flicks1998

We've been sending many applications without the fee and having no issues. Our case wont be rejected, that I know and I will be writing a full post on why once she completes the N-400 process. Ive documented in previous postings where I have not sent in previous tax forms, left supporting documentation out, and at each phase along the way we are approved with nobody asking questions, either at the I-485 interview as well as the K1 interview at the Embassy. There have been zero questions in 3 years. Once her N-400 is approved I will provide a whole case summary. I have received more questions during my renouncing of US citizenship then she has received during her US immigration process.

I-751 Sent package 10/25 USCIS received by USPS 10/26 text message with case number/ NOA sent 10/27 USCIS actively reviewing 10/31 Extension letter received in mail: 11/6/2023. Extension letter good for 48 months.

I work quite a bit with US immigration (unfortunately) and with it, comes frequent requirement changes. When filing my wife's I-751, we DID NOT include the biometric fee. Today we received her 4 year extension letter as well as a separate letter stating that the Biometric fee is not required as her previous fingerprints can be used. The letter continues and states that if you did pay the biometric fee, it is non-refundable. In the exact words of the I-797C: "This notice informs you that USCIS is able to reuse your previously captured fingerprints and other biometrics. USCIS will run the same security checks and use your biometric data as in the past; however (IN BOLD) it is not necessary for you to appear at a USCIS Application Support Center (ASC) for a biometrics appointment. The biometrics fee will not be refunded."

Can you provide more clarity on the line in bold? When you saying "covers all costs", do you mean they are covering his housing, food, and incidental expenses and the $15K-$20K is mainly savings? If thats the case, it may help providing Immigration further details. The one thing I found out when I returned to the US was that generally speaking salaries are high, but the people are broke and $15-$20K after expenses is better than what 80-85% of Americans have, if not a higher %. If I did not interrupt that correctly, then having a 2nd job may be needed.

Agreed. I can tell you the medical system I work in, we have 500 foreign nurses in the pipeline. We have an entire govt affairs dept working Senators and DC extremely hard to try and make some kind of exceptions for nurses and medical professionals. We are under extreme pressure on being so short staffed in all aspects in the medical field. Either immigration is going to have to make the process faster for these position or Americans are going to need to start caring about their health and the latter will take too long. Also, this is just our medical system, this problem is nationwide.

There are quite a few I knew and know in the Philippines who applied for the IR visa while having lived and still living in the Philippines for 10+ years. They had no issues. The few I know going through the process now have not chimed in this thread, but I think @Chancy got it right in her fourth post. Manila does not seem to care much.

When I applied for the K1 for my wife, I had been out of the US for 25 years. I just included a short letter in the initial documents that stated I would be moving back to the US between such and such dates. I gave a range of about 3 or 4 months. I had nothing tying me to the US except some brokerage accounts. I had no US bank, no US credit cards, no drivers license, all the credit report items had dropped off so had no credit which hasnt been an obstacle to anything. I listed my sister's address as a mailing address. Nobody ever asked about it through the entire process and it was never an issue which included USCIS and the embassy in Manila. I filed US taxes every year but the IRS never inputted my overseas address correctly, so when I returned to the US, it took multiple days and a total of about 10 hours on the phone to confirm my identity. This was during Covid so no offices were open.

I work in a large medical center and we routinely have people from overseas fly to the US for medical care. In fact it occurs daily and even during the peak of Covid, we were still able to fly people in and out of the country despite logistics becoming more difficult and travel bans in place. Their was always an unwritten rule that the travel bans never applied for people seeking medical help or care. If a person does not have a current B visa, all Embassies will issue these for proven medical needs which is typically having a letter from the local doctor, course of treatment, as well as how the services will be paid. One of our divisions is our health plan and some patients living overseas have insurance through our health plan (not sure how they obtained it) or many would just pay out of pocket. The ones paying out of pocket would get a list of charges from the US hospital/doctor and that would be submitted when applying for the B visa. Exceptions will always be made for people who are in need of urgent medical care and they can prove they can pay. There are alot of people around the world with the financial means to pay for medical services in the US without any US health insurance.

My wife was in the exact same situation and followed the same process.

Normally you will find US Customs more strict on prescription drugs with flights from either Mexico or Canada, or even more strict on overland arrivals from Mexico. Both countries are "getaway" countries for US citizens/PRs to find affordable prescription drugs. I understand that some people have conditions that require them to take certain drugs, but the US leads the world (by far) on the amount of prescription drugs that are consumed. Over 70% take at least one prescription drug daily, while 50% take 2 or more on a daily basis. I work in a large health system that has locations in the US and overseas. Its amazing to see the first line of defense in the US is to throw prescription drugs at someone. I believe Americans spend almost $700 billion a year just on this. There is alot of information on how the US prescription drug industry works and its all quite ugly. The US drug industry tries to scare Americans from seeking out drugs overseas telling them that they are tainted or inferior, but in reality, if someone goes to a reputable health clinic, the chances of tainted drugs is small.

The general consensus in the SE Asia region has been longer and harder handovers drinking local vs. imported liquor. In my younger days, I found that generally to be true in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. I rarely drink now so cannot speak for any of the newer stuff that has come out.

Can be a pretty common problem in the Philippines. Hiding children from spouses or not telling potential spouses that they were previously married and the only way to get married would be an expensive and long annulment. Seen alot of foreigners get suckered into paying the annulment process and then the newly freed potential spouse running off to another local. Also seen alot of children reappear 4-5 years after the couple marry.

If you could report back, it would be interesting to see what stance they take. I was out of the US for 20++ years and return just before Covid. Stayed in MI for about 2 months and there were 10 pot stores every block. Moved to PA where marijuana is supposedly still illegal but if you go downtown Pittsburgh or Philly, all you will smell is pot. And that is not an understatement. The police do not do anything about it. Drive 2 miles off any interstate into rural America, and it seems half the population is high on some kind of drug. Seems the Sakler family dominated that region while I was away. Then it seems the other half are loaded up on prescription drugs. The nation is filled with drug users. My mother recently passed away at home and the first thing the medical examiner started asking was if she took illicit drugs. It was another ####### moment Ive had back here, but then I remembered which country I moved back to and the ME told me that they are seeing over half their cases of people dying at home either on illicit drugs or taking too many prescription drugs.

This question relates to a nurse we may hire. They are Nigeria citizens but currently work in Saudi Arabia as a nurse. We are currently hiring overseas nurses to come to the US and work. We are applying for green cards for the nurse and any immediate family members and some have recently received an approved I-140. However, it appears that the only way to get a Nigerian police clearance is to physically travel back to Nigeria and get this. It appears they cannot get this from the Nigerian Embassy in Saudi Arabia despite being a resident of Saudi Arabia. Does anyone know if this is true and that Nigerians must travel home for this police clearance? Thank you.

Just follow this advice. Keep it simple and no reason to over complicate the process. There are many dual citizens enter and exiting the Philippines each day. I would assume her stay was for 30 days or less? If it wasnt, if entering on a US passport, then an extension would have had to be done for any days over 30 days and its essentially wasting money and time. Over the years I have acquired 5 nationalities. If Im entering a country that I am a citizen of, I always enter with that countries passport........ Chancy put it in the simplest terms on what should be done.

The below is not my personal advice, it is strictly a comment based on what I have seen many US citizens do who live in the Philippines and want to bring their gfs/bfs/spouses, etc to visit the US. Since 99% of them will be rejected for a B-visa, many will do a K1 visa, go through that process for a year +, get the visa, bring their SO to the US for a 3 month trip, and then return to the Philippines. Obviously this is fraud, but this is what many do, and creates problems for the rest of us who do a K1 or CR1 visa legitimately. I mention this as it shows how far people will go because the chance of a B visa is tiny. If he has the time, it makes much more sense for him to go there and visit.

I dont know which country you come from, but I have quite a few friends who are EU citizens, all retired before 35, and did make frequent trips into the US, similar to what you proposed and they did it for a few years without issues, although they had documentation of their financial status. In general, what people are saying in this thread is correct, however for some reason, Americans have some pre-conceived notion that people are suppose to work their entire lives and anyone who doesnt, must have something wrong with them. If your financial situation is strong, and you can prove this if asked, I dont see you having a problem. If your financial situation is more normal, then I would agree with the other posts in this thread. In the past I have had extensive conversations with US Commercial service officers as well as Consular officers and even they will say, if you have the money, they dont really care too much how long your in the US, as long as youre spending money. Ive had this repeated to me throughout the years in various US Embassies in multiple countries. I dont know your situation, but I can tell you with 100% certainty, there are double standards.

Yes thats correct. Her passport was stolen just after we got the visa. This was also during the peak of Covid in December 2020. The Embassy, though, was highly responsive in getting the new visa issued once we obtained the new passport. This was when certain provinces required Covid testing or did allow travel to non-residents of that province etc etc so we were trying to navigate that issue as well. Also, we were an expedited case due to my son not being in school and we were trying to get to the US by January for the new school semester. We did not arrive until Feb 2021, mainly because of the difficulties in getting the new passport. This was 2 days before the visa was to expire. I havent read this whole thread but if you need something urgently, its best to demonstrate how their quick actions will benefit the US citizen.

Her last login was 7 years ago. I dont think she will answer. Probably best to close the thread.

Especially when you consider the first 4-5 months of 2022, there were limited or less international flights. It comes to around 90 people per day were offloaded throughout the Philippines in 2022. The article lists 472 related to human trafficking, 873 for misrepresentation. I wonder what category the other 31,000 fell under given the whole point of offloading is supposedly to prevent human trafficking as well as misrepresentation. It just further confirms the abuse of the program. According to the BI, of the 32,404 Filipinos offloaded in 2022, only 472 were related to human trafficking, 873 allegedly misrepresented themselves, and 10 were minors.

You were in the same situation as myself when I came back. Once you come back, you will need to get a state DL. Each state is different, some states may issue you a new license without a written exam and road test and others will not. You will need to check with Texas on their requirements. Also, the insurance will be for the specific car you have, then you can add authorized drivers to that. Its likely all 3 of you will be considered new drivers so expect some sticker shock as its not nearly as cheap as in the Philippines. We have been lucky as we have relatively good public transportation. I have a non-owners car insurance policy through Geico which gives coverage whenever we rent a car. Its cheaper than selecting the car rental insurance at Enterprise, Hertz, etc etc. We then use a combination of Uber/Lyft, the Tram, and Zipcar. The only problem is public transportation in the US is horrible, except for very few cities so this may not be an option.

We bring in thousands of medical professionals every year to work at our facilities with the majority of them brought in on immigrant visas. We refer most of them to Progressive as the process is very easy for them with no driving record in the US. As a 3rd party agent told us, Progressive doesnt care that you have no driving record in the US, they just want your premium. Second on the list, may be Geico.

Yeah, makes sense on your step daughter and agreed that with no fathers name on the BC is very helpful. Your wife's situation was exactly my wifes situation, I think she was around 5 years old as well. Because of that, we had to get the NBI AKA for USCIS.

Hello Steve, sorry I have not replied to your PM yet. I have been in China the last few months and have not been able to log into this site. Here is some feedback: As others have stated, you should look at applying for the 13A while you are still in the US. Minor traffic violations do not need to be reported. They dont matter as part of the process. Since they do not matter, do not include. I have seen some people include these and it can cause mass confusion and misunderstandings. As for the local police clearance, I need to double check my notes on this. To get an FBI clearance is quite easy but takes some time. Usually you just need to go to your local police department, they will either do electronic or ink fingerprints (depends on the station) and then these can be mailed to the State Dept to be authenticated/certified etc. State Dept is backed up so this process may take around 2 months or so. Dont worry so much on proving financial stability. Ive seen people with only SS and no assets get approved for the 13A. Its best to follow @seekingthetruth advice on having a US address, although he only "highly recommends" and I "highly highly recommend" you dont change the address to a Philippines address. With about 99.9% certainty, the person you spoke to at your bank has misinformed you and its likely when the bank runs an audit and they come across your foreign address, they will contact you to close your accounts, usually within 30 days. You MUST maintain a US address. The situation with US banks is getting much worse in regards to US citizens living overseas. I always advise our Expats to never tell their bank they are going overseas. During my time back in the US, I have found a massively misinformed population on anything that deals with a foreign country. We joke in the Philippines about sometimes getting the "deer in the headlights" look, but it occurs in the US as well on anything international. Someone else in this thread mentioned that there are services that can provide you a US address. Ive used this company (at the link) in the past for mail forwarding and you should call them and discuss what you would like to have done. https://www.personalmailinternational.com/ There are other companies, but I have first hand knowledge with this one and they were very good for what I needed. As for your medical, alot of the advice from @seekingthetruth is correct. I think you should consider something like this: - Having health insurance in the PI for routine things is not really required since the services are cheap. A doctors visit is around 600-1000p (the upper end are the international hospitals) and X-rays, blood test, etc are cheap. - You should have some kind of high-deductible plan that will cover you for major surgeries, etc etc (for example, heart attacks/stroke/cancer/etc) Although these are much cheaper to treat in the Philippines, the cost will still be very high. - Try to get evacuation insurance coverage as well. I always have had this living there. If the insurance company requires you to designate countries, I would just put Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. There are hospitals in Thailand now that are just as good or better than what you could get in the US. If you are able to travel, I really dont recommend anything major being done in the Philippines. You will find some foreigners who have had good luck, but the ones who have not had good luck far outweigh the others. - You should subscribe to Philhealth as well. A few years ago they raised the fee to 17,000p/ year for foreigners. Normally this will only cover a certain % if you are hospitalized, that % ranging anywhere between 10- 50%. Will depend on the services and it covers nothing for outpatient etc. However the BIGGEST advantage of Philhealth is you will be admitted without having to pay a deposit upfront. For example, if the hospital does not recognize your private health insurance carrier, alot of times they wont admit you without an upfront deposit. However, if you have Philhealth, they will. This can be the difference between life and death as well. People have died waiting outside the emergency room as the hospital was requesting payments upfront, but with Philhealth, you will be immediately admitted. - Try to check out Maxicare, BUPA, AXA, etc. Maxicare I had as part of my employer insurance. They are very popular with companies, but they do insure individuals. Over the past 25+ years, BUPA has been quite popular with foreigners living in SE Asia. I had them at certain times back in the 90s/early 2000s. If money is no object to you, then CIGNA by far is the best. The gold standard. However their premiums are sky high and I dont see how they will be of good value to you. You can also check out GEO Blue and Aetna. Those two will be a little less expensive than CIGNA, but the premiums will still be alot. - Also, as other have stated, some insurances providers (alot) end coverage at a certain age, some are 70, some are 72, etc etc. - Finally, read the fine print over and over and come up with lots of questions and get those answers. Its best to get those answers in writing as well. Nothing verbal as these insurance companies in SE Asia will promise you the world on the phone. I guess to just repeat, I strongly suggest you find a way to maintain a US address both for banking and credit card. If you dont, you will find yourself in a world of problems quite quickly. Also, on the 13A, you will be able to get a local credit card from BDO, BPI, etc and I suggest you do this. Finally, one of the go to online banks that expats used has been Schwab but a few months ago, they sent notices to many Americans living in foreign countries (one of them was the Philippines) that US citizens could not longer use their brokerage services if living outside the US. Essentially they would not be able to add any more money to the accounts and they would remain open for liquidation purposes. However, Im not sure how this affected their retail online banking services but its another reason to always use a US address and never tell your bank you are permanently living outside the US. Every time you log into your US bank, you will need to do so via VPN to make it appear you are in the US (NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc etc etc) will work. In this day and age, a VPN is a must have for living outside the US. You will need a VPN to log into the IRS, SS, etc websites as well. The other thing you need to take into consideration is trying to maintain a US phone number. Since many of these financial institutions are going to 2factor authentication, they will need a US phone number and not an overseas number. Some people have tried US google voice or google fi, but some banks can recognize this now. T-Mobile, Verizon offer international plans and I know some Americans in the Philippines maintain one of these numbers strictly to receive 2factor authentication. The only issue is its an additional monthly expense. Since you are not moving until the end of the year, I wouldnt research this too much until a few months before as this is a rapidly changing area as well.

Out of curiosity, did the father of your stepdaughter not sign the birth certificate when she was born? Many times this occurs and if so, the child will obtain the mothers later name. However, if the father signs the birth certificate (even if not married), the child can use the fathers last name. This was the case with my son. He has my last name although I was not married to the mother. His name structure is: the two first names, middle name is the mothers last name, his last name is my last name. However there is a cutoff on when the father needs to sign the BC and if that date is missed, the child will take the mothers last name. A UK friend of mine worked overshore and when his daughter was born, he could not get back to the Philippines in time to sign the BC. It became a disaster as it took him about 2 years to get it correct and alot of money spent. I dont remember the cut-off time, but I thought around 2 weeks or 30 days but not sure.