top_secret

Online status changed to "Approval Case Decision Rendered" today, so about 4 1/2 months from filing to approval. Faster than I expected. It says to wait for the approval notice for further info about picking it up. So far nothing under documents.

USCIS will usually figure it out in their own without intervention. Just wait for the actual green card. If the physical card arrives and USCIS somehow makes the same mistake, it's free and relatively easy to correct. Just file an I-90 online for free based on the card having incorrect data due to a USCIS error.

My wife’s sisters and brothers finally got their mom a 'very very very late registered' birth certificate. They recon she was born sometime in the late 1960's. There are absolutely zero records of her existence in the world before the late 1990's and there are so many discrepancies about her birth date I am convinced no one really knows when she actually born and there is ZERO possibility anyone could ever find out a correct date. Neither my wife or myself were directly involved getting her late registered but I asked my wife and she said it was basically a number of in-person visits to the LCR where they would keep rejecting stuff and asking for something more. Eventually they got enough to make the LCR happy and they issued the late registered birth certificate. It was a maddening exercise in typical Philippine bureaucracy. You just have to go back and forth with the LCR until they are satisfied. In classic Philippine style when she finally got her birth certificate it had her name misspelled in a way that did not even correlate to any of the multiple misspellings on her other documents. I asked about the affidavits and my wife said it was persons who I know are family friends. I'm not sure they are technically legit as a "disinterested persons” but it satisfied the LCR. They were younger than her so age of the affiants didn’t seem to be a problem. was not a problem. Maybe they just need to be mature adults, like 40+y/o or something. From previous decades there are huge numbers of older Filipinos, possibly even millions, who were born at home and their parents never registered the birth. Parents saw it as a hassle, it cost a small fee, and they just saw no useful purpose or need of having birth certificates for their children. Housewives, farmers and others living in the province who work for cash, very easily live their whole lives with no one ever asking about a silly birth certificate. More recently they are getting more strict about it but there are still plenty of children out there that don't don't get registered until they are old enough enroll in school, or even later.

While all states may be different, I think it is fairly typical that even if there were missing requirements they would still conditionally enroll the child and immediately allow them to start. They would usually just give like a 30 day deadline to come up with whatever was missing. The problems proving residency are common to just about any family that has just moved. It's not really unique to immigrants.

Also important to note that CFO is entirely a Philippine Government thing. The US Embassy is not involved in any way other than CFO wont make an appointment until she has a visa. https://cfo.gov.ph/CFO-FRONTLINE-SERVICES-FOR-GUIDANCE-AND-COUNSELING-PROGRAM-GCP

That is not at all outside of 'normal' timeframes for US Embassy Manila. They really do have very inconsistent visa issuance timetables with no outwardly obvious rhyme or reason why some are issued within a week and some take three weeks or more. It is still very reasonable to assume that nothing is wrong and the visa could be issued at any moment. Hopefully in time.

My wife got an AMEX Blue Cash Everyday card unsecured on her own credit. We definitely always list out joint marital income on credit apps. They started her with a credit limit ~$2000 and after, I think, 6 months the gave her back to back $10,000 credit line increases every 3 months, up to almost $40k in a very short period of time for a brand new immigrant. It's not the best credit card she has as far as rewards and general terms, but definitely fantastic for building a credit score

Foreigners can get a CENOMAR. They just apply at PSA like any Filipino. PSA responds that the never heard of any such foreigner before. That's a CENOMAR. I can't recall reports of CFO ever asking for one on the petitioner before so it does seem like a new level of harassment. But, relatively easy to get

I think it is scientifically proven that if your fiancee brings all those documents to their interview, no one will even look at them. But if your fiancee does not bring all those documents, it definitely would be that one time they suddenly decide they DO want to see them.😅

If staying for an extended period definitely get the Filipino Passport and enter on that to avoid any confusion. But the US Passport also exempts the child from many of the laws relating to minors traveling that otherwise apply to Filipino citizen children Under Philippine law the maternal grandmother has default legal custody of the child if a parent or designated guardian is not immediately available. If you wanted to go way over the top being over prepared you could do a special power of attorney at a Philippine consulate granting temporary custody and guardianship. But I'd think that would be overkill. In reality I can't imagine any circumstances where anyone would actually question lola caring for a grandchild. Filipinos don't generally question anything about women caring for children unless something really seems seriously off about the whole situation. Our 12 y/o is currently in the Philippines spending the summer with lola and ates. She flew there alone and no one even asked a shred of id or anything from us putting her on the plane. Just her passport and fill out this airline form. They are incredibly lackadaisical about the whole custody issue.

Whatever opinions anyone may have about CFO, they have produced a really detailed and informative pdf booklet covering Philippine nationality laws as they relate to dual citizenship here. https://cms-cdn.e.gov.ph/CFO/pdf/24. DUAL-CIT-PRIMER-FINAL.pdf The OP seems to match the hypothetical example CFO mentions on Page 8 CFO further explains the relevant Philippine nationality laws on Page 13 More specifically, under US Laws, the minor children of naturalized US citizen parents "acquire US Citizenship by operation of law" under INA 320 as amended by the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) Philippine Passport holders can come and go from the Philippines on any timetable they wish. US Passport holders can come and go from the US on any timetable they wish.

There are hundreds of YouTube videos. Just search "N-400 Civics Questions". My wife found them particularly useful because they more closely match the actual test where the questions are asked verbally and the answers are not multiple choice. YouTube also has many mock interview videos that may be useful to some.

I uploaded additional relationship evidence as unsolicited evidence and my wife's I-130 was approved shockingly fast just a week later. I do not believe the additional unsolicited evidence was at all responsible for the shockingly fast approval but I can say with 100% confidence that it DID NOT slow anything down. The progress tab estimate is almost certainly completely meaningless and in no way has the slightest correlation too how long your case will actually take. When you get to the NVC stage, that is where submitting additional evidence resets your document review wait time. Not so with USCIS.

PAL charges high prices because they can. Allot of Filipinos in the US are willing to pay extra for familiarity and the convenience of non-stop. Although PAL is not a premium airline they have no problem filling their planes charging premium prices. Be careful about any of the super cheap "self transfer" fares you may see because they may require clearing immigration in transit and that option might not be viable at all or at least complicated for Filipino Passport holders. Sometimes budgetair.com has slightly lower prices for flights originating in the Philippines. We use them from time to time and have had no problems but be sure of your travel plans because they would not be easy to make changes with.

If you are overseas, most instances where you would need a SPA notarized for use in the Philippines, it will need to be notarized at a Philippine Consulate. This is one service that even the honorary consulates can perform so you have options in many cities in the US. Choose the nearest and contact them. You would probably need an appointment. https://philippineembassy-dc.org/directory-ph-hon-cons/ https://philippineembassy-dc.org/consulate-finder/