George & Richelle

10 minutes ago, payxibka said:

Nope.  Most of what that office does relates to services related to a USC in some fashion.  Why should USCs with a family be given priority over other USCs just because they have a family 

What? I feel bad that the option has closed, and can cause hardship on FAMILIES that need to immigrate to the states in a timely manner. The one upside is this is my last post on this forum. I feel bad for those that thought they had more time to file DCF, but didn't. Best of luck to those of you that filed already.

10 minutes ago, payxibka said:

K1s have zero affect on the USCIS Manila office's decision to longer accept I130 petitions as that office doesn't touch k1 petitions.   

 

Why should i130s be given preference over other activities performed by that office

One is family. One is not. How about that? Enough reason?

That is not what Coa was saying though. He is talking about those married here that were preparing to file, and now they don't have that option. They either have to stay here another year or two, which is not always easy if there is a life altering event happening in the USA. Or go back to the states without their family. Not only their wife, but some have kids as well. 

Either way USCIS in Manila didn't really handle visa interviews etc... That is the State Department.

33 minutes ago, slc12312 said:

I have asked the Consulate but their response is that they can't offer legal advice... it is obviously a standard prompt, and is the one I've gotten on two other occasions when I have asked for advice. I do maintain an official mailing address in Hawaii for all my financial needs (income tax statements, bank account, credit union, investment account, credit cards), however with that said I live in Thailand for 3/4 of the year and used that as my residence. Because of that, I think I should use Thailand as my Country of Domicile. My confusion lies within whether or not to claim the U.S. as my Country of Domicile or Thailand, knowing full well that you can not sponsor someone if your Country of Domicile is not the USA. Fortunately, I guess I can claim intent while providing proof of everything above.  

That should be more than enough if it is similar to the Philippines. That is pretty much what I gave them as well. I would think they won't allow you to file DCF if you claim the USA as your country of domicile.

31 minutes ago, payxibka said:

 

 

Absolutely nothing in your explanation is a reason to queue up on day one in the middle of the night.  

 

Also,  don't make assumptions about time spent in country 

Whatever..... There was a time this site was decent. I even used a few years ago to help a friend fill out their fiancee visa. Those days are gone. Kudos to you!!! BTW how many years have you lived here straight? Not just a visit. No is a big part of the culture here. It is not uncommon to run out of a vaccine, need a pregnancy test, or a psych evaluation. Heck if you told me they ran out of the brown envelopes it would not be surprising at this point. All of those things are a real possibility, beyond the fact that it can take a long time just due to the numbers. It is irresponsible to tell people to show up late. Especially if they are on a tight schedule. This is the reality of the Philippines. Yeah some people get out in two hours, but my wife would tell you that is not the norm. I would agree 4 am is too early, but 5-6 would be okay. Especially if you stay close to there.

41 minutes ago, Hank_ said:

CFO is always the log jam .. which is why it is suggested to completed CFO-GCP seminar early, then go back later, after receiving the visa, for the sticker in the passport.

 

http://www.visaconnection-philippines.com/cfo-orientation-seminar.html

Lot's of people will hire someone to do the filing for them, and many of those don't get a heads up about CFO until the interview. I don't think all countries have something like the CFO. It is kind of a silly thing to get jammed up there of all places. They should just collect the 500 peso, and forget about the rest. It is just too difficult to schedule it if you don't live in one of the cities that offer it.

On 4/17/2019 at 3:18 AM, payxibka said:

My wife arrived at 10:30am and was done by 2pm the first day.  Absolutely no reason to get in line before they open 

It really depends. When my wife went, there was a backlog of people due to them having run out of vaccines before. First day was from 6 am until 3 pm. 2nd day was 8 am until 10 pm. If you are doing a tight schedule on the interview, showing up early may well be a good thing in case something like this happens. I understand this is not the norm, but if you have spent any real time in the Philippines. You start to understand why the Filipinos stand in lines.

11 hours ago, payxibka said:

It doesn't necessarily delay departure as the seminar can be taken in advance of Visa issuance and the sticker can be picked up at NAIA as you are departing 

Sadly there is a month waiting period to get into a class right now. My wife had interview with someone that her husband was sick(major illness cancer), and needs to fly to the USA. So everything was expedited on the American portion. She didn't realize that CFO was required, and now is having to wait until the 30th to fly out. She tried contacting CFO to see if they could help her. Their response was essentially pound sand, as there are only so many slots.

Her husband is obviously upset because he is there alone doing chemo, and his wife is waiting for a class that can be summarized in a sentence or two. If you feel threatened call 911, and your immigration status doesn't matter. Not to mention the horror stories of CFO overstepping their boundaries. IMHO it does as much harm as it does good. 

EDIT: My wife and I as well are stuck here as well until the 21st, as didn't realize CFO would be so backlogged. 

1 minute ago, Hank_ said:

Until the spouse enters the USA they are not conditional residents, green card will not be issued to them if they stay in the Philippines..   

From what I understand, and I could very well be wrong. Perhaps because we were a DCF. I can order her green card before we ever leave the Philippines. It seems as if I remember reading someone got one a week or two after landing in the States. I think it is called an immigration fee or something similar to that. All it takes is the MNL and A number.

24 minutes ago, coa24 said:

Agree actually, the only positive I guess is that the Filipino has a short orientation. I find it interesting that even for the married couples, they have to go through the GCP. 

That is pretty unusual as our wives are conditional residents of the USA, and the only way out of the relationship is an annulment.  

On 4/20/2019 at 7:57 PM, Sarge2155 said:

Yes depending on your interview and what they think of your relationship, but I must add if you get all the way to CFO and you misstep then something is wrong. I'm just saying to be on the safe side don't buy your ticket until CFO is done. But I realize it's your choice I'm just giving my opinion as you asked for with your post. Please don't read into my post I m sure you'll do fine at CFO hard to fail that, but to be realistic there are cases where people have blown it or something else might happen say your appointment is cancelled at CFO due to a number of reasons and your new appointment is pass the 10th of May then what will you do?

This is why the CFO is a waste of time. The information given at the USA Embassy should suffice. It delays exit out of the country when there is no reason for it.

1 minute ago, payxibka said:

Without the ACR card you would have been SOL

Genuine question. Don't most countries require something similar for any sort of extended stay? (More than six months) 

On 4/29/2019 at 11:46 PM, payxibka said:

Even if you were present in a DCF eligible location, 6 mos.  as a tourist does not fulfill the residence requirement 

I was able to do the DCF process in the Philippines with a tourist visa. Granted, I have been here quite a bit longer, but ultimately it was a tourist visa.

If you send me a pm I will give you my email Facebook etc and can help you if needed. I am just hanging out in Leyte until the 20th of this month before heading home. We did all the paperwork ourself in a day each filing. Pretty simple to do if don’t overstress it too much. 

They have not left yet. I would think that they would process whatever they have in hand at that time before fully leaving. Not to say that I would not do it sooner rather than later.

To answer your question. There are two portions, if not counting medical. The USCIS will do the initial approval (their eta was 60-90 days, but it seems most don't take that long), that will then be passed to the state department for the actual visa approval-stamping etc...(This is much quicker. We got our MNL number on the 23rd of may. We then scheduled medical for the 25th-26th, and actual interview on the 29th)

I will break it down a little bit how we filed for our DCF filing.  

For the initial filing we did in March

Form I-130

G325A (I honestly cannot remember if we had to submit this document or not. I just know it is in a copy of all the things we took to Manila for initial filing)

Photocopy of Marriage certificate

Photocopy of her birth certificate

Photocopy of certificate of marriage

Copy of my ACR card in the Philippines

Rental receipts

Certified letter at attorneys office from our landlord at the time, and mother in law. Stating how long we have been together etc...

Pretty much any receipt to show that you are here in the Philippines. Especially if you are with your wife.

An absolute ton of pictures Richelle made into a scrapbook. (This was still in our file interview day)

Divorce decree if you have one

Now on to the day of interview. We brought everything in the list above, so I will tell you what was needed that day. I would still over prepare though as opposed to under.

Appointment letter

I-864 Affidavit of support (Edit)

DS-260 confirmation page

Saint Lukes medical packet

Last years Tax transcript, but I brought 4 years worth.

Last pay-slip from my employer

Richelle's original birth certificate

Her original advisory of marriage that shows we are married (For visa travel purposes is on the form)

Her original NBI clearance. They use to have a visa/travel option, but it is now general purpose. So don't worry too much. It didn't hold us up.

Original 

I was looking for help and insight on this forum, but sadly it was a little lacking. I ended up following pretty closely the guide at http://sentimentsofmoonlightbutterfly.blogspirit.com/archive/2016/05/20/our-cr1-visa-dcf-journey.html  

If I have any insights on the process. It is to get duplicates of every original document that you can from the Philippines statistics office. From what we understand the CFO will need them for exit clearance, but currently the Embassy has all the originals. If that turns out to be overkill I will update later. We won't know that until the 20th of this month. We did medical on Thursday-Friday, and interview Monday. Yes it can be done, but Saint Lukes is tough. From what my wife said. There were lots denied for various reasons. One poor lady they kept sending home because they wanted a pregnancy test for example. Quite a few for further x-ray or sputum. Not to mention it can be a very long process.

Hope that helps. We are not 100% as visa is not in hand. There is still a small chance of administrative processing, but let's hope not!

How about putting it in the forum where it is relevant. You know the one where people might actually look if they are interested in filing when living abroad....... You know like the DCF forum. We had no idea this was happening, as immigration to the USA is just a part of our life. We don't have time to peruse every sub-forum.

Maybe I overlooked it, but I didn't remember ever seeing a post about it on this forum. What I posted, was informational for those considering the option before the opportunity is gone. As it is by far the quickest option if already living abroad.

Looking into it further. This is known. What is unknown is the timeframe. By the sound of it today it is very close.

https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/20/19/citizenship-applications-to-continue-despite-planned-uscis-manila-office-shutdown

On 4/5/2019 at 2:15 PM, mikreed said:

Hi everyone, we submitted the I-130 last March 29, 2019 at the Philippine Embassy. I would like to know if anyone here received a notice from them within 30 days? How long does it usually take for you to get a notice from them saying that they received the application, or to have a case number?

I can only speak for my wife and I. We filed on March 5 of this year, and our approval was April 17, after we got an expedite around the first of April. (Illness back in the USA) We had our interview today, and the first interviewer said USCIS was in the middle of leaving Manila. With that said it might take longer, but for certain try contacting them. Here is the e-mail I used to contact them MPHInquiry.CIS@uscis.dhs.gov . You can also try phoning them (02) 301 2208 We did both, and it seemed to help.

Today was our interview in Manila. In the preliminary interview the screener said that USCIS was leaving Manilla. I didn't ask for a timeline, but he said we were fortunate to have filed when we did. It sounded as if they were in the process of leaving now. Not certain how this will effect future DCF there, even if it will be possible. For certain if you are close to filing. Now might be the time to speed up a little.

Here is a list of the documents I can figure out that I need or may need. After the appointment tomorrow will let you know if this was enough.

Appointment confirmation

I-130 Approval notice

DS-260 Confirmation

DS-260

NBI Clearance (A little concerned about this one. As it is a multi-purpose clearance.)

Birth Certificate

Certificate of Marriage

Sealed Saint Lukes document

CRS Form No 5 Advisory on Marriages. (Cenomar) Shows that we are married. Not certain why this is needed over a marriage certificate.

Previous divorce decree

Pictures etc….

I-864

Last four years of tax transcripts, but also have original tax forms. (If not for Coa24 I would have certain missed this document)

Current Pay-slip from my employer

Cover letter for re-establishing domicile in the USA

Copy of Auto loan statement, and insurance paid on house and car

Current AT&T bill

Kentucky drivers license

Printout of local property valuation showing that I own a home in the USA

Past 8 months of bank statements that show direct deposits from employer etc…

Canceled check for last house payment

Signed letter from my mother stating we are staying there until my house opens up in June

Thank you COA!

You did a K1 visa... I think that list is meant for traditional application stateside. As there is no mention of an I-864 Affidavit of Support, which I am 99.9% positive is given the day of the interview.

I have been living here for over a year. I have to prove different things than you. Such as re-establishing domicile.

I looked, but it said a ds-160 form, which I didn't think was needed. Do you have a link for a CR1 with DCF option?

Sorry to bother everyone. My wife, and I did a CR1 visa in Manila. Our case was approved, and we are now in Manila doing her medical interview today, and tomorrow. All of that looks good, but does anyone have a list of the documents we need to bring. 

So far this is what I think we need to bring.

Appointment confirmation

DS-260

I-864 Affidavit of support

Photocopy of last pay-slip from employer

Last 3 years of tax transcripts

Document from property valuation showing that we own a home there

Am I missing anything obvious? Apologies if this listed somewhere on the forum, but I am having trouble locating it. We did an expedite as my mother has a major illness now, so this is moving much faster than expected. We got her approval Tuesday, and we are in Manila doing her medical today, and tomorrow. With her interview Monday. I understand that it is a tight schedule, but we had to risk it. The next available interview is about a month away in Manila. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!