spicynujac

What online service did you use to verify passport online so you can file a W-7 with US IRS?

Time to process my ROM at SF embassy in mid 2024 was about a month. If you applied a couple of weeks ago just give them another 2-3 weeks and see if you get an approved ROM. The big wait is after receiving that, it takes 6 months for the home office in Manila to process it before you can obtain any documents from Phillippine Statistical Authority. I wouldn't bother asking for a status update for something that is processed within a month, it's only gonna slow them down to add that step. One of the fastest parts of our entire process so far. If you're in a rush if you include prepaid express mail or an extra fee they will return the documents to you faster which might shave a few days off. But of course the 6 month wait is the same.

Question for those who are awaiting interview appointments at the Manila Embassy: Do I understand correctly that it is up to the couple to schedule their OWN interview? And not the embassy assigning you a date? I thought these interviews were stated by NVC to be done "first come first serve"? I am reading about people who are logging in to a scheduling website for weeks or months looking for an opening (unsuccessfully). If that's the case, interviews aren't really given in the order of filing, are they? What if you don't log on daily to try to schedule an interview? Could someone approved weeks or months later than you really grab a spot ahead of you? Is this normal procedure at other embassies? Seems to me they should just assign the first date available to the next person in line and cut out all of this stress and delays. It isn't right for someone else to jump ahead in line because they happened to obsessively check a website faster than you when you should be up next... I don't think I want the stress of trying day after day... maybe will just pay someone to do it for me. It was already stressing me out when I would check the USCIS site almost daily once we passed the 12 month mark. And that was "only" about 6 weeks of checking. Sounds like the wait from NVC to interview could be a year!

A religious opposition to vaccination could be invalidated if her medical record shows she accepted vaccines other than Covid-19. It's obviously not a religious conviction. If she is worried about side effects, why not look into some of the more traditional approved vaccines which are not the type that caused your wife problems? Sinovac covid vaccine for one, is produced essentially the same way as the flu vaccine which has been around for years. Much easier than adding over a year and hundreds or thousands of dollars to the process... The primary goal of the vaccination requirement is to protect the health of the US citizens living here--not to provide freedom of choice for foreigners who wish to come.

The year of birth for one of my spouse's parents is incorrect on our I-130 petition. We filed the DS-260 with the correct date. Should we do anything to correct the earlier error? DS-260 is currently pending at the NVC, hoping for approval in the next few days, and all data on it is accurate. The I-130 had wrong year, with the correct month and day.

This is the first time I've seen someone say they regretted the spousal visa and wishing they did a K-1 / fiance. I've second guessed my decision a few times, but the current situation where K-1 visas appear to be issued slightly more quickly than an IR/CR is most likely a temporary glitch, and I sure wouldn't want to roll the dice and hope that is still the case in 2025 if I were applying today. Just looking at the VJ data here, specifically for the Philippines, for initial filings from 1/22 - 1/23: 279 K-1 applications Avg total days 514 101 CR1/IR1 applications Avg total days 606 So the average wait time was 2 months longer for spousal, but in the grand scheme of things, what's 20 months vs 18? If we are talking significant time savings, sure, I'd be tempted to reunite sooner and pay over $1,000 extra and deal with USCIS for years, but if I'm waiting 18+ months regardless, I'll stick with the spousal visa. K-1 has its place, particularly for bringing over children, but if you are ready to commit to marriage, IR1/CR1 is almost always the way to go. I *am* curious what explains the brief reversal in processing times. Was this a federal administrative dictate? A remnant from covid backlogs? Local decisions made at the Manila embassy? Or perhaps it was just caused because a whole lot of people, myself included, decided to marry during the lockdowns because while travelling was difficult, at least you could start the immigration process through a marital visa? And so the number of marital visa cases is just way up right now? Either way I think it's a pretty huge risk to bet on the (slightly) faster K-1 processing times continuing. Historically, K-1 visa cases are down, while IR cases are up. Perhaps the US gov just isn't responding rapidly to this change in filing patterns and doesn't have enough staff allocated to IR visas? No graph, but US State Dept reports IR visas are increasing rapidly over this same period: 2020: 108,292 2021: 170,604 (+58%) 2022: 212,185 (+24%) 2023: 245,696 (+16%) Another factor for me is the immigration process is so awful, I don't want to give USCIS a penny more than I absolutely HAVE to, to support this horrible agency, and the K-1 costs are well over $1,000 higher.

Current wait times from your NOA2 to interview are around a year. This isn't even limited to the Philippines. Use timeline search here to confirm. Your wait times are, sadly, "normal." If you filled in your own timeline, not only will we better understand what stage you are in, you will receive estimated approval dates (based on forum data), and also you help give everyone else a more accurate picture.

Amazing news ! This is huge! The ITIN/W7 needs to be filed with a tax return, so not sure if I can amend 2023 and send the W7 with an amended return or need to wait until next year and send it with the regular 1040, but either way I will be getting a huge refund soon. THANK YOU! I thought this was a ridiculous roadblock to filing correctly--so glad to see there is a solution! For anyone else doing this, you probably want to get your foreign spouse to sign a form 2848 at the same time, to give you permission to sign annual tax returns for both parties until you are physically united. One form is good for multiple years if you state them in advance (I'd recommend stating the next 3 years).

2 to 3 month wait times? I'm also wondering where this info came from. There are some webpages (like NVC) that say "You should get an interview within the next 2-3 months" but this is boilerplate language and that has not been true for years. Ages ago you could do the entire immigration process start to finish in 6 weeks. VisaJourney data for Mexico from Jul 22-Jul 23: Total Records Visa Type Avg Days b/t I-130 2nd NOA and Interview 35 IR1/CR1 369 I spent a lot of time searching wait times and they seem to universally be ~1 year for USCIS processing the I-130, ~1 year for NVC processing/consulate interview, plus or minus a couple of months depending where you are. Even looking specifically at the Juarez Consulate, avg times were 358 days.

It's pretty amazing that it takes years to bring a spouse to the USA; I guess we make Zimbabwe look good sometimes. The fact that transit visas are even needed is ridiculous (the US is the only country I know of that charges hundreds of dollars for the privilege of transiting through its (generally bad) airports, and then reserves the right to revoke said visa and ruin your trip if the immigration officer feels like it). But I just think of the Serenity Prayer -- we can't affect this at all so why worry over it. Yeah freeing up 7,000 cases a month would really help those of us with immigration visas pending but when was the last time you saw something significant in America get changed or fixed? Does the ambassador have the authority to prioritize one class of visa over another or speed things up? Not sure, but that's the only thing I see possibly changing things. https://ph.usembassy.gov/ambassador/ Anyway, prioritizing travel visas makes sense. What is really needed is sufficient staff to do their job in a reasonable amount of time!

I agree with the other posters that you are asking the wrong question. Focus on presenting proper evidence of the relationship, not on obtaining your spouse an ID number in the American public pension plan. Anyway, it is a very onerous process to be assigned a social security number while physically in the Philippines. The IRS now requires a third party agent to file for you, and the only one in the Philippines is in Angeles City (supposedly the large accounting firms in Cebu and Manila can do this but in reality they do not and you will just waste your time trying). I wanted to obtain a spousal SSN (Social Security Number--I assume you mean this by SSA?) so we could properly file joint tax returns and pay a much lower tax rate but traveling to Angeles City is not something I'm willing to do for this. You have 3 years to amend your tax returns and hopefully I can do that and get a refund once she is in the US... But the tax savings can be substantial (several thousand a year for me which should cover the money I'm paying to US immigration). Name Address Jim Boyd Foundation 1925 MacArthur Highway 2009 Balibago Angeles City Philippines (6345) 888-2748

I looked into this recently and concluded there is very little time to be saved. Japan was a bit faster but most everywhere is taking around 2 years total time to process marital visas, more or less. But I can see Thailand is also pretty good. Looking at data from 2022-present: Pakistan Visa Type Num with Final Visa Approval NOA2 to Interview Avg Total Days IR-1 / CR-1 2 270 601 Thailand Visa Type Num with Final Visa Approval NOA2 to Interview Avg Total Days IR-1 / CR-1 4 131 444 Japan Visa Type Num with Final Visa Approval NOA2 to Interview Avg Total Days IR-1 / CR-1 9 120 408 Philippines Visa Type Num with Final Visa Approval NOA2 to Interview Avg Total Days IR-1 / CR-1 20 289 575 So you could possibly save 4-5 months by relocating to Thailand. But if you have to wait 1-2 months residing there before transferring your immigration file (?) to Thailand you have to consider if it's worth it to shave only maybe 60 days off the process.. and remember nothing is guaranteed and these things fluctuate a lot. I'd love to relocate to save time, but at this point, I'm 14 months into marriage so I'll probably just wait it out, so we can convert to IR-1 after 24 months of marriage which is cheaper / better than CR-1. Looking historically, the wait in Philippines is about 10 months, which is perfect timing for us to get an IR-1.

Without a completed timeline it is difficult to answer, but I looked into this and concluded that there was no substantial time savings to be found in any country. Japan was a couple of months faster, but factor in the high cost of relocating there and you're not saving much time at the expense of a LOT of money. You can verify this by searching the approval times reported here. Out of 63 cases, I'm seeing average total days for Kenya marital visa is 492 days which is NOT abnormally high (if anything, it seems a bit speedy!). I would quadruple check this before relocating!

FYI USA is the only country other than Eritrea that claims it is due income tax from you worldwide, no matter where you earn it. So you're stuck with Uncle Sam for life now. You may also be subject to the onerous requirements of FATCA which is notorious for opening certain foreign accounts quite difficult. As UK is the banking and finance center of the world, I suspect you can easily find a firm there to work with. https://www.angloinfo.com/blogs/global/us-tax/overseas-americans-cant-open-foreign-accounts-because-of-fatca-court-says-tough-luck/ There are plenty of FATCA horror stories out there, and the penalties are extreme, so I strongly suggest you work with an accountant or tax specialist familiar with UK and US tax rules.

If it were me, I would apply immediately after obtaining the marriage certificate (like the day after the wedding!) before returning to the US. Every day you delay is more time before the two of you can begin your life. FYI I am 13 months and counting, waiting on someone to begin processing our I-130... But sure, you can apply any time A) after the wedding and B) you have physical presence together as a married couple (only applies for remote / online weddings). The I-130 form is not particularly lengthy or difficult, particularly if you gather all the names and dates you need in advance (basically parents' birth dates / places and IDs for you both). I believe you can even complete the fields in advance online and then log on and submit it when you are ready.

It looks like the requirements of the NY Consulate are different than the California Consulate. The only original document CA requires is the apostilled marriage certificate. NY seems to require NO original docs, but "certified true copy" of passports, marriage, and birth certificates. I've never heard of that but it is described here. To further complicate things, certain states do not allow notaries to certify document copies, so you would be in quite a pickle if you were married under the jurisdiction of the NY Consulate but living in a state (like NY!) that doesn't allow notaries to certify document copies. https://www.nationalnotary.org/notary-bulletin/blog/2014/04/how-to-certify-copy-document You can always call the consulate if you have questions. CA Consulate was easy to reach by phone. (FYI they also are a bit lax or at least inconsistent in processing--I got a marriage processed with only one signature on the ROM while some report both spouses' signatures are needed). NY also lacks the form letter and checklist CA has so it's a bit more vague what they are expecting. I don't see green card mentioned at all on this page so I see no reason to include it (again, it proves nothing about your marital status). https://newyorkpcg.org/pcgny/civil-registration/report-of-marriage-of-a-filipino-abroad/ But the good news is you don't need to be without your vital documents like passport and birth certificate during processing, as you only send Certified True Copies of them. Slightly more work to get them certified as "true" by a notary but it won't impact the OP's travel plans.

Medical exam should be scheduled a couple of days before the interview (requiring a hotel stay in Manila). It looks a bit involved. It may be cheaper to do 2 trips (Cebu-Manila flights are < $100). I'll probably book a flight for the medical exam as soon as we get an interview date, then another one for the interview.

If you want to stay longer than a year and are married, a resident visa is not all that difficult (compared to the US). Current initial (probationary visa) cost for 13(a) resident visa is $150 USD. Permanent retiree visa with some special benefits like PhilHealth costs if I recall around $1,500. But I think it's more common people just remain indefinite "tourists". You can just travel abroad together once per year and get the balikbayan stamp on your re-entry. For shorter stays between 30 days and 1 year just pay the fee to extend your free 1 month tourist visa. There is no limit on total days, only consecutive days. https://immigration.gov.ph/faqs/ I am a foreign national under a Temporary Visitor’s Visa, I can stay legally in the Philippines for thirty (30) days however I want to extend my stay, how do I go about this? Foreign nationals who are admitted with an initial stay of thirty (30) days may apply for a visa waiver first, granting an additional stay of twenty nine (29) in the Philippines. Thereafter, you may apply for one (1) month, two (2) months or six (6) months extensions at least one week prior to the expiration of your valid stay. How long can I extend my in the Philippines? 36 months (USA)

I submitted a report of marriage to the San Francisco consulate. The only original document mailed was an apostilled marriage certificate, which was returned in around a month, and photocopies of our passports and birth certificates. I'm not sure why a green card would be sent. Working authorization is irrelevant to marital status. Looking at the NY consulate web site, there is no mention of a green card. The Philippines doesn't know or care about that and it's not relevant to civil registration. Are you following the instructions on their website (newyorkpcg.org) ? It takes around 6 months for the Philippine Statistic Authority to officially record the marriage.

What is your specific concern about buying the ticket? You have no timeline so we can't see what stage of the process you are in. If it's time to travel to the US and your documents are in order, what are you worried about? A VPN is used to obfuscate or alter your apparent online location for internet services which are restricted or priced geographically. For example, one can use a VPN to access "Netflix Columbia" and pay a cheaper rate than one would from their actual location in America. Airlines do not charge different prices based on where one lives. Why would you do this to purchase a plane ticket?

Form Form Description Classification or Basis for Filing FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY2024 I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) All Classifications 5.2 4.6 8.0 12.1 13.9 9.3 I-130 Petition for Alien Relative Immediate Relative 8.6 8.3 10.2 10.3 11.8 11.2 Median time in months. So a fiance visa filed a year ago was approved 2 months faster than marital. But keep in mind the marital visa is for most far superior and over $1,000 cheaper than K-1. I do find it bizarre that strangers are sometimes given a higher priority than wives, but not much about our immigration system makes sense... But I wouldn't make any assumptions about timing going forward--the visas often leapfrog each other. And a lot depends on chance. If we were sent to *ANY* other service center than the one we got, our case would likely be approved already...but we are still waiting at 12.5 months-- luck of the draw. I have no regrets going marital.

We sent photocopies of both our birth certificates, which were accepted (still pending recording in the official Manila PSA records, which takes months, but the consulate contacted us about a different issue and they said everything was in order). I don't believe it asks for originals. The only thing original is the marriage certificate (and the notarized Report of Marriage form). Just follow the rules of the SAN FRANCISCO consulate if you did a Utah online marriage.

The US is asking for any additional evidence that your relationship is bona fide, to make sure there's no scheme for someone to enter the country on a ruse (this occasionally happens, often with fiance visas. I even know people who have entered, and one even became a US citizen, through sham marriages first obtained with a fiance visa. There is a case before the Supreme Court right now about an MS-13 Hispanic gang member who got an American woman to apply for a visa for him, with authorities arguing that they did not have a legitimate relationship, despite obtaining a marriage certificate after his arrival in the US). One benefit of the marriage visa vs fiance is you are already married to the person in question, so you have a much more serious relationship and a very low bar to prove that it is legitimate. Also, they scrutinize different countries differently. The authorities realize in the Philippines, you're typically looking at an middle aged or older white man marrying a younger Filipina bride. Not a lot of shenanigans or gang entries going on there, and it's not a high risk country for visa fraud. While the US can theoretically ask for more information if they choose to, they really are just collecting basic data from you, and want to know the names and dates of births of people applying at this point, and make sure your marriage certificate is valid before passing you on to be processed. Where you really need to have strong evidence proving a true relationship is with a fiance visa. That said, I think I included a copy of our last boarding passes together showing we visited recently, and considered that as proof of the ongoing relationship. Fun fact: A couple of years ago my credit card company was offering a $50 bonus if I ordered another card for someone in my household. I gave them my dog's name, and to this day, he has a working credit card. US immigration knows which types of proof are meaningful and which are not. If you're paying $1,000 for a ticket, flying 20 hours in a plane and spending a week with her, that's pretty strong evidence. If she and my dog both have similar looking pieces of plastic that were issued for free, that means absolutely nothing. The investigators have seen lots of fraud, and they know which types of evidence is meaningful and real, and which is weak and does not demonstrate any true relationship. If you really need to give your wife a way to spend money drawn on an American bank, you can get a credit card with her name on it (huge red flag personally) but printing her name on a plastic card as some type of "proof" of your relationship is a waste of time. Also, don't overthink the I-130. It's a basic government form. We spent 2 days on it. Day one I read and saw "honey I'm going to need a copy of your passport and the full names and places of birth of your parents." Couple of days later I filled everything in and submitted. Get it in and then you have a year to worry about the next steps. If you are delaying because of the name, apply in whatever name is currently on her ID documents and it can be changed to your married name at the next step a year later (according to what I've read here).

I'm just a few months ahead of you and can tell you that in all the pointless WAITING you have ahead of you, you will probably read enough here and eventually figure out most of your questions. One big complaint I have with VJ is some of the guides are outdated and there are far too few stickies (the Philippines thread should DEFINITELY have a thread about Report Of Marriage and the course and CFO stamp your spouse will need to exit the country--she will NOT be allowed to leave the Philippines without this once she gets a US visa in her passport! I don't even see the point of a specific Phl thread if it's not gonna include stuff like that!) My advice is get the I-130 filed ASAP and then start to work on the other issues. Your I-130 will likely sit in a pile somewhere for a year until anyone even touches it, and only then does the US Gov't start doing anything about your application (technically it's just a petition / waiting mechanism for your actual later visa application. Get it in TOMORROW!). As for the name change, personally what I would do is file using her married name (her current first name, current last name, your last name). I did NOT do this on form I-130 because we had zero documents showing that name (including the Utah marriage certificate) and that seemed weird to do, but I've read here that you can either do that OR use the new married name on the NEXT form (DS260, about a year later) regardless of how you filled out the I-130 so that's what I plan on doing. Other than her taking your last name, I would leave any other name changes alone for now (her voluntarily wanting a different name than the one her parents gave her is a whole other can of worms that should be separated from her immigration process). The next step (take your time, no rush, it took us 6 months to collect everything) is to gather the documents for the Report of Marriage to the Philippine Consulate in Utah. I don't know why this isn't a sticky here, but your wife will HAVE to report the marriage to PHL gov't before she is allowed to leave the Philippines so make sure you A) Send your Utah marriage certificate to get Apostilled by the Lt Gov of Utah, and B) start collecting the required docs like your birth certificate and have your wife do the same and allow 6 weeks for her to mail them to you (or go visit her). This was a huge packet, that was more paperwork than the US visa! But it's not hard. And I'm not worried at all about the processing time, it's just something you want to do in advance of your US interview. I think you are overthinking the name stuff. My wife is using whatever name is on her ID, and then once we get the Report of Marriage back we will get a new Phl Passport with my last name (costs like $15). I guess at that point we would USE her last name, but there won't be much more USING to be done (buy the plane ticket in that name I guess?) Basically K.I.S.S. and don't create problems where you don't need to. Do only what is required. 6.1 You don't need Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR) for the USA at all. You need it for Philippines authorities only. USA is land of divorce, they don't care if your spouse has been married before or not! 7.3 The only original document you send is Apostilled marriage certificate and one notarized application form (plus copies of everything--there is a printed cover letter on the SF Consulate website explaining it all). 7.4 Apostille stamp is something placed on your marriage certificate by the Utah Lt Governor, for a fee. Mail him your certificate, a month later you get back the red apostille stamp on it. 7.5 Maybe I got lucky, but mine was approved without both parties signing. The instructions are unclear. If you can PM me I have a suggestion though. Getting the Phl notary was overpriced and done incorrectly anyway. 8.1 Yeah we are anticipating 2 years total. It's absolutely infuriating and the US should be embarrassed, but it is what it is. Personally what we did was: visiting her family, visiting her in the PHL, visiting her in a third country (Taiwan, Japan), doing a prenuptial photo session and formal engagement & wedding ceremony there (the Utah event we considered a civil union that we did not consummate, I later did official proposal and all that), and planning the wedding there can be fun and a GREAT way to stretch out the time. My other friend who did this went abroad and lived with his wife during the waiting (and had a baby and a first birthday before he even got an interview). The bottom line is it is not as overwhelming as it seems, just get the I-130 form filed NOW. There is so much waiting time that you can easily prepare the next steps in advance, and doing them one by one it's pretty simple as long as you don't have any out of the ordinary situations (like you are unemployed or something). Oh the other thing that is a huge can of worms is the US income tax situation. The US gov't has made it annoyingly difficult to apply for a tax ID # which your wife needs, which I've done by mail in the past, but is now an extremely obtuse process, and we went on several wild goose chases trying to follow their rules using supposed "IRS acceptance agents" who knew nothing about what we were attempting to do (apparently there is one guy in Clark who can do it). The bottom line is we settled on filing income taxes "married filing separately" and then later when the wife gets here I get the joy of re-doing up to 3 years of old tax returns as "married filing jointly" but I will get several thousand dollars back from Uncle Sam then! The only good thing about the long wait is you get a giant tax break beginning the year you marry!

FYI to anyone considering this, after checking basically every country in the VisaJourney Timeline search, there is not a single country with a significant shorter wait time from NOA2 to visa issued vs. Philippines (I believe Japan was maybe a couple of months faster but definitely not worth relocating for). I ignored countries like Monaco that did not have a sufficient number of cases to form an opinion. On the bright side, that means PHL is not really any worse than any other country for immigration waits. Or to put it another way, that all American consulates abroad are equally slow I was surprised at how long the wait was in Mexico, which we strongly considered relocating to.