top_secret

My observation is that if the counselor somehow decides to make things difficult for a particular applicant then they can totally do that. They CAN make up rules as they go along. Your guess is as good as anyone's about what ticked them off. The best course of action to put on a big smile and just play along with whatever the ask for and get it over with. It's no use trying to second guess them.

The Facebook group "IR5 US VISA PROCESS" is almost entirely Filipinos petitioning their parents. It is fairly well moderated as far as FB groups go. The admins and members there are somewhat organized about notifying everyone any time a batch of interview letters go out and what documentarily qualified dates are included. No one could possibly predict what US Embassy Manila will do next because they act really erratically. But you could argue that September 2023 'might' be included in the next batch, and they are overdue for sending out ANY recent interview letters.

USCIS covers it pretty clearly in their Policy Manual. If they follow their own policy 🙄 then it seem pretty clear you could just use your married name without doing anything more than showing the marriage certificate to justify it's use. Not to say that USCIS has never failed to follow their own policies. https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-1-part-e-chapter-5

My non-scientific speculation about the rate limiting issue is that it's a primitive defense against scripting. It seems maybe more likely to be triggered by rapidly clicking through screens as obviously you would naturally do. Possibly a slow motion approach deliberately spacing out mouse clicks by a significant amount of time helps(???). Also, assuming you have everything completed correctly already, upon your original log in, if there are any dates at all available it will say "first date available Aug 18" etc in the lower left main screen. If its blank there, it's no use clicking through to the no dates available calendar and getting rate limited. Rate limiting goes away after an hour or so. Try again a little less aggressively. If you get the 48 hour ban its more serious. I also have noticed it actively blocks IPs associated with VPN's so that's a no no.

My understanding is that if you are only taking your spouse's last name then there is no need for the legal name change option. You could just file the N400 with that as your legal name, list your maiden name as other names used, and provide the marriage certificate as proof of legal name change. This is however a question we ourselves are still considering how best to navigate so I would be very interested in the experience or opinions of others.

The only thing that matters about the plane ticket is that the name and birthdate matches her Philippine passport. Any and all visa details can be updated or changed at check-in. However, until you have an actual visa on hand (and CFO) you have no true certainty about dates. If you book a ticket before you have an actual visa on hand look very carefully at the date change penalties. Because dates could still unexpectedly change.

When you are buying a ticket probably all they need is you passport info. Really all they need is just name and birth date to issue a ticket. When you go to check in for a flight to the US you will definitely need all passport AND visa information.

I think sometimes it's completely random if someone winds up in the two day camp or the six month camp. I have definitely seen a thread somewhere on the subject a newborn infant taking six month to get conditional approval and how ridiculous that was. In our case, my wife took six months and her daughter took two days.

It would probably WAY faster for your sister if you petition your parents and then when they arrive have them petition your sister as F2A. If she is 13 it seems there is still a decent chance it could be done before she ages out.

Currently at US Embassy Manila, IR5's are taking almost a year from when they became documentarily qualified to receive interview dates. They are currently up to cases that were documentarily qualified in August 2023. They had been making significant progress reducing even longer backlogs for IR5's but for the last couple of months they have not moved much.

They process the W7 first and then forward the return for processing. I think they are currently taking ~2 months for the W7 so it would extend the processing of an amended return by that amount of time.

The 750 score when she arrived was 100% based only on her being an authorized user on my cards for a number of years.

One thing we found to be a significant hurdle, is having a brand new social security number. My wife had a 750 credit score when she arrived and we figured everything would be smooth sailing. However, she was turned down at first for several credit cards in her name only. Even recently after she has been here close to three years and has a 790 credit score Chase made her upload a scan of her social security card before they approved her. B of A denied her online, then mailed her a letter asking for written authorization to verify her SS# with SSA plus tax returns as proof of income. It seemed a bit much for a credit card, but we sent in what they asked for and they still denied her again stating they couldn't verify her SS# even though she gave them written authorization to verify it with SSA. I'm pretty sure if she had gone into the branch and applied in person she could have resolved the SS# issue but we were fed up with B of A by then and didn't follow through.

You can indeed file a W7 with an amended return. Also make sure you get her to sign a letter electing for the non-resident alien spouse be treated as resident for tax purposes. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-spouse

With some considerable experience with international travel I can say that uninformed, misinformed and sometimes even just plain incompetent airline staff are just a fact of life. If your travels are at all interesting, sooner or later almost everyone will have some kind of run in with them over something. It seems est11 handled it expertly. Know EXACTLY what the rules really are in fine detail and then stand your ground and politely escalate it up the chain until they follow the exact rules. I will withhold any commentary about it being Jetstar 😆🤣

A second easy option for obtaining an ITIN for a Filipino spouse is for them to go down to a DFA office and get a DFA Certified photocopy of their Philippine passport. It's a standard service and they charge like 150 pesos for. That serves as a standalone document for filing a W7 and tax return by mail. https://dfa-oca.ph/passport/passport-requirements/passport-certification-process-and-requirements/ https://dfa-oca.ph/passport/passport-requirements/passport-certification-process-and-requirements/

IOE9 means that the cases were submitted electronically. These case numbers are randomized so it is not valid to compare "blocks". IOE09 means the case was submitted on paper and scanned for electronic processing. These case numbers are sequential in blocks presumably ordered by week number, and therefore you could maybe glean a little indirect information by comparing one case's progress to others in the same block. It sounds as if your husbands lawyer summited the case electronically which was probably the best way to do it, but yielded case numbers that are randomized so you cannot compare them by "blocks".

Here in California with GEICO I just added my wife online. Since I did not add a second vehicle at the time and still had myself as the primary driver it did not impact my rate at all. I was instantly able to print new insurance cards listing both of as named drivers.

The vast number of C1/D visas you see issued out of US Embassy Manila are because Filipino seamen are the backbone of the worlds maritime transport crewmen. Basically, any shipping company that hires crewmembers in the Philippines requires them to obtain a US C1/D visa as a condition of employment since odds are that sooner or later, they may need to make port in the US. Strait C1 only transit visas are much less common in the Philippines and honestly the C1 only applicants could have got a 10 year B2 tourist visa for the same amount of trouble. The bigger mystery is why they just don’t just set aside like about 3 or 4 days and knock out their immigrant backlog in one fell swoop. US Embassy Manila has the capacity do like a thousand interviews in a day of all categories combined. Even IR5's who were steadily decreasing their backlog haven’t seen any movement for the last couple of months. Even those who have ready cases that need reschedules due to sputum testing etc. are having difficulty getting interviews.

Yea, she is smart enough to ignore the voter registration solicitations so it is no big deal. But it is definitely annoying since it is recurrent and derives from a government agency that has been formally notified of her green card status.

Same here in San Diego. My wife has been called twice for jury duty already since she arrived. Luckily, easily dismissed online by notifying them she isn't a citizen. The more annoying part is that California keeps sending her voter registration forms. We traced that to when she first arrived we purchased her health insurance through the state "coveredcalifornia" web site. Even though we had no subsidies and paid full price for the insurance, they got all her info and even with California having full disclosure that she is a green card holder they still keep sending her voter registration forms.

Tukwila seems to be ground zero for Filipinos in Washington State. Take her grocery shopping at Seafood City. https://www.seafoodcity.com/store-locations/tukwila-wa/ .

K1 the petitioner is required to proactively declare arrests and convictions and provide police reports and court documents for many cases. It's a big part of the process. CR1 does not require the petitioner to declare arrests and convictions at all, anywhere in the process. Though USCIS may still run their own background check.

You don't need it at all for the I-129F. You will need a new one before your interview at the embassy. The embassy considers CENOMAR's valid for 1 year from the date of issuance. You often see advice that they are only valid 6 months because in past years there have been a few very rare instances where an individual consul ask for one less than six months old due to some question they had about someone's specific case. The six month advice does not apply to normal cases.

BIR accepts a Philippine Report of Marriage. In the Philippines they see that as a "PSA Marriage Certificate". (even though it's not a marriage certificate). "Remarrying in the Philippines" could be catastrophic to your situation in both the US and the Philippines. DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER IT. By Philippine law you must both be unmarried before you could marry. However you are both married. To each other. You would have to commit fraud to even sign new marriage documents in the Philippines. Then you could wind up having to spend years annulling the illegal second marriage to even set things straight with USCIS. Your online marriage is fine. Work with that. 13a is the wrong visa if you are seeking to stay a few years waiting for your wife's CR1/IR1. You seeking permanent residence in the Philippines is contradictory to your wife seeking permanent residence in the US. US domicile is a core requirement to sponsor a spousal visa. The US citizen spouse seeking permanent residence overseas tends to contradict that. Balikbayan stamps seem ideal for what you seek. Fly over, spend a month with your wife, take a quick trip to Hong Kong, Taipei, Thailand etc., return together and you get stamped in for a year. Super easy.