top_secret

It's really variable. I have recently heard of several 221g's from US Embassy Manila resolved in 3 or 4 days. But we also had one here recently that took 6 weeks with no outwardly obvious differences between the 3 day case and 6 week case.

We have one VJ member right at this moment with a 221g from US Embassy Manila requiring a certified copy of a divorce decree rather than the photocopy that was brought to the interview. It is best to assume the embassy is quite serious about that requirement. Generally it would be a photocopy that is certified by the court clerk with a stamp or embossed seal and signature. Any court has a records department that can supply certified copies of their records.

They need a designated phone holder.🤣😂

As of 7/17 they the seem to have added a bunch of immediately available July appointment dates for face to face in Manila. So for the moment at least, appointment availability seems good again..... If you can get their web site to work.

CEAC can exemplify just about every type of website bug known to mankind. It is almost like some deranged parody of a failed defective web site. But ordinarily it actively fails simple tasks and screws things up in real time. The current "off line totally", with no explanation, warning or even the most basic "check back later" page seems like a yet a new escalation of failure. They may have reached the next level.

Was your mom a Filipino citizen when you were born???? Otherwise, you can easily pay to extend your visa and there will be no issue at all about the date of the return ticket other than that one exists. PH BI will not check at all. The airline in the US will expect either a return ticket or onward ticket to check you in on the flight there. Separately, your mom and you may want to look at reclaiming your Filipino citizenship. You certainly can, and dual citizenship has advantages for some.

Best of luck. CFO definitely does not lift a finger from Thursday afternoon until Monday morning Manila time so remember that. Honestly the best tactic for dealing with CFO is appeasement. Just play along with whatever they say and don't go against them. They also generally won't deal at all with the US petitioner and might even deliberately exclude you, so make sure all communication with them is directly from your wife.

I'm guessing they are taking that very literally. My impression is that at this point you have nothing coming without "visa on hand". If her last instruction was to email her a scan of the visa. Most likely she is stubbornly and deliberately refusing to even acknowledge you until her last instruction is completed. It is what it is. Traditionally CFO usually somehow comes through at the last moment on an emergency basis.

Honestly? I would pay it, or at least work out payments or something and maintain working relations with the bank. The worst case scenario is if they put a case on you for estafa. That could possibly be catastrophic. It's the kind of thing where maybe you would get away with it no problem??, or maybe not?? If you had the resources to eliminate the "maybe not", it would be preferable. Whatever you do, keep the information that you might be emigrating very tight. If the bank caught wind of that they may get way more aggressive.

Depending where they are in the US, LBC has a number of US locations as well. For sending documents from San Diego recently DHL quoted us like $160. LBC was $12 and delivered from San Diego to Pampanga in 4 days with tracking. She should have known better. All Philippine government offices are notoriously strict about dress codes so it's generally an ingrained part of the national culture that you dress respectably whenever going to ANY government office.

If she has a valid appointment for face to face in Manila she should be able to log on here using nothing more than her e-mail address with no password or any other security🙄. https://manila.cfo.gov.ph/GCP_Online_Manila/ (you probably have to copy and paste the url address to the address bar in your browser since they apparently block clickable links) Once logged in she can update anything that needs updated or leave it as is and scroll to the bottom and click the "Save" button. Once saved you have to dismiss a tiny "your data has been saved" window and then a "Print Barcoded Confirmation Form" link should appear in the lower right hand corner. That should allow her to reprint her appointment confirmation with barcode and time. Since CFO's crack IT team likes to further make things interesting, the last step, the actual printing of the barcoded PDF, will probably fail if attempted from a US based IP address since CFO geoblocks US IP addresses. I suppose this is to make up for the complete lack of any security allowing logging in with only an e-mail address. In any case,the printing of the barcoded pdf probably has to be done from the Philippines or by using a vpn to give oneself a non-US based IP address.

If the only names your wife ever used in her life is the name exactly as it appears on her original birth certificate and your name. Plus the NBI Clearance shows civil status "married" and includes your last name as "husband's surname". Then she does not need an AKA. It sounds like this describes your situation so most likely NBI is correct and she does not need an AKA. If there are any annotations or corrections on her birth certificate or any document anywhere that is not identical to the name exactly as it appears on her original birth certificate, or if the NBI clearance shows civil status "single" then she does need an AKA. If you feel she needs an AKA but NBI is being difficult, print out the embassies pre-interview checklist and go point at page two and tell them "the US Embassy told me I'm required to get a NBI Clearance with an AKA". https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/iv-dv-supplemental/MNL - Manila - Philippines_11JUL2022.pdf

Situations like that you just pragmatically resolve and move on. There is little more you can do.☹️ One thing I see from time to time that is worth consideration in the Philippines is that someone who grew up and spent their entire life in some small provincial town may have no idea what things are like "in the big city" even in their own country. Kind of like if someone grew up on a farm in Kansas they might not fare so well in Washington Park Chicago. The average foreign tourist may be more alert. There are also those that know very well they could safely walk through even the most dangerous dark alleys but don't realize that is only because they never had anything worth taking from them before and once they do have anything worth taking, their dark alley status would change.

If you are US Military stationed overseas you may be able to apply for your wife's green card by direct consular filing through the US Embassy, thus completely eliminating the time consuming USCIS stage. If that is the case it can be finished very quickly. I would contact the US Embassy and ask if they will accept a direct consular filing. Base legal services may be able to offer guidance as well.

There is not an option to update the "Required Documents" section so just add the new NBI under "Optional Documents". "Add A Document" and select "POLICE CERTIFICATE" from the drop down. You can add a comment that it is an updated NBI Clearance. As far as addresses in the Philippines there is a wide margin for variation. I wouldn't worry much about the AOS or DS260 as long as it is more or less accurate. The delivery address in the ustraveldocs site would be more critical.

US Permanent Residents will have no problems at all with Philippine exit immigration. Make sure you don't add ₱1,620 Philippine travel tax in any of your tickets and do stop by the TIEZA counter before checking in so you can claim your travel tax exemption as an overseas resident.

It's really not something I know much about so I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to give better answers. US Embassy Manila has their instructions here https://ph.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizenship-and-immigration-services-uscis-manila/ The embassy refers you to USCIS for the I-360 but they have instructions to submit a request for appointment and pay the filing fee at the embassy so I believe that they are willing to complete it by direct consular processing which is fast and comparatively easy.

Hepatitis A vaccine is not a requirement at all anywhere. Only Hepatitis B vaccine is required.

Quite a few go through US Embassy Manila. There are actually a dozen or more pretty much every month. I don't want to give advice on something so important that I don't know much about and could easily be wrong, but my impression was that the embassy still accepted direct consular filings in those situation.

For that question on the DS260 my wife responded "No" and under explanation wrote "I plan to receive all required vaccinations at the pre-interview physical exam." Appointments for Saint Luke's are made online here https://slec.ph/registration/us/

The "interview letter" comes as the result of scheduling an appointment and it comes instantly when someone does. It is required to get in the embassy on interview day. Some people are confusing that with a "welcome letter" inviting them to schedule. It says wait for the welcome letter but there is nowhere ever that it is checked or needed. There are allot of folks from the January group who finished their cases, got their visas are happily sitting in the US for months already but STILL have not received their welcome letter to this day.

I have been watching the "inventory" kind of carefully the last week or so and it has done some very interesting things. At the beginning of last week CR/IR-1/2 had about 600 appointments open in July. Then in the two days immediately preceding the mass expedite of Fxx cases last week, 225 appointments from the first two weeks of July disappeared in large blocks. I'm pretty sure they were reallocated to Fxx. However, yesterday, about 50 appointments in the first two weeks of July appeared in CR/IR-1/2 and the odd part there is it included Friday interviews in 20 minute intervals rather than the usual 30 minute intervals and there have NEVER been Friday appointments for CR/IR-1/2 or Fxx categories before. I'm speculating they were reallocated away from K1 or some other category??? In any case, CR/IR-1/2 started last week with about 600 July, and 670 August appointments available. Since the mass expedites took place July is down to about 175 and August about 500 remaining. Over on the Fxx side of things, I think they are approaching being booked solid down from probably 1400 open appointments when they started. The logic of doing in mass after no scheduling at all for months escapes me, but it seems very likely US embassy Manila expedited like well over 3,000 Fxx and CR/IR cases in groups last Thursday and this Wednesday.

I know someone who was just "In Transit" about 18 hours but unable to schedule. Then suddenly they were able to schedule although the case remains "in Transit" even now. Be careful not to try to often though. Several folks have got a 72 hour account lockouts for excessive activity.

Allot of people have been able to book interviews already while the case is still in transit. They are going fast. Try it. If it lets you schedule an interview you are good. If you still get "case not found", try again later.