jgmes

@BigFig

Wanted to post an update for ya via my orginal topic for this same issue. Ended up taking us 2 1/2 weeks to have the letter of explanation processed. For details I've attached the link to my post. Hope things work out for you too.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/277267-221g-timeline-for-nbi-lettor-of-explanation/page__st__15__gopid__4278436

@jgmes, just wanted to ask you if you have resolved the problem already and if yes how long did it take you to do so... how long did it take for you to receive the letter from the embassy... my husband is going through the same ordeal now... hoping for your response.. thanks...

@mhyke /anyone else who comes across this issue

It took us 2 1/2 weeks to go through this process. We didn't wait for the Embassy to send the "Official Letter" either. My wife went to the local NBI office and spoke with one of the lawyers we worked with earlier to obtain her court documents. "keep in mind no money was paid for this service." She handed a copy of the 221G form along with a copy of the Interview Appointment letter and the lawyer submitted the documents to NBI Manila. The only money asked was for the Shipping costs of the documents "A tip of gratitude is also appreciated too, again keep in mind this was not expected however". My wife's visa was approved as soon as they received the documents and was here a week later. We've spent our first week her together now and it has been the most wonderful of times. Hope this helps to all those going through this, our prayers were answered and I hope yours are too. Ingat..

Yes I did and that was my choice based on the fact that we had everything covered but who knew how inefficient the NBI was? The fact they do such a poor job at communicating the proper information will cost me money and that is compounded by the fact they are so poorly staffed and cannot process the necessary paperwork in a timely fashion.

This could easily be avoided if the NBI would write on the initial clearance that the applicant needs to contact NBI for interview and final determination. Why in Gods name would they write "NO CRIMINAL RECORD?" Don't you think this is counter-productive and a waste of time and resources for the NBI, US Embassy and the applicants? Complete bureaucratic nonsense that could be avoided by being clear on what needs to be done.

@BigFig94

Unfortunately this information is out there, but you gotta read the fine print from USEM's website.

http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwh3217.html

4. NBI CLEARANCE: Applicants aged 16 years and older must have a valid Record Clearance for Travel Abroad Purposes from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). Clearances should be in the applicant’s current name, birth certificate name, maiden name, married name, and any aliases or nicknames ever used, including different spellings of all names ever used. An official letter of explanation from the NBI is required for any notation of “No criminal record”, "No pending criminal case” or “With derogatory record.” For immigration purposes, an NBI clearance is considered valid only for one year from the date it is issued. The NBI Clearance Center is located at 5th Floor, Victory Central Mall, Old Victory Compound, Rizal Avenue, Monumento, Caloocan City. You may contact NBI at (632) 523-82-31 to 38. The NBI web site is http://www.nbi.gov.ph.

Wish they had the process laid out on how to obtain the "Letter of Explaination" however.

My wife and I are in a similar situation. She had her interview on 10/1/10 and her NBI clearance also shows "No Crimanal Record" for a dismissed case in her teens. We knew come interview time we would need this "Letter of Explanation" so we had sent all her court documents in when we filed our IV package to the NVC, in hopes that this would be enough. It's not, however during the interview they only asked about the circumstance of the case and nothing more. Guess it helped in that regard.

I've searched the net trying to find timelines/process on how to get this done quickly but there is no way to really speed this up. "Getting a lawyer would just be a waste of money, they'll likely make the same inquiry's and get the same responses you are, adding to your frustrations". From my own post on this a "couple" @gary n ana had a 6 week time line before his wife received her visa back in July 2010. I'd expect that we are looking at the same amount of time before my wife gets hers.

I highly doubt you'll make the 14th deadline of your flight, because even when the "Letter of Explanation" is processed the NBI sends it to USEM on Friday's only and then it has to be processed further. If money/time is not an object you'll probably want to extend your stay for some time and likely get a visa yourself to extend your stay, "without a visa you can only stay 21 days". From what I remember this can be extended up to 50 some odd days.

Keep in mind you're in the Philippines, things never move quickly. Hope things move along quickly for you and if you find a secret to expedite this process I'm all ears.

Cheers,

J

Hello jgmes.....It would almost be funny if it weren't so sad!!!!

Ok....so our personal experience....

My asawa "knows" some people in NBI Manila....

Even so....NBI Manila (she went there 3 times) told her they could not do anything without having the official letter from USEM!

NBI Manila did not care about the 221G....they would only honor official USEM letter request.

It took almost 3 weeks...from interview...for USEM to send letter to us (which we never received).

After USEM told us we could pick up copy of letter...Ana took to NBI Manila same day and USEM picked up "Letter of Explanation" on Friday.

FYI...USEM told her to bring "Letter" back to USEM window 25......but NBI Manila said they would not give to her....must be picked up by USEM!!!

I can not answer your last question (can it be processed by any NBI)....but I would guess it must go thru NBI Manila ? ? ? (only my thoughts)

If you can go to NBI.....I would try and see if they will accept 221G....will save you time if they do accept!!!!!

If we can help in any other way....please let us know!!!

Praying for you all...the process is not easy....but you will learn much!!!!

@ garysworld n ana

Hello garysworld n ana,

I think our next plan of attack will be to check with the lawyer she worked with at the NBI to see if the 221g will suffice.

If not we'll continue to hound the USEM until we get a teller that states we can pick up the letter. I have a feeling we'll have to play the waiting game too while cutting through all the red tape...

I'll keep ya posted as to our progress and again I really appreciate you taking the time to share your story with me.

Take Care and God Bless..

Oh, almost forgot does this need to be done at the NBI office in Manila or can it be done from any one of the NBI offices?

@garysworld n ana

My wife and I tried calling USEM today, "you weren't kidding about the mixed responses", first teller was nice but couldn't provide any good info, next one stated that my wife needs to go the NBI to make an inquiry about it but the last one I talked to stated that we just wait and do nothing until we hear from the Embassy. I can tell this will be a fun time for us...

What USEM told us....they will mail a letter to the beneficiary telling him/her to take the 221G request to the NBI asking for a "Letter of Explanation" to be processed. Must be the official USEM request letter.

The letter you received from USEM, is this the item required to take to the NBI? Or do we only need to present the 221G form?

USEM indicated they mailed a request for the "Letter of Explanation" to her.....but after 2 weeks we still hadn't received.

We called USEM and were told we could come to the Embassy and pick up a copy to take to NBI

From the remarks above it looks like we need this letter, however just wanted to clarify and see if we can just proceed with only the 221g form.

Regards and God Bless!

@ Kaye

Thanks for the info Kaye, I hope the delays are minimal too..Ingat

@garysworld n ana

Hello, thanks for sharing your story with me, helps to ease the mind knowing that we can possibly have this resolved within a 6 week time frame.

The 221g only has a check box requiring a Letter of Explanation from the NBI

Luckily we have all of her Court documents available and a statement from her family member explaining the situation notarized by a lawyer for the NBI. We sent copies of all these docs when submitting the IV Package in hopes that this would be enough "Had read about the Letter of Explanation on several sites". I'll diffenetly be contacting USEM to check into having her just go to the Embassy directly to pick up the letter needed to get the NBI process moving along.

Take care and God bless!

i think this would be a great question for the PI forum -

would you like me to move it there, for 'wider coverage' ?

Please do Darnell, thank you..

Hello,

My wife recieved a 221g form after her interview for a dismissed case when she was in her teens. The Embassy stated to wait for them to contact her, however we read that a Letter of Explanation is needed from the NBI. Has anyone been through a similar situation before? About how long does it take for them to process or what steps do we need to do?

A little background regarding the case, it was filed by a family member due to a misunderstanding regarding lost jewelry but was quickly dismissed from the court system by the same family member that filed the case soon after it was filed.

It's horrible something that happened a decade ago and so menial has put a hold on her finally getting her visa. Hay, I miss my honey bear so much....

Cheers,

Wanted to add her NBI Cert stated No Criminal Record.

Hello,

My wife recieved a 221g form after her interview for a dismissed case when she was in her teens. The Embassy stated to wait for them to contact her, however we read that a Letter of Explanation is needed from the NBI. Has anyone been through a similar situation before? About how long does it take for them to process or what steps do we need to do?

A little background regarding the case, it was filed by a family member due to a misunderstanding regarding lost jewelry but was quickly dismissed from the court system by the same family member that filed the case soon after it was filed.

It's horrible something that happened a decade ago and so menial has put a hold on her finally getting her visa. Hay, I miss my honey bear so much....

Cheers,

Makes it a lot easier if she changes her Passport to her married name while she's still in the Philippines. She'll have to attend CFO to do so tho.

My wife did the whole trip while she was still in PI.

Just following up on post, we ended up finding out that since our documents were filed under her married name she did in fact have to have her Passport updated as well, I'd advise getting this done as soon as possible, our process was delayed about a month because of this. Regarding CFO, she had to do this also.

Hope this helps for anyone applying for CR1

No problem if traveling with maiden name. Just be sure and have a copy of your MC with you.

There is NO requirement to notify the Philippine consul of name change.

If the Philippine passport doesn't expire until after [naturlized] she may get a US PP there's no need to change name in the PP unless she wants to get dual citizenship later.

Thanks for the info, she just got her passport back in November. If our MC and passport allows her to come her without issue then that's the route we'd like to take so we can get our paperwork to the NVC sent out stat.

Thanks again, cheers.

Hello,

We just received our NOA2 but had a question for those who have gone through a similar situation.

Currently my wife's passport is under her maiden name, while filling out our paperwork however we use her married name. Before sending our package to the NVC should we update her passport to her married name beforehand?

Has anyone kept their passport using their maiden name but filed all your paperwork using your married name? If so, at the POE did you have any troubles?

If more info is needed please let me know.

Regards,

John

IR-1 / CR-1 Visa

Event Date

Service Center : California Service Center

Consulate : Manilla, Philipines

Marriage : 2010-01-12

I-130 Sent : 2010-01-28

I-130 NOA1 : 2010-02-10

I-130 RFE : n/a

I-130 RFE Sent : n/a

I-130 Approved : 2010-04-03

basically, it would be like this:

NOA1 > NOA2 > NVC > CASE COMPLETE > USEM > (MEDICAL) > INTERVIEW > APPROVAL > VISA

while waiting for your NOA2, you may visit this link NVC guide and get familiar with the NVC process.. this stage might be confusing sometimes.. but the best thing about the NVC stage is, it is way faster than the USCIS stage.. you can fly your way thru NVC, just make sure you have all the necessary documents prepared beforehand..

good luck and God bless on your visajourney! hope you'll have a speedy one..

Thank you for all the info and the link for the NVC site, I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions.

Take care and Good Bless

hi there!

we didn't receive any biometrics appointment from USCIS.. biometrics appointment, if i'm not mistaken, is done when filing for naturalization (N400), aos (I-485) and removal of conditions (I-751) to name a few..

we sent our I-130 for spouse last June 25, 2009.. got our NOA1 July 2, 2009 and our NOA2 on Dec. 23, 2009.. we're nearly done with the process.. just one more step, my interview which will be next week..

since you already got your NOA1 (receipt notice), now you just have to wait for your NOA2( approval notice) in the coming months.. hoping there will be no RFE's (requests for add'l evidence).. some get their approval in a month.. some get it in 3 months.. the standard processing time for I-130 for spouse as shown in the USCIS website is 5 months.. ours took a total of 174 days before we were approved..

good luck and God bless on your journey..

Thanks for the info, this diffenetly helps my understanding of the process.

Correct me if I'm wrong NOA1 >> NOA2 >> NVC requirements/approval >> Embassy requirments/approval >> Interview

Also, Congrats to the both of you and good luck on your interview!!!

Hello All,

Hoping that someone is in a similar situation that may have guidance or clues as to what's next during the I-130 process.

I mailed our I-130 Spouse petition on 1-28-2010 and received NOA1 on 2-10-2010.

Per USCIS.gov they state that it should be expected to recieve an appointment within 30 days for biometrics, getting close to the 30 day mark without any notice and was wondering what are the normal wait times for those who have filed from the Texas area.

If anyone has a good timeline to follow it would be much appreciated so we can both ease our minds about the ranges in time we've seen browsing the net (6 months to 2 years).

Also if this helps "Saw that there's a big difference between Permanent Residents/US Citizens' wait times when filing", I was born a US Citizen 'Fil/Am' and she's a Filipina.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

John