gtom81

Hi everybody, thanks for your responses. Regarding my wife's visit, it will only be for two weeks, so I doubt she'll have enough time to get a new passport while she is there. From what I've read so far, it seems like she will be fine entering back into the US. The potential problems I see occurring will be either with the Philippines government (either when she enters the Philippines or when she tries to return to the US), or with the airline. Adding to the complexity, it seems like a Philippines passport renewal, while still in the US and before the visit, may take up to 6-8 weeks. By then, it will already be time for her to leave on her trip. Thanks.

Hi,

My wife, who is a US permanent resident, is planning on traveling to the Philippines in September. By then, she will have 5 months left on her Philippines passport before it expires. We read on the Philippines Consulate website that someone traveling back to the US will need at least 6 months left on the passport. Has anyone ran into this situation, and if so what was your outcome? Thanks.

-Tom

APPROVED!!! My fiancee and I have been texting back and forth, and I wanted to let everyone know that she was just approved for her visa about an hour ago. I'm very happy right now and you all will be fine. Like I said up top regarding Singapore, she just took with here the email and the notice from Singapore's website. Time to celebrate!...but first I should get to bed.

John,

Sorry for my late reply. I have not been to this forum for a about a month. As I type this right now, my fiance is having her interview. She just brought the printed out email reply that I forwarded to her and also a printed copy of the notice from the Singapore website. That email that I got a reply from was from IVManilaReplies@state.gov. It took them about 3 weeks to respond to my inquiry. I will let everyone know what happens after my fiance's interivew. If I don't respond right away, just send me a message or write on my wall.

Tom

Last week, I finally received an email from the Embassy, stating that my fiance will be exempt from this requirement. She will print this out and bring it with her to the interview, and I am sure that everyone else will be okay as well. I feel a whole lot better now.

I think my fiance will just bring to her interview the print out of the Singapore notice. Everyone has jumped through so many hopes to try to find the answer, but it seems like all we can do is just bring that print out. I think we might schedule our interview for February. After her interview, I will let everyone know what happened, regarding the Singapore situation.

You're welcome. Yeah, that answer from the Embassy pretty much stunk like last Wednesday's garbage. My fiance called the Embassy a couple days ago and was able to get a hold of someone. Once again, the lady she talked to had no idea about the situation either, so she put my fiance on hold for a few minutes, and when she came back on the phone, she said that my fiance will be exempt from this requirement. Uhhh...okaaaay. That's nice and all, but it's not very reassuring, because how do we know what the interviewer is going to demand? For the love of Pete, is really that hard for one of these Embassy phone call operators to get their butts off their seats, take a walk down the hallway, and ask some of these interviewers this question, thereby notifying them about Singapore's new rules at the same time? I'm sure they all work in the same building. Or how about calling that department on a different phone line? They can just place us on hold for a few minutes while they get a straight answer.

Actually, what really should happen, is the Embassy should update their website more frequently, and keep abreast of changes like these, in order to notify the public of important changes. I doubt that will happen though.

Thanks for your reply, John. I have sent out some emails to both the US Embassy in Manila, as well as the US State Department, similar to what you email them. I'm not sure if I'll hear back from them though. Last week I was able to contact the Embassy and surprisingly I was able to speak with a woman about this situation. She put me on hold to try to find out the answer for me. Disapponintingly, when she came back on the line, she only gave me a "recommendation," which was for my fiance to try to obtain some sort of employment certificate with her employers in Singapore, since obtaining a Statutory Declaration would be too time consuming and costly, at this stage in the game. I wish these people, who work for the Embassy, would actually know what they're supposed to know, because a "recommendation" is not a "requirement." It's all so frustrating.

Wow. I am so glad I read this series of posts. I'm in a similar situation. I received my NOA2 in December and on December 16 the National Visa Center forwarded it to the Embassy in Manila and my fiancee is still waiting for the information to be sent to her.

John, do you have any new information? My fiancee also lived in Singapore for longer than 6 months. This is such a hassle and it is complete BS.

Tom

Thanks. I tried your link but it doesn't seem to work.

I need help with this too. This is really confusing. Up until I saw this post, I thought that the Sinapore government gave out police reports to non-citizens as well. My fiancee is from the Philippines, and according to the US Embassy in Manila, living in a foreign country for longer than 6 months requires a police report. On the Singapore website it says that the police department needs "documentary proof" from the consulate/immigration authority, but I have been unsuccessful in getting through to the Embassy to ask them to send my fiancee the needed "documentary proof" for her to send to the Singapore police department so that they can process a police report for her to take to her interview in Manila. So what in the world are we supposed to do? My petition expires at the beginning of April. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.