top_secret

For taxies install the Grab app on your phone. https://www.grab.com/ph/ . It's like Uber and makes things cashless and just soooo much easier. Manila is a big city and there is certainly crime and scams. But if you just use common sense and pay attention it's probably not much more sketchy than some US cities these days.

In the same month they processed 86 IR-1 and 4 (FOUR!!!) CR-1's they did manage to knock out 13,399 B1/B2 tourist visas and that doesn't even include all the interviews they completed that resulted in denials. At least K1's are doing well with 771 K1 visas issued. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyNIVIssuances/JANUARY 2024 - NIV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf The embassy is convinced they are doing awesome.

January's visa statistics just came out. Predictably, US Embassy Manila processed a whopping 4 (FOUR!!!) CR-1 and 86 IR-1 visas. That is with a ten month backlog that must be in the thousands. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/JANUARY 2024 - IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

US Embassy Manila would probably not even look at your certificate of employment if you did have one. It is of little value at a US B1/B2 visa interview. It would be more important if you can talk convincingly about your job than having any paperwork. They would judge you more by how well you talk about your circumstances.

Just noticed that it's now been more six months since any VJ member has reported a CR1/IR1 interview at US Embassy Manilla. Previously you would frequently see multiple approvals a month reported here from the Philippines. I doubt you could find any more than a two or three month gap in reported Philippines approvals in the entire history of this board. https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=Philippines&op1=3&op2=&dfile=No&op3=5&op4=1

It is indeed a wise policy not allowing Facebook links. However, the link someone posted here earlier was to US Embassy Manila's official verified Facebook page and a rather daft post the embassy made bragging about how awesome they have done reducing their non-immigrant interview backlog from over 6 months a year ago to less than a month now, all during a time period that has seen the backlog for spousal interviews increase from less than a month at the beginning of 2023 to almost 10 months where it stands now. Some may want to Google US Embassy Manila's official verified Facebook page if they have any commentary on the embassy's priorities when it comes to interview backlogs.

It is no problem at all for USCIS, NVC or the embassy since they will ask you ALL other names you have ever used at any point they ask your name, and you would list your maiden name there. Just start using your married name when the case goes to NVC.

My wife was rather shocked when she suddenly noticed that open carry is legal Nevada, during breakfast at a diner in Beatty.🤣😂🤣

Being young and single, traveling alone to visit a US boyfriend, US Embassy Manila often issues denials at the interview before they even ask three or four questions. I suspect it may be denied before people even arrive and the interview is just a formality. I can't say that I have never heard of a young single applicant being approved but I think it is exceedingly rare, so go in there with kind of low expectations. It can be a painful letdown if you get your hopes to much. You can bring the papers you describe but they are unlikely to even look at them. It's more important to be able to talk convincingly about your job and assets rather that having an Employment Certificate or Bank Certificate. It's really common for people to complain they were denied without the consul even looking at their evidence. Before we were married, my wife was denied twice at US Embassy Manila. She owned a condo, owned a car, owned a business with great cash flow and money in the bank. She had valid 5 year multiple entry visas and good previous travel history for Japan and Korea. She had a previous multiple entry visa from the Netherlands and good travel history in Netherlands, Italy and France. None of which made a bit of difference.

Discover It Secured card is really good for building credit starting from nothing. It has no particularly onerous terms or fees like some other secured cards do. It has rewards and they would generally convert it to a regular unsecured card after 6 months so you can get your deposit back. There are plenty of other secured options but check the terms carefully since some of them are predatory, have high fees or don't offer a path to being unsecured. When you are reporting your income on credit applications it is totally allowed to report your combined household income rather than just personal income. Be careful not to run up allot of hard credit checks by getting turned down. Capital One, Discover, Amex, Credit One, Well Fargo and some others all have pre-approval sites where could check if they would offer you an unsecured card without doing a hard pull on your credit report. Some of the fintech companies like Chime, Cred.ai and others offer gimmicky accounts that function like a checking account with a debit card but report as a credit card on credit reports so they are useful for building credit. I agree with everyone else that becoming an authorized user on someone else's account is usually the best and easiest first step .

They should become US Citizens the moment their passports get stamped upon arrival. No need to pay the $220 Immigrant Fee. Go get their US passports right away with their endorsed visas and your naturalization certificate as proof of their US Citizenship. If dad is remaining overseas, to get their passports you will need a DS-3053 https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds3053.pdf from him for each child, notarized at the US Embassy. It's free. Some people might consider filing N-600 for a Certificate of Citizenship for them. It's expensive and not strictly necessary because their US passports would be proof of US Citizenship, but having a Certificate of Citizenship would remove any question about citizenship that might come up later in life.

What is the meaning of the "dot"? Is "MA." an abbreviation for a longer name like MARIA or similar and they shortened it so it so the name would all fit on your ID???? If that were the case(???), the embassy may want both the short version and the long version of the name(???)

Secondary interviews are not uncommon for Filipinos traveling as tourists and can be harsh. "Offloading" is real. But not with K1 or immigrant visas. CFO is more or less your insurance against that. At least in theory CFO should have vetted your fiancee's relationship with you and if CFO said it's ok, than BI should accept the CFO certificate at face value. It's more or less settled by CFO before she ever goes to the airport.

Well it turns out we have no love from Germany either🤣😂. Granted 1 month multiple entry, 17 day stay. It's fine for whatever trip we plan but debatable if worth the effort. German visas go through BLS and although I would not have imagined it could be worse than dealing with VFS, BLS was way worse, by a large margin. In any case, we got the German visa but for a Filipino passport I think my wife would go back to the Netherlands if we ever decided to apply for another Schengen visa in the future. Netherlands was DEFINITLY more friendly to Filipino passports and being forced to go through VFS is somewhat "less awful" then being forced to deal with BLS.

Those dates actually more or less correspond to the actual dates of the IR5 backlog as of a month ago. The handful of recent "old" IR1/CR1 cases that just did get interview letters also align with the IR5 backlog. I am merely speculating without any real knowledge, but circumstantial facts seem to point to all CR/IR-1/2 cases being dumped into the IR5 backlog without prioritization since the "mass expedite" in June of 2023. I'm wagering CR/IR-1/2 are now equal with the IR5 backlog and will advance in lockstep. It seems they are all at about March 2023 at the moment. With 'almost' all CR/IR-1/2 through mid-May 2023 being long since finished, it will be interesting to watch the IR5 backlog advance a couple of months and see if it uncovers the huge numbers of CR/IR-1/2 languishing with no scheduling since last June. Again, merely speculating but I suspect watching the IR5 backlog advance is telling.

Are you using the USCIS receipt number you received in the in the e-mail receipt for the payment of the $220? It is a different receipt number from that of the petition. What does the status show when using that receipt number?

CFO is required by the Philippine government for a K1 visa holder to pass Philippine exit immigration when leaving the country. CFO generally won't talk to anyone who does not yet have the actual visa on hand so not much chance of getting it done in advance. Luckily they have been pretty quick lately for people who already have their visas.

Are you waiting until she gets here and has a Social Security number, or are you planning to file now with an application for an ITIN????? Either is possible. As far as her Philippine income, you just need to declare it to the IRS, you don't have to document it unless you got audited. The IRS is unlikely to audit anyone over a typical Philippine income. Though it's not necessary, if her employer is doing things correctly (not all do) she should receive and have to sign a BIR Form 2316 annually. Her employer would provide that and it would have all her income and withholding listed kind of like a W2 in the US. I'm not an expert on foreign income but I believe you could then exclude her income on the IRS form 2555 https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-2555 because the Philippines does have a tax treaty with the US.

AOS is supposed to mean that if she takes public assistance from the government then theoretically the government could come after you for to pay for the public assistance she took. It doesn't say anything about you writing her a monthly check. Alimony, divorce etc is a whole different issue but not directly tied to AOS. I wouldn't pay a dime unless a court orders you to.

Probably just outdated information then. Originally the affidavit of explanation was required to excuse the absence of a US entry stamp in the Philippine Passport that they previously required. By now they pretty much accept it as normal. Utah online marriage are now going through the Philippine Consulate in SF, USCIS and US Embassy Manila, in large numbers with no problems.

Did you get that checklist directly from the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco or did you find it online somewhere???? Some time ago they eliminated that particular requirement but since the Philippines tends to constantly change all the rules for everything it is important to have very up to date information. Unless you got that requirement directly from the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco very recently, then you can ignore it. If they have resumed that in the last few weeks (????) then take what they directly tell you very literally. Information you find online even a few months old may not be up to date. Generally the Utah online marriage are well understood and accepted by the Philippine government by now.

I just filled out the direct deposit boxes on the 1040 with my bank account info. No problem receiving it by direct deposit. If you ever had a paper check you could also pretty easily deposit it with most bank's mobile apps these days.

Don't make the same mistake my friend's wife made that got her wrongly refused entry and bounced back to the US. She had just arrived with an IR-1 visa, properly endorsed and and everything correct. They live in upstate NY and decided to drive across on a day trip to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Canadian Immigration told them that her "US VISA" did not make her admissible to Canada and sent her strait back to US CBP who were very sympathetic and helpful getting her signed back into the US properly. When my friend was telling me about this, the best I can surmise went wrong is that the Canadian immigration agent probably asked her status in the US. Being new to the US and probably not fully grasping all the finer details of her own immigration case, she probably incorrectly responded that she was in the US "on a visa" rather than as a Permanent Resident. I'm sure the IR-1 VISA in her passport that they had just spent the last two years working to get was fresh in her mind. A US Visa does not get you into Canada and the Canadian Immigration Agent didn't follow up, look at the visa, figure it out or understand that she was a permanent resident and not just visiting the US on a visa. So the moral of the story for them was, if Canadian Immigration asks questions about US Immigration status say "US PERMANENT RESIDENT" and be quite specific that the endorsed visa is their "temporary I-551 green card". Canadian Immigration probably should have figured it out but did not.

I would say you should run the numbers both ways and see what the financial difference in the return is. It would vary depending on a number of factors. It is not uncommon that a US spouse may have a high income and a foreign spouse may have much lower or no income and in those cases the potential difference between MFJ, MFS or Single in the tax return may be HUGE . However, there are plenty of cases where the foreign spouse has substantial income or the US spouse has a lower income and the result may be different. In our case we filed MFJ on paper (printed from TurboTax) along with a W7 and documents to apply for an ITIN for my wife. It delayed our return for months exactly as our case was in the final stages but we successfully completed NVC and got the visa with just pdf copies of our entire 1040 and all schedules,W2s and 1099's. Our return was over $10,000 greater than if I had file as single or MFS so it was definitely worth the effort. Unless you run the numbers both ways it's hard to know how much effort you should put into the decision.

I saw those reports too. They appear to be credible and that is kind of big news. Here is my take on the situation. There are only a relative handful of IR1/IR2 cases remaining for US Embassy Manila that have DQ dates older than mid May of 2023. It is very demonstrable that that almost all ordinary CR/IR-1/2 cases up to somewhere in May were included in the late June "mass-expedite". The only older cases outstanding had something that artificially held them back, like they are F2A to IR1 cases where the sponsor naturalized after the the late June mass expedite etc. So Feb-Mar 2023 cases getting interview letters are not huge numbers. What DOES have huge numbers and got many more interview letters today for Feb-Mar 2023 DQ dates are IR5's. Previously IR5, and CR/IR-1/2 cases were in different queues at USEM and CR/IR-1/2 were prioritized. What it really seriously looks like is going on here is last June USEM cleared all the CR/IR-1/2 cases up until mid May and then removed any prioritization for any cases that didn't make the cut and dumped them into the lengthy IR5 backlog. The clearing of the IR5 backlog is more trackable because of the numbers of cases and sponsors who are active online. It will be interesting to follow if the CR/IR-1/2 backlog now remains in lockstep with IR5. I am wagering that they do. If it's any consolation they have been clearing the IR5 backlog very quickly. If indeed USEM developed a large backlog that did not previously exist as they work to reduce other backlogs that does seem incredibly dumb.