions, I had taxable income below the 125%. (even though I grossed several thousand over)

So Kathlene went to the interview and everything was fine, except they did not accept the six-months pay stubs and decided to go by my 2006 return, so we had to find a co-sponsor.

They can make you go for the training before they will issue a passport, when Kathlene went to get her's renewed and her name changed, she HAD to attend CFO before she could pick up her new passport, now she only has to return to the CFO to get her stamp once she has her passport and visa back from the embassy.

I have sent the requested papers for a co-sponsor today to Manila and the embassy should receive them by next week.

They had Kathlene go ahead and pay Delbros, so does that mean they will go ahead and process her visa once they review the co-sponsor? There should be no problem with his income since it has been well over the requirements on the past three years tax forms.

Should I hope for Kathlene getting a visa in the next few weeks, or will they take their time on reviewing her case?

Sounds like a great deal! Now does anyone know a good deal on one-way tickets inside the US? I checked and one-way from LAX to Nashville was about $500!

I would really like to get a round trip to meet her in California and us both fly back a day or two later.

I looked at EVA fares before but getting Kathlene from the west coast to anywhere near Kentucky was more than the ticket from Manila.

I have almost completed the move into the new apartment I will soon share with Kathlene, but due to a request for more paperwork from me at Kathlene's interview, they will not issue her visa for at least another couple of weeks or so.

So, will this cause any problems when she reaches her POE? All our paperwork has the old address on it.

I just don't know if they will ask her address when she arrives and should she give the old one or new one? I don't know exactly how to let the embassy know of our new address at this stage of the game.

Maybe I should include a letter stating my new address with the papers I am returning.

Thanks for any advice you may have!

(I know I need to update my address on my I864 AOS)

Kathlene e-mailed me the papers, and it does say delivery by couirer is accepted. There is one form she needs to fill out so she can send it to our friend and they can take everything to the Embassy.

Our friend is a doctor, so I think we can trust her to take care of this for us if that is the way we decide to go.

Thanks for all of the advice!

I think I will send it to our friend in Manila, since it will save three or four days than delivery to Kathlene and let her go by the Embassy and see if they will let her drop them off. If they won't accept it, I can have Kathlene fly up in the next day or so and deliver the papers.

(With all the travel she has done just GETTING her visa, she will be an old-hand by the time she flies here to the US!)

I will chat with Kathlene online tonight and she is going to scan the letter they gave her so I can read exactly what they require and then go from there.

I cannot express how much of a help this site has been this past year + of our journey!

Kathlene had her interview on the 9th and she did fine, but they said we would have to submit papers for a co-sponsor (last years income was a little below requirements and they didn't accept my proof of this years income)

They need the original form, not a fax copy delivered to them at the Embassy, so this is my question.

Can someone we know in Manila deliver the papers so Kathlene doesn't have to travel back to Manila just to drop off the papers? I figure they will have to look over the co-sponsor's information, so they would not give a decision that day anyway.

I may be wrong, but I thought if you could show six months of pay stubs showing you earn over the minimum, that was good enough to meet the requirements, or is it up to the individual doing the interview?

But I have a couple of people who I think are willing to co-sponsor, so everything will work out fine.

Did they give your fiance other paper aside from pink slip?

They gave Kathlene a letter explaining what they need, but the counsel told her she did very well at her interview and she would just need to bring the original form from the co-sponsor to the embassy anytime, no appointment needed. After we get a co-sponsor, they should process her visa.

Kathlene is going to either email me or fax the letter to me once she gets home from Manila

Just got off the phone with Kathlene, she did fine with her interview, but the counsel decided to ignore the paycheck copies from the first of the year and go off of my income on my 2006 return only so they are going to require a co-sponsor.

Once I submit the co-sponsor, they will issue her a visa, so hopefully this will only be a short delay.

Kathlene should now be inside the embassy for her interview ! ! !

August 9th for Kathlene! She already is having dreams about her interview and every time we chat I have to ask her interview questions!

COOL! Kathlene's interview is August 9th as well! She is scheduled for 6:30.