Mike and Karol

I am 24 and my filipina fiance is 29

Our age gap is 4 years, 4 months, 1 day, 15 hours, and 57 minutes

Heres a fun site, im sure some of you will enjoy finding your exact age gap I almost hurt myself trying to figure it out on my own

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html

Thank you all very much for the great replies My fiance and I must have mixed up the requirements and we both feel much better that its only 100% of the poverty level that is required.

Thank You Thank You all ~~Mike and Karol~~

~ Hello fellow VJers ~

In anyones experience or opinion, will i need a co-sponsor if my income is only slightly over the 125% poverty level?

The guidelines for 2008 say $22,000 for a family of 3, to which i will be making an estimated $23,500-$24,000 this year.

Does anyone know if they follow the guidelines closely and possibly take into consideration that my past few years were much higher but due to a recent job change it has been lowered?

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated

Thank You ~~Mike and Karol~~

~ Hello fellow VJers ~

In anyones experience or opinion, will i need a co-sponsor if my income is only slightly over the 125% poverty level?

The guidelines for 2008 say $22,000 for a family of 3, to which i will be making an estimated $23,500-$24,000 this year.

Does anyone know if they follow the guidelines closely and possibly take into consideration that my past few years were much higher but due to a recent job change it has been lowered?

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated

Thank You ~~Mike and Karol~~

HI EVERYONE....HANNY PEREZ AND MRSARTIS(JOMAY) ARE LEAVING ON THE 1ST WEEK OF AUGUST ....LET'S GET TOGETHER FOR THEIR DESPIDIDA.....

DATE;JULY 26,2008-SATURDAY

TIME;5-6PM WAITING TIME

VENUE;CAFE VIA MARE

MALL OF ASIA - 2nd floor Entertainment Bldg.

Bay Blvd. Pasay City

Tel. No. 556-0770/556-0812

SEE U ALL THERE;

HANNY PEREZ

MRSARTIS(JOMAY)

JEGO RYU(ANN)

FILIRICANS(RITZ)

CANDID WITCH(WENDY)

KANDI USA(IVORY)

PRETTYNPINK(JUNE)

MIKE AND KAROL

HBUNCH

WHOELSE WANTS TO JOIN PA?JOIN NA KAU MGA SIS......

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee congrats hanny and jomay weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Hey guys pls give me your ym ids and add thanks

karol >>>> queen.monkey@yahoo.com

Im wizardfitz@yahoo.com

we are waiting the the results of the sputum test

hey girl i saw you in jessica soho t.v show wow your famous na hahahaa.. you met your asawa at my space then you went to tagaytay hehehehe... i remember you! aja...

roflmfao.. are you talking to me higantetingting???? jessica soho? i-witness? duh lol

ay hindi pala jessica soho i-witness pala hahahhaa basta yun na yun i watched that ahhahahaha

Hey guys pls give me your ym ids and add thanks

karol >>>> queen.monkey@yahoo.com

Im wizardfitz@yahoo.com

we are waiting the the results of the sputum test

hey girl i saw you in jessica soho t.v show wow your famous na hahahaa.. you met your asawa at my space then you went to tagaytay hehehehe... i remember you! aja...

Jessica Soho? That was so funny... duh! lol

Hey guys pls give me your ym ids and add thanks

karol >>>> queen.monkey@yahoo.com

JOIN ako jan Wanna meet you guys -Karol

DATE.....JULY 10,2008

TIME.....6PM

WHERE...MUSIC21 MALATE ....mabini corner gen. malvar st.

http://www.music21plaza.com.ph/malate_site.htm

LET'S ALL MEET AT THE LOBBY OF MUSIC21 FIRST...

HERE'S THE MEMBERS LIST JOINING;

hannyperez

jego_ryu

KandI_usa

hbunch

prettynpink

baBY CaT

crazy4papi

gabrielle08

filiricans

rubchett

mrsartis

usarmynurse

candid witch

mike and Karol

...see u guys! join na kau girls para mas marami mas masaya,,,,habang free pa tau join lang ng join

Hi guys.. what's your friendster account? Let's all gather up in friendster too. weeee.. add yourself up!

See you there!

anaislauren19@yahoo.com

karol_ilagan24@yahoo.com << friendster account just add me ty

wow naman..Filipina is really amazing talaga..Thank you shape for all of this and I wish i could stay much longer.....Nice meeting you guys...God Bless!

Awwww I missed this event.. Anyways, let me know if you guys are still planning for the 2nd get together. thank you. Hugsssssssss all.

Hello fellows,

Finally, i'm done with my tension for now. I had my interview at USEM Manila yesterday May 12, 2008. Arrived before 6:30am and my first fell in line at security to enter the embassy, where they posted IR1/Cr1/K1/K3 Non-immigrants visa applicants. It wasn't long line there compared with the other two lines (for other applicants). There were different lines also for "seafarers", that's probably the some people said who had had previous interview at USEM where they said we should arrive so early. But there's nothing to worry about that. Those long lines were different from us.(who has scheduled interview at the consul).

At this security check, he asked for my appointment letter that embassy sent me, i told him i didn't receive any packet from USEM, what i have was e-mail appointment letter that they sent us right after I scheduled my interview, i told him briefly this is what i showed also in St. Lukes and the guard noticed that there's St.Lukes marked on my appointment letter, he just uttered "hindi co yata alam yun ah, ok cge patingin nalang I.d mo", i showed him only my postal i.d, and he let me in.

(Hey guys, don't bother anymore to bring your cellphones or any gadgets, because there is really no way you can store it in USEM, though there are this outside people who will charge you P200 for you to give them your cellphones and you will be given by number for you to claim it later. Well , this people are not working at USEM. It's up to you guys, either you entrust your phone to these outside people and pay P200 for them to keep your phone while your still inside the Embassy or just leave your phone in your house, for me i didn't bring my phone, i just left at the hotel.)

At second security, the guard asked again my appointment and i showed him and he instructed me to window 3, it's where I put all my things to their x-ray machine for security check. After this, the guard instructed me to embassy pavillion. (geez! this was a wrong instruction he gave me, been in pavillion, fell in line for almost 40 mins and when i was almost finished at the line, when the staff checked my ds156 and ds157 he said, ma'am You should be at the immigrants section. There were few of us also in K3 and K1 there who got wrong instructions from the guard from the window 3. So, the staff told us to to go to immigrants section. When we got there, there were many people already, wow, just because of that wrong instruction.Those some applicants who were scheduled for 8:30am were ahead of us already. But it's okay. It's past already.

Ok here's the steps i have done yesterday inside the Immigrants Section. (don't worry guys we won't be going to different floors here, its only in this Immigrant Section big room that everything will happen from the 1.checking of ds forms, 2.finger scanning, 3.pre-screening,4. consul interview, and 5.delbros- payment of visa delivery, unlike in St. Lukes different floors to get all things done so we won't be needing back and forth from time to time at USEM.)

1. GIVING NUMBER. Fell in line to window _ , they asked 2 sets of ds 156, 2 sets ds 157, and appointment letter.(Since I am K3, i didn't have the DS156k, for K1 you will be asked for this). After the woman check mine, she gave me number, this number was important so don't lose it. I then took sit again at waiting area.

2.FINGER SCANNING. From the window where I gave my DS forms and appointment letter, its here where we will hear if our names will be called already for Finger scanning. When i heard my name i went to window _ for Finger scanning.(if your palms perspiring just make sure you dry it before you put it in the finger scanning machine, don't worry also, there's staff here that will assist you and hold your fingers for the scanning.) After finger scanning, i then took a sit again at waiting area.

3. PRE-SCREENING. My number flashed at the board and the window where i will go. I then proceed to window _ for pre-screening of my docs. Here, the guy only asked to give him first: NSO Birth Certificate, NSO Marriage Certificate and NBI.

After he checked what i gave him, he then second asked me again to give him the following; Affidavit of Support (134) W2s, and Tax Transcripts. ( i gave him 2005,2006,2007 W2s and 2005,2006,2007 tax transcripts, Affidavit of Support and Employment letters.) After he checked it, he gave back the employment letters to me.

* with pre-screening here i was asked, (my pre-screener was a handsome gay and he seemed nice)

-who is your petitioner

-when is his birthday

-what's his work

-how i met my husband

-when i first met my husband in person

-how long he stayed in Philippines

-what date exactly he got here in Philippines

-when did we get married

-how long my husband stayed in Philippines

-were you married before

-were your husband married before

-do you have kids

-does your husband has kids

The third he asked me to give him were pictures. I gave him pictures, of me and my husband with my family and with his family. The pre-screener then asked "Is your husband a muslim?", i answered "No, he is not, he is american.", by flipping the pics, He also commented , "he is still young and handsome like you, you two are meant for each other." I said "thank you sir", and then he asked me , "have you experience to travel abroad or international flights", i answered "No, not yet Sir."and then he gave me some advises about nothing to worry about , it's important that i get a good sit at plane so i will be comfortable with the flight. I said "thank you sir for that tips". Once again he looked at our pics, and then i asked him, "do you need anything or any proofs Sir?" and he said , "No, this is enough already" , "Ok, you can go back to your seat and wait again for your number to be called. Thank you", I answered "ok sir, Thank you po."

At the waiting area, i sighed and i felt something a bit upset because they never looked at my evidences, i brought so much of our proofs and evidences that weighs almost 7 kilos, geez! until now i have back pain for carrying this.

4.CONSUL INTERVIEW. I couldn't say i have had a friendly consul, unlike others had. What i had was a tall American woman with i think in her 30's with very short hair. I greeted her "Good Afternoon", she didn't greeted me back though, she just said "have a seat." She asked me the same questions what my pre-screener asked me. Plus she asked me some additional questions. She even told me "i think you need to be grilled", then she smiled. She also gave some comments, "So you were 23 or 24 when you met your husband". i answered her, "i am 23 when i met my husband." She asked me, "what did you like most about him?", I answered, "He is so thoughtful, no matter how busy he was he always finds time to give time to me even when he was still in Afghanistan. " She then uttered, "oh he is a Military" , i said "Yes Ma'am".

Then once more he flipped our pictures, and she said "i think everything is all fine."

Then she explained brief about the document verification. She asked me if i paid for it, i said yes i did. And she said, The USEM requires document verification so to make sure there are no fake marriages or no fake identities to all applicants. She then said "Ok, i think everything is okay now. You will need to wait for your name to be called once again for one last time." And i said "thank you Ma'am", and she said "thank you"

I then took a sit again at waiting area. After few minutes my name has been called, i went to window_ and the girl gave me back the appointment letter plus the instruction to pay the Delbros visa delivery.

5. DELBROS Visa delivery payment. They gave me form to fill up for visa delivery and i paid P400 for delivery fee, i put my address in Bataan is why P400, if only Manila area it's only P250. (I saw some someone from Cebu she paid more than P500.)

Finished before 12pm. And was so tired and exhausted because of too much pressure the past few days. The first days of my mens period came the morning of my interview, because of the nervousness i felt i think. haha.

At 5pm i met Relyn at MOA and check the possible place for Eyeball meeting. Will be posting about the infos at the eyeball thread.

Thanks everyone.

Shape

Congratulations Shape. Wishing you all the happiness!

I believe in KISS -Keep IT So Simple.

I had the same worries like you when we were starting the process. I am also a single mom with two kids and we just finished our K1/K2 interview last week.

If you are not married and has never been married to the biological father then you have automatic sole custody of the child and therefore you won't need any waiver or any letter of consent from the biological father, even if your EX signed and acknowledged his paternity on your child's BC.

Some single mom who went to interview with their kids was never asked anything about the biological father, in my case I was asked:

1. When did the biological father left?

2. When was the last time the biological father has seen his kids?

3. So you were never married to their father?

4. Are your kids in contact with their father?

My case is that, I was separated with the biological father of my kids when our youngest was just 6months. My daughter is now 10(would be 11 by nov.) while my son is 8years old (would be 9 by sept). So basically, it has been over 8years already. He has signed and aknowledged his paternity over my kids on their BC but we were never married. Their father never extended financial support since he left.

Are you still in contact with the biological father? Does he give financial support? I don't know your answer to these questions but it will be best if you will not mention anything about the biological father to the prescreener or consul. Do not complicate things by mentioning about him being able to petition his child etc... Just wait till they ask you anything about your ex and make your answer very very brief. You don't want to give the impression that you are still very much attached to the ex right...

You are on K1, your child who is on K2 is your derivative. the embassy will not be concern on the eligibility of your child to become a US citizen, rather they will be concern on:

1.Your bonafide/authentic/real/genuine relationship with your petitioner

2.Your eligibility to marry your petitioner (his eligibility to marry you is the concern and has been checked by USCIS during initial petition application)

3.Your petitioner's financial capacity to support you when you and your daughter gets to the US.

I hope these help and loads of good luck on your visa process.

God bless always.

Phew.. thank you very much for replying.. i feel relieved now. Hope you'll keep in touch with me. im sure i still have lots of questions to ask. again thank you very much God Bless You too. and congratulations! Wishing you all the happiness. take care.

hi all.. i just want to know if someone here experienced on getting a parent's consent from biological father. Just dont know what documents needed. I called dswd, they told me that only to married couple they are issuing a travel clearance for the child who's travelling with either of the parent. It just happened that the father acknowledged and signed the birth certificate of our daugther. We are not married.

My story is this. The biological father was petitioned by his mom 2 or 3 years ago and i think he's automatic green card holder as his status when he gets there, im not just sure if he's US Citizen now. I heard legitimate and illegitimate child has the same rights when the biological father wishes to petition his child. I am thinking and based on what i have read with some cases here, embassy is only concerned on the eligibility of the child to become a US Citizen. Since my fiance is a US Citizen and he will petition me and my daughter. On that case my child has two chances to become a US Citizen, one is through the biological father and the other is through my fiance. I think Embassy just wanted to make sure that only either of the two can file the petition. Cant have 2 petitions. My question is, what kind of Waiver do i need to tell the attorney that she will make? Is it like or saying there that the biological father is allowing and giving the rights to my fiance to petition our daughter and will never file under his name? Just to prove the embassy that the biological father will never file.

I really wanted to be ready incase embassy will asked me for the proof. Any help on this matter will be much appreciated. Tyvm.

Hi all.. I just want to ask if anyone of you has a sample copy of Letter of Parent's Consent (WAIVER), I know it should be notarized, I just wanted to be ready incase the Embassy will ask me where's the biological father of my daughter. Having the WAIVER would be good to show them in the interview so it wont cause us delay. Any help on this matter will be much appreciated. TYVM. -Karol

Congratulations!

Hi All,

TinTin had her interview today at the US Embassy in Manila. We are happy to report that 1) document verification was complete at the time fo the interview, 2) Her K1 Visa was Approved and 3) the embassy approved our request for a visa pickup at the embassy, thereby bypassing the use of delbros's delivery services.

BAYVIEW PARK HOTEL: We arrived into Manila in the afternoon the day before and checked into the Bayview Park Hotel for 1 night. It is located across the street from the US Embassy. We were on the 10th floor with a direct view of the Embassy Street Entrance for K1 applicants. Reservation was made over the internet on the Hotel's direct web site. Rate was $75/night for double. Web site provided efficient real time processing. Used US issued Visa card with no problem Immediate confirmation: both on-screen and emailed. One issue was that the Web "Advertisement" stated breakfast buffet was included, but the confirmation made no mention of it. On check in, was told confirmed reservation did not include breakfast. No big deal to us - but a little shady...

The hotel is a 15 story hotel. 200 rooms or so. 3 classes: DELUXE and two levels of "suites". By filipino standards, it was not bad. By US standards, it was like an old tired "Best Western". OK - just run down. frayed carpets, cracks on the walls, missing grout in the bathroom, chipped furniture. Mattress was good. Base room rate was $59 - but with all the taxes - total was $75. billed in pesos, conversion rate ok at 41.5/dollar. They are pretty strict about late checkouts after 1pm. There is an escalating late check out fee that goes up each hour until, by 6pm, its the price of another full night. The good news is that most likely you will be back from the embassy by 12 or 12:30pm and will be able to check out before 1pm.

Our interview time was at 7:30pm. We arrived at 7:15am. No lines at all at guarded street entrance nor the security checkpoint going inside the embassy building. We were in the "blue seats" within 5 minutes of walking up to the outside gate.

Step 1: All 7:30am appointments were seated together. Starting about 7:40am, the group was directed to the first station to get a ticket number and submit DS forms and appointment letter. There were maybe 70 people in the 7:30am group. The 70 people were sent in order of arrival. It took about 45 minutes for all 70 to get through and get there numbers. From a few inquiries, it seemed that the first of the 7:30am appointment group arrived before 4am and the last arrived approximately 7:45am. We arrived about 7:15. For my money, I wouldn't trade the 45 minute "advance" that the first folks in the group got for the 3.5 - 4 hour wait that it cost them. I was glad we came over to to the embassy just a few minutes before our appointment time.

Step 2. About 9am we were called for fingerprint scanning. Nice filipinos working at that station. TinTin had to redo her scans about 7 times, but finally they came out clear enough. There was some hypothesis being discussed that the problem was hand lotion she had used. Don't know for sure, but after wiping her hands off a few times, got a scan that was "good enough" to be accepted.

Step 3. About 10:45am was called to window for prescreening. Filipino woman was "efficient". She wasnt overtly friendly - nor overtly mean. Asked a few questions - Who was I? When did I arrive in the Philippines? How many visits did I make? How did TinTin meet me? Any prior foreign travel for TinTin? Collected NBI, BC, Affadavit of support, 2007 ITR, 1099s, Letter of Self Employment, Bank Account Statements. Did NOT ask for CENOMAR. Looked briefly at photo album. Not interested in any other proofs of relationships (letters, chat logs, plane ticket boarding passes, etc) She really acted like she was just interested in collecting information for the American Consul - she didn't seem interested in the information, just transcribing some things onto a worksheet and collecting documents. She didn't care if she got the info from TinTin or Me - she just wanted forms and info. Total time less than 5 minutes.

Step 4. About 11:15 was called to room for American Consul interview. TinTin and I walked in together, and said Good Morning. This guy was a total piece of work. Young, arrogant, disinterested. Didn't bother to reply with even a hello. Immediatey "dismissed" me with "Step outside, I'll let you know if I need you". That curt..no nice to meet you, could you step out for a while, I would like to speak with tintin in private..thank you....nothing. without even making eye contact: "Step outside, I'll let you know if I need you." Needless to say, I was pissed! So, I stepped outside after making a point to get his eye contact and say "Good Morning" again.. grrrr..... TinTin was inside only about 5 minutes. Simple questions. Any previous marriages her, me. Any children her, me. What do I do for a living. Very Simple questions, TinTin said he never even made eye contact with her - just kept his eyes on his computer and asked the questions. "After 5 mnutes, he said, Ok you are approved. Step outside." TinTin then said that we had a letter for him. He looked up - suprised - and said "a letter??" It was a written request to pick up the visa at the embassy rather than wait on Delbros. He checked with one of his colleagues and then came back and said OK. Now please wait outside. Just an all around pissy attitude - not someone who should be working with human beings! (I know, I know, we ARE happy that the day went smoothly, no tough questions, no issues, approved visa, approved for embassy visa pickup - but as an American, I was certainly embarrassed to have this guy be the "poster boy" for TinTin's first dealing with an American. And it was pretty damn insulting to be dismissed without even a "Hello, would you mind waiting outside for a few minutes" by some beaurocratic peon.)

Step 5: Releasing Window at 11:50am. Almost everyone that was in front of us (5 different people) was being told they were on A.R. pending a variety of documents that they needed and were missing. The list was quite amazing - many basic things like no Last Year's ITR, no W-2, No DS-157. No Medical exam yet (!), wrong size pictures, etc. And all 5 got the word that they will be contacted in 4-6 weeks after Document Verification was completed. Most seemed not to know anything about what Document Verification was.

A NOTE ON DOCUMENT VERIFICATION: We paid for Document Verification exactly 4 weeks before our embassy interview. We texted Delbros per their procedure and received back the confirmation texts from them the same day we paid. Even so, I called the embassy 3 weeks in advance of our interview to confirm that our document verification had been completed and make sure that all was fine. Suprise suprise - I found that the embassy had no information that we had paid the delbros fee yet and therefore the Doc Verification process had not been started. I called delbros that day, had them call the embassy that day and also sent a fax with payment receipts and delbros confirmation text messages to the embassy that same day. I then called back every day for the next 4 days until the embassy confirmed that we had been submitted to NSO for the doc verification to commence. Our name/paperwork was submitted to NSO on Monday 24 March. We confirmed during the interview today that that document verification had, in fact, been completed prior to our interview. (so that means it was completed in no more than 9 business days) There are a lot of threads on VJ on the document verification process. My recommmendation while they are still working out the kinks in this new process is that you pester the heck out of both delbros and the embassy well before your interview date to ensure that they get it done before your interview. They did have a copy of TinTin's Cenomar in her file, which they did NOT get from us - so my assumption is that it came from the document verification process.

Well, next stop is a last trip back to Samar to say goodbye to the family there, then CFO, then to the airport heading to the West Coast of the US.

Thanks to all here on VJ, from whom we have learned so much.

Warm Regards,

Samby & TinTin