Steve & Erma

Last time I checked they were about 4-6 months behind for spousal visas. Anyone in the Philippines recently get their interview date and want to share their DQ date as well so we can gauge the times?

Thanks

I have filed for my wife and we are currently DQ'd and waiting for an interview from Manila. We wanted to wait a bit before filing for her 17 year old son to give us some time alone here in the US together and also let him finish high school.

If we wait for her to get here and file then it would be her as a LPR filling for him and that makes it a longer process if I understand correctly. If I file for him as a USC it is a shorter process I believe.

Can I file for him now? If I can file for him now while she is at NVC will that hold her up any or cause any issues with her?

He just turned 17 in October so we have until October of 2027 before he is 21. 

Thanks as always for any insight.

Excuse my above post... I was thinking this was a CR1.

Book your medical appointment 3-4 days before your interview appointment to give it time to get to them.

Your Filipina needs to request a CENOMAR from the PSA. Since she is married now they will send back an Advisory of Marriage. It basically says she is married. Not sure why they want that when you can show them your MC and your ROM to show the same thing.

On 9/21/2023 at 9:37 AM, Erik and Glydyl said:

I thought the same thing. So its just copies of pages then?

 

Yes, just a copy of things you can't really send to them. I sent certificed copies of my BC and Divorce decrees and then our marriage cert here in the states as well. Everything else is just make a copy of it.

20 hours ago, Erik and Glydyl said:

An update for everyone. They recently changed the CFO process so that you cannot even schedule it until AFTER you have your fiance visa in hand, so no more scheduling in advance and , of course, theres a waiting list for the CFO as well so now its going to take even longer to be seperated from your loved ones. Someone correct me if Im wrong about this.

My understanding is that you use to be able to attend the seminar online too, but they got rid of that as well, anyone know for sure? So now everyone is going in person to the CFO for it which is causing an even longer backup. I can see the scalpers who do the PSA appointments skirting the rules and making money somehow.

BTW you guys scared me for a minute... I thought I was going to have to send my physical passport to my wife. LOL

Book direct from the airlines I implore you.

I booked my flight to the Philippines the first time through booking.com (which is Expedia owned) and I totally got screwed on my return flight and they wouldn't help me. Thankfully the airlines stepped in and I got lucky.

Using a VPN and purchasing it from the Philippines is a better option. Look it up but there are days that are better to book your flights on and a few other rules to help you save money.

I was looking at our PSA Marriage certificate that my wife ordered and it looks like all they did was stamped the ROM we sent in with a PSA stamp. It looks identical to the ROM and even says Report of Marriage at the top. I would have assumed you get an actual marriage cert from the PSA on their form for it. Am I wrong and this is our PSA Marriage Cert or is something wrong here.

@Crazy Cat Thank you and sorry for putting it in the wrong place.

I have updated our timeline. Our case status still says actively reviewing but I found the approval letter in the documents tab like many people have seen recently.

K3 did nothing but I still encourage people to send them as it costs nothing and may help.

Hope everyone is doing well, and we hope for speedy approvals for you all.

Title says it all. My wife and I believe we are going to get our I-130 approved in the very near future and I don't expect (more like hope) the DQ phase will take much time because we are all ready for it. So I am wondering how long a wait it currently is for an appointment in Manila?

I also see people trying to schedule their own appointments, but I thought that once you are DQ'd the Embassy is the one who sends your appointment? Is this an expedited method?

My wife is from Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte as is all of her family. She is currently just a little ways from there in Libagon. 

I was born in Oakland, California but, have live in the Coeur D Alene, Idaho area for most of my life.

Make sure you send them the Apostilled version of your marriage certificate. It doesn't really say that on the website but to get all the information they are asking for you need it. You can get that from Utah on their website. Had a friend not send that and he ended up having to send it twice.

@top_secret hit all the rest pretty well. Good luck.

12 hours ago, top_secret said:

 

A wife is not a dependent for tax purposes and unfortunately, whether you support him on not, you cannot claim your stepson as a dependent while he is still a non US resident living in the Philippines

 

HOWEVER, depending on your tax and income profile it can make a HUGE monetary difference whether you file married filing jointly or married filing separately.  Thousands of dollars difference.  The standard deduction alone is ~$26k for MFJ vs only ~$13k for MFS.  Plus having a spouse might put you in a lower tax bracket, qualify you for different credits etc.  It really should at least be looked at carefully to see how much money might be being left on the table.

 

The paperwork for your wife to get an ITIN is not that difficult. In the Philippines there is an authorized acceptance agent in Pampanga which is probably impractical if you wife is in Leyte. But the other option for a document that would get her an ITIN so you can file MFJ is a certified true copy of her Philippine Passport which she can from any DFA office for P100.

 

I saw your comment on the other thread about the joys of dealing with DFA.  I assume your wife is trying to change her name in her passport.  Maybe she could try and schedule an appointment to get a certified true copy of her passport at the same time if she does manage to pull off a passport appointment.  My wife found getting an appointment with DFA to change her name on her passport was completely impossible, however, getting an appointment with DFA to get a certified true copy of her old passport was a simple e-mail affair.  Everyone if fighting for a place in the new passport queue buy no one is in the passport copy queue.

 

It's at least worth running the numbers on your return to see if MFJ would be worth the effort for your wife to get an ITIN.

 

 

 

Yeah the difference is huge for my taxes. I went to an authorized agent here in my town to get her an ITIN and had my wife send me one of her ID's and then did a video call with the agent. She has my taxes done but now is having trouble re-certifying as an agent as the IRS is holding everything up, go figure. Probably going to have to file an extension just to wait at this point. There was another agent in the next own over that I tried to get it done with but she won't do it unless my wife is here in person for whatever reason.

The DFA thing I am just going to get her a flight to Manila to fix that. They have an over abundance of appointments there and she has family she can stay with while she gets that done.

9 hours ago, IWander said:

We tried to get an appointment in Cebu and never could.  We ended up flying to Puerto Princessa and applied there.  

Yeah don't get me started on the appointments for PSA and DFA. The PSA in Maasin is new so they had time to take walk ins. We are currently trying to get an appointment with the DFA in Tacloban which has been an issue. These "brokers" who buy up all the appointments to then sell them for a profit is stupid especially when the appointments are suppose to be non-transferable.

Newly married last year and this is the first year filing with her.

I have heard many people filing married joint with their spouse and simply putting Non-Resident Alien in the SSN box of the form. I was trying to go through getting an ITIN for my wife but there is an issue with the place I am trying file with and getting that done so I was thinking of opting for the NRA option. What are your thoughts?

Secondly, i have been supporting my wife and step son (16) for more than half the year. The question is could I add him as a dependent and again add NRA in the SSN field? It is too late to get him an ITIN even if I could at this point. They are both my dependents and I can show through monies sent that I am supporting them. So can I do this NRA option for both of them?

Thanks for any help.

ROM Timeline

Approved by Consulate - 10/12/22

Sent to DFA - November Diplomatic Pouch and held pending court issues with online/proxy marriages

Transmitted to PSA - 01/06/23

Requested from PSA - 03/20/23

Received - 03/27/23

My wife went to the PSA in Maasin sometime in February to try and get a copy but even with all the DFA transmittal info was unable to. They took her phone # and called when it was ready to order and we ordered it online.

Next stop DFA appointment for new passport. Don't get me started on that process. LOL

3 hours ago, Simplytex said:

Yes, good point! I was thinking about it in my case, before my coffee kicked in - I filed I130 online, so basically immediately I had a PDF receipt available to print out (they later mailed an official form, but I had already filed K3 at that point.)

Not every online 130 gets the NOA1 immediately. Mine showed up online just before the paper one reached me.

1 hour ago, Chappy said:

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but what is a ROM? 

 

Can anyone give me a rundown on the general situation with Utah Online Marriage situation? Are they accepting it officially or giving everyone issues with it? 

 

I'm trying to weigh my options. I was wanting to marry my long time gf/fiance of 5 yrs in the Philippines, but seeing as how I only get 7 days of vacation for one year of work, I only have 5 days realistically to get married. 

All the requirements to do so seem like there's a waiting period or I'm getting conflicting information about the process...making it seem like that routes almost impossible. 

 

Would we be better off to marry using the online utah marriage route in the Philippines? Would they even conduct the wedding so late considering time zones would put them at night etc. 

 

Any advice would be appreciated. 

ROM = Report of Marriage. It is something you need to do if you get married in another country. report the marriage to the Philippine government. You get a marriage certificate from the Philippine government after it is all done and she will need it to be able to change her name to her married name.

There is no longer an issue with using the Utah Marriage. It has been resolved and they are not having issue with online weddings anymore. The only thing I was told is you need the apostilled marriage certificate from Utah when you send in your ROM.

Under your circumstances the Utah marriage is your best bet. If you can afford to you can always look into a leave of absence from work to take a longer vacation and then getting married in the Philippines might work out.

My wife and I did a 530pm and that was 830am the next day there and now during daylight savings time it would be an hour later than that.

I sent an email to the SF Consulate and the only thing they said is needed is an Apostilled MC which I thought was already the case. So nothing about the letter of validity when asked directly.

So I am going the ITIN route but I am here in the states. The agent that is authorized is at a local H&R Block, there is an agent in the Philippine and I linked it below. My wife's passport is currently expired and we are waiting on our ROM that just finally got transmitted by the DFA because of the Utah marriage issue, we used her Bureau of Internal Revenue ID Card which is their version of a SSN card. The agent told me that it is hit or miss with the IRS whether they will issue an ITIN or not. Here's hoping it all works when I file.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/acceptance-agents-philippines

The SF Consulate and the PSA are now excepting ROM again. WOOT WOOT!!!

Someone told me that they are now requiring the Letter of Validity from Utah which you can get from the Clerk the same way you order your Apostilled Marriage Certificate. I do not see this on their website at this time and I have not confirmed it with them.

My ROM was held up with the DFA since October and they sent it through with out the Letter of Validity on 1/6.

1 hour ago, manyfudge said:

Yes, this is problematic.

 

He didn’t need to adopt them to petition on their behalf as a stepfather as he married the mother before any of them turned 16.

 

Yet, any child he adopted after they were 16 cannot be sponsored by him for a green card.

 

He messed up by not consulting an immigration lawyer first.

 

21 is important because overstay doesn’t matter for a child under 21.

 

 

 

 

@manyfudge So if the adoption finished in Dec 2021 and the kids were 14, 16, and 18 he won't be able to sponsor the last 2? The 16 year old by your sentence above wouldn't be eligible then correct? Do you know how he would proceed with those if that is in case the fact? If the mother was processed and became a PR would she be able to sponsor?

7 hours ago, Kyle6811 said:

So you can file both at the same time? Pardon, I’m still trying to figure all this out.

So what I have seen as of late it would be a good idea to do them as close to the same time as you can. The CR1 you can do online but the K3 you have to mail. You have to have the NOA1 notice from the CR1 to mail the K3 in so hopefully you get it right away after doing the CR1 online.

I saw a post the other day that it helps if you get the K3 in before they start actively reviewing your CR1. That seems like it might be the key to a quick process through USCIS but I can't confirm without more corroboration to be for sure. This is all speculation at this point I don't have enough data to back it up.