top_secret

I meant a PSA Advisory on Marriages OR CENOMAR. The applicant orders a CENOMAR from PSA. If PSA, correctly or incorrectly, has the applicant recorded as married they they will receive an Advisory on Marriages. If PSA, correctly or incorrectly, has the applicant recorded as single they will receive a CENOMAR. The embassy understands there may be numerous reasons PSA may have the incorrect status recorded but none the less wants to see whichever document the applicant actually receives from PSA. Be it an Advisory on Marriages or CENOMAR. I avoid using the common expression CEMAR to refer to an Advisory on Marriages since although it is widely used, I have never seen PSA or the embassy use that term in any kind of official reference. Sometimes it causes confusion.

PSA Advisory on Marriages or CENOMAR. NVC will probably documentarily qualify without it if you don't have one yet, but the embassy will definitely want it uploaded to CEAC before the interview.

The regular Social Security card application asks for current name, name at birth and other names used. I485 asks for all the same names. It should all match what SS# has with the addition of one more name. Plus ALL of the other information matches too. So it seems like it would not be a problem.

Definitely no harm in trying it. For my wife and stepdaughter it just wouldn't let them change the date. Nothing bad happens. I forget the exact error message but it was nothing ominous.

For my wife and stepdaughter they tried updating it online. However, it would not accept the new date and kicked out any attempt to change it with an error message. So they were unable to make the change. Once they received their 10 year cards it did allow the change. So it seemed to us that the TTP website was actively checking the expiration dates of the physical card with USCIS. Traveling with extension letters and expired cards, at the facial recognition kiosk at LAX they were of course referred to an officer. He was totally familiar with extension letters and took less than an extra minute to clear the and send them on their way.

My wife's certified passport copy disappeared into an IRS black hole for like 5 months with no traceability and only generic answers as to when it would be returned. It was eventually returned via ordinary first class mail without tracking, like a whole month after the ITIN was issued. Things are allegedly better now than they were a couple of years ago and for us it was no big deal because it was a certified copy. But, I would still be highly hesitant to do it with a real passport while in the middle of any type of immigration process.

I don't think Tahiti is uniquely difficult for Filipino passports. Just that it appears to require a visa, which is always a hassle for Filipino travelers and as you mentioned, the most logical way to get there from the Philippines requires a visa that would allow entry to the US. Tahiti seems kind of poorly connected to many Asian hubs. So it seems it is incrementally more difficult for a Filipino passport holder to visit Tahiti than it would be for them to visit Hawaii. I 'think' Fiji is visa free for Filipino passports and has connections to several Asian hubs that are easy transit for Filipino passports. If there's good flights to Palau that sounds like a better option too. If it's her first trip out of the Philippines (?) there is allot to consider about Philippine exit immigration too. In many cases you realistically have to meet her there and travel out together if she is on a first international trip. It's not at all uncommon for Philippine exit immigration to stop young Filipinas traveling alone. International travel with Philippine passport holders can be challenging.

A US transit visa has exactly the same requirements as a 10 year multiple entry US tourist visa. Pay $185, fill DS160, interview at US Embassy Manila where they must convince a US consul they have no immigrant intent. An almost certain denial and disappointment for a young Filipina with a US boyfriend. Very unlikely to happen. Maybe she could transit through Japan since I think the have seasonal flights from Tokyo in winter months. But even just a Tahiti visa by itself may be difficult. Tahiti is a challenging destination for Filipino passports. Fiji might have way easier transit options for Filipino passports if you are set on doing a south Pacific trip. The Philippines itself has some pretty nice tropical island destinations. Thailand or Bali are much easier choices for a first overseas trip by a Filipina.

Waiting for naturalization is exactly what we are doing. However, I don't see a downside to just going into the SS office and requesting they make the change based on the marriage certificate. My wife was promptly refused but nothing but about 15 minutes of her time was lost in the attempt.

You are partially correct about subcases possibly being K2. But categories like F2A also allow derivatives so even that is not 100% certain. Again, if you caught the case early after creation cases with K2 go directly to "At NVC" whereas F2A etc. go through the additional steps first.

I kind of extensively played around with looking at other case numbers by date to try to make some predictions back when our CR1 and CR2 cases were at NVC. The wild card is it figuring out which cases are your category and which are other categories since they follow different timelines. In these cases "At NVC" could be a K1, but it could also be a documentarily complete CR, IR or other family category. The only way you could really differentiate is if you had been following cases from early in the process. K1 cases go strait to "At NVC" when created whereas other categories first go through "Pay Fees" and "Submit Requested Documents" and only go to "At NVC" once they are documentarily complete. That also skews the "In Transit" and "Ready" dates because while K1's go in order of case creation and by themselves would be easy to figure out, CR and IR also go "In Transit" and "Ready" and they go in the order of when they became documentarily complete which can vary wildly depending on how fast the applicant completed the NVC process. Then there are those who had successful expedites..... But it is a fun way to pass the time and you can indeed gain some useful predictions.

In the Philippines they refer them as "two by two" photos (without many people knowing two of what😆 it's just the name). Otherwise they may give her European size photos by default if she doesn't specify. If she gets her photo taken in a mall or other visa photographer, if requested they will usually happily send the .jpg to her e-mail, FB or WhatsApp which is very convenient.

Good to hear such an apparently fast approval for the I-90 to fix USCIS's mistake. I have seen several people recently reporting very fast approvals of I-90's submitted to correct IR cards that had been incorrectly issued as CR. It seems they may now be expediting such corrections(???)

The US will accept a legal Australia divorce. It does not have to be recognized by the Philippines. She still will need to order a CENOMAR. She will receive an Advisory on Marriages from PSA that incorrectly shows she is still married. The embassy will accept that when presented with a valid Australian divorce decree explaining WHY it is incorrect. But she still needs to bring it to the Embassy. Additionally her NBI Clearance must have her previous married name. Either as civil status "married" and including his surname as husbands name OR she can have her former married name as an AKA if she gets her NBI clearance as single. one way or the other her former married name must be included.

It can be changed up until the day of the interview. LBC at MOA/SM Mall of Asia is traditionally considered the fastest and most direct pickup location. Scheduling CFO has been fast and easy recently.

I think a lot of that is due to CR cases all converting to IR cases by the time any visas are issued because the embassy is taking so long. CR cases are becoming an endangered species in Manila.

Congratulations! They certainly might need to talk to the US Citizen spouse so good that you were available. But he probably just felt the I-751 submission was strong enough on it's own so interviewing you was unnecessary.

I just type "live agent". It seems to go to the same queue as "infopass" but has the option "connect to live chat" (last button on the bottom) without filling out as much information first. According to the fine folks on Reddit (so you know it's true), the queue holds a limited number of people waiting. Once the queue is full it will kick out any new persons trying to enter the queue and you have to keep trying until you get in or try at a less busy time like in the morning.

We took that question literally and answered what they asked. "Do you wish to provide information about your presence on other websites.........?" Answer "No." (I do not wish to.)

I 'think' they would have changed my wifes name if she had a US issued marriage certificate. I 'think' the reason they refused to change her name with a foreign issued marriage certificate unless she changed her green card first, was they want USCIS to be the ones to evaluate and decide if the foreign marriage is legal for name change purposes.

What was it you had from the US Embassy????? My wife was refused changing her name with Social Security using our Costa Rica marriage certificate. They told he she has to change her green card first. The Costa Rica marriage certificate is obviously Spanish but we have a certified English translation. I was not there and am not sure how well my wife was prepared to argue with them so I would certainly be interested in hearing the experiences of others with foreign marriage certificates.

If her or her family can go down to the LCRO they might be able to get a legible copy from them and have them endorse a new copy through to PSA. The LCRO copy is not valid for immigration by itself but at least one person here got them to accept an illegible PSA copy accompanied by a legible LCRO copy.

Is it the best possible scan of the paper document you have from from PSA? The old handwritten part may be what it is but is the modern PSA seal and security features on the paper the best possible scan and is it from a crisp brand new copy from PSA. You can order another one from PSA and try your luck. If it is "almost" legible you could try playing around with contrast and darkness with your scan. Some people have had success getting a copy from the Local Civil Record Office (LCRO) and submitting it as reference along with the PSA copy. If it is truly illegible and there is nothing that can be done to fix it then the final resolution would be to go to the LCRO and have them re-endorse a legible copy to PSA. It would be initiated at the LCRO and there is a nominal fee. Plus pay the expedite fee.

You just log into CEAC and click the "IV APPLICATION" tab. Click "view" and then "review" and go through to the end and you get your confirmation page and all the options for printing. It has the option to e-mail you a pdf too. It's still there and available from my wifes completed 2 1/2 years ago.

Expired K1 visa and I485 receipt notice should be fine. I think these days any actual illegal aliens would look to those checkpoints as an opportunity to expedite their free EAD rather than any risk of being detained or deported. We enjoy driving around the Southern California and Arizona deserts and encounter a number of those checkpoints with some regularity. We never had any problems with them and they have always been perfectly polite. Anecdotally, since some time last year I have not personally encountered a single one of them that was manned. Even ones that I usually would have expected to be manned are closed. So at least for us in SoCal and Arizona they seem to be on some sort of hiatus.