top_secret

You have resurrected a 3 year old thread from during the rona-lockdown era. Virtually none of what was written about CFO for tourists during that period applies today. CFO is no longer applicable for Filipinos traveling on tourists visas. They should DEFINITELY be well prepared for a secondary interview by BI if it is a first international trip.

K1 appointments are self scheduled on the ustraveldocs site. In recent months the embassy has failed to release enough appointments to accommodate all of the "ready' applicants. Hence the tedious constantly checking to see if any appointments opened up. Ordinarily CR/IR applicants are scheduled by NVC. Expedited CR/IR cases and cases where interviews were canceled for sputum testing etc are able to self schedule on the ustraveldocs site. However for almost a year NVC scheduled ZERO CR/IR applicants. NONE. This year has only seen some sporadic NVC scheduling. At irregular intervals they did the so-called "mass expedites" where they issued expedites to many cases in batches which allowed them to self schedule. Throughout that time the embassy has released plenty of open CR/IR interview appointments on ustraveldocs. Just most CR/IR applicants who are waiting almost a year could not book them unless they had an expedite. K1=many applicants who are able to book and no open appointments. IR1=few applicants who are able to book and many open appointments.

There really is no pattern at all. It is completely random. The embassy makes it up as they go along.

Was this a Japanese divorce??? If that is the case(???) they will require a Japanese divorce document. They describe what you would need and how you would get it here. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/Japan.html If the divorce was in a country other than Japan then look up the requirements for that country.

A SPA does have to be completed in person at a Philippine consulate. No way around that. It can be done at the lessor "honorary consulates". There is one in Portland if that is any closer to you. I have not personally ever heard of SPA's needing apostilled and I am not sure you could get it apostilled in the US so I would double check where that requirement came from. The document is already certified by the consulate so I dont understand who would apostille it.

US Embassy Seoul is a marvel of efficiency. US Embassy Manila is an epic clown show. Understand the difference based on where your beneficiary must interview.

File the I-90 online. It's faster and you can't hand over the physical card online anyways. So hold on to the mistake one until they ask for it back so you still have a physical card in your possession.

The real bottom line is that no one can predict what will happen before your case concludes. As recently as the beginning of 2023, CR/IR1's were flying high at US Embassy Manila with minimal wait times for interviews. While at the same time K1's were stuck languishing in USCIS hell for extended periods before ever even getting sent to the US Embassy Manila. What a huge reversal of fortune this last year and a half made. NO ONE can predict what the next year and a half will bring except that for better or worse it is unlikely to remain status quo. US Embassy Manila has been an epic clown show recently, practically a parody of incompetent government work, but they are slowly whittling away at the huge CR/IR1 backlog that did not exist before and that they only created in the last year. It seems plausible that things are hopefully heading back to normal-ish(???). CR1 is the better choice for any number of reasons and since you cannot predict the future you cannot not necessarily say it will eventually be "slower". There is a reason that the Philippines remains poor despite all that it's population has going for it. It is hard to do business there and a lot of stuff simply doesn't work right. It is hard to get important stuff done. If you struggle against it you will just drive yourself crazy. The Philippines is really awesome but you have to learn accept what you cannot change.

Those are times from the filing date until the day of the actual interview. It does not account for when interview letters were sent out or whether is was same day oath or additional time waiting for an oath ceremony date.

Since my wife's N-400 is pending in San Diego, I tried to get a gage on how fast things are actually going here recently. Searching VJ, some Facebook Groups and Reddit, I came up with 26 self reported cases that have already received interviews in San Diego in 2024. Here are the stats on those 26 San Diego cases. Number of days days from filing to interview in 2024. Average time: 141 days Median time: 133 days Fastest time: 77 days Slowest time: 230 days # of cases in less than 4 months: 11 # of cases 4 to 6 months: 11 # of cases over 6 months: 4 @Basil123 @Californiansunset @MdosSantos @ccc_

You do know there is no divorce in the Philippines?

I think basically there was a period where there was widespread abuse of the practice of converting to Islam solely to avail a Sharia divorce in the Philippines. It is more of a political issue rather than a religious issue. Rapid Visa put up a really good article on the issue non-Muslims converting to Islam and getting a Sharia divorce in the Philippines. https://rapidvisa.com/converting-islam-legally-divorce-philippines/ They include an actual example of a denial letter from US Embassy Manila.

I've heard of that request a handful of times during the rona era when CFO somehow had themselves involved in even tourist travel. They reserve that requirement for people they decide to give a really hard time. Like if you p' them off or if they decided they are suspicious about some guy for whatever reason. I haven't heard of any examples recently and even when they did ask it was rare. Pretty much a non issue.

Menu > Account actions > File a form online > N-400, Application for Naturalization

With a European divorce degree that is accepted by the US, Philippine recognition of the divorce is not necessary. For your NBI Clearance, the Embassy will accept it as either married or single, but they will be strict that you former husbands surname is listed. Either your NBI Clearance must incorrectly list you as still married and include your former husbands name. Or, it could list you as single, but you must still have you former husbands surname listed as an AKA. The strict part is that your former husbands surname must be listed somehow. Marital status is determined by different documents. As far as NBI is concerned, you will probably have different results with different offices. Some may just let you put any AKA you say with no justification at all. Some may be strict, want to see documents with the AKA, don't accept the divorce as a reason for an AKA, and list you as still married with your husbands. Luckily the Embassy understands this.

For relationship evidence we did almost exactly what you said. We had multi-page pdfs and used descriptive file names for strait forward evidence. But if explanation was required we included a simple cover page in those pdfs with a short description of what we intended to show. The gole was to make the case quick and easy to review. It is worked for us.

My wife and stepdaughter flew through Taipei with their Filipino passports just last week. Taipei is super easy transit. Actually, before and after we were married, my wife traveled with her young daughter all over Southeast Asia. At least half a dozen ASEAN countries plus Japan and Korea with tourist visas. At no point EVER, did any airline or immigration agent so much as even ask the slightest question about custody. They don't even have the same last names in their passports. Mom and kids are good to go in Asia.

Worst case is they somehow calculate the date one day different then you did. So they sit on it for six months and then reject it for early filing. Then you have to start all over again with a new application and another long wait, just for trying to save a day or two. Definitely not worth the risk.

Oh the calendar is wide open for scheduling CR/IR-1 interview dates. Plenty of days. Just no one can get the Embassy to ask NVC to send the cases over so no one can claim those dates

You could get the online tax return transcript pdf's instantly. I imagine USCIS prefers those anyway for online submissions since the pdf's strait from the IRS have basic security that would make any tampering evident.

Korea is visa free transit for Filipino passports. Philippine law grants a single mom absolute sole custody of her children. She needs no authorization from anyone, to take her children anywhere she wants, for any reason. She will have no trouble at all transiting Korea or traveling with her kids.

I'm still keeping my San Diego list. No recent updates and a good number of still open cases. I'll update any San Diego cases I see move. My wife has to wait until the end of October just to meet the 3 year rule. I'm working on the theory that those who are already time qualified, and easy cases, are getting super quick approvals from San Diego these days.

We did just that and chose "passport" because it was a DFA certified copy of a passport. It worked for us.

It varies immensely. Hence the wise 4 hour recommendation. At LAX TBIT, a terminal I know extremely well, it took my wife and stepdaughter 2 1/2 hours to emerge. The reason for the delay? Like three 777's from China arrived about 20 minutes earlier than their flight. Had weather or air traffic conditions ever so slightly rearranged, that order of arrival, processing times would have changed by hours.

It really depends on the tax situation of those filing. Our case is perhaps an extreme example but our return was literally over $10,000 more by us filing jointly rather than me filing separately. I would not have been able to file head of household. Other people may see less benefit but most of the time a return for married filing jointly is going to be larger.