DAAG

thanks everyone for your help and support. yes the lady was loopy, and We were having a terrible day where it was 110 degrees the car A/C quit and everything we did turned to caca. got my wife a mil dependent ID a few days later, and was told by the Sgt doing the ID my wife needed a social security number to be able to use the medical benefits she was entitled to. looked that up on army website, and found on social security website a rule detailing just those exact circumstances, and saying you can get ssn under those circumstances, printed both, took that and the ID with NO for medical authorization to ss office, only to be confronted by a second lady who refused to give one based on those circumstances clearly allowed by the rule I copied off the Social security website. This lady said that DEERS, the large database, solely for keeping track of military dependents eligibility for Tricare, that I've been using for 45 years or what ever part of 45 years its existed, had nothing to do with military medical care insurance, and that my ID, referred to by the medical profession as my tricare card, and my wife's military dependent ID, often called her DEERS card or tricare card, had nothing to do with either DEERS or Tricare. but while she was lounging in lala land, she decided in her infinite wisdom there was no reason not to give my wife the ss number anyway, if the time wasn't too short. she decided out of nowhere 10 days was the cut off, so seeing we had about 16 days left i agreed, and she ran everything through and said we'd have the card in 2 weeks. So she wouldn't do it for the correct valid reason that it was needed for my wife to get military medical insurance, which shes entitled to as my wife, but wouldn't be allowed to use without a social security card due to a statement in the law on dependent ID's that ssn must be disclosed to get medical care. but she found her own reason to do the right thing anyway. the lady in DMV is still stonewalling us, but we have will now have two official government ID's in the correct name, as well as 4 in her maiden name, so I'd say were in good shape now. Maybe its all those years in the military, and all those times hearing you need two forms of picture ID, and Jane's desire to use my last name and her new one, seeming to make us closer, in spite of her homesickness, that drove me to keep a full court press on,till she had 2 forms of pix ID in her actual new name. Jane was the daughter of a family in government work in her home country and always had 3 or 4 good valid forms of ID,that many people there never in their lives have, and felt lost when on our wedding day all her ID's passport and everything were now no longer in her name, and after spending most of my adult life as a military man active and retired, watching countless people as she no doubt did trying to cash checks with no acceptable forms of ID, i understand that. we could both invision some point in the process where she'd be asked to prove her identity, and for the first time in her life, have no way to really do so. and having those uncooperative ladies in SS and DMV look down their noses at us and skeptically peruse her papers, and tell us she couldn't have any ID because she'd be leaving the US in just a few days, when we'd just told them what was really happening, was humiliating and infuriating, not to mention scary and gave us a view into the future with no one believing her when she'd try to show her ID, where she was always trusted by everyone before she came to my country. I don't want her to feel it's hostile to her. It may be true that she wouldn't need ID's for a while but her mother is in bad health in her home country, and traveling there may well be in her near future, and her own health would suffer with no access to medical care to which she is entitled. If we can get a handle on some of these very normal things, that uninformed thoughtless employees in a system that's supposed to help people, wanted to deny us, for no valid reason, our lives can begin to return to normal. We've both had large life changing stress causing events in our lives recently, me losing my job her losing her whole way of life, and we both feel a need for the world to make a little better sense. she feels so out of place and disconnected here, gaining back her identity, will help, and I love her so much i want to make everything right for her again. I want to grab the globe and rotate it back around to where she feels normal and happy, at home again, in our home, like we both felt in hers, not like an alien on a foreign planet, where even her identity is always in question.

You might be filipina if you say yes by a subtile movement of your eyebrows in the pitch dark. but who am i to complain? I lub her so. i cant wait till we have her grin card. then we can go swimming at the ###### every day and wont even sweet as long as were in the tubig, and when we get back home we can eat borgers sitting in front of the lecticfun.

You might be Filipino if .....your most prized possession of farming tools is the carabao ‘tractor.’ What a impressive creature it is!

hahah yea i know, i have a carabao and dont even have a farm. i just ride the carabao around for fun, and better not even try to pass tomato catsup off on me when there's banana variety to be had. my wife says dont ride the carabao he'll eat you hahahah. all i got to say is he'd better not use tomato catsup if he ever does hahaha. someday i hope to have a farm he can work on.

you might be filipina if you cook the most delicious foods on earth, but put everything including packaging, clipped off fat, yesterdays rice, and old newspapers in the sink turn on the water and hope for the best. and insist on washing dishes in a large bowl instead of the sink.

is retirement income, that's well over 125% of poverty level, usable in place of a job as source of income on affidavit of support for adjustment of status of a k-1 fiancee now married to petitioner? i ask this because i was laid off last year by boss who could no longer make payroll, during this process and wound up making more retired than working. not complaining of course, just trying to make sure retirement works since they state specifically income from job. And going to work at another job before age 66 1/2 would cause loss of some social security making me work for about half what other workers in same job would receive. After 66 1/2 we'll do very well with another job, especially since wife wants to work also, and then i wont lose any social security for having the audacity to work. Ive worked all my life, starting in my teens, and feel weird not working but cant find any jobs right now, and i guess its ok for now as id lose money by working. But i need to know if USCIS will allow me to just use retirement income on affidavit of support, or if i have to take a loss and work for very little along side people making twice as much doing the same job to make a check in the block, just because I was forced onto social security a couple of years early by a boss worrying about expenses more than income, after wed been together almost since the start of his buisness. hope he wasn't able to kill my dreams and destroy the rest of my life also.

I assume there's no substitute for I-864, at this point, like there was for k-1 petition.

AlinaH,

Our local DMV license office told us my K-1 fiancee, now wife just needed 2 forms of ID & passport,marriage certificate, plus an official letter to her at our address, utility bill, change of address from post office etc. the latter being most difficult, as i pay all the bills, and complicating them by adding her name would take time, and post office refused to take change of address from Philippines to our house here. went to city to add her to city bill, and was told cant do it for a month, but when i pointed out this months bill hadn't arrived and wouldn't for a few days, she said ok, took the info then sent the bill out with no changes, but we made the mistake of mentioning the I-94 and our desire to get ID's and papers done before it expires, and she said if there is less than 60 days on the I-94 she cant help us. she didnt care at all that the I-94 was just a temporary step prior to marriage, if anything expires within 60 days they freeze up and refuse to help, atleast in this local office.

But barring the mention of anything expiring in less than 60 days it seems only passport, 2 ID's marriage license, and an official letter to you at your new address would suffice for them.

As far as the social security number goes, lady #1 in social security office said could have gotten one prior to marriage but not at all after, and said if we could find any other information authorizing a social security card other than being permitted to work come back.

I found just that. on the social security site about roughly 10 or 12 paragraphs below the cut and paste from their website in your initial question, it says and i quote, "if you are not authorized by DHS to work in the United States, You can get a Social Security number only if you can prove you need it for a valid non-work reason. This might happen, for example, if a state or federal law requires you to have a Social Security number to obtain benefits to which you have already established entitlement."

A local National Guard ID card office made my new wife a military dependent ID a few days ago, marking NO to authorization for medical care, and said when we bring in a social security number they'll change it to yes. I asked them to state that on paper for me to take to social security office, and was told no but that, i could find it on the army website. found it, on usarc.army.mil under DEERS, the US Military word for the database where they keep track of all dependents tricare status, and i quote, "Initial DEERS enrollment requires mandatory disclosure/verification of social security number. failure to disclose it will result in loss of elegibility for medical benifits in military treatment facilities (MTF), and took it into the local ss office. Lady number two was not impressed, stating flatly that this straightforward statement detailing our circumstances on social security website does not apply, and stated that DEERS, which i used for the past 40 years or how ever much of that time it existed, to make sure my dependants were eligible for military medical treatment, had nothing to do with military and that My ID that i show each time im asked for my medical; card, and they make coppies of has nothing to do with medical treatment, even when i showed her on the back where it said direct medicasl treatment in mil medical facilities, was marked yes on mine and no oh hers, and also showed her the printout from DEERS stating Deers is the massive database used to keep track of Military dependent medical authorization as shown on the dependent ID. so neither of them intended to give us a social security number, but lady number 2 finally gave up her battle against my new wife having a social security numberbased on a federal law authorizing her to get a benefit (medical insurance) to which she is entitiled, but requires a social security number to get, stating that doesnt apply, but that if her i-94 didnt expire soon, she believed it was in 10 days, she could get it anyway. I agreed with no actual information to ten days as i knew it was 19 days till the I-94 that had signifficance prior to marriage, but none now, would expire. and she ordered a social security number for my wife, saying it will arrive in about 2 weeks.

So if you can outlast them while remaining professional inspite of them not doing so, and present your case, and have a leg to stand on, they may to save face issue you a social security card on some other basis that suits the lady in the office, even if disregarding any proof you might have that its authorized for other reasons. On the way out the door my wife said will we just have to come back after adj... and i said no honey the number will stay the same, everything's ok na. lets go before the frozen food in the car melts, and ushered her out the door, before the lady changed her mind. I think the only valid reason for one, other than work, i can think of is to get authorized military medical insurance, for a dependant of active duty or retired Servicemen. Im not sure if people run into such resistance everywhere but resistance to getting the ID's we need seems the order of the day in local offices here, but as one fellow pointed out here a day or so ago, if you're ready to educate the office personel, getting what you're authorized to have is possible.

I shudder to think of the complications of correcting a name at the same time as attempting to get them to do the out of the ordinary, but most government offices have a name correction procedure. I'm just glad i caught that they wanted to do the same thing with my wife's name and corrected them before it happened.

hello everyone, I logged on with a very similar question, and it was nice to see that both INKY and Jay-Kay answered it the same way, before i even got a chance to ask. I suppose its old hat to a few of you old timers on the site, but a few of us newbies often are driven into panic over grey areas that USCIS chooses to leave us in the dark on.

Since our very lives together depend on the certainty of the validity of the information we act on, does anyone know a reference where USCIS actually lets the cat out of the bag, of what is my filipina fiancees status immediately after we're married, and what sets the limit of how long before she must file for adjustment of status. I fear we have to be really careful to be correct, because they alledged our k-1 petition would be valid for 6 months, but actually only gave us 4 months, then the k-1 visa they told us would also be valid for 6 months was made valid for 4 1/2 months from the date of her interview, making it only 4 months by the time she got it. then the i-94 was actually day for day 90 days as advertised, but once married were in a grey area, for which we cannot find any perameters on the USCIS website other than the broad statement that she files after marriage and can remain in the USA while its processed. i don't mean to belabor a point but just to make sure were safe, because frankly some of the $1070 I've been saving for adjustment of status, would look pretty good in the form of meat on the table right now, and would help my fiancee comunicate with her sick mama in the Philippines, after being laid off from my 20 year job due to the recession, right in the middle of this process. and now i just found out we may need one or two hundred morte for a doctor designated by USCIS to place her shot record in a sealed envelope, as part of status adjustment, when i have many envelopes i can seal for a few cents.

I love this site. you good people here have given us far more information to make our process work than I've found that I could rely on, on the USCIS site. They have good information on one page of USCIS then contradict that information on a different page, and often don't even address very important points like the one discussed here. managed to get Jane a military dependent ID a few days ago only to find out it wont be good for medical insurance till she has a social security card, and was refused a social security card, but thanks to advice given here and some i found on social security websight and US Army site we got her social security card, today after a 30 minute convincing session.

we finally got through all the trials and tribulations of getting my filipina fiancee to the USA, and getting married, against insurmountable odds, but now when victory seems ours, just as we begin the long process of adjusting status, we are running into blank walls in attempting to establish Janes new identity, by means of getting ID cards in her new last name. After an unexpected long struggle delaying with almost immobilizing homesickness, and getting married, we had only 1 month left of Janes 90 days. on her I-94. we believed the best thing we could do is get married as soon as possible and start adjustment of status. But, here is where our new problems began. at the local Social Security office we were told Jane could have easily gotten a social security number/card prior to our marriage, but now could not get one until she has new authorization to work, simply because we got married. Jane doesn't drive yet so we went to D M V to get a State ID, and were told we need an official letter to Jane at our address, and that the best way to do this is to submit a change of address at the Post Office, but Jane pointed out that USCIS would track any change of address and require her to submit a change of address to them also, and explain why she was changing from some other place in USA when she was to come directly here in the first place, and the Post Office refused to take a change of address from her Philippine address to her current address. I added Jane's name to my city utility bill, but was told the new bill showing her name wont be printed to August, and Jane's I-94 expires 29 July.

The end result of all this is all of Jane's current ID's are from the Philippines in her Maiden Name, and we seem unable to establish her new name on any sort of ID card, in any reasonable amount of time, and the end date of her I-94 continues to march ever closer, now being down to only 19 days. She would like to go to work to help with expenses and to help her mother at home, but now has no work authorization. we were never told she had work authorization on arrival, but the local social security office said she did, according to some computer record of her file they had, that they would not tell us the source of. according to that office,getting married ended a work authorization we never knew existed, and thus Jane's ability to get a social security number. When the lady there also told us she believed Jane would revert from K-1 to K-3 at marriage, and that her I-94 would be canceled at marriage, we decided listening to her would be a mistake. Her family suggested Jane keep her Maiden name to avoid all these hassles, but to me that seems a bit extreme, to be forced by official red tape to not give Jane My last name. Does anyone have knowledge of how we can get ID's in Jane's new married name, in spite of all the resistance to us doing so, and if doing so will cause us any headaches in the future, considering all her papers to date have been in her maiden name? -Daag

Thanks all of you Harpa, Rencor, and Darnell for answering my question. i thought that is probably how it works, because it makes sense, but if I've learned anything in this process it is you can't always rely on logic. and I take nothing for granted. so sometimes maybe the questions i ask may sound like the answer would be intuitively obvious, but i rely on people who've gotten past the point where i am and help those who haven't yet, kasi (because in visaya)its the only way for us to all muddle through a complicated process. i just felt really antsy because its so close to her expiration date and couldn't sit still and wait to see if my guess was right. 22 years in the Navy, 3 as a navy instructor taught me the only dumb question is the one you don't ask. so if i ask any that seem obvious, its only because its so important. its also because on the second and final run through this process, i don't want to leave anything to chance.

Darnell your use of the language looks letter perfect to me. I've gotten this far before, with a beautiful Filipina who used me just to get to America, then didn't like me or America much and went back home. so everything past this point is new territory to me. I am not familiar with the I-94. is that where you request change of status after marriage. I never saw much of my first filipina fiancees paperwork, She left so fast I'd read about it all before but like i said never got past this point the first try, and I'm afraid I've forgotten a lot of what was clear in my head the first time around but was driven out of my memory by the pain of loss of the last woman i loved, and the little son I'd taken in as my own. i will of course research it all again.

I do remember something seemed a bit confusing about my fiancee being allowed to work for a very exorbitant price that would have made it almost wasted effort before marriage, and other things like her not being allowed to leave the USA even in cases of family emergency, in the Philippines, without getting some kind of early parole. I read last year that you can now request change of status, early parole, and permission to work all at the same time and only pay one huge fee vice the three fees that used to be required. one thing about that, that i don't know is, Can and Should we request early parole even without reason, encase a reason comes up and requesting then would take too long? The reason i ask is my fiancees mother is having serious health issues. none are life threatening at present, but that could easily change in how ever long it takes to get it where my fiancee and i are allowed to return to the Philippines for a visit, without requesting permission.

Restricting people from just doing such things, when necessary, seems cruel and weird to me, but as long as there is a way to make it be allowed, if it doesn't cost too much more than we can afford, we may request that if were allowed to do so, just in case a problem arises. it seems to me it would make more sense to just make it a blanket approval for everyone, considering how inhumane the alternative is, of forcing them to sit here, for no good reason, if a parent is dieing or other emergency, back home. after all it isn't like they've done something bad. they're just in another country to start a new life with someone they fell in love with. Why try to isolate them, and to stop them from having a normal family relationship with their parents, and to punish them for simply being here, when something like that happens? but that's a rhetorical question. i know we aren't likely to have any effect on such laws no matter how weird they may seem. Maybe its to keep them from running home just due to homesickness and possibly ruining a potentially good marriage. I suppose there's some logic in that. I don't know. Id better go research the I-94. Thanks again guys.

My fiancees K1 entry visa into the USA from the Philippines will have only 9 days left when her flight arrives in the USA. does that have any effect on her visa status once she arrives in the country?

That is to say will she still have the full 90 days to marry me, once that entry visa date passes? I know normally she would have 90 days once she enters for us to marry, and we never meant to get this close to the expiration of the initial entry visa but health problems with her mother, surgery for me, and Jane innocently trying to speed things up by going to manila before getting an interview appointment, and going up there again for that infernal Filipino overseas seminar that tries to talk Filipinas out of going to the USA, and wasting time and money there, recession job layoffs etc have brought us to this point.

The visa is always discussed as just one visa, but she was given only 5 months and week on her visa from the date of her interview, vice the advertised 6 months which one would assume would start when the visa was issued, not 3 weeks before her interview. For unknown reasons hers wound up nearly a month and a half short.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the 90 days a couple on fiancee visa has to marry once she arrives. so that almost seems like it could be like 2 visas in a way. the one allowing her to enter the country and then the one for 90 days, once shes in the country. what i don't know is does that expiration of the visa she's entering on effect the time she is allowed to stay in the USA once shes entered? does the expiration of the entry visa end her visa altogether? If it does we'd have to be in a rush to marry, and just throw plans out the window, to avoid her visa expiring. on the other hand if she starts all over again with a full 90 days once shes in the country all is well, and we can enjoy the summer a while before panicking over expirations and deadlines again as we have been doing for the past 2 years.

Its been a long hard road that I'll post more on after we get together and aren't so busy. We're very happy Jane is almost here at long last. she should arrive in LA 30 Apr, 2011, after starting this whole procedure on my arrival home from spending the summer with her in the Philippines in 2009 but just needed to air this concern and see if anyone has an answer. the people on this site have been a big help, by having experienced the frustrations one can encounter along the way and having found answers to what seemed impossible questions when they first faced them. -Daag

I agree whole heartedly. I went through this process 5 years ago and it went smoothly with no glitches whatever, and I'm afraid I expected the same smooth ride this time, but it has been a series of nightmarish searches for extremely dificult to find non updated pages on websites. and i'm afriad it has left me at times extremely lost and discouraged. This site has been my only place to commune with others experiencing the same maddening frustrations with something so important to us. The encouragement and good advice I've found here have done a lot to make things work for Jane and I. We finally have our interview tomorrow, and even managed to pay for it today, something I feared may never happen, when both banks, BPI & BDO refused to take payments yesterday, but having finally, today, found a BPI bank where they knew they are now the place to pay. I think the new process will be far easier once its fully implimented, with one payment, the current application fee, and free calls and free delivery of visa and passport. it looks amazingly simple now that the true perameters are being disclosed. but all through the confusing laborynth of the outgoing process I've met with nothing but kindness and real usefull help on this one of a kind site, where you can release your frustrations, find answers and so, be able nice to the agents in the system. good luck to everyone, and thanks for being nice to me and others frustrated by the system. 22 years in the navy got me use to stress and hurry up and wait, sometimes running entire commands, but there's something very special, different and difficult about enduring those stresses when you're waiting for someone to allow the one you love to be with you, and you see such simpler ways to do it. now someone in the system has apparantly seen how to make it simpler and is in the process of making it so.

i am sorry i didnt get back to this forum for a while i jane and i have been struggling with the process soo hard to try to get it completed but each day it seems to get harder. when i went bsack to look for the link that said the process is changing 1 dec, i couldnt find it, but the process did change, unfortunately for us it changed catching us in the swinging door. today is 1dec esrly mortning here evening there. janes visa is scheduled for friday 7 am with a show time 1 hour earlier at 6 am. i dont get paid till this morning so she borrowed money and i spent my coin collection tio get her the money sooner so shed have a chance to pay 24 hours before the interview, but today BDO refused to accept payment, saying thge embassy sent them a letter saying they were no longer allowed to accept payment. jane went by taxi to 7 BDOs and was told the same thing paying 4200p for the rides all to no avail. the 7th one finally told her no bdo casn accept payment anymore. we both cslled the embassy and werte told it was closed but the operator was nice enough to give us a link on the web to find how to pay na. i went to the link and found nothing helpful. i called ehr back and told her and she looked it up and told me BPI is not the cotrrect bank, but BPI and BDO both refused to accept payment saying it has been transfered to the other. some moneygram places are still open bvut jane was unsafe in the streets of manila at 10pm, so she retyurend to the hotel short 4200p, and with no way to pay for ehr application fee, kasi no one will accept it. plus shye had to spend part of uit seaqrvhing for someone who would accept payment, only to find no one would. i sued all my phone load and so did she tyrying to cooordinate all this over nightr here and all day there, and my head never touched my bed. its 8 am na here and were both bvery worried. i doubt my poor sweet baby jane can sleep when i told her we must pay today and she wasnt allowed to. the new system seems to be to pay at some unknown bank and then schedule the interview, but it leaves those of us whove already scheduled an interview stuch in the crack caysued by the change that weas only paryially completed. the embassy stopped one bank from accepting payment and failed to tell the other to start, so both banks say they cannot accdept payment and send us to the other. with the result that she cannot attend ehtr interview, kasi she cannot pay, since there is no one accepting payment. its horribly frustraiting. jane was crying tonite after all this time and work and we do our best to follow directions as they were given to us only to be repeatedly turend away when we try to pay so she can attend her interview. Does anyone know a way to get around the what bank we must pay at now flailex? so that we can simply pay to become elegible to attend the already scheduled interview. it will be the end of my day again when the embassy is open again tomorrow there, and within 24 hrs of the interview time. i hope someone will accept our payment tomorrow, later today us time. there is no time left for them to keep stonewalling us. theyre going to have to figure out who accepts payment and tell them in no uncertain yterms which bank is to do it and let us know also. most places on the embassy website say completely different things some still have pre june 2010 application fees. miost still say BDO accepts payment. the operator in embassy said one webpage says BPI accepts payment na, but i cant find any page saying that and both banks denie they are the one. so were unable to complete the process. since the embassy stopped bdo from accepting payment it would be nice if the embassy would accept the payment, or tell us someone who really will accept it.

I'm so happy. would you believe we had a major breakthrough day before yesterday, i managed to get an interview scheduled for Jane for friday 3 Dec, 2010. now I'm just trying to send enough money to keep her going in manila till next friday, plus keep the $350 to pay for the application fee. i could pay the fee now or support Jane in manila till next friday. i get paid wednesday (thursday there) and as i understand it, she must pay the fee 24 hours before her 7am appointment friday. which means recieving it from me and paying it in minutes, at a bank in manila. anyone know what the closest BDO is to the Embassy area or the branch of Bank of the Philippines that accepts payments?

Does anyone know, also, if its common for the call center to leave the filipina fiancee's middle name, which is also her mothers maiden name, out in addressing the confirmation email to her? the lady who set up the interview for me, was very curteous nice and helpful, but when she asked me janes name, she has a double first name and her middle name is also her mothers maiden name, and the lady said ok her name is, and stated the 2 first names left out the middle name altogether, right, and Pobe is just her mothers maiden name, right?

I said no. and paitently explained her entire name, emphasizin that, although Pobe was indeed her mothers maiden name, it is also Jane's official middle name on her birth certificate and on her passport and all other papers. So i figured all was well, but when the email arrived, it too, left out janes middle name. i've sent emails to the embassy asking if that will cause her to be turned away at the embassy gate? they send only the canned response back to me but wont answer my question. i know it may seem nitpicky, but how can i be certain the guard at the embassy gate will not compare the email name with her id's and passport and seeing the difference turn her away, creating another delay very difficult to adjust to? and then her time slot would be wasted and we'd be caught up in the after 1 Dec debacle.

In any case im so pleased i was finally able to get an interview. i also learned what happens after 1 Dec, when i called the embassy number, someone listed on here earlier, saying we could schedule there, and was told we cannot schedule there, but the lady i talked to at the embassy, told me that, on 1 Dec the embassy is changing to a new call center, and thats why the call center doesnt know whats happening. and why the pins acquired from the current call center will expire then. also there will be one fee as i understand it for the application, call to call center, and delivering the passport and visa to the applicant. whether that fee will still be the $350 established in june, where before june the fee was $131, or if it will go up logrythmically again.

I got the unstated, possibly implied impression from the Embassy conversation that perhapse they felt a new call center could do better by us.

If we just get through this interview ill be happy. then we have just the Filipinio Overses class, which i understand only is given in Manila and in Cebu. so it looks like another $500 plus mandetory trip, after the the embassy delivers janes passport and visa to her on an island off Mindinao.

I read that registering with the Philipino Overseas people isnt required after 1 Dec, 2010, but no indication if that just means you dont need to register, but must still attend, and get the sticker and diploma. and since its required to be allowed to depart the country, why can't they do it near the embassy after the interview, and save time and money? but at that time she wont have her passport or visa. currently her passport is being held by st lukes, till her interview, then it will be held by the Embassy for a week or two. so no classes requireing those papers will be possible, till after Jane is back in Dapa 600 miles south of Manila, and 300 miles south of Cebu. Then she has to be uprooted and sent on another harrowing trip, just for the little class, that for some reason couldnt be taught on Mindiano.

thanks guys, sorry i was slow answering. ive been going nuts trying to get everything done right nd getting the interview scheduled. atleasyt i can forget about the ds-230. jzne finally recieved the extra pix i sent and the new ds134, and supporting documents but the embassy call center seemd to bog down on scheduling interviews and thats all we have left to do, that and the filipino overseas siminar. and it seems the schedul8ing of the interview is going to be a fullfleged nightmare now. with the unknown changes to the scheduling prosess comming 1 december, and no appointment slots available at present. i do now know after the fact that a filipina fiancee can go to st lukes and get a mdeical exam without having an intertview scheduled by bringing her passport and NOA2 and letter from embassy stating she is eligible for schedulibng of an interview. but getting the interview scheduled is still out there in the ether.

Has anyone's Fiancee received their notification from the Embassy ? Just for the heck of it, I had my fiancee go to the BPI bank in Cagayan De Oro on Mindanao, and the manager did not know what she was talking about paying the MRV fee. You would think that BPI banks would know about the new system by now. So maybe any BPI bank in Manila

I saw on some of the embassy papers where there is a list of BDO (Banko de Oro) branches that take the k1 visa application fee. i looked it up once and printed for my fiancee where the ones in Butuan, Agusan del Norte, and Surigsao City, Surigao del Norte both in the far north east corner of Mindinao. i cant recall if there are some in Cagayan de Oro, but due to ist size i assume so. i will try to fiond the link again and post it here for you, if i can find it. i think it might have been on the insrtuctions in english link, from the 9 page download on the Embassy website.im haviong a similar problem as soon as the call center allows me to schedule an interview, because i need to find the banko de oro near the embassy, as jane went to manila before we got to that part of the process.

i just read this thread on scheduling an interview and feel a little encouraged. my filipina fiancee and i have been struggling for some time with this delima, only because i had gone through the process once before, and mistakenly thought it would still be as it was in 2006, when the embassy actually sent interview packets and scheduled the interview and medical on thier own as soon as you were qualified, so when my fiancee recieved her letter from the embassy stating she was elegible for scheduling of an intetrview, july 9, 2010. we foolishly waited for notification of her interview being scheduled, till november when we read on visa journey, that isnt how its done any longer.

consequently we're now in the same boat as the rest of you albiet true that we could have been done last summer if we'd known better. ive been getting the standard runaround most of you have. unfortunately my fiancee went to manila from mindiano with her cousin who knew manila as a guide, before we were able to sceduole anything, so im playing catchup now. after i'd gotten my $18 pin, i was put on hold for 5 hours till the embassy closed on a friday, wasting my first call of the two i was told i'd have, the next week i was told there were no k1 visa appointment slots. i asked how long are there none, she didnt know. i asked will the scheduling process change and she said yes but had no idea what the change will entail. i asked when may we expect there to be new appointment slots and she didnt know, basically she didnt know any more than i did and didnt care. on a subsequent call i reached a more empathetic and knowledgible operator who didnt have much if any more information, but said there are no slots currently but may be again in december. she suggested calling again next friday. i sent 3 emails to the embassy after that, none of which were answered. i got really worried they might just let us sit with no information till whatever changes are comming have taken place. i asked will they raise the costs again as they did doubling them in june, but still no answer.

basically i, now know, we'd be far better off had i called the call center in July, and we'd have been together last summer, but you know what they say about hind site. now Janes in manila, living at much higher costs than at home and were blocked from scheduling the last step in the process by burocracy. we did take our chances and get her medical exam, which she passed with flying colors on the 10th, not waiting for the interview scheduling, kasi they wouldnt do it.

now her passport, which you must also bring to the medical exam at st lukes, is at st lukes, most likely being sent to the embassy into limbo kasi we dont have an interview scheduled, becasuse the call center wont schedule it. so will they know what do do with the passport and medical passing information for a visa applicant with no interview scheduled? who knows.

when i called the call center, the operator didnt even ask the correct questions she asked my name only and didnt care about the applicants name or case number. i got the empression from that and the fact she kept saying she didnt know what Embassy Manila was doing "over there", as if she was in a different place, that she was in california not manila. I wonder if it'd go better if we were allowed to contact the place where the case is actually being handled, so theyd have some idea what the change will be in 6 work days, and if we have any chance of scheduling appointments.

meanwhile were all getting repeated pins and throwing away $18 each time to keep trying to pry our way into information we should have access to because it has such a profound effect on our lives. and some teen aged phone talker denies us that knowledge on a whim, while probably doing her nails behind her desk, happy for the rest while appointments arent being scheduled, wreaking havoc with our lives.

it looks like were all being kept in the dark, hoping for a miracle in the last week of November. i thank any and all of you who are trying to get the closely garded secrets of the new scheduling procedures, and informing us of what they are able to find.

if i learn anything new i will post it here too. i went to the link someone posted above for the new scheduling procedure, but didnt find anything about the new procedure. i just hope the embassy will recognize that we are vicitms of the changing system, who simply want to be with our fiancees, and decide to make it easier for us. i also hope we do have some hope of getting interviews scheduled soon. good luck to us all.

i may have been in this process a little longer than some of you, having tried it twice, but unlike other processes, it doesnt get easier with time because they keep changing the process, and we always remain not privy to those changes. so i am learning from you. i am happy we have this site, because it seems to me the best source of information on the process. each time the embassy call center leakes even a small crumb of information to any one of us, if we share it, eventually we may have some clue of what theyre planning , and how we need to replan to try to succeed with what should be a simple process, but is made more difficult by the system keeping us in the dark. thank you, one and all.

i will keep trying to get information and trying to keep jane going in manila till we can get something useful i can share with you, and hopefully be able some day to bring my fiancee here to marry and start our livews together and hopefully we'll all, someday be able to look back on this nightmare and laugh.

That's great news!

The medical was the biggest worry for Chinook and me. The interview is much easier and quicker.

lastnight, at 1 am,I called the immigrant visa call center at 1-888-877-9888, and listened to no less than 9 tagalog messages, and one message in English that said to continue in english press 3. as you may have guessed by now, pressing 3 resulted in continuing in tagalog. naturally i thought i may have made an error, so i tried it again over and over. on about the 5th try, after i'd tried to translate the tagalog instructions, and even entered my credit card number when told in tagalog to do so, but couldn't understnd the response, and i was trying to pick out enough tagalog words, that i understood, to attempt to go on if they werent going to give me any english instructions. in tagalog they said to press 1 to continue in tagalog. i did and that selection also continued in tagalog. the third option was to press 2 for US Citizen services, which did, in despiration, and was told in english there is no US Citizen services available at that number, so call another number.

The bottom line is that lastnight atleast, there was no way to reach the call center and recived useful information or schedule anything. has anyone experienced this, and did i call the wrong number? i hope it may have been due to the day before being veterans day in the USA. but wahtever caused it we are now into another weelend with no interview scheduled, and november is half gone.

My fiancee passed her medical exam with flying colors, wedensday, but is running out of money on the manila economy, while im struggling with reaching a site that naturally speaks tagalog, and trying to get them to speak english, by pressing buttons on my phone in a blind menu, and cannot simply ask for instructions in english, and my fiancee cannot possibly call, because she, like 80% of filipinas, has a prepaid cellphone instead of the landline required to call the embassy and have it charged to that landline, and she doesn't speak tagalog either. her native dialect is visaya.

i understand its good to have the option on luzon, where most filipinas calling in,locally, will speak tagalog, of talking to a tagalog speaking call center, but surely there is some option for the entire rest of the philippines and US citizens who speak English and not tagalog.

weve worked on this for a year, and i just dont want to lose it all by papers expireing as we try to schedule the interview in the last moment, as our finances are in danger of disolving. i read on the embassy website that some sort of change is comming in the scheduling process in december, but no indication of what sort of change. my fiancee went to manila ahead of time with her cousin as a guide, now the cousin is in the hospital and shes watching the cousins baby, it just gets more fun by the day. if im able to break through the instructiuons in languages i dont completely understand, and get an interview scheduled i'll feel better. i guess one reason its soo frustraiting is that were soo close to success and now seem at an impass, while time keeps ticking on.

When she makes the appointment at the Embassy through the call center, the agent will ask her if she has an e-mail address. The appointment confirmation will then be e-mailed to her and she can print that out and present it to the guard. The agent will give her instructions as well.

you guys have been soo helpful to us, im beginning to feel a real kindship with this site and the members. weve cleared one more hurdle, thanks in part to your answers. jane called me at 4am this morning to tell me she'd passed her medical exam and is now ready for her interview. i swear i could see the big smile oh her face see her dimples kasi of it and see her beatiful brown eyes sparkle as she laughed and joked happily and not nervous for the first time since she arrived in manila. she appoligized almost immediately after the announcement for calling so early, but i said thats fine honey, im soo happy its like christmas when i was a little kid. no matter how early i was awakend by mom for my presents, i was delighetd as i am na. jane can never keep track of the 13 hour time difference, well 14 na due to daylight savings ending, and seems worried about it but i just laugh and take her 2am or whatever time calls as if it were 2pm.

i saw some people discussing k-1 visas mentioning ds-230 forms and saw them listed on one place on the immigrant visa section of the embassys website that i was referred to for k-1 visa information, but it isn't mentioned in the downloaded package of forms for the k-1 visa and i know the k-1 is technically a nonimmigrant visa, so is there any need for a ds-230 immigrant visa application in this k-1 nonimmigrant visa application process? i just want to make sure we havn't overlooked any forms before calling tonight to schedule janes k-1 visa interview.

we are also, like one of the others who posted here, possibly now short on passport pix, as when we startd the process, they stated we needed 3, 2 for embassy and 1 for medical, i made sure jane had 4, one extra, then st lukes, alloted only 1 in the official instructions, wanted more, and I'm hearing people say both places want more than is officially stated, so tonite before i call i need to make sure jane still has atleast two. its unfortunate they dont just tell how many they really want when giving initial instructions. I dont begrudge them any number they want, it just creates problems for them to not be honest about the actual number they want. If they said 10 or 20 ahead of time it'd be no problem, even if they only used 5. But saying less than they actually need can become a big problem, especially if you wind up in a time crunch like were in na. i made 6 good coppies of one she sent me for the petition, and mailed them back to her as soon as i discovered they want more than they officially ask for, but those 6 havnt arrived yet along with updated papers.

Can you tell me where we can get passport style photos cheaply in manila, or get good coppies made of them cheaply, near the embassy if she needs to get new ones taken or coppies made, just to be sure we have enough before the interview? We're in kind of a time crunch wanting to get her interview before we run out of money keeping her in manila waiting for it, as during the process i got laid off from my 20 year job, a casualty of the economy. there's no problem supporting her, as i'm starting social security a little early, and have navy retirement, putting me well over the poverty guideline, but the timming couldn't have been worse for us, just kasi of the logistics of making it all work in a two week period, or running out and needing to go 600 miles home before it's done, further delaying the process and then returning for the interview, when papers are even older.

I'm almost forced to try to get the interview as soon as possible and just hope the number of pix and old forms are good enough, kasi the few days to recieve the new ones, could change everything, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, at the last moment, if jane has to leave manila before the papers and pix arrive. and honestly none of the old papers have passed thier expiration date. i just wanted to update them to be certain no consulate officer would have reason to say he wanted new ones. so the pix are the most likely to make a problem, if there are too few left. i know jane could possibly breeze right through pass everything and be done in a day or two if i just schedule the interview and am able to get it in a couple of days, but this process is too important to just hope for the best and take chances. so i must make sure as much as i possibly can, that simple unimportant nit picky things dont thwart us, just by causing the lack of a check in a box. such as having only 2 visa pix and today they want 3, where yesterday 2 might have been fine.

thanks again for your help, Daag

ohhhh one other thing. perhapse im belaboring a point, but i have to ask. the letter you said she must present to the guard to enter the embassy, can it also be the email, printed out or must it be a mailed letter? for if it must be san actual mailed letter, that too could thwart us.

hey guys thanks for the info on the appointment confirmation reciept. never having had one and noting that they often call the same paper different things at different times, i was at a loss to know what paper they wanted us to present. and that is the one paper i havn't laid eyes on in the past year of seeing nothing but papers. i didnt know they'd email it either. knowing they will do that gives me courage to believe we will indeed succeed. the money's soo tight and being unsure if there was any way to get the paper was one thing we didnt need.now knowing we can get the reciept via email all there is to fear, as roosevelt once said, is fear itself. thanks again for your help.

Hi There

The appointment confirmation receipt refers to the e-mail from the US Embassy call center usually sent to the applicant after the interview is set.

On the day of her interview, she needs to show the security guards two photo IDs with her signature and the letter confirming her interview date and time.

THE PASPORT STYLE PHOTOS HAVE VERY SPECIFIC AND DETAILED DEMINSIONS NOT ONLY FOR THE DEMISSIONS OF THE WHOLE PIX BUT ALSO FOR THE DISTANCE FROM CHIN TO TOP POF HAIR AND FROM BOTTOM OF PIX TO CENTER OIF EYE LINE, SO I WOULDNT RISK THEM BEING WRONG SIZE OR SHAPE. THE ONES THEY TOOK FOR MY FIANCEES PASSPORT IN THE PHILIPPINES SOMEHOW WORKED FOR HER PASSPORT, EVEN BEING WAY TOO SMALL ABOUT 1 1/2 BY 1 1/2 INCHES. BUT FOR US PAPERS THE 2 INCH SQUARE IS STANDARD.

BUT YOUR OTHER QUESTION REMINDED ME OF ONE I HAVE ON SIMILAR LINE: WHAT PAPER MUST YOU ACTUALLY HAVE IN HAND TO PAY FOR THE VISA APPLICATION AT BDO? THEY SAY "APPOINTMENT CONFIRMATION RECIEPT" IN THE KI VISA INSTRUCTIONS, BUT EXACTLY WHAT IS THAT RECIEPT IN PHYSICAL FORM? MY FIANCEE WENT TO MANILA FOR MEDICAL PRIOR TO SCHEDULING INTERVIEW, AND NOW IM WONDERING HOW WE CAN PAY THE FEE FOR APPLICATION WITHOUT A RECIEPT SHOWING SHES SCHEDULED FOR HER INTERVIEW,SO THAT SHE CAN ALSO ATTEND THE INTERVIEW WHEN WE DO SCHEDULE IT? AND DOES SHE NEED AN ACTUAL PAPER RECIEPT STATING HER INTERVIEW IS SCHEDULED AND WHEN, TO BE ALLOWED ON EMBASDSY GROUNDS FOR THE INTERVIEW? CAN THEY EMAIL IT OR WOULD SHE HAVE TO BE AT HER ADDRESS ON MINDINAO TO RECIEVE IT? I FEAR WASTING ALL OUR MONEY KEEPING HER IN MANILA WAITING FOR A PAPER SHE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET IN MANILA. JUST A SIMPLE RECIEPT SAYING INTERVIEW SCHEDULED. SHURELY IT CANT STALL THE WHOLE PROCESS.

this post is fantastic.THANK YOU NINJONES. my filipina fiancee is about to get her medical exam, and each time i look at your post i see more answers to questions i was about to ask.

i was about to ask can my fiancee get her medical exam before scheduling her visa interview, then saw in your fantastic post of your walk through, where you said just bring copy of NOA2 letter and NVC letter. we have those as well as letter from US Embassy in Manila saying shes eligible to schedulae an interview.

she had only 4 vias photos that were proper demsions and is waiting for more kasi many people who've gone through the process say St Lukes wants more than the one alloted, which would leave her short for the embassy, she'd sent one to me months ago, so i printed 6 more of it and sent to her along with new i-134, as the old one is 9 mo old. the new ones havn't arrived yet. but jane's cousin who knows manila, was returinig to manila and jane wanted to go with her to get medical exam. and as many who have a filipina fiancee may well know interfering with the family's plans to do something together can make waves, so after cautioning her that we should make sure we can actually do everything IN MANILA, once she arrives, before even departing, i resigned myself to doing damage control and figuring out what must be done to make sure it will all work now that janes in manila. admittedly i understand her wanting the companionship of her cousin who knows manila. it can i suppose be a scary place for a young beautiful woman.

based on the fact that jane is now in manila away from her home address in mindiano, i have a couple of questions that many people on this forum may know answers to, i will ask them also to the embassy but they often just send canned answers, that dont really answer the actual question asked.

QUESTION? what exactly must be presented to the BDO bank to pay for the visa application fee? can it be done by presenting the letter from the embassy stating she is elegible for scheduling of an interview? or when you call and schedule over the phone does the embassy actually send or somehow provide a reciept showing she has an interview scheduled, and if so is there any way she can get this "Apointmnent confirmation Reciept" in manila away from her address, 600 miles to the south, so that she can pay the fee and actually attend the interview, once I get it scheduled? can they email it? or send it to an aunts address in manila?

timeline:

NAO1 13 APR 2010

MAO2 15 JUNE 2010

NVC LETTER WITH CASE NUMBER 24 JUNE 2010

EMBASSY LETTER STATING ELEGIBLE FOR INTERVIEW SCHEDULING 9 JULY 2010

Yea I'll tell you Senior, i feel like i've been steemin' in a tight circle for 4 months, in blue water with no port in site, and the water all full of JP-5 and no aircponditioning and 140f in the shade. i couldn't even go forward into the AIMD tunnel to cool off. actually i was a brown shoe, keeping planes borin' holes in the sky, and making a lot of noise on the roof, and having the ordies clankin bombcarts around on your overhead, but its soo good to hear from a fellow sailor.

Anyway back on topic, i thank everyone here for the information. and for bringing me into this decade. back when i tried the k-1 visa process the first time, they had toll phone numbers on the letter then too but they were just incase you wanted to speed up a process that would work anyway whether you called or not. we just had to wait a really really long time inbetween stages and they were using windows 95 to process our papers in USCIS. and i think in the embassy it may have been done on paper with a balpoint. and my hair was still blond. but after 22 years in the Navy i was used to waiting, and after the first time expected it. it took us a year then.

im sad that jane and i wasted the entire summer waiting for something that was never going to happen, and hearing that is what occured was painful, but since its true i needed to know, so i can fix it. if everythings still ok and we can be together soon, well be happy. thanks to Ken and Leidys for the good links, and to marriedtomrg for the answers to my questions. i will do another I-134 as you suggest, kasi eventhough somehwere in the system it says they're good for a year, like you, i know a consular officer can decide its too old anyway and i couldnt argue the fact, kasi it is old.

Has anyone done an I-134 once retired when on Navy pension and Social Security, vice the a real job? if it still puts you over the poverty level for 5 and ther'll only be the two of us, is it ok so recieve all your pay from the govt and use it to prove she wont?

now I just hope our package is still alive and well in manila, and not filed some where in a back room and forgotten, so that we can call and get an interview.

How do we schedule the medical exam? and is it fairly certain the interview can be scheduled soon after we call so the medical exam wont expire?

I did eventually look up download and do the papers from the english version of instructions, thinking i was ahead of the game, and since we already redid the Cenomar and NBI i think all our other papers are in order. except that i've seen some mention of ds-230 forms. but since the k-1 is technicsally a non-immigrant visa, do we need the immigrant visa paper? also on the siminar on overseas filipinos, that only happens, according to an obscuer post on the embassy website, in cebu or manila, is it a requirement? i read they put a stamp on the filipina fiancees pasport allowing her to leave the country, and yet it isnt mentioned in the required papers or forms. and are there any other hidden requirements that are little known? i dont want to leave anything out this time. my fiancee lives on a small island 600 miles from Manila and 250 from Cebu, so that siminar could be tough to schedule.

Daag and Jane timeline: 9 Apr 2010 submitted petition, NOA1 13 Apr 2010, NOA2 15 Jun 2010, letter from NVC 24 Jun 2010 sending package to Manila US Embassy, 9 July letter from Embassy stating fiancee eligible for scheduling of interview. then silence for 4 1/2 months.