top_secret

Currently they are scheduling interviews for persons DQ in February of 2024 and those interview dates are 2 months out. So the backlog is currently 9-10 months. Hopefully they are making progress on the backlog but It may still be a bit early to get a medical done for someone with a June 2024 DQ date. If you know she has scarring in her lungs and is highly likely to get tagged for sputum testing then it does make sense to get the medical completed early. But keep in mind that a the medical for someone tagged for sputum testing is only good for 3 months from the results date of the test. They don't get 6 months. So the timeframe would be something like 3 months for the sputum testing followed by 3 months validity of the medical. It's still 6 months but the window of usability is only 3. So that makes guessing when to do it in advance a little more difficult.

Same advice still holds true. I'm sure it is very stressful to be left hanging like that that but there is no cause for concern yet. Mysterious delays in visa issuance by US Embassy Manila happen with some regularity and everything still turns out to be fine. My own wild speculation is that maybe sometimes they want to authenticate some document with PSA or some other Philippine Government entity and obviously that would happen on Philippine time. But that's just a guess. It's probably impossible not to feel anxiety but it's still well within the broad range of what is "normal" for US Embassy Manila and nowhere near where you need to start worrying. Hopefully it will be "issued" soon.

That's what we had to do. There has been no problems.

If she wants to change her name and is able to get her foreign passport changed, it is WAY, faster, easier, cheaper and better in every single way if she can do so before her interview. It will not affect her case in any way. If she waits until she gets to the US she will have to change her name dozens of times, dozens of places, later on. USCIS, Social Security, State DL, banking, bills, insurance, employers, titles,leases, etc etc. Its a huge hassle and will literally take years to change her name in the US. If she can just change a single passport before her interview it all goes away and everything is automatically correct from day one in America.

Earlier some in this thread were goofing off with this phenomenon. Reading tea leaves is fun when nothing exciting is happening. I seriously don't think it reveals any secrete information, but perhaps it does reveal the 'Touched" status updates that USCIS previously used to give. In any case, a week AFTER my wife's appointment was set and without correlating to anything known about her case, the "updatedAt" date changed. Presumably revealing that they did 'something' behind the scenes at that particular time. Earlier some in this thread were goofing off with this phenomenon. Reading tea leaves is fun when nothing exciting is happening. I seriously don't think it reveals any secrete information, but perhaps it does reveal the 'Touched" status updates that USCIS previously used to give. In any case, a week AFTER my wife's appointment was set and without correlating to anything known about her case, the "updatedAt" date changed. Presumably revealing that they did 'something' behind the scenes at that particular time. Earlier some in this thread were goofing off with this phenomenon. Reading tea leaves is fun when nothing exciting is happening. I seriously don't think it reveals any secrete information, but perhaps it does reveal the 'Touched" status updates that USCIS previously used to give. In any case, a week AFTER my wife's appointment was set and without correlating to anything known about her case, the "updatedAt" date changed. Presumably revealing that they did 'something' behind the scenes at that particular time.

I had heard recent reports that seemed unusual. Thank you for helping to clarify what is going on.

It seems the first one misunderstood adjustment of status.😆🤣. If Vegas person wasn't willing or able to sponsor her in the first place, I assume she is now overstayed and is, as they say in the Philippines, "TNT" (tago ng tago). Living constantly in hiding due to her overstayed visa. In all, it is a pretty good outcome for a scammer case. The advice given by others is probably most critical. Time spent together in person is most important for both for USCIS and for actual relationship building. USCIS understands that anyone can fake anything online and even in person for a few weeks. There is a bit of wisdom in their mindset.

We (Philippine and US Citizens) got married in Costa Rica and could highly recommend it as having very easy laws for non resident foreigners getting married, pretty generous visa free entry, and it was just a great place for a honeymoon too. As others have mentioned, my wife flew from the Philippines on Turkish Airlines. Manila-Istanbul-Panama-San José. All visa free transit on her highly challenged Philippine passport.

It's impossible to know without knowing the foreign nationality involved. Because there are so many different variations of foreign nationality laws and different foreign laws regarding names. It could range from losing their old citizenship altogether, to not even recognizing a US Passport obtained by naturalization and everything in between.

YouTube has some decent videos with follow-up type questions if it was something like "Have you ever voted in a Federal election? No. Why not? Because that would be illegal....." Apparently, beyond the basic reading and writing test, USCIS is supposed to ask follow-up questions if they suspect the person has merely memorized the correct simple one word answers but doesn't understand the English meaning of questions. My own wife was going through some of the follow-up question videos and did not do as well on some of the English comprehension as even I would have thought. She found the YouTube videos covering that scenario to be helpful.

My wife recently took a new job that required a thorough background check. She had listed her high school and a 2-year associate degree on the application. Both from somewhat obscure schools back in the Philippines. The college degree was in a field of study not related to the current job and was not a requirement. To my surprise the company doing the background check actually did directly contact her high school and college back in the Philippines. In neither case did they request any grades or transcripts. They simply confirmed that she had indeed graduated in the years she had listed on her application and that her diplomas were authentic. They apparently tracked down the schools' contact information on their own since my wife had only provided names of the schools and dates of graduation. I always had the idea they never actually verify high school graduation but apparently they do sometimes. If a particular degree is a core requirement for a job, then I imagine they will want transcripts, foreign credential evaluation, etc. If it is just information that is asked on the application but not a strict requirement then I would just fill it out accurately but not worry too much about it.

Assuming they have a US Passport, that would be the main thing.

Just thinking out loud, and not claiming any knowledge on the subject, but if one card is "correct" according to all actual circumstances and the other card is not, shouldn't the incorrect one be returned to USCIS with a letter pointing out their mistake? Just because USCIS makes a mistake does not absolve the beneficiary of the mistake.

Have you double checked spam, that they have the correct e-mail etc? I think Feb 12 should have got one. I haven't seen many complaints of exceptions. If you wife got an interview date and your stepdaughter did not, then definitely request and expedite for your stepdaughter. The embassy would almost certainly correct an oversite like that.

I cannot remember any specific cases here on VJ where anyone was ever successful getting the meeting requirement waived. Even some cases with very difficult medical situations and a lot of cases affected by rona-virus travel bans were unsuccessful getting meeting requirements waived. USCIS would not even consider difficulty arranging child care as being an extreme hardship.

It seems like this batch made it up to about the 3rd week of February 2024. I saw a report of a February 20 DQ date receiving an interview letter and a February 21 DQ date not receiving one yet. It's at least promising that they seem to have made more than a months progress in the last month but they still have a long way to go to reduce the backlog.

Interview the same day as my wife, plus @raizujukishi too. San Diego isn't bad but Honolulu seems nicer. Congratulations!!!

You can ask the embassy to reopen your DS-260 Go to https://ph.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visa-inquiry-form/ Choose from "Topic of Inquiry (Dropdown):" select "Form DS-260 (Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration) Access" . Fill out the rest of the information and just put a note like "Can you please reopen my DS-260 so I can update it before my scheduled interview.” They would typically reopen your DS-260 and reply in 2 or 3 work days. Or, you also have a chance to ask them to update the DS-260 at the pre-interview document check the day of the interview.

Some people had success by opening the document in Chrome. Then from Chrome's menu select "print" and from Chrome's print menu select destination "Save as PDF". Then try uploading the resulting new pdf. Some others said that worked for them.

In the Philippines it would be a TIN from BIR. If you never worked in the Philippines then most likely you dont have one and are not required to have one. So the answer would be "1." However, aren't you a US Permanent Resident now??? W8BEN generally would not apply to US Permanent Residents so it seems your B of A app might have gone down the wrong path somehow if they are asking for one.

Keep watching the CEAC status. When it changes to "issued" that is the first movement you will see. Most cases go to issued within a day after a successful interview. Some take longer. A week is not uncommon. 4 to 6 weeks happens now and then. It doesn't necessarily mean anything and no one knows why. If they told her everything is good, it probably is. Patience is required. Also, Monday, Columbus Day, is a holiday for the Embassy. Tuesday is most likely you next chance to see movement.

Divorce decree goes under the "CIVIL DOCUMENTS" tab. Under optional documents click add a document and on the list of types they have an option for "PETITIONER'S MARRIAGE TERMINATION DOCUMENTATION"

1: I once wandered into Mexico accidently leaving my wallet in my car parked on the US side and leaving me with absolutely ZERO ID of any type. CBP took it extremely well. The first officer basically played me a game of 40 trivia questions about my life and let me in without even sending me to secondary. YMMV. We have a Mexican-American guy here at work who is of the hard headed personality type who likes picking fights with authorities for his amusement. It's like a game for him. He is a US Citizen but goes down to Tijuana all the time intentionally with nothing more than a "federal limits apply" CA driver's licence just to see if they will challenge him coming back so he can argue with him. They usually dont. I feel fairly confident that if someone belongs in the US, CBP at the land border will vet their story to a reasonable extent and based on experience and judgement let them in fairly drama free once they feel confident they actually belong. It happens all the time. 2: The airline totally could do that if you can get them to. It's totally up to the airline if they will even try and up to the carrier liaison if they would approve it. All you can do is ask.

You can delete and reupload before submitting. After you submit a document you could still upload and submit a new copy but the original copy will remain too. If you are waiting to become documentarily qualified an new submission might reset your wait clock. There is no specific advantage to uploading but not submitting a document you know you might change since NVC doesn't review anything until you submit everything.

10/25 5:00PM is the deadline for online voter registration in Utah and presumably the deadline to be registered in time to receive a mail in ballot. Though you could register in person up until election day. https://secure.utah.gov/voterreg/index.html