top_secret

Well, a couple of hours after she filed, she got the biometrics re-use notice and the meaningless time estimate dropped from 9 months down to 7 months. So at least we don't feel cheated any more by the meaningless 9-month time estimate.😆🤣 Status changed to actively reviewing after the biometrics re-use.

We may find ourselves in exactly the same situation, with the same airline, so we are very interested to hear how it works out and wish you the best. One thing you can try is calling EVA Air's local ticket office. My experience in the past with other airlines is that sometimes local ticket offices have the authority to make changes that the reservation call centers simply cannot do. I have no idea if they could be helpful here but it's at least probably worth another call. In Cambodia EVA Air lists the local ticket office here. Also, at the time of check-in, the agents at the airport have very considerable authority to make changes that the reservations call centers cannot.

Fair or not, some consulates will look at cultural norms in the country. In some countries it would be almost unheard of for a young man to marry a significantly older woman if there is a really big age gap between them. But younger women marrying significantly older men might be somewhat common and not at all unusual. Certain consulates may suspect that a young man marrying a significantly older woman is so unusual in that country that they must be doing it for personal gain such as just to get a green card or just to get money rather than marrying for love and companionship. If it were a situation like that, then proof of sending money might only serve to reinforce the consulates preconception. In the case of the original post, I think a two-year age gap is probably no big deal but in general proof of sending money is weak evidence at best and could potentially be seen as derogatory at worst. Probably best to focus on other types of evidence.

They will go over your entire application with you at your interview and you can just notify the agent you had another trip you needed to add. It's no big deal at all.

For other recent San Diego applicants @Basil123 @californiasunset @MdosSantos @ccc_ ,searching here and elsewhere I have found 22 self-reported San Diego N-400 cases that have got interviews far in 2024. The longest took about 7 1/2 months. The shortest only 2 1/2 months. 4-5 months seems most typical for San Diego lately though 6 out of the 22 cases I found were in the 6 to 7 month range.

Well, my wife’s N-400 is filed online. NOA-1 is dated 07/29/2024. She did decide to go for a legal name change to married name vs just using the marriage certificate as a name change document. We are completely sure she could have changed her last name with only the marriage certificate but changing the middle name in line with Philippine customs seems a little more ambiguous. California does allow changing middle name on marriage it but reading the California law it is worded to allow changing it on a California marriage license and doesn't mention overseas marriages. It is giving us a time estimate of 9 months. I do know that is a meaningless number but since other are getting meaningless 7 month estimates, we feel cheated with our meaningless 9 month estimate.😆🤣

DS-160 is what you complete for K1, B2 and various other non-immigrant visas. DS-260 is completed for CR, IR, F and other various immigrant visas.

NO. We do not need another new excuse for yet even more additional taxes. Presumably the money being remitted has already been taxed when if it was earned in the US. If there is speculation that there is widespread untaxed earnings by illegal aliens being remitted overseas then perhaps they should focus on cracking down on untaxed earnings by illegal aliens rather than taxing overseas remittances.

A Philippine Voter ID is amongst the most serious, legit and respected ID's in a land of sketchy ID's. Yes, a Philippine Voter ID is good to have. (I think the US is the only so called democracy on the planet where very strong voter ID is NOT a central pillar upholding peoples faith in the legitimacy of elections)

Well. it seems we will be joining the July '24 party. My wife is eligible to file 7/28. We will wait until 7/29 just to be safe. We were planning to put it off a few months because of planned upcoming travel but we decided to take our chances on interview dates and valid travel documents. Naturalization voids her Philippine Passport and replacing that would take time but upon checking just now it seems we could get an appointment at the San Diego Passport Office like next day if need be, so whatever slowdown on US Passport processing there was seems to have passed. We still have some concerns about name changes on pre-booked airline tickets. We already completed the application and uploaded everything so it's all ready to pull the trigger come Monday morning. The only issue we are still on the fence about is how best to handle the change to married name. We are leaning towards filing as married name = legal name based on the marriage certificate even though all of her documents are still under her maiden name simply because her I-130 was approved in just 49 days and at the time it was impossible to change her Philippine passport before her interview. It seems a legal name change is not required since the marriage certificate should suffice but we are hoping that is a negotiable and changeable point should USCIS somehow see it differently at an interview. We are still open to hear opinions on the virtues of legal name change vs belatedly using married name based on the marriage certificate. In any case we plan on filing Monday morning. 3 year rule. I-751 already approved. San Diego Field Office.

Maybe a notable detail(???). This thread titled "appointments now available" started July 1. The available appointments mentioned lasted all of about half the day but the first of the month release of new dates part is 'interesting', if not anything definitive. Maybe be alert approaching August 1???

A lawyer or consultant would undoubtable cause even longer waiting in this specific situation because, NO, lawyers and consultants ARE NOT seriously sitting at their computers going through this asinine process to get their clients an appointment. They would just notify you that you have no appointment yet so just wait some more. No lawyer or consultant will be as proactive as you are.

This is my interpretation. It sounds like on the previous passport application they received a letter spelling out exactly what evidence needed to be provided to prove the US Citizen parent's physical and legal custody and to prove the applicant was a minor when they entered the US as a LPR. It seems the easy solution is to provide what was requested.

If you want a definitive answer you have to ask the Local Civil Registry Office (LCRO) in the specific municipality where you intend to marry. Because unfortunately the Philippines is the land of inconsistency and what is required in one city may have some differences from what is required somewhere else. The affidavit of legal capacity to contract marriage is just a statement you get notarized by the embassy in Manila or consulate in Cebu city. You can make an appointment here. https://ph.usembassy.gov/services/notarials/ Nothing should need an apostille.

K3 is effectively dead. I think there have been less than 10 K3 visas actually issued WORLDWIDE in the last 5 years. None in the Philippines. Probably the reason your lawyer recommended you file the I-129F is because even though it was 100% certain to be denied, some say the denial of the I-129F speeds the approval of the I-130.

Are you female or asking for your wife? Just clarifying that because your name sounds male and NBI is traditional about naming conventions so only a woman may change her name in marriage. In specifically the case of a married woman, she would update her NBI Clearence civil status to "married" and add her "husbands surname". It doesn't change her maiden family name on the NBI Clearence but the adition of husbands surname implys the marital name change. I don't think it can be done as a simple renewal online but you can try. I think you can start a new NBI Clearance online but would still need to go in to the office to complete it and show the marriage certificate.

Currently they are stuck at scheduling cases DQ up until about the first week of August 2023 so it is rather definitively about a 12 month backlog right now. Looking forward it seems impossible to predict if that will improve, get worse or remain the same.

Yep. That looks correct. If there was any K1 appointments at all available it would be showing the first available message.

There is an example of how it looks if there are any dates at all available. I just logged in and chose a different category (C-1) that does have dates available as an example. As long as the category is set correctly K1 shows that too whenever there are dates available. No message = no dates.

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.