Hoot

I did everything thru northwest airlines and online. Booked a round trip for myself, booked a one way ticket for my wife and her 2 children. I called Northwest airlines. They were awesome !!! The allowed me to use my built-up miles and charged me only $ 120 for my round trip ticket. They charged me about $ 710 for each of the one way tickets Manila to Orlando. I also bought them a ticket from Ozamis to Manila online at philippineair.com - BUT - you need to give your girl a copy of your credit card and maybe a written statement or they might not let her fly on the local flight.

Northwest has some really competitive airfares - but you need to play with the dates to get the best deal.

Hoot n Dolly

Steve,

We had our interview October 1 and received the visa Ocyober 3, 2009. The normal policy of the embassy is to use Air21/FedEx to ship the visa to you. Air21 requires your wife to sign for the visa. If your wife is in Manila or the immediate Manila area - it is usually 2-3 days. If she lives in the province it can take up to 10 days to arrive. Your wife can call Air21 to track the package.

Your wife should ask permission to pick up the visa from the consular officer who does her final interview. The consukar officer has the authority to allow her to pick the visa up at the embassy. Sometimes they allow you to pickup the visa but not always.

We wish you the best.

Hoot n Dolly

You can marry in both places. If you marry in HK yyou must file the CR-1 visa - a married person cannot file a K-1. Once you get to the usa - you can easily marry there as well. I would encourage you to get married in HK and file a CR-1. I believe that the approval percentage for CR-1 is significantly higher then K-1. As long as you have evidence such as chat logs from Yahoo Messenger, emails, letters, phone bills, and pictures from multiple visits, and wedding ring receipt - you should be fine. Joint accounts are rare for a couple in your situation. I added my wife to my credit card and showed them that. I also made her beneficiary of my life insurance. Bonifide relationship is about frequency of contact when u are seperated.

Our Consular Officer was very very nice (Philippines) - they can usually tell if you love each other - we had our interview Sept 29, 2009. Best wishes.

Dolly n Hoot

Marriage is whatever 2 people make of it. However, a healthy marriage involves trust, sacrifice for your partner, consideration for the feelings, dreams. goals, and aspirations of your partner, and devbotion to eaach other and to nurturing the relationship. To the extent the you and your partner agree on major lifestyle issues (religion, money,raising kids, how much together/apart time is ok, etc) there is less need for compromise and less opportunity for conflict.

My wife and I did not use a pre-nup even though I have substantial pre-marital assets. We both wanted children, we have known each other for 3 years, and we just felt very comfortable with each other. She is 30 and I am 48. We have similar religious, family, and personal values. I have never experienced a woman so loyal or supportive - God really blessed me with Dolly - she is smart, funny, easy to be with, interesting, mysterious, beautiful, loving, devoted, (and very hot too). We almost never argue. 7 months ago we had a baby boy and we have 2 step children as well. Next week I will fly with her and the kids back to Florida and we will start a new chapter in our lives.

Hoot n Dolly

How often does she get very emotional like this ??? Some people do come apart periodically - my wife does this every few months - there is no abusive behavior - I just console her or give her space and the next day she is sorry and back to normal. How does your wife feel and/or act a day or 2 after these incidents ??? As long as she is not abusive - you need to be as supportive as you can - then talk about it after she has cooled off. You might consider some kind of counciling as well. Best wishes in your journey.

Hoot N Dolly

Hello All,

My wife and 2 step children got thyeir CR-1 visas on September 29th. I am flying back to escort them to Florida in 1 week.

We got the CFO stamp for my wife and step children. We have a 7 month old baby with CRBA and US Passport. We got an exit permit for the baby plus a Philippine passport.

Do we need any other documents to bring the kids ???

With the baby - how does it work using dual passports ??? Next June they will return to Philippines for a 2 month visit.

Thank you.

Hoot n Dolly

I dont know how much of an issue this is. However, you can go to the embassy and explain that you need a correction made. They will let you into Entry #2 and probably direct you to window 34. Window 34 is where they fix visa problems. The embassy should be able to correct this in an hour or they will tell you it does not need to be corrected.

One note of caution. DO NOT BRING YOUR CELL PHONE. My wife showed up to fix a visa problem and they refused to let her into the embassy until she got rid of her cellphone. A week earlier they allowed her and I to store our cellphones when we went in for our interview. I guess they do not accomodate non-citizens with this.

Dont worry - it will be easy to fix.

Hoot n Dolly

Thanks

I did some research. It appears that we would need to bring her over on an I-20 visa by enrolling her in a private school. Once she is here we would need to adopt her. Very complex.

Hoot n Dolly

Hello All:

My wife just got her CR-1 visa. We would like to adopt her niece and file an I-130 to bring her over as our daughter. We know it could take 12-18 months. The niece is about to turn 14 and she lives in the Philippines. Can we do this ??? Any suggestions or input ??? Thank you.

Hoot n Dolly

Update:

The problem is that the US embassy guard would not let my wife take her cell phone into the building. They appear to allow it only if she is with a US Citizen. So - my wife paid somebody to store her phone and she got the visa fixed at Window 34.

I am surprised they would not let her store the phone with a number like they allow us to do when I went there with her last week. Now I am back in the states. Anyways - she got it all fixed so we are very happy.

Hoot n Dolly

Hello:

My wife and our 2 step kids received their CR1 visa in the mail. My wife removed the Visa summary sheet mistakenly from the visa to take it down to the CFO. The CFO stamped her passpots but told her she violated the visa.

I just sent my wife to the embassy to try and fix it but they turned her away - she is so upset she will not talk to me right now. Does anybody know how to fix this problem ???

Hoot n Dolly

Hello:

If your wife cannot fly to usa you need to do CRBA (consular report of birth abroad). The biggest issue you face is time. There are 2 problems 1) it takes time to get the NSO birth certificate - ours took 2 months. You will need to push the hospital and the local city hall - but you can push it fast. @) embassy can require a DNA test if they have any doubt about the paternity.

My CRBA was approved with justy my wife attending - we had bulletproof evidence and the baby looked very american. You need to read the info on the us embassy website. One thing missing from website - they will ask for evidence documenting your relationship PRIOR to conception. you should provide emails, letters, chats, pics, etc.

good luck.

hoot n dolly

You should file an amended tax return ASAP. I would go to an accountant and prepare amended returns for 2006, 2007, and 2008. It would be very helpful to have filed these tax returns by the time you have your interview. If you just explain to the CO that you were not aware of the ability to file the returns you should be fine. Also - from a technical perspective - if the IRS knew about your marriage - they would revise your returns married filing seperately and charge you more taxes. By amending the tax returns, instead you will get a significant refund.

When you send in the tax returns you will either need to use your social or apply for an ITIN. An ITIN is a temporary number used in place of the social for people filing tax returns when their spouse does not have a socila yet. You will need to sign form W-7, attach a notarized copy of your passport, attach a statement agreeing to be taxes on your worldwide income, and the return has to be mailed to a specific IRS location in Texas. Your accountant can help you with that - or - in 1 week you can use your social and avoind the ITIN.

Hoot n Dolly

Hi All,

We just had our CR1 interview on 9/29/09 and got our visa without the CEMAR. The pre-screener asked us about CENOMAR and we told her we were married so we had marriage eing a requirement. certificate. The CO didnt even mention it. I think some of the pre-screeners get confused about the CEMAR not being required - just a guess. Anyways - better to get the CEMAR but it is not likely to be needed.

Hoot n Dolly

Stop her now !!! Call NVC immediately 603-334-0700 and speak to an operator. They are likely to ask you to send a letter in withdrawing the K-3 visa. I believe once they receive this letter she will be unable to enter the usa - they will block her at the poe if she gets that far.

Hoot n Dolly

We scanned and emailed alot of documents to each other - but - the embassy probably wants an original signature on the I-864 - that is an important document - for us - we did an I-130 so the signed copy went to the NVC who then forwarded it on to the embassy. I believe that they will want an original signature - hopefully somebody can confirm this.

Hoot n Dolly

Thanks everybody. We are from the Cape Canaveral where they launch the space shuttle - about 5 hours from Tallahassee (hehe - but my wife lives in Farmtown/facebook.com) . The CO told us the visa should be delivered by Friday - really quick - soooo - we are happy and excited both my wife and I feel like we have had a big weight lifted off our chest - even though we felt like our approval would be easy.

Hoot n Dolly

Hello All:

My wife and I attended our interview this morning in Manila - we dor our visa !!! Thank you so much to everybody in Visa Journey for your wonderful resources. The whole porcess was very easy. The pre-screener was a little stearn - but - the consular officer was extremely nice, polite, and made us feel very comfortable. The CO even apologized for the bureacracy of the immigration system and our wait (9 months). He asked about my wife's birthday - the kids birthdays - made sure we had the right kind of visas (CR1 vs IR1) and we were approved.

My wife will fly to Florida in a few weeks as soon as I can fly back to escort her to Florida - we have 3 children flying with us - so it is always controlled chaos. Anyways thank you everybody and best wishes to all.

Hoot n Dolly

Our interview in Manila for our CR-1 was postponed on Monday 9/28 due to hurricane Ondoy. They told all Monday visa applicants to come back on Tuesday. I just rescheduled my flight back to the states for Thursday AM. Northwest Airlines went way out of their way to help me and rescheduled the flight at no additional charge. I am so impressed with Northwest !!! I hope the embassy gives us the interview tomorrow - I really want to be there to support my wife. Anybody have this type of experience at the Manila embassy before ???

Hoot n Dolly

Hi Everyone,

Im off to Manila to attend our interview with my wife - the interview is September 28th - we just received the approval of our CRBA too - it looks like September is going to be a very pink month.

Hoot n Dolly

they will probably not allow you to take the medical - but - you have nothing to lose so go in tomorrow and explain that it came early and you bought the tickets, etc - but - be prepared to delay your return - they are not likely to allow you to take the exam on your period. Hope it works out for you.

Hoot n Dolly

Dude,

Print out this entire thread and have the husband take it to his attorney.

EITHER you have the facts mixed up - or - this couple is very close to potentially committing immigration fraud with unknown consequences.

Maybe it is a K-3 married visa - that uses form 129F which is the same as the K-1 visa.

IF it is a K-1 visa and they are married, the lawyer is guilty of malpractice - BIG PROBLEM

DO NOT GO FORWARD - FORCE A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE FACTS. IF IT IS A K-1 and they are legally married then the K-1 MUST be cancelled and they must reapply with a I-130 (C/R Visa) (plus a K-3 if they are so inclined).

Good luck to them.

Hoot n Dolly

Here is why the CR1 takes longer then the K-3:

K-3 NVC process - very limited maybe a basic name check. Then petition is forwarded to embassy - NVC has virtually no work. In addition appointment set by embassy

CR1 NVC process - Upon receipt NVC generates an agent of choice letter - NVC waits till foreign spouse designates the agent (usually petitioner). Next NVC generates the Affidavit of support bill ($70) and the Visa bill ($400) once these bills are paid and updated, then NVC generates a few other documents and waits for petitioner/spouse to submit Affidavit of support and DS230 Visa application. The visa application must have support documents and pictures submitted. Upon receipt of those items the NVC reviews everything - then completes the case (some security checks in there somewhere). Once the case is complete, the NVC issues you an interview date based on criteria from the embassy.

As you can see the CR-1 process has a few steps which involve the NVC waiting for things to be received.

However - it is an immigrant visa so you get social security number and greencard very soon after you enter the usa which allows you to drive, work, etc which cannot be done with a

K-3 until you adjust your status (3+ months wasted time in usa)

Hoot n Dolly

Hi,

the NVC scheduled our interview - and I called them every other day after our case was complete - they finally confirmed it as well as emailed me 3 letters. Since we are a CR-1 the embassy does not schedule the interviews.

Hoot n Dolly

Today I got some great news from my wife and 2 step children. They passed the medical today !!!

I am flying over to Manila on Saturday and we will attend our interview together on September 28th. We are so exciited !!!

Thank you Visa Journey for all of your help.

Hoot n Dolly