Steve2022

Oh yeah, and then there is the email we got from the Embassy, which I think is what we should really pay attention to: 

"

7 hours ago, Hank_ said:

Bring original and copies.

 

Do take note of this:

 

" However, you must bring every civil document you uploaded and submitted with your application to your visa interview.   "

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-8-scan-collected-documents/step-9-upload-and-submit-scanned-documents.html

YES this is exactly my problem, because the link you linked above says one thing, and then the US Embassy in the Philippines says something entirely different:

https://ph.usembassy.gov/visa-update-preparing-for-your-immigrant-visa-interview/

"NOTE:  There is NO NEED TO BRING the petitioner/sponsor’s affidavit of support forms and financial documents, however these documents must be uploaded into the CEAC portal prior the interview."

Oh, wait a minute, it said civil documents.  That does not include financial documents, I think???

We have our interview next week, so, starting to feel pressure.   What I need to know (and maybe I should put this in a different topic, but I was trying to find the info before posting) is do we need to include financial documents for 2021 taxes?  I filed an extension, and so did my joint sponsor.  Also, I should provide new bank statements for the past 6 months, correct?   I already provided them but by now they're almost a year old.   And my more important question is:  DO I NEED TO UPLOAD THESE NEW THINGS INTO THE CEAC??????  THANKS!!!!!

I'm finding some information that says the purpose of the NBI clearance must be "travel abroad", but these seem to be older posts and there is nothing on the ph.usembassy.gov website that says the NBI clearance must be a "travel abroad" clearance.   My wife's NBI clearance states "multipurpose" and also it expires about 2 weeks after the interview.   Does any of this matter?  Will they accept "multipurpose" for the interview and what about the CFO?  Does she need an unexpired clearance to enter the US?  Thank you. 

On 5/13/2022 at 8:34 PM, abaa said:

The only way I could find to contact the embassy regarding a visa question was through the online inquiry form.

That's why I suggest you call the main number, and when you get a human, tell them you have a 221g and would like to speak to an agent.  You can call the main number and get a human in probably under an hour, depending what time of day you call.  If you have to, tell them you submitted an inquiry but the response was extremely vague.   However, I agree with RO_AH.  I think the cover letter is the most important thing.  If you submit that along with the extra financial papers, I think you should be good.  But it would be better to hear it from the horse's mouth.  You haven't even tried, you might be able to talk to a proper person about it.   Another option is to call the NVC.  You can definitely get an agent in under an hour who might know something. 

2 hours ago, flicks1998 said:

won not only because of misinformation, but because he had the better, more funny tik-tok videos, the better and funnier Facebook posts, and as we all know and have seen, nowadays thats all that matters.

I have been shocked recently to hear some repeat some obvious and (in my mind) very false propaganda that they have apparently been exposed to.  Things are not much better in the USA with respect to availability of reliable unbiased news these days.  I do not argue a whole lot because it isn't worth it, and they may well figure out the truth sooner or later on their own.  If we Americans were such oppressive colonizers, worthy of lumping in with the Spanish, then why did we Americans free the Philippines from the Catholic Church and give them their first elections in 1907, sharing the Gift of Democracy that we were so fortunate to have been given?  Did we keep Japan as a territory to tax after they were conquered?  No, we gave them the Gift of Democracy, because that is all we ever wanted to do.  Not conquer, not colonize permanently, and only as much as required to share the Gift.  The seed of Democracy cannot grow in infertile soil that does not even know the Rule of Law because of centuries of oppression.  A certain nation-state which I shall not name is now working feverishly to overthrow democratically elected governments and replace them with dictatorships.  They have had successes.  Bot accounts on social media is how they do it.  Let's hope they won't be successful here.   I can understand Filipinos who just want to feel safe and secure from the hold-up men and other criminals, who really should be fed to the fishes in Manila Bay.   What good is due process when you can't hire a taxi without fear of being extrajudicially robbed?   Who can criticize others for their choices when we all have a God-given right to self determination?   But I do wish the Philippines had remained an American protectorate for longer, so that their Democracy might have been more assured.

19 minutes ago, Steve2022 said:

Apparently they banned foreign ownership of most everything with the new 1987 Constitution that SOMEBODY concocted after they kicked Marcos out.

Apparently the relevant law was passed in 1991, and it was based on "principles stated in the Philippine Constitution".  https://www.duranschulze.com/the-60-40-equity-rule-on-owning-a-business-in-the-philippines/   

However apparently I didn't know what I was talking about becuase it says right there that if the company invests 200k then they can fully own their business.  I read Duterte got that lowered to 100k already. But isn't there still a ban on land ownership?  So you can own the building, but you can't own the land it is built on.  I'm guessing there are barriers to ownership that I don't know about yet that make it impractical, but I haven't figured this out yet. 

My wife said that times were not bad when Marcos was president.  People had jobs and could earn a living.   But WHY might this have been the case? Apparently they banned foreign ownership of most everything with the new 1987 Constitution that SOMEBODY concocted after they kicked Marcos out. What company is going to build a factory they can't own? Or branch out into a country where they can't control their new subsidiary? No wonder there are few jobs for poor Filipinos. The only people who profit from this arrangement are the oligarchs, as it keeps the cost of labor low. Duterte was only able get rid of the foreign ownership ban in a few industries, telecoms, airlines, and shipping. Let's hope Marcos can make more reforms like this and that he doesn't choose to usurp democracy like his father.  https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/the-grim-reality-behind-the-philippines-economic-growth/275597/

17 hours ago, abaa said:

I think I sufficiently proved the assets, but they aren't going to consider that in this case.

Are you sure they won't consider it?  Maybe they will, or maybe if you just get a different official to look at it, they will.  I think you can ask for a different official, that should be allowed.  But first you should provide some extra info.  If it were me, I'd be calling the Embassy and holding however long it took to get some answers from a human being, and possibly I'd be camping out on their steps until I got some answers about what exactly they want.  

I am reminded now that Rapidvisa had me write a self-employment letter.  Here is the template pdf they gave me:

self-employment_letter.pdf

I'd do up one of those and add in there what your net worth is.  

9 minutes ago, Carpe Vinum said:

It's not the Philippines government that doesn't allow it 

I guess it is just the way the US Embassy there is run?   I pulled this from the rapidvisa website:   "every single embassy and country has different rules, and it's at their discretion. The Philippines is one of a small number of embassies that do not accept joint sponsors for the K-1 fiance visa. They actually require you to meet the income requirements on your own, and if you cannot do that through employment, then you can also use assets in some cases. And even that falls to the discretion of the consular officer, as to whether or not they'll accept assets, and what type of assets they'll accept."

1 hour ago, abaa said:

I can submit 1099s and the complete tax return. Perhaps, this will have additional details they are looking for. 

We were delayed 3 months extra at NVC because the reviewer wanted "every single 1099 and w-2" uploaded separately from the tax return.  They had already been provided, but as part of the tax return.  They wanted each income source uploaded as a separate file, I think is the rule.  Rapidvisa botched the initial upload, but I guess I can't complain because I only paid them $650 in total.   Rapidvisa also required I provide 6-7 months of bank statements.   Sometimes I think they knew what they were doing.  

29 minutes ago, abaa said:

I did submit two signed statements from different financial institutions that both showed I met the assets threshold. Apparently, this is insufficient.

Perhaps some documents from Experian that show what your total debt is and credit score might be helpful?   I would call the embassy main number and just hold until you get a human being.   Or wait for better answers from this forum.   You should also provide every 1099 (and w-2, which seems like you don't have) and form 1041 (if applicable, probably not) you have available.  Not sure how you got through NVC without providing all of your 1099s, separately uploaded to CEAC.  And your full tax return.  And 6-7 months of bank statements. 

I'm sorry, I just remembered that you can't use a joint sponsor for a fiance visa in the Philippines.  The Philippines government doesn't allow it.  Probably too many spouses that got stuck with some good-for-nothing that doesn't work.  So I would suggest you get a net worth statement signed/validated by your bank or a lawyer or something, to prove that your assets minus liabilities are above the minimum threshold, or find out exactly what sort of documentation they need to prove your assets.  That or get married and jump back to the end of the line with a new I-130.  Good luck.

I wonder if your situation is somewhat similar to mine.   I was told by Rapidvisa, my agent, that my income from a trust fund was not considered to be "sustaining income".  I suppose money from buying/selling stocks would be much the same.  That income is not considered reliable or reproducible.  So it seems like there is some discrimination against people who don't work for others or have non-traditional revenue streams that they aren't used to looking at.  After Rapidvisa told me this about the "sustaining income", I decided to just get my sister to be the joint sponsor, so that I could be assured that there would be no problems.  She has a regular job where she gets a salary.  This way their head can't explode from looking at the financials.  Still, if you have assets that are more than 3x the income requirement, then I don't see how they can deny you.  I would call the embassy and ask for reconsideration.  Maybe the consular agent is new and needs to be trained.  You might get a lawyer to appeal the decision, but it may be easier to just get a joint sponsor. 

I do not think you should expect 3 weeks.   First of all, it depends what kind of visa you're interviewing for, which you didn't tell us.   The fastest commonly encountered visa would be the spousal, yet recently (a few weeks ago) it took 4 months after DQ for us to get the interview letter on our IR1 visa.   I think they may process spouses of veterans or service members faster, and other civil servants, but this is pure speculation, I don't know that they do this.   Rapidvisa, our agent, told us back in December that it was taking 1-5 months right now.   Other people on this forum have reported that recently (last couple of years) they got their interview letter for spousal visa in 1 month only after DQ.   During the pandemic, they had suspended processing of fiance visas and most other visas, so they had more time to focus on spousal.  Now, they're processing all kinds of visas again, so there will be a backlog they're trying to get through. 

39 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

That's great.  If any of those visits are after petition filing date, tell your wife to bring scans of your passport stamps and your photos together during the visit.  Hopefully, the additional evidence would help ease her mind, even though the CO will likely not ask for them at her interview.

 

I also want to add that I did actually bring excerpts of our chat messages to my visa interview, but our circumstances were different from yours.  My husband and I had not seen each other for almost 2 years prior to my interview, and those chats were all the evidence we had after petition filing.  Turns out the CO didn't care about the extended period without visits and didn't ask for any additional evidence of our bona fide marriage.

 

I will be there, so she can just take my passports, old and new, in with her.   We'll also have air ticket reservations printed out.  I'm not organized enough to have kept track of most of my boarding passes.  I did try to, but usually lost them anyway.  Only thing I'm good at is remembering the password for my email, where all the flight reservations are stored.

This is fresh in my mind, because I had a conversation yesterday with a friend who recently filed his I-130.  His accountant told him the marriage wasn't "real" until his spouse arrive in the USA.   This is lazy and bad advice.   What I found out is that even if you are married only 1 day, you still have to file as married.  This sucks because if you don't have an ITIN for your spouse, you won't be able to deduct many things because you'll be forced to file "married filing separately" or else apply for an ITIN, which may be a futile move.   You can amend your old returns later, if they're not older than 3 years, after your spouse has an SSN, so you can get your deductions later.  I told my friend what I myself had already learned, and then my friend asked his immigration attorney, who advised that yes, he must file as married.  Why? Because them's the rules.  Our grandparents and great-grandparents voted to allow this when they ratified the 16th amendment.  At that time it only applied to 1% of the population, so they thought it was a good idea.  Also "married" should look better than "single" when the NVC looks at your documents.  Here is a link from H&R Block, a respected tax preparer:   https://www.hrblock.com/expat-tax-preparation/resource-center/filing/status/married-to-non-resident-alien-status/

Pro tip:  if you use fileyourtaxes.com, you'll be able to file as "married filing separately" without having an ITIN or SSN for your wife, and you'll be able to file ELECTRONICALLY.  This is critical because if you print the return and write in NRA in the SSN blank, and mail it in, as TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA.com tell you to do, then you'll be waiting probably 6 months before your return will be processed and you can get a tax transcript.  If you file electronically, you'll have the tax transcript in 21 days.  If you're using an accountant/preparer, be sure that they understand how critical it is that your return be filed electronically.  

4 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

No need for social media conversations for the visa interview.  As always, best evidence of bona fide marriage is how much time you spent together in person.  If you visited after filing the petition, you wife should bring evidence (scans of passport stamps, photos together) from that visit instead.

 

Thank you.  I stayed 2 weeks after we got married, and I visited her twice more since we got married, braving pandemic restrictions and all, for a total of over 5 months spent together since we got married. 

Hi, I'm a US citizen, and as such, I am culturally used to a certain right to privacy.  The US Supreme Court has ruled over and over that we have a right to Privacy.  Some people use social media conversations as "evidence" for the Embassy interview, but it is my understanding that this is not required, although it seems to be more required for fiance visas.   We're already married, not doing a fiance visa, so I'm trying to tell my wife that our social media conversations are not actually any of their business.  Furthermore, we don't even have them going back to the start of the relationship.  I was trying to quit facebook at some point so i deleted my account.  Facebook is an evil time waster.  Turns out it is impossible to function in the Philippines without Facebook, even government agencies expect you to use it.  We might have some old Skype conversations, not sure how far back.   Our original conversation was on dateinasia dot com, and since my wife deleted her account there, there is no way we can prove that, as when she deleted her account, our conversation disappeared from my account.    So I'm just here to ask, should we be worried about providing social media conversations for her interview, or is this not something to worry about?  We have a lot of pictures going back 5 years, arranged with date stamps, and I have airline tickets to show that I visited the Philippines 5 times to see her.  And the records of remittances since we we got married.  I think that should be enough?  Thank you. 

On 5/6/2022 at 6:06 PM, RO_AH said:

Is the OP's friend Muslim?

No.    I advised her just send a letter to the courthouse where the divorce was filed, and tell them she wants to contest the divorce.  That will force him to hire a lawyer, or pay her off so she can afford a lawyer to get the divorce recognized.

3 hours ago, Boiler said:

Entitled to half his pay? Did he adopt her daughter?

 

How long have they been married?

Well, I don't know, but the Army said she was entitled to some support each month.  If she were in Texas, she'd be entitled to half his disposable earned income, while she is married.  Not after being divorced.  But cost of living is less in Phils.  The Army already made him send some specific amount last month, but he sent nothing this month. 

He did not adopt her daughter.  He has a daughter of his own, and he has already moved on to a new girlfriend.

2.5 years. 

She's not a money grubber, she just wants it to be over also, but I want to see her at least get her lawyer fees in the Phils paid for.   She quite her job because her husband said to, and filed her own I-130 and NVC package, so she's not a dummy.  Spent all her savings during the visa process.  She helped my wife with some of her documents.   She hasn't voluntarily signed anything, but within about 3 weeks he can get the divorce in Texas, if she does nothing and he is on the ball. 

So I have a Filipina friend, a friend of my wife, and so the friend is going through a divorce.  She's been sent divorce papers, nearly 2 months ago.   She is still in the Philippines and the marriage was aborted (divorce papers filed) during the NVC stage.  The husband is a servicemember in the Armed Forces, and repeat infidelity was involved.  The soldier was even demoted over it.  But it is my understanding that under Texas Law, where the papers were filed, she is still entitled to 1/2 his pay after taxes as a dependent, during the time they were married, and she shouldn't sign any divorce papers until she has had a hearing in court.  The remittance records over the last 2.5 years show paltry sums to support her and her daughter (who is not a daughter of the soldier, who is on his 3rd marriage).  So my question is, how much of a case does she really have, and what is the best way to go about getting an attorney, and can she find an attorney to work for no money up front in Texas?   She would like to just have enough money to pay a Filipino lawyer to recognize the divorce, and enough for the Agent fees to go work again in Korea, where she met him.  I think if she presents a little resistance, she should be able to get a reasonable settlement.  But maybe I'm wrong.  I have little knowledge about these things, so I ask the community. 

On 4/19/2022 at 11:01 AM, hunny&me said:

On your Day2 (Medical Day 1), if she is clear for immunization, request for an early day appointment advise them of the night flight.  

If it was me, I will plan Plan flight on Day 4.. the Medical Day 2 is quite random - we read people's experiences that they were there from 2 hours to 11 hours.  Some people in our group chat had a 1pm vaccine appointment, ended up getting it at 7 at night.  It really depends how many people are they are servicing.  Just my thoughts..

Thank you.  We just planned for day 4 travel home.  That way I don't have to worry about her traveling at night.

We just got our Interview Letter after almost 4 months of waiting after DQ.  IR1 visa.  Unfortunately my wife got the Sputnik vaccine, which is not WHO approved.  So what should we do about that?

Now we're planning the trip for my wife to visit Manila early, before 2 weeks before the interview.  How much time should she schedule for that?  Is 3 days enough?  For example:

Day 1: Fly to Manila, travel to hotel near SLEC, and sleep.  (please make hotel recommendations, if you know)

Day 2: go to appointment

Day 3: go to rest of appointment to finish medical

Day 3: Travel back to airport and Fly home to Cagayan de Oro. (is there time to do this, or should we plan for her to fly home on Day 4?)

If this helps, we just got our interview letter.  It took 7 months for the I-130 to get processed.  It took 6 months (with 1 RFE) for the NVC stage.  It took almost 4 months between DQ and Interview Letter.  Add 6 weeks for the embassy/interview stage.  This is not including extra time it took me to prepare everything to submit for the various stages.  It was an uncomplicated CR1 application (with rapidvisa assistance) for US Citizen spouse.   Some people get their I-130 done faster, 4-7 months is the norm.  First part of NVC stage should take 1-3 months normally.    I think you're looking at an unexpedited total time for CR1 of 9-18 months IF you are on the ball with all of your documents and submit promptly.  For the Philippines, K1 should be even longer, because there is such a backlog because the Fiance visa interviews weren't done at all by the Manila Embassy/Consulate during most of the pandemic.  In the beginning, you are going to have to wait some number of months, possibly 2-6 months if memory serves me right, for your PSA marriage certificate to finally arrive before you can file the I-130.  It took about 4 months for us.   But maybe that Utah zoom wedding would work faster.  I think other US states also have online marriages. 

19 hours ago, RO_AH said:

Because you can't buy your way into the country? But this is all very upsetting knowing we have an open door policy at the Southern border

You most certainly can buy your way.  It is called an EB-5 investor visa and you get a green card immediately.

It isn't an open door.  The toll must be paid.  I've heard on the news recently that the cartels are charging 10000-12000 USD per head.