An D

I honestly don't have a lot of insight into this, but I have heard that being a current registered sex offender is almost certainly immediate denial when entering the Philippines. I don't know about if it's in the past though.

Are you currently a registered sex offender?

Any prediction would be a wild guess. There is little that makes sense about the past 15 months at USEM. Figuring it out is pretty much impossible.

I saw an October 16th 2023 DQ included in the mass expedite, (supposedly).

What does your case say when you enter it? https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx

Medical: July 6/7 (Thursday/Friday) Interview: July 11 (Tuesday) Had no problems at all with only one complete working day between 2nd day of medical and the interview. All information is sent electronically - you do not carry anything physically to USEM from SLEC.

Yeah I've seen it stated by Clark both on that and another post from 2022. Unfortunately, still no way to verify it with the airline...so it's better to be safe than sorry I suppose.

We can see the tax line items but none seem to be it. I've seen it called passenger service charge and terminal fee both. None of the line items appear to match that by either abbreviation or amount (PSC/TF) or ~750 pesos. I called twice to Eva and neither could confirm it. Both representatives seemed confused. It's not that much, so it seems it's just better to show up with enough to cover it since its unclear.

What about the terminal fee? My wife is flying Eva from Clark on August 23 and Eva can't confirm if the terminal fee is on the ticket already...so we're preparing for her to bring enough to pay it at the airport, but still would be nice to know.

What does your case say when you check the status? https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx

You don't apply for an auto expedite...that's why it has the word auto. On 6/26, USEM auto expedited seemingly all CR1/2 and IR1/2 cases that were DQ and waiting for an interview, up to cases that became DQ in mid to late May. I don't know the exact cutoff date for that batch. It is impossible to predict when another batch may be done. You can apply for a normal expedite by emailing NVCExpedite@state.gov. Chances are slim to none it will be approved.

I was part of the auto expedite on 6/26. Interview date for 7/11. Approved. Not sure when June and further DQ cases will move to the embassy. Seems a little past mid May was the DQ cut off for the 6/26 batch.

My spouse had her medical 7/6 and 7/7 (Thurs/Fri) and visa interview 7/11 (Tuesday) and there was no problem. Leave an entire empty work day between the two and it seems like it's fine.

But you do need a visa to complete the process. You can complete the face to face seminar without one but you still need the visa to actually receive a certificate. You would have to go back again when you have the visa. You replied to my post about the online counseling saying no visa is required. That's wrong. If you're doing it online you can't proceed without a clear copy of the visa. For face to face, just straight up saying no visa required is false. It is required to complete the counseling process.

We just received the visa and sent her it finally and CC'd a few extra CFO emails we collected. Hopefully when they re-open Monday they can take care of us. Not sure what you're saying here. CFO GCP registration requirements include a copy of the visa.

We signed up for online GCP back in May. The counselor emailed us at that time told us to email her a scan of the visa once we have it on hand so that we can proceed. We are now finally expecting the visa to be delivered next week, 2 months later. She is not replying since that initial email, and we are not sure if we will be able to proceed with online counseling at this point given the above message (which has been floating around for a couple days). Her flight is scheduled for August 23rd but it is out of Clark, not Manila, in case that matters. Some people said you can show up in Manila with your visa and flight leaving same/next day and complete the counseling but that won't be possible in this situation. I'm not even sure if it's true anyways. I'm not entirely sure why they have made this process as painful as possible, but mission accomplished.

I made my wife fight tooth and nail to get AKA when she went to get her NBI clearance. They would not at first either despite seeing the US Embassy website outlining it as a requirement. Eventually she got through to a supervisor or something and they were able to ultimately get her the NBI clearance with AKA. I think there may be some confusion around the AKA though. I don't think AKA is needed if she has only been married once, to you, and your surname is on the NBI clearance already. The end result for my wife was a NBI clearance in her maiden name, with AKA of her married name, along with my surname listed. I think the maiden name and husband surname by itself is sufficient, at least that's what I have read in a few places since then.

Yes, huge relief to get past the medical without further issue. I'll be sure to update later on when we receive it how long it took. For CFO, we registered online in May and the counselor told us to email a copy of the visa once it is on hand. We went ahead and already bought the plane ticket as well, so I will have that and the visa and hopefully that pushes her through the CFO quickly. The only thing I don't like about the email counseling is that the counselor could just choose to stop replying and then you're stuck with no recourse. She will be flying out of Clark and not NAIA. I still have to figure out if there's any face to face CFO at Clark that could be done if she has the visa and plane ticket and urgently needs it completed and cannot get an email response.

Finally approved. Was pretty quick and easy my wife said.

Yep, just in time is right. My wife's interview is July 11, in about 7 hours. Good luck.

That's really unfortunate as well if you didn't make the cutoff. I can't imagine it will be another 6 months. Maybe 2 or 3 after all these current expedites are done?

Yeah it is not the end of the world to wait a little longer. But the time adds up and this whole process seems never ending. We've been waiting since April 2022 and very tired. I am willing to take extra risks to try to finish faster. I don't care if I end up wasting money on hotels and carpools, it's just so irrelevant to me at this point. What I do not understand is why we keep being subjected to these immigration games. The government appears to highly enjoy teasing us and then ghosting us. Only trend I have noticed is actions seem to occur on Mondays. Monday 6/26 - auto-expedites Monday 7/3 - lots of people became Ready all at once Monday 7/10 - ??? (this is why I want to wait till Tuesday and not have my wife just leave Manila and not waste her time, because what if)

Also still in transit, except we have a July 11 interview (this Tuesday). My wife is already in Manila (she doesn't live that far away) for the medical and is staying a little extra to do the interview. I know in transit folks have had zero success with their interview, and I am not sure if we should keep waiting over the weekend and see if it changes Monday or if she can somehow still do the interview Tuesday. Honestly this entire situation is silly. They expedite our cases and move them to in transit and then leave them sitting there. I don't get it.

Yes, many. I have a July 11th interview now, and my case is still in transit. It took half a day for mine to become schedulable on the CGI (ustraveldocs.com/ph) website. If yours isn't now, check in 12 hours or so.

Update: Just became In Transit to USEM, so anyone else in this situation that is still waiting for that should expect it any hour (or minute, literally).