top_secret

Just did two weeks ago at the San Diego Passport Agency. They returned the naturalization certificate and other original documents by hand the next day when we picked up the passports.

Probably allot of CR1 denials would convert to IR1 by the time they are eventually approved simply because overcoming a denial may take more time. Since the OP lists Philippines in their profile, CR1's have become a little more rare there recently simply due to US Embassy Manila's ongoing interview backlog. I would guess that the ultimate denial rate for the Philippines differs significantly from some other countries that are considered to have a higher fraud rate. I'm quite certain that almost any legitimate CR1 or IR1 case from the Philippines has almost a 100% chance of approval unless there is some extreme obvious problem with the case. If there was an extreme obvious problem with the case than any kind of statistical comparisons wouldn't be valid. It's more like if your case is totally legit you have an extremely high chance of approval and if your case is seriously flawed you have a very significant chance of denial.

From the perspective of a Filipina landing for her first time in America, I would guess that the number one, all important, overriding everything, consideration would be, to have you waiting at the door just past customs. My wife was a very experienced traveler and I'm quite certain she could have pulled off any kind of domestic connection without help, but I still met her at the port of entry, just because. I drove from San Diego to Los Angeles which is no big sacrifice. If I were in Hawaii and needed to take an intra-island flight to meet her on the ground in Honolulu, I would have readily done that.

I 'think' it's a Texas thing. I think you can get around it with an affidavit and extra paperwork but they intentionally don't make it easy.

I wouldn't make the choice based on anything other than what was the most convenient and/or economically desirable flights. Any port of entry would be fine.

That's the same error my wife and stepdaughter got when we tried updating their expiration dates with the extension letters. Later when they got their real 10 year cards it updated online with no problem. So our impression was that it is actively verifying the data on the actual card in real time. But even without updating it they had no issues using GE with the expired cards and extension letters. They just had to stop by the the officer after the kiosk which never took more than an extra minute.

I agree people should file a ROM but there are some couples who could never file a ROM or ever get an Advisory on Marriages, such as same sex marriages or persons with overseas divorces that are not recognized by the Philippines. Those marriages may be fine for the US but are not recognized in the Philippines. In our own case, our I-130 was approved so fast there wasn’t time to file a ROM and have it been processed in time, though we did file one. So my wife took a CENOMAR to her interview. There's also some hard headed types who are just opposed to having the Philippine Government involved in their lives. It's a Philippine government requirement and does not directly have anything to do with US Immigration. The only reason the embassy requires a CENOMAR or Advisory on Marriages from every applicant is that they want to see that there are not any other marriages that were not included in the application. In the land of no divorce, it is not unheard of that someone may have a previous Filipino spouse who they are no longer with but still legally married to, and forgot to mention that on a visa application.

At my wifes interview, the officer called her name from across the very full waiting room and as she walked up he greeted her and introduced himself and then asked her if I was......"and said my first and middle name". She answered "yes" and he said "good" and then took her back to her interview. He never said a word to me directly and I only sat around in the waiting room but my presence was definitely noted and it was clear he had reviewed her case in advance and knew exactly who I was.

The Oath Ceremony is easy. Just stand and hold up your right hand with the rest of the crowd and repeat each line after the officiant. My wife just finished hers in San Diego and they were allowing guests, picture taking, video and it was a very relaxed and upbeat occasion.

These are the actual FAM regulations on the subject. https://fam.state.gov/fam/08fam/08fam040304.html

I believe what probably went wrong here is that as far as US Embassy Manila is concerned an Advisory on Marriages is functionally identical to a CENOMAR. Either will work. Except, the consul asked your wife for an AOM. She had a CENOMAR which would have worked fine. But since the consul was negligent explaining that detail she logically answered that she had no AOM (without knowing to mention the equivalent document she did have). I place the blame squarely on the consul for not explaining. But, now that a 221g is issued. It would take months to file a Report of Marriage, have it recorded by PSA and actually, really get an AOM. It's not realistically happening and very fortunately not required anyways. What the Embassy needs now is the CENOMAR that existed all along but was not handed to the consul at the correct moment because the consul asked for it incorrectly. Answer the 221g with the CENOMAR since that's what the Embassy really wants wether thas what they asked for or not. Then, if you want to work towards an actual AOM as a secondary contingency, file a Report of Marriage with the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco since they are who processes ROM's for Utah Marriages

US Embassy Manila has been sporadically doing these "mass expedites" where they send out a bunch of approved expedites to people who never requested them, as a way of repurposing the expedite system to allow self scheduling of ordinary cases. At the same time ordinary NVC scheduling is still happening too. I sound possible that your sons got one of each.(????) One son got a "mass expedite" and the other got a regular NVC scheduled interview date. Check the CEAC status of the son who got the expedite notice November 1. If the CEAC status is "Ready" then you probably just need to self schedule his interview on https://ustraveldocs.com/ph

I'm guessing that the "no" answer to the consul generated the 221g??? It's not fair because they are not at all clear in their instructions but probably, she should have handed over the CENOMAR in response to that question rather than answering no. A CENOMAR and an Advisory on Marriages are essentially the same document. The difference being, a CENOMAR means PSA has the person recorded as single or an Advisory on Marriages means PSA has the person recorded as married. However, the Embassy relies on the Marriage Certificate to determine if you are married or not. The Embassies interest in the AOM or CENOMAR is only that it NOT show any undisclosed former marriages that are not legally ended. The Embassy wants it as proof there is not a former Filipino spouse they forgot to mention.

Did you have a CENOMAR? You absolutely must have EITHER a CENOMAR OR an Advisory on Marriages. No exceptions. One or the other is acceptable depending on what PSA gives you. Most likely you just need to order a CENOMAR from PSA to answer the 221g.

Congratulations. Having an upcoming PCS may be grounds for an expedited interview. USCIS has a military helpline that is supposed to offer just that type of assistance for military families. 877-CIS-4MIL (877-247-4645) https://www.uscis.gov/military/military-help-line It would probably at least be worth a call to see if they could help getting the date moved up a bit.

The whole "step" thing must be new but the day my wife was actually scheduled her (meaningless) estimated time INCREASED a few months. Have you checked the documents tab for any pdf scheduling notice???

It's not uncommon to have a few weeks delay issuing a visa. Different embassies and different cases have different timetables. Plus you have holiday in that time. There's no cause for concern just yet. Hopefully it will be "Issued" soon.

For "Metro Manila" put "NCR" as the province. (National Capital Region). Put the actual city, IE Pasig City. There is a 4 digit zip code. You may have to Google that. All addresses should include a barangay. Beyond that, freestyle rules apply and it is a very inexact science. There might or might not be a subdivision, purok, street, block, corner, sito, prominent building or landmark house number, etc. If it is just for informative purposes on a visa application then the format is probably not that critical. If you actually expect a real delivery of something at that address ask what if anything was ever successfully delivered there before and what address worked. IE, have they ever ordered stuff from Lazada before? The most critical part of any address used for actual delivery is that they have a good, complete, reachable cell phone number that would really be answered. Since probably half of Philippine deliveries come down to the delivery guy getting to the general area and calling or texting to ask for directions. Delivery guy in the Philippines has to be one of the most challenging occupations on the planet.

I think the latest round of NVC scheduling included DQ dates up until April 2024. It's also notable that they actually made some progress reducing the backlog.

My wife got a same day oath. Which as far I can tell is fairly typical for San Diego As far as arrival times my wife arrived about 30 minutes before her scheduled interview. We were all let in immediately and security was fast. Check-in at the third floor was quite slow. Maybe almost an hour. Interview on the 4th floor was maybe 30 minutes all in and oath on the 5th floor took maybe an hour.

It was very easy for us. Online appointments are here. https://passportappointment.travel.state.gov/ You can log in and browse appointment availability without making any commitment or giving any identifying information other than an e-mail address and phone number for multifactor authentication. You dont need to give a name or anything else to just browse appointments. Just pick a travel date is the next two weeks. For San Diego they were pretty much wide open. I checked a few other cities and found generally good availability the places I looked. We did make an anticipatory appointment well in advance of the actual naturalization interview though.

You will have to file an I-90 for a corrected green card. It's free of charge because it is a USCIS error. File the I-90 online and submit a copy of your marriage certificate, entry stamp and the mistakenly issued CR1 green card. It says to submit the actual defective green card but I would just submit a copy and hold on the original for now so you still have proof of lawful presence. Whenever they are ready to start moving on correcting their error they would issue a RFE for return of the defective card.

What they want is a PSA certified copy of the ROM. It sounds like you have the stamped copy the consulate returned when you filed. The PSA version is exactly the same except it is photocopied onto PSA security paper and with the PSA seal and certification on it. $20 per copy and $100 for DHL sounds about right ordering it sent to America. If you want to save a few bucks you can order one online with a credit card and have it delivered to relatives in the Philippines for P330 and they could send it to you by PhlPost EMS with tracking for P1600, so like $33 all in that way. Online you order from here https://www.psaserbilis.com.ph/ Request a Marriage Certificate and if a ROM exists that is what you will receive.

In FY 2023, nationals of Brazil had an 11.94% refusal rate for US B1/B2 visas. In the same timeframe, nationals of Germany had 10.84% refusal rate for US B1/B2 visas. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/RefusalRates/FY23.pdf So by just raw statistics a random German B2 visa applicant has about 1% better odds than a random Brazilian B2 visa applicant. Of course, in reality it is all about the individual applicant so generic statistics don't really apply. But it does seem that Germans don't just automatically get approved.

Just to be thorough, because the original question lacks important details. There IS a circumstance where a same sex spouse might be treated differently regarding onward ticket requirements in the Philippines. Ordinarily, if a foreign spouse arrives in the Philippines traveling with there Filipino citizen spouse then they can avail Balikbayan privilege and would receive a one year entry stamp and would be exempt from onward ticket requirements. However, since the Philippines does not recognize same sex marriage, presumably a same sex foreign spouse CANNOT avail Balikbayan privilege and therefore would not be exempt from onward ticket requirements. In reality it is the airline that would settle that though, not Philippine immigration. The airlines tend to be rather strict about onward or return tickets. Philippine Immigration never checks.