cognac

When my wife received her Green Card, her name was incomplete. Her actual first name is two names together JXXX FXXX(two separate words, not hyphenated) but the Green Card only listed the first word of the first name and put an initial for the second JXXX F, as if the F were a middle initial, but it's not. The SS card only used the first word of her first name. Last name is correct on both cards.

Should we try to get these changed? It seems getting the GC changed can be a pain and might take a long time filing the I90. I'm worried about her not having a GC during the time we are waiting on their response. It also seems SS would not consider this a major discrepency. I just don't want to cause problems later on for naturalization or work. Any advice?

Ok, so my wife is flying in from the Philippines on PAL and will come into Los Angeles International. I'll be flying into LAX the same day to meet her there at the airport. The problem is that I don't really know that airport and she won't either. Does anybody who's been through LAX have suggestions for how we should be able to find each other there? I think we are going crazy here with all the planning loose ends now, but at least we are almost together again. Thanks for any responses.

Thanks for the replies everyone. We're going to wait till she has the visa in hand.

My wife's visa was approved today. I'm wondering if it's safe for me to go ahead and purchase tickets for the week of July 18. Is that enough time for processing and getting the visa in hand? That gives them a week. Is it enough? Thanks for any responses.

My mother-in-law will travel with my wife to Manila for the interview, but she wants to know if her mother can actually go into the embassy with her and wait there.

Well, we got our appointment email today. We have a July 9 interview in Manila. On the one hand it's a really good feeling to have gotten here, but on the other hand we're realizing how much there is to do in the next 25 days. It's pretty overwhelming. Any advice for wrapping up the final leg of the journey here? So many things that could be forgotten. Thanks!

You should call NVC on Friday to see if they've scheduled you an interview. They schedule interviews during the second week of each month for the following month. It's nearly impossible to know how busy the embassy there is but hopefully you'll make the scheduling this week and get a July interview..good luck!!

Thanks for the reply. I couldn't wait, so I called last night. They confirmed what you said. They are currently scheduling the July interviews. The rep said call back Friday or early next week to see if we'd gotten an interview. I'm really hoping for that.

Ok, so NVC completed our case June 8. Now I'm just trying to figure out what comes next and when and what to expect. I'm wondering about how busy the Manila is and when we're likely to get the interview.

As we start the process, I've become concerned about the whole support issue and whether or not I will need a co-sponsor and how that's handled for the Philippines.

I was living in the Philippines for about a year and half, where I met my wife. At the time I had taken a break from consulting to work on personal writing projects. Unfortunately, for that time frame there was no income, other than minor investments. Now that I'm back in the US, I've picked up with consulting again and am ready to send off the I-130. Starting this year, my salary will be magnitudes above poverty level, but I'm wondering how the income tax form from last year (the time off) is going to look to the officials there. Will they accept my current and projected income, or will I be required to get a co-sponsor? The frustrating thing is that my current income is significantly larger than anything a potential co-sponsor would be able to show.

Does anybody have insights about how this will be handled for the Philippines? Thanks in advance for feedback.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It's greatly appreciated.

Darnell: yes, your guess is correct, but on the low side. My yearly income would dwarf anything that any of my potential co-sponsors could contribute, so I would hope that's taken into account.

Sundrop: Thank you. I will post the question in the Philippines forum.

So, I should just go ahead with initial filing and expect that later I'll probably have to have a co-sponsor when it gets to that stage.

Here's my situation in brief, and I'm looking for any kind of feedback or advice anyone has based on your past experience.

I lived in the Philippines for about a year and a half where I met my wife. During that time I was taking a break from work to write on personal projects. Well, now that I'm back in the US, I've picked back up with my consulting work, having just landed the job finally. I don't want to delay starting the spouse visa any more than we already have, but I'm concerned that because I just started the job and won't have any income on the tax return I'll have to submit, that this will cause problems in the process, like with the whole support issue. I certainly can send a copy of the offer letter showing what my salary will be, along with filing the I-130 and G325 forms. What do you think?

I lived in the Philippines for a year and a half, and then moved back to the US, last June. The last 12 months in the RP, we were married an living together. I've got an apartment in the states and we are also maintaining the apartment in the Philippines where my wife is currently living and where I stay when I visit (now doing so for the holidays.)

We have tons of photos from trips from around the islands and overseas, but not much of the legal stuff on the "bonafides" list as we don't own property or have children. She is on my will and is the named beneficiary on my retirement account, so I guess we can use those. And we did file a joint tax return last year for which we had to get the ITIN for. But the lease was the second thing on the bonafides list, which is why I wondered about a letter from our landlord.

My wife and I lived in a room built onto a house for a year, and she still lives in while I'm in the US. This was a pretty informal place in the Philippines so there wasn't a lease, just a handshake with the owner of the house. For the "evidence of a bonafide marriage" would a letter from the landlord work in place of the lease, something from him just stating that we rented the place and lived there from date to date? What else would it need to say? Would it need to be notarized?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts and comments.

Thanks in advance for any replies or pointers to other threads where this might have been addressed.

I've just started to fill out the paperwork but wondered what I should do regarding the date of marriage on the I-130 form. We initially had a civil service and then about a month later had a Catholic wedding, which of course for the family was the "real wedding" and the one where we really have all the pictures.

The most obvious thing would just be to put down the first date, the one for the civil service, but just to make sure there wouldn't be problems or questions created for the interview and presenting evidence via pictures, I thought I'd ask the forum what the best course of action would be.

I am from a country that has no embassy or consulate in philipines. My filipin fiance want me to marry her in her country. I do not know how to overcome the CENOMA requirement since my country has no ambassy there. Is there anyway I can marry my fiance in Filipin whithout the certificate of no marriage? Please help!

You're confusing the requirement to have a CENOMAR (Certificate of No Marriage) with the Legal Capacity to Marry. Depending on where in the Philippines you are getting married you're probably going to need both. A CENOMAR is issued by the NSO (National Statistics Office) in the Philippines regardless or whether you're from the Philippines or not. It simply states that the NSO has no record of a marriage by you in the Philippines. On the other hand the legal capacity to marry is usually issued by your consulate or embassy.