Marty and Aileen

From the day of birth how long did it take to get the Birth Certificate?

Did you file for passport and CRBA at the embassy or online?

How and where did you take the passport photos?

P. S. Are you in pi now? do you know of any clean inexpensive furnished apartments near the embassy.?

It typically takes about 1 month to get a NSO BC. It depends on the province and the local registrar where your child will be born.

You will download the CRBA application and fill it out on your computer and print it out. Then you will fill out the passport application online and print it out. You will take both applications with you to the interview.

My wife took our son, who is now 2 months old, to the mall to get his USA passport photos. You just have to tell them that the pictures are for a USA passport. Photo places in phils all seem to have a photo template for USA passports. Your child will need 3 photos and both parents will need 2 passport photos for the CRBA application.

I am in California now. My wife took our son to the inverview by herself. She is living in Manila now, but does not know of any apartments for rent close to embassy.

Thanks.

My wife and I successfully applied for our sons CRBA and USA passport in Manila 1 week ago. We should receive his CRBA and passport in another 2 weeks. You will apply for the CRBA and USA passport at the same time. You will definitely needs the childs NSO BC before you can apply. Also, make sure you keep all your pre natal and ultrasound results. They will want to see the originals at the interview for CRBA. Also, they may ask for a DNA test if you don't have enough proof that the USC was in the Phils at the time of conception. We were not asked for DNA test as I kept all my receipts and boarding passes from my last visit to the phils when I was with my wife. But, since you are not married yet there is a really good chance they will ask for a DNA test regardless of your proof. Let me know if you have any questions regarding the CRBA process.

You must select a delivery address for your passport's return prior to scheduling your immigrant visa interview appointment. When you select your document delivery address, be sure to have the Immigrant Case Number shown in the U.S. Embassy/Consulate notification letter. If your visa application is approved, 2Go will return your passport and visa to you at the address or pick-up location you selected when you scheduled your interview. Your passport will be delivered only to the address you specified when you scheduled your visa interview. There are no extra fees associated with this service.

http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ph-iv-documentdelivery.asp

Thanks, when looking at the site to add the delivery address it asks for the priority date. Do you know which date that would be? Is that the interview date?

My wife will have her CR1 visa interview on February 1 in Manila. I am looking at the information from the Embassy. It says:

IMPORTANT:

You must call the U.S. Embassy in Manila’s Visa Information and Appointment Service at (632) 982-5555 or visit this website: http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph to register your designated delivery address.

Do we really need to register the delivery address before the interview? I thought we were to give to the delivery address to the courier service while at the Embassy for the interview.

The letter I received also says what documents to bring to the interview. Many of these documents were already submitted to the NVC so the Embassy should have the documents at the interview. Do we need to bring another copy of the documents that we already submitted?

Thanks.

Hi,

My wife will be applying for our sons crba and passport in January at the embassy in Manila. I am looking at the checklist and have a couple questions for anyone that has gone through this process.

1) Since I will not be able to attend the crba interview the checklist says I need to send notarized copies of my passport. I am having difficulty getting copies of my passport notarized. Anyone know how to do this?

2) I have heard that they typically ask for dna testing even for married couples. Anyone able to get crba without having to do dna test? Any ideas what proof they might look for to avoid dna test?

Any other tips or information on crba process is much appreciated.

Thanks.

I also have a lawyer due to some unique issues. Even if you have a lawyer the petitioner will also receive the NOA1 in the mail. USCIS sends a copy of the NOA1 as well as the NOA2 to both the petitioner and the lawyer. Are you sure the lawyer has submitted the papers to USCIS?

I live in California and I received a text and email at 6:30 PM PST on September 16 that our I130 was approved.

Yeah. Good news fellow June filers. My I130 was approved today. It looks like June approvals are starting.

Has anyone checked Igor's List lately? The last 3 weeks there have been very few NOA2s from CSC posted on VJ. Our NOA1 date is 6/2. Waiting with anticipation.

You can contact ICE via email at Immigration.Reply@dhs.gov or you can telephone ICE at 1-866-347-2423. ICE is who you contact to report marriage fraud.

From what you said it sounds like your husband only has a 2 year temporary Green Card. He would need to apply for a 10 year Green Card whthin 90 days of the current 2 year Green Cards expiration date. If you report him for marriage fraud he might have difficulty explaining to immigration why he should be able to get a permanent 10 year Green Card since you are his sponsor and he left you.

You might also want to notify USCIS that you want to revoke your Affidavit of Support and file for annullment instead of divorce. An annullment is hard to get sometimes, but would also make it more difficult for him to get his 10 year Green Card.

Of course I would only do these things if you are absolutey sure that things will not work out.

Best of luck to you!!!

It's 6:45 AM. You can check manila embassy reviews here:

http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.php?cnty=Philippines&cty=&dfilter=5

You can read what others did for their interviews. Good Luck!!!

I am also checking the USCIS site many times a day and I check Igor's List here on vj many times a day to see if any more NOA2s have been processed. It seems the last 2 weeks have been really slow for I130 approvals according to Igor's List. I had to start jogging again to help me relax and sleep at night. I hope our NOA2s will arrive soon. I keep waiting and waiting for a text or email. Good luck everyone!!!

I had a similar issue a few years ago, but I knew before my fiancee's seminar that she needed a letter from her parents because of her age. I think if her parents give their approval that things should be ok.

I would also keep in mind that divorce does not cancel your Affidavit of Support.

You should definitely include proof of any trips to your wifes country, including airline boarding passes and receipts, hotel receipts, ATM withdrawals, receipts from other purchases made in that country. I also included Western Union receipts, and copies of letters we wrote to each other. The things you mentioned are also great things to include.

I bought arline tickets before and I had to give my fiancee a photocpy of the credit card I used to purchase the ticket in addition to printing the receipt from my email. This was on Philippine airlines. If you call the airline directly they can tell you the rules.

Hope this helps.

I printed skype phone records for our application.

Open Skype

Click on skype on top left

Click on account and it will open your account page

Make sure the 'Call Phones' is highlighted at top and I believe it defaults to that

It shows your most recent calls and right under that is a link that says view call history

Once you open call history you can print the screen or you can copy and paste into another program

There is also a link on history page where you can export to a file on your computer

I hope that helps.

Yes, the I-94 is issued by the Immigration Officer at POE when entering USA.

If she wants new passport with her married name she would have to do the seminar first, but then you would need to make sure she gets her new passport before the interview. If she wants to keep current passport then I believe she can do the interview now, but she would need to verify that with cfo. She just won't be able to get the stamp in her passport until after the visa is inside passport which is not big deal. My wife already did the seminar because she needed to complete it before she could apply for her passport. She will have to go back to cfo after she gets her visa to get the stamp in her passport.

My wife also had to attend the CFO seminar before she could get her passport. The seminar is also a requirement before you can leave the country. Once she does the seminar then you can apply for new passport with all the other necessary papers. Then after your wife receives passport she will take this to visa interview. Once the consulate affixes the visa in the passport your wife will need to take her passport along with the seminar certificate to the CFO office to get a stamp inside the passport that proves that she completed the seminar. When she is at airport they will check for this CFO stamp in the passport.

Also depending on where you apply for passport it can take a while. Much quicker in Manila.

Yes LBC ships to USA. My wife used LBC to send me a package here and when it arrived here DHL was the delivery service that delivered my package. LBC also has locations in the USA as I used them here to send my wife a package back in the Phillipines.

As far as visa is concerned you have 6 months to enter USA once visa has been issued and considering you have not received the NOA2 it will still be a while before the interview.

As far as the CRBA it takes 1-2 weeks to process. You will also want to apply for the childs USA passport the same time you apply for CRBA. There could be a couple delays. First, you will need to wait for birth certificate which can take up to 1 month depending on where you live. Second, I have a friend that was required to get a DNA test for their CRBA because they were not yet married so they needed proof that baby belonged to the US citizen. It depends on how much proof you have that you and your fiancee were together at time of conception, but still since you are not married they might require the DNA test. When you apply for CRBA bring as much proof as you have regarding your relationship with your fiancee and they will tell you if you need to get a DNA test. DNA test does not take long, but takes 5-7 days to get results. At least that's how long it took for my friend to get his results.

Hello,

I will be getting maried in the Phillipines in February. I believe I know the process and I will be there for 3 weeks. I need to go to the US Embassy to get an affidavit and then go to the province of my fiancee to apply for marriage license at the local registrar. I am wondering if my divorce decrees will need to be certified or will a copy of the decrees be acceptable? What other paperwork do I need to bring with me? Any other advice?

Thanks.

Yes that helps. I read your experience at SMEF. Will there be a problem if she does not have all the documents they requested? And, will she need a letter from her parents if she is only 21? Thanks.

My fiancee had her interview on 3/24/09 and received her visa on 3/27/09.