Tahoma

My thoughts are meet her first, spend time with her and as others have said, get to know the culture. I am nine years with Joan and I am still learning the culture of the Philippines (personally, I think it is beautiful). I, personally, would not get married during my first visit, even though I KNEW we were going to get married when I was sitting in that airport going home. I believe that you really do need to spend face to face time before tying the knot. I fully realize that not everyone has the "luxury" I had, but I made four trips to the Philippines within 12-months. We spent time in resorts and in her home town with family. Some of those trips were two rainy weeks in a Manila Hotel. Believe me, you get to know each other really well living in 250 square feet together in the rain. Smore, this IS DOABLE. Take a step back and realize that you already have 1 1/2 years together. 6 more months before you even meet her sounds like an eternity, but how fast did the last 18 months go by? Shoot, I blinked and 9 years went by. Breathe. Stop. Chat with her. Breathe. Stop. Video chat with her. Stop. Breathe, etc. She will meet you at NAIA and you will be in a taxi together before you know it. Please feel free to PM me if you want to talk more privately. Yes, this is hard, but many of us have gone through it and many of us are very happy. You CAN DO THIS!

Leaving Joan for the first time was the hardest thing I have ever done. I am not ashamed to say that I cried at the airport for a very long time. Fast forward 9 years and we are celebrating our 8th anniversary next month. I admit that I did not read this entire thread, but I know you read a lot about the possible scams out there--yes, I know a few personally. However, I also know more of the honest, caring, loving couples (including us) out there. Go and meet her where ever and whenever you can. You will know what to do when you are sitting in that airport for hours waiting to board your flight home. Me? I came home, booked a return flight, bought a ring and we have never looked back. Good luck.

First off, I went to the Philippines after talking over a year with my gf, now wife, and I went with the intent of proposing. Your situation is whatever you feel it is, there is no set definition.
 
Best suggestion, when you finally can travel to the Philippines, is to meet her and then spend every second of your time with her.  You are going there to find out if the two of you are truly compatible and spending time together is how you do this.  You will have great times and bad times, you'll fight and you'll make up (hopefully), but this is part of what a real relationship is.  Also, get to know her family because they are, most likely, a huge part of her life.
 
Traveling in the Philippines is great.  Some seek out bars and other nightlife activities, I always look for things we can do with her family.  That will depend on what the two of you want.
 
The K1 process is very simple.  With the way things are now, when you decide on the future of this relationship, you may want to consider the CR1 route.  You will get excellent advice on this forum, and Hank_ will be able to help you a lot.  There are many who participate on this forum but there are some who are extraordinarily helpful.  They will be the ones that you will rely on when you begin the process.  
 
I have dated one woman from the Philippines and she is now my wife of almost 10 years.  Get to know your gf, her family, and enjoy your time together; whenever you are able to actually be together.  Good luck.

You’re right.  However, the CFO really doesn’t want to know whether you’ve ever been married.  They want to know if you’re currently married, and a tax return doesn’t prove that either.
 
Years ago, there was a CFO employee that kept asking for proof that you weren’t married. It seems that there is another one now.  Back then, submitting your tax return solved the problem.
 
If the petitioner is a Pinoy who became a U.S. citizen, or is someone who has a Pinoy-sounding name, the CFO might be looking for a CENOMAR.
 
The CFO would be unnecessary if the U.S. Embassy simply handed out what-to-do-in-case-of-abuse flyers to each visa applicant.

OP will never again be able to get a CENOMAR as there is already an existing marriage record in the PSA.  That record will not be erased with an annulment or a court-recognition of divorce, but it will be annotated.  OP could probably get an annotated CEMAR indicating termination of the previous marriage, assuming OP goes through all the procedures to be able to register that marriage termination to PSA.
 
 
That is what I would recommend in this situation as well.  Working out the logistics of getting people able to travel and getting married abroad would be much simpler and faster than going through the lengthy court proceedings to get the Philippine government to recognize termination of a marriage registered locally.
 

OK, he's racist, he disenfranchised people and he committed fraud, but did he really do anything wrong?

Yep, I never knew sports in the PI was about life and death but thats what it appears it is.  If they make it to the NCAA finals again, you better get a restraining belt attached to your couch!

I got lucky the first time. Either that or my wife is playing the extremely long con))).

Not just Philippines https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57358241
 

I'm not so sure. There are guys who have built expensive houses and show up in the Philippines to no girlfriend/wife and no house. At least not one that's theirs. There are some horror stories out there. Then again every Western man looking for a partner there is not a prize))) It can go both ways.

I nominate this thread for the Scammers Hall of Fame.

You are 100% correct. I now know how many pageants you have to win to get to the "big" one. My wife forced me to watch the entire thing, only to see Miss Philippines not get the crown. 
She was mad for the rest of the afternoon. 
 

I like a lot of food my wife makes but when it starts to smell like decomposed dead bodies I stay away.

Sports? Wait until the Miss Universe pageant is showing!!!!

Exactly.  She keeps looking at the leaves very closely   Asking all kinds of questions on trees, flowers, plants, etc.  I had to tell her Im not a botanist.  We do have an elaborate garden though.  First time in my life I had one of those.   
 
Probably your wife stops in the middle of the road as she knows people have the right away here, unlike in the Philippines where you constantly have to dodge traffic.
 
The best one for me is my wife absolutely loves baseball.  I never knew this living in the Philippines as there hardly is any baseball.  She has favorite teams (basically any of the good ones) and will yell at the TV when someone makes a mistake, etc.  Basically a fanatic.  Ive had to tell her to chill out.  They play 162 games a season, they ARE going to lose some.  Its not life or death.  If they lose one its not the end of the season.  

My wife can't walk past any "Buy one, get one"  deals, even if is stuff we don't need. 

My wife’s been here 6 years and added 12lbs 89-> 101. She decided a couple years ago that her and her friend group needed to join a gym.  For the first 6+ months I was pretty sure it was just a new place to take selfie’s in sportswear as they would be gone 45 min (it’s a 15 min drive each way) and there would be dozens of Facebook pictures posted by various machines. For the last year she’s been going 4 times a week and putting in an hour when she goes.  I just wish I could now get rid of the various Craigslist finds of gym equipment she’s accumulated in the basement. 

I've heard of an affidavit of eligibility for marriage being asked as a requirement for a foreigner to marry in the Philippines.  But not by CFO.  If CFO is asking, maybe they suspect a previous Philippine marriage for some reason.  Foreigners can get a CENOMAR or Advisory of Marriage from PSA.  Maybe that's all they want if it doesn't create any problems.
 
 
I recently heard of the NEW LATEST, all time weirdest, totally no one could make this s#@t up, requirement from a CFO counselor.  Apparently the counselor found out the foreign fiance had a know Filipina ex-girlfriend.  So the new fiancee, who has applied for the CFO, was told she needed to contact the ex-girlfriend and get an affidavit from her about the reasons she broke up with the foreign boyfriend.  I never heard the outcome though.  I can't see how that could possibly end well.

Sorry for this off-topic post, but it’s important:
 
Guys, you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you do this one thing: hire a driving instructor.
 
We had threads about this in the past, and the overwhelming opinion was to hire a driving instructor.  
 
I wish I had done so!
 
~ Tahoma

Congratulations on your US citizenship! Your screen name here made me smile. 

Soon she'll be 100++ lbs 
 
~Chinook

Soon she'll be 100++ lbs 
 
~Chinook

This thread is really funny.  I can’t say anything more because Chinook reads this forum.
 
😎

Oh Dang my wife caught me, she told me she seen this post about her eating so much, WHOOPS. 😹😹😹😹

I was seeing this post reactivated after 7 years and thought WTH? But, I enjoyed the posts and wondering also, how many are still together.
We have been married since March of this year. We were lucking in getting her Visa expedited and getting out during one the lulls in the lockdowns.
Here's to everyone and good luck to all.