top_secret

The total scheduling meltdown and 1 year+ appointment scheduling delays at US Embassy Manila for CR/IR cases after becoming documentarily qualified have apparently improved quite a bit more recently. Be careful that you are looking at very recent cases for any accuracy guessing appointment backlogs.

USCIS has access to expunged and other hidden records, but CFO does not. Never volunteer anything more than is specifically asked.

In my opinion, if you do want to change your name then you should go all in to change it to exactly what you want as soon as possible and if at all possible get it changed on your foreign passport BEFORE your interview. Then you automatically start your whole new life in America with all your new US documents automatically coming with your desired name from day one with no further effort. If you find yourself with multiple names on your green card, social security card, state id, banking, employment and everything else, it's a huge hassle that can follow you around a very long time. I have no idea how hard it is to change a middle name on a Canadian passport but it costs at least $415 and can take over a year to change a name in a US green card once it's been issued in a non-desired name. Plus every other document and ID issued while waiting for the green card change. I could guess a Canadian name change might be faster, easier and cheaper. I would at least look into it and putting effort into going that way if at all possible. It is not easy after you get to the US.

OFW's should have already completed CFO-PDOS. If they return to the Philippines and receive a fiancee or marriage visa from US Embassy Manila, they should "upgrade" to CFO-GCP to pass Philippine exit immigration the first time with the new visa in their passport. If they receive the new visa from a US Embassy outside the Philippines and use it without first returning to the Philippines then it is irrelevant. No one cares except Philippine exit immigration if someone has an unused fiancee or immigrant visa in their passport.

Hasn't there always been a requirement to file an I-90 (for free) in most cases when a LPR child turns 14??? I would think normally that would satisfy even the new registration requirement (????) Is it possible they are requiring the G-325R in this particular case because the I-90 was not filed in a timely manner???? I'm just trying to understand it better myself.

On the bright side, if the sputum test results had been positive they would have contacted her early. "Late" results implies it's negative and that everything must be just fine. Do proactively follow up but most likely its just bureaucracy that will easily be resolved within a day or two.

DFA has no CFO requirement to change a name on a passport. Whoever told you that is incorrect.

My wife and stepdaughter both had US passports on hand in well under 48 hours from her oath ceremony. She also had her Naturalization Certificate returned by hand at the same time, which is way better than waiting a month for it to be returned by untracked mail. You can make an expedited passport agency appointment online here. https://passportappointment.travel.state.gov/. If you want to just browse appointment availability you can start an appointment with any date and you would be able to view available appointments on a calendar before having to commit to anything. In the case of my wife she preemptively made an appointment for the day after her interview so she would be ready if she got a same day oath and she could change it if her oath was delayed.

We have a fairly simple power of attorney which delegates most of the responsibilities of guardianship for my stepdaughter to me, and explicitly defines exactly the wishes and directions of her mother is for any reason she was not able to care for her child. The idea is that we do not expect to need it at all and it certainly does not offer any permanent legal guardianship but if anything unexpected were to happen it would at least give me some legal authority to independently care for and take whatever steps I needed to act in the child’s best interest until such time as a more permanent custody arrangement could be settled by the relevant courts and it clearly expresses my wife’s wishes for her daughter in such circumstances.

It covers marital union in the USCIS policy manual and the definition seems fairly straightforward. https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-g-chapter-2 So to me it seems that if you actually resided together overseas that 100% counts as "marital union".

Turbotax and probably just about any other tax preparation software has an amend return option whereby you just go through the whole guided process for your return again making whatever changes that need to be made and at the end it spits out a PDF prepared 1040X ready to print and mail. Generally super easy if you used tax preparation software and potentially quite a significantly greater additional return.

Could just mean whatever fingerprints they had on record were fine but they didn't accept her picture for some reason and needed to retake it.

Knowing my neighbors, I do not think any type of unannounced visit by any type of government agent would go particularly well. The best possible outcome I could imagine is they would just shout at them to get the eff off their property and don't come back come back without a warrant. Possibly that would be interspersed with various threats of violence. Then they would probably try to tip me off that some kind of feds were asking questions about me. They are nice neighbors but definitely no one you would ever want acting as your character reference.

DigItize (scan) certain paper documents contained in your A-File. Scanning completed. (totally just a guess)

Look at that message as advisory. It means she better come to the interview very well prepared to discuss and document your current income.

I went back and found a recent case I saw of someone reporting they had been denied due to not meeting the marital union requirement. They stated that the interviewing officer told them it was a "new law" but when they subsequently posted an excerpt from their denial letter it is crystal clear that was new enforcement of an old law. There have also been several other reports of the same denial on Facebook groups and Reddit recently. More in the last month than I ever saw before. With the caveat that it was posted on a Facebook group, it seems very credible and the excerpt from the denial letter seems legit.

Anecdotally. Previously 'most' applicants who filed 90 days early without strictly meeting the 3 years marital union requirement seemed to somehow get away with it, and a very small handful seemed to get denied for it. But, in just the last month I have seen multiple reports of denials based on just that reason and at least one person who stated that they were directly told at their interview that there was an internal policy change to maximum enforcement, no exceptions and 100% denials if the 3 year marital union requirement was not strictly met. (so says Reddit and Facebook groups). Based on that, and general news lately, today I certainly would not try filing early if the 3 year marital union requirement was not met. It seems times may have changed.

It should be ok with an AOM plus a US divorce decree. They already know that marriage legally ended in the US. The reason the embassy still wants a CENOMAR/AOM is to make sure there are no other marriages they don't know about. Make sure the divorce decree is a certified copy from the court.

Shockingly, I have actually had missing mail requests work before. Even after a significant delay. Though not with green cards. Another strange anomaly is that one time when we did receive green cards in the mail they showed up unannounced by the usually reliable informed delivery. Tracking number was belatedly provided by USCIS two days after we actually received them and they never showed in informed delivery. It made me wonder if they are somehow handled differently by USPS(???)

They might have had something like this in mind. Police in Jakarta would be aware of these. Maybe they just dont read English and weren't paying attention during training.

MM/YYYY: 2012 Location: North Jakarta, Indonesia Business / organization: Indonesian National Police Check type: Police Checkpoint Reason: Police were trying to extort money from me. Result: Success Details: The taxi I was riding in hit a police checkpoint in North Jakarta. In Indonesia there is some law that foreigners must carry their passport at all times. Police commonly use it as an excuse to extort bribes out of foreigners if they do not have their passport in their possession. I knew all this but had become complacent and my book passport was in the safe back in the hotel. After the usual insinuations that I would be arrested, go to jail, bla bla bla, they started the bidding on the extorted bribe at 500k Rupia which is ridiculous. I countered with 50k, thinking I could probably get the bribe down to more like 100k rupia with a little negotiation. 150k max. By this time the whole incident had dragged out 30 minutes or more. I then offered my passport card having zero expectations it would do anything to resolve the situation. The one cop took it, walked over to his police partners in crime. They passed it around and had a little confab. One of them returned it to me and with maximum respect and politeness said I could go. The night and day shift in their attitude from a few minutes earlier was very pronounced and confusing. I think they had no idea what the passport card was. They noticed it prominently said UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE on the front and back, couldn't read English otherwise, and concluded it might be some kind of diplomatic credential or something. They became uncertain about exactly who they were trying to extort and decided it wasn’t worth risking their profitable checkpoint operation if somehow it escalated. So in North Jakarta, in 2012, the US Passport card made me a diplomat for the evening. They may be more savvy these days though.

It should be fine. Are you already in the US and now your husband is petitioning your kids? A CENOMAR or Advisory on Marriages for the petitioner should not be required at all in standalone IR-2 cases. If the petitioner is a dual citizen it might be a good idea to bring one to the interview anyways, but even if that incorrectly shows married to the former spouse, the embassy would just want to see a valid divorce decree to explain the discrepancy. So it's no problem

True for USCIS and the Embassy, but CFO is a Philippine government requirement, not a US Government requirement and they will definitely cause trouble leaving the Philippines if a Report of Marriage is not filed. An emigrant cannot clear Philippine exit immigration without the blessing of CFO. There is no requirement to change names but most brides in the Philippines really want to change their name. So, it is much easier to get it done BEFORE a visa, social security number, green card and all the other document derived from those are issued in the name they dont want. Not filing a ROM also means that the marriage is not recognized in the Philippines so that has numerous implications for couples who intend to maintain ties to the Philippines. So you could get around reporting the marriage, guaranteeing extra harassments by the Philippine government, plus extra hassle changing names for most brides. Some couples have valid reasons not to report it or are opposed to reporting it to the Philippine government. But it is not entirely without implications to be considered.

It should work great. Utah online marriages are successfully going through US Embassy Manila, trouble free, in large numbers. The Embassy probably sees them every day. It is a well tested path. If you are both Filipino citizens it is still only one ROM. No issues. Either you can file by mail with the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco, or it could be filed in person at the DFA ASEANA office in Manila. The Philippine government is fully accepting online marriages for all purposes so long as the ROM is filed. By now they are well aware of the aspect of one spouse being in the US and the other being in the Philippines for the ceremony. As you mentioned, you are aware of the in-person meeting requirement before you can file. But the two year clock where the case would automatically convert from CR1 to IR1 begins the day of the online ceremony. So there is still a potential advantage doing it online sooner rather than later.

Probably relates to the embassy changing official couriers from LBC to 2Go as of Aug 1. https://ph.usembassy.gov/2go-express-is-the-new-courier-for-visa-applications/