dantespal

I have read several people suggesting the use of St. Raphaels Travel Agency for tickets to the US. However, I cannot seem to find anyone actually saying they used the service. I have found several people saying that they did use St. Raphaels Travel Agency, and had bad experiences. Does anyone here that has something good to say about the company actually used them?

I used them. They were able to get the 1st time immigrant rate for my wife and son, and a 'child repatriation' rate for my U.S. Citizen daughter. All three tickets from Manila to Los Angeles came to a total of $1950. We had to scan and send copies of visa/passport to show that they really met the immigrant/child requirement.

They handled many questions from me very promptly. Payment was easy through a BPI branch near my wife. She could have paid in pesos or $$..

I had no problems, would use them again, and would recommend them to a friend.

Thanks for the replies. Our appointment is at 8:30, so if i'm reading you all correctly, it won't help to go super early. How about getting there at 7?

And, I lived there for 4 years until i returned to the U.S. in June 2011. So, I won't be going to the interview.

Hi,

My wife and son have their interview (IR-1/2) on Wednesday. They actually have an interview time scheduled (8:30).

I've been seeing some posts recommending arriving at 5:30. That seems excessive. But, i've always gone to the front of the line as a U.S. Citizen. What is the proper procedure?

She will have the son that i'm petitioning and our U.S. Citizen daughter with her.

Second question--i remember seeing helpers/relatives in the embassy. Is it ok to bring an adult helper with?

Third question. I haven't found many IR-1 interview experiences posted. I lived in the Philippines for the last 4 years, and we have a U.S. Citizen daughter. So, i'm assuming that proof of relationship won't be a big deal. What is the usual IR-1 interview experience? Just a quick check? An extensive grilling? It varies with the wind?

thanks!

Hi guys, just a newbie here.

I would like to seek for advice regarding exit permit.

My 1.5yr daughter holds both US passport and Phil Passport.

Do I need to drop by in BI and get this ECC? Or will the Phil Passport covers everything and we can go to the airport directly without any clearance?

I called the BI this morning but the office explanation is not clear and have doubts, they told me to call the Airport Div (hey, they should know the answer, !)

We will be leaving early March and I am confused what to do now.

Thanks in advance, response' highly appreciated!

I'd also like an update. We are facing a similar situation in March or April. If child has both passports, but has never left the country, do they need to get a clearance? Or just good with both passports presented?

Wow. Can you tell us how you did it?

Where were the steps?

Yeah, I understand paying the fees. But most instructions here said to send the DS-3032 first once you get the case number.

My concern is if I send the DS-3032 too early, then it would confuse the NVC guys.

Clark-Kent's response above mirrors my situation. As soon as the Automated Voice System gave me the number, I sent an email version of the DS3032.

If you look back a page or so, you can see a conversation I had with another poster from France. Our times are close to identical, and i don't think unusual.

The only thing that I have to add to the info that I wrote there is that My case completed at CSC December 6. It was a full month before a case number got produced. This is my second time going through the visa process, so I knew that it would take a while, especially coming right before the holidays. I pretty much forgot about it until right after New Year. Much of the anguish with the NVC phase seems to be that period, from completion at service center to case number at NVC. I didn't pay attention, so right now i'm really happy with the NVC. If i had been pulling my hair out about if it had been received, maybe i'd be thinking differently. I've never had the government, including the post office, lose anything. Maybe i'm lucky. But, I don't think harassing them about a case number speeds anything up at all.

Once the case number was produced, i knew the next steps well from the State Department website and here. I just anticipated all that was coming and never waited for the paper instructions. The whole thing, while not technically digital yet, is pretty close. The only big hole in that statement is that i had to send in paper application.

I'm a little surprised that I got the appointment so quickly, but a good surprise is nice once in a while. My first time it was a CR-1, this time an IR-1. Both ended up coming in at about 9 months, start to finish. Not too bad. My opinion is that a lot of it has to do with being able to follow directions and anticipating how a very regulated process will work. The big waste of time in this system is the time from filing the petition with USCIS to NVC receipt. The service center is where most of the time is spent waiting. The advise here is invaluable, and all that i needed to help.

That said, i'm kind of used to online advice. You need to read a large quantity and try to piece together what is most valuable and what is most likely not-so helpful. For some reason, there are a lot of people in the world who like to act like experts when they are only repeating things that they have heard.

hi when did u submitted your aos & your wife's DS? My documents are on it's way to the NVC I was just estimating how much time I need to wait thanks... Anyway congrats for the interview date, I hope it goes well w/ your wife =)

NVC received my AOS on Friday Jan. 20.

NVC received IV package on Monday Jan. 23.

Case Closed Thurs. Jan. 26

Email with interview date received Saturday Jan. 28

Does any January 2012 NVC case complete have any interview date yet?

My wife got an email from NVC with 14 March interview date in Manila. The case closed 1/26. I was surprised coz i was expecting to wait until mid-feb to have date.

Well, this timeline is not particularly shorter than any of us here who got CCs! Except for the time you spent waiting for a case number, which was not as long as mine.

The bar code is available as soon as you pay the fee, however it is recommended to wait for it to change to PAID before you send the corresponding package just to avoid possible trouble: if your payment didn't clear (say, problem with your bank, mistake in your info...), your package could be rejected and you would just lose time waiting to get it back and sending it again. So I would not recommend doing this, especially just to save about 1 business day.

Same for what you did with the choice of agent: sending it before a case number is assigned is very likely to cause a rejection, and they're not going to accept it until they have assigned the case number anyway.

See, it took you 18 days from sending first DS3032 email to case complete, and it took me 19 days, although we waited a day to pay each fee and I sent my IV package from France.

You are right, what i missed in my timeline was that the case number was assigned on January 6, not the package received at the NVC. I don't know when the package was received at the NVC, i wasn't even checking for it. How would you know that? From an operator? I just kept calling, got the nothing here message until January 6, when they had the MNL case number.

I didn't send the 3032 email until 2 days after the case number was assigned. As for the sending without knowing about the payment, internet banking and electronic finance is pretty accurate. I think that the issues are the rare exception. I knew that there was no problem with funds available at my bank and I knew the turnaround on electronic payments. So, yeah, i could have waited a couple of extra days on the AOS and then IV payments, but it would have added about a week, i think. No point in wasting that mail time.

I've also found that everywhere in this process (my second time, and definitely the last) that if your i's are dotted and t's crossed, they won't send something back because the package arrived a day before your account went from 'processing' to 'paid' they'd just wait. Besides that, the packages arrived on the day the status changed, they didn't even open them till a couple of days later in both cases.

So, the two things i'm not sure about is 1. during that time that i was getting the 'we have no record' message, was the package actually there? and how would you know? and 2. Is that stage that i just asked about the part where everyone is pulling their hair and calling the NVC repeatedly? Coz once the case number is assigned it flies. I guess that i 'luckily' kind of forgot about it or just assumed that it took a month from leaving the CSC until a case number was assigned, which it did.

Which point was everyone having the conversations with rude NVC reps? I only felt the need to call them the one time when the system said that there was a problem, which ended up being a false error.

So, from looking more closely at your timeline, your NOA2 was a week earlier than mine, but i skipped the whole seeing when it arrived step and then we were pretty much the same from after the holiday break on. I'm usually not a patient person, so i'm not sure why i didn't even think of doing anything more than waiting for the Automated system to tell me that the case number was assigned. Do you know that the woman's voice on automated system is the same one from 2004? I must have 'talked' to her about 500 times between 2004 and this time. When i first called in december, i knew the voice instantly before she even got the first syllable all of the way out.

My first time was a CR and this time IR. But it looks like both times will end up at right about 9 months start to finish exactly. Too long, but not too bad considering some of the stories that i read here. If you spend enough time in the forums, it starts to become obvious why a lot of the applications take longer than they had to take. There are a lot of people that get screwed for no reason, but there are also plenty that get screwed because they can't follow simple directions, which pretty much mirrors regular life.

Hey all,

A lot of you seem to have had an experience different than mine, and mine went through faster, so maybe something is getting done differently. or maybe i just got very lucky? I'm getting a bit of a headache trying to keep track of everyone's steps so i'll spell it out here.

1. 12/07/11 NOA2

2. 01/06/12 Found package received by phone

3. 01/08/12 Sent request to make me agent from my wife's email address. Did this 2 times (1 for her, 1 for son)

4. 01/11/12 Got email back from NVC saying that the email request had to come from the petitioner, not my wife. This was ironic since i was doing both.

5. 01/11/12 Sent email back to NVC from my id including the email that they sent to her. I asked if it was ok for me to just request it for my wife and son.

6. 01/13/12 DS-3032 approved with MNL case number in email

7. 01/17/12 Got both AOS and IV bill for my son on the same day.

8. 01/17/12 Paid both the AOS and IV bill for my son at same time. Actually two separate transactions, minutes apart. Both marked pending immediately. The Cover page was available immediately, not after it turned 'paid'

9. 01/18/12 My wife's IV bill shows up and I tried to pay, but it was 'grayed' out.

10. 01/18/12 Mailed AOS package for wife and son. Payment still set to pending. Sent at almost 11pm, so didn't go out until 01/19

11 01/19/12 AOS and IV for son marked paid

12 01/20/12 AOS package received in NH

13 01/20/12 system let me pay wife's IV bill, Cover page generated immediately, payment pending.

14 01/20/12 Mailed IV package for wife and son on night of 20th.

15 01/23/12 IV package received in NH

16 01/23/12 wife's IV payment marked paid

17 01/25/12 Voice system says that there was a problem. My paperwork was impeccable (lol) so i called operator. She was very nice and said that it was because the IV pack hadn't arrived yet. I told her that it got there two days earlier. She said they just hadn't processed it yet, it would clear by itself, not to worry. She was really nice.

18. 01/26/12 On way to bed, thought i'd call again for kicks. Both cases complete.

Pretty awesome, no? I didn't wait on them for anything but two days to respond to the 3032 (and 3 wasted coz i sent from her email). Then i waited for her payment button to 'ungray' so that i could pay. But it was completely online, really fast, and timing was exact.

What about this process wouldn't work for everyone? Why was i allowed to get the cover letter before the payment went from processing to paid? It seems like i skipped past a lot of the little waiting steps and all i did was click the buttons on the payment portal.

Divine intervention, new process, luck?

I got through in 20 days, could have shaved 3 if i had sent the original 3032 from my email. I still don't understand that, i thought it was from beneficiary?

Anyway, anything here that could save someone time in the future?

You are correct.

As far as muddying the waters, they were pretty muddy to start with. And although a few people may have mentioned it, there are many posts that keep saying that the Philippines NEVER recognizes divorce.

After living in the Philippines for 4 years, i've found that understanding anything but absolutes is not very common. To point out that it IS possible for a citizen of the Philippines to be able to remarry is a good first step. Sorry if this offended you.

Your wording only serves to further muddy the waters.

If the divorce is filed by the member of the marriage WHO IS NOT A FILIPINO CITIZEN then the Filipino can file for judicial recognition of the divorce and once again be free to marry.

A marriage between 2 Filipino Citizens that has been either executed in the Philippines or Reported to NSO must be Annulled for either party to be free to marry in the Philippines.

This information has been provided in several posts in this thread already.

Your use of the term "other partner" is ambiguous as it could mean that the OP's wife's first husband is now free to marry because he didn't initiate the divorce but "the other partner did" and that is incorrect.

Additionally you failed to mention the requirement of filing for Judicial Recognition of the divorce in the Philippines. Your wording kind of implies that it's automatically recognized if the divorce meets the criteria but it isn't automatic.

This doesn't affect the OPs situation, but hopefully will correct some misinformation in this thread.

The Philippines does recognize divorce if it is done in a country that allows divorce, by the other partner.

An example for clarification. I marry a Philippine citizen in the Philippines and then we move to the U.S. We decide to divorce and I am the one to initiate the divorce. My ex-wife can then remarry freely in the Philippines because the Philippines does recognize the divorce as long as: 1. she is not the one who initiated it, and 2. it was done in a country where divorce is legal (all but about 3, i think).

If the Filipino initiated the divorce, then it is not recognized, even if it is valid in the other country. The person would have to go the annulment route.

So why is it good for the goose (You) but not for the gander (Your Daughter)? I dont have a set figure on age but think somewhere in the range of 15 years is ok it just seems like a good not too out there #, I myself set an age gap limit of 10 years when i hit 30 and happen to be 8 years older than my Fiancee 32 and 24, when i was 22 i wouldn't date anyone under 18 and when i was 25 i wouldn't date anyone under 20 mainly based on a maturity perspective.

It isn't ok for my daughter for the same reason that i didn't consider women 23 years older than me. I had no need for financial or any other kind of assistance to change my situation. My daughter most likely won't have that need either. It is mostly a joke to say that i'd be waiting at the door for an old man to come pick her up. The realistic chances of a young western woman with more going for her than looks ending up with an old man when she is 18-20 is extremely small.

Like i said, I don't really care what anyone else does or what the age difference is for other couples here. But if age really meant nothing, i think that we'd see more young guys dating older filipina women. I'm sure that someone can give me an example of it happening, but everyone knows that is is quite uncommon. In 4 years of living there, i don't think that i ever saw a foreigner with a filipina who was older than him. I'd expect that people claiming to be blind to age wouldn't always have the age difference fall in one direction.

I'm able to admit that i went in expecting to find a younger woman. I think that it is humorous that people claim that 'it just happened' yet it never happens that they end up with lola.

I mailed back my documents for an expected RFE last weekend. They arrived at CSC on Monday. I got the approval notice today (wednesday). They are doing something there at CSC.

By the time your daughter is old enough to date someone middle aged to her, you will be like 80, so I am thinking you may, at best, meet him at the door with your walker and a cane, haha, j/k friend.....

The poster in bedroom reference sorta escaped me, but I am sure it had a point....lol I have three daughters, 30, 26 and 22...We raised them well, college educated, only my 30 year old has a baby so far and that was not even two years ago, she is a teacher and hubby is a engineer....I will say that you will find out later that you can say you will do this or that, but when they get old enough they will do what they want and you better HOPE you raised them well enough to have made sound decisions.

You married a younger gal for you personal reasons, you seem to have sought out a younger lady...which is cool, more power to you brother.... I am marrying one not for any particular reason other than chance....we just met and our relationship grew, we decided to not let our ages stop what we both felt...so we didn't. I didn't waste my youth, I was married at 19, she, a Filipina, 17...and stayed married till this past Aug....31 years later.

It's funny how you say you will meet a older guy at the door with a big surprise if he tried to date your daughter...I know other guys who have said the same thing if a black dude comes to the door to date his daughter...hahah. For me, maybe the guys seeing me intimidated them, but I never had probs with any of the guys while the girls were in high school, they seemed to have more steady b/f's than anything, but a few boys came to the front door, and yes one was a black kid....never had any probs with any of them.

Ok, off the soapbox, lol

luckily, i'll only be in my 60s, and maybe still able to scare someone on the right day

The poster thing means that there aren't any teenage filipinas pining away for middle-aged or old men. They like princes and young movie stars just like girls everywhere.

I don't have an issue with race, but i would have a serious problem with a 60 year old coming to pick up my 18 year old daughter. I wouldn't even like it if he was my age. The difference is, one is here, the other is there. In the end, i'd actually trust that i'd done a good enough job that she was making good decisions. But a girl with a world full of options and living in the west rarely picks someone with an age difference like her mother and I.

I'm not saying anything about your relationship in particular. It just isn't for nothing that it happens a LOT more with women from developing countries than it does where the women have many more opportunities.

I had a lot of friends who worked for DODEA on the bases in the Philippines, got married back in the day, and eventually returned to the Philippines to retire. In almost all of the cases, being away from the country made the wives realize how backwards, inefficient, etc. that things in the PI really are. You don't recognize the water that you are swimming in until you've swam in some other water. None of these women were arrogant or had bad attitudes. They just came to expect more from people than is often available in the Philippines.

Most also still helped their families as much as possible. But they were tougher about it because they now realized how much work that western money cost. It wasn't growing on trees anymore once they had seen what it was like to earn a living in the west.

That said, i think that what you are describing is also these people's chance to show their old friends how important and big they are. In the west, they are probably not special in the least. But with dollars in their pockets, they seem to think that they've grown a great pesonality.

Another thing. Aside from the petitioner's mother's maiden name (AKA petitioner's middle name), the beneficiary needs to know the petitioner's place of work, his phone number, and name and contact info of any relatives living in the U.S.

I just saw this post, so i'll add...They did ask my wife these things. I worked in the Philippines at the time, so that was easy to provide. They also asked for my parents info, when she texted me for it, i told her to say that they were deceased (only half true) and that because of that, there wasn't any contact info to be had. (how would they know one way or another?) That was good enough, but it would be a good idea to have that.

The woman that my wife went with didn't get asked for any of that. It seems to be random based on the mood of the witch who processes you that day.

To me, the CFO is one of the worst organizations in the Philippines. They tell the women horror stories that are extremely overblown, but they act like it is an everyday occurrence. We were married for about 3 years before my wife went to get her passport in her married name. They told her that i would change if we ever went back to the U.S. They made her and several other girls go for copies down the street. Then when they came back with the number that they asked for, they needed more.

My opinion--it is run by a bunch of envious old hags. What kind of patriarchal bullshit is it that a woman needs the governments permission to leave the country with her husband. If a U.S. citizen wants to leave the u.s., they just leave, without having to get anyone's (on the u.s. side) approval.

Rant over...

I've had a lot of friends wive's and gfs go through the process. The best thing to do is act very interested no matter how mind-numbing, inane, or spiteful the whole thing is. If they think that you aren't paying attention, they often make you go back a second time.

My wife didn't need any information about me beyond our NSO marriage certificate. She needed her passport, marriage license, birth certificate, and brought our kids birth certs even though they weren't needed. Bring the originals and 5 or so photocopies of everything because they don't have a machine in the place. This is for the Manila office.

Someone above posted a link for their site. It was accurate when my wife went through, except didn't say anything about the many photocopies needed.

What a spouse provides is not a CENOMAR. It's an NSO marriage certificate or what you might call a CEMAR. Obviously a spouse cannot obtain certification that they are unmarried.

I think that they may actually want a CENOMAR. They should have already had the marriage certificate from the NSO at the NVC and embassy stages. I'd try to get one anyway. If anything it would come up with the current marriage. My wife got one just before we were married 3 years ago, just in case it was needed. I think that the embassy is wary of any document coming out of the philippines (with pretty good reason in my experience). I may be completely wrong, but i'm not sure that the marriage certificate would prove that she hadn't been married before?

I don't know. In 8 years of traveling to, and 4 years of living in, the Philippines i'm still shaking my head at most of the things that happen there.

My IR-1 was submitted NOA1 june 24 and i got an RFE on november 24, pretty much 5 months exactly. I expected the RFE because i didn't have my divorce records when i submitted. They received the information they needed today for my wife and stepson. So they are doing something with them.

hi pinaywife!

we went already at the us embassy this morning but unluckily we arrived late huhuhu... but we will goin back tomorrow morning, and im nervous cuz dont know what to tell. pls..keep us in your prayer hope that everything will turn out right about the crba of my baby. hope they recognized my baby as a USC son. i will update you all of what will goin to happen tomorrow..pls pray for us pls...

I'm interested to hear the results. Here is my prediction.

You will not get approved for the CRBA. They will deny and request more evidence. Without his cooperation, you will not meet the additional requirements. Then they will say that the DNA test is required. They will not compel him to supply a sample. At that point, there is nothing more that you can do.

Here is what happened for me, just to demonstrate how hard it will be.

I'm a teacher, living and working in the philippines. My current wife and I married about 5 months after conceiving our daughter. During an embassy outreach, i went to apply for crba. My wife was unable to attend because she was taking care of her sick mother. I did have my daughter with me. She looks just like me, and is pretty obviously my daughter.

For evidence, I had the NSO birth certificate of my daughter with both of our names as parents, our NSO marriage certificate, My passport and permanent residence visa to demonstrate that i was present, a certified letter from our physician saying that he had been our family physician since before conception, and that he had cared for my daughter since her birth. We also had my daughter's philippine passport, with my last name.

Because my wife wasn't there, I couldn't file for a passport. She would have to go to the embassy directly. But for crba, she did not need to be present. We were denied even with all that i had and the strong resemblance. We got a request for additional evidence. I had to put together a package of photos showing us before pregnancy, during, and with our daughter in our home after birth.

After submitting the additional evidence, we were approved. BUT, this was all with me there in front of them, claiming paternity. Without him present at the embassy, they will never grant citizenship. Especially, unfortunately, in the Philippines given the high fraud rates and ease of obtaining forged documents. The embassy will not do any investigation for you to verify anything. You have to prove it.

On another note, i think that another poster said that their attorney said that they could file for child support from the philippines. Yes, of course your attorney in the philippines told you that. They could not, unless paternity and citizenship had already been established in the philippines, through the embassy. I'm sure that they would be more than willing to charge you for trying though.

Even with that, they would get no traction.

I hope that the OP proves me wrong. But, I think that the only way to get support is going to be to convince the father to support his child under his own will. Good luck to you.