As you will recall from my last posting, I had been expecting the visa form DS-230 to arrive weeks ago. It is partially due to bad timing, and partially due to the incompetence of the National Visa Center.
The bad timing is because we received the bill for $380 (what they charge to process the DS-230) at the end of December. We mailed it in promptly upon receiving it. Mail to the US normally takes two weeks from here, but the post office was closed for the entire first week of January. Still, the National Visa Center should have received the fee by mid January, but their records indicated that it arrived on the 25th.
I waited weeks more for the form to arrive. As I reported in my last message, I called the National Visa Center on February 15th to find out what the hold up is. At that time, I was told by Kira that the forms were mailed out the week of the 29th. I now know without a doubt that this was a complete and utter lie.
From my recording with Kira, the direct quote from her is "The forms were mailed to your spouse in the Philippines the week of January 29."
If that is so, then how is it that when the forms finally arrived, the post mark was stamped February 16th, the day after my call??
What a bunch of liars. I would have much preferred it if she would have said, I'm sorry but there was an oversight, but I promise it will be mailed out first thing tomorrow morning. I would have still been upset over the oversight, but not nearly as upset as I am about being lied to. What the hell is wrong with these people?
Now it's just a matter of gathering all of the supporting documents before we can mail it in. We had anticipated the original birth certificate and marriage license, so those are good to go. We also knew in advance that we would need clearance certificates from the NBI (National Buruea of Investigation), as well as from the police in any foreign country she has lived. Those are no problem, we have them ready to know.
What we did not expect was that we also must have local police clearance from every individual town my life has lived in (for more than 6 months) here in the Philippines. Honestly, what sense does that make? If the NBI shows no deragatory records, then why go through this? Just to send people chasing their tales?
Again, this is one of those things that it would have been good to know about in advance, because my wife did live in Manila for a year, which is a very long way from here. Unlike most countries in the world, authorities in the Philippines are apparently unable to manage clearance by mail, so she is there as we speak getting these documents. She went alone because I am pissed at having to waste $100 for a single piece of paper, and did not want to double that with both of us going. Yeah, I know, I sound like a sour puss, but wait until you've been dealing with these knuckleheads for a year and see how you feel about it.
The good news is that this will be the last form to fill out. Once this is sent to the National Visa Center, they will review it for completeness. When the interview is scheduled they will send it all back to us as part of a kit to take to the interview.
On a side note, I have also been receiving mail related to the 129-F Fiance visa (all this other stuff is related to the spousal visa). I've received two letters stating that the Fiance visa is approved and that they are mailing some kind of a kit to my wife. Honestly though, I don't see what the point in that fiance visa was except to bill me an extra $170. The point was suppose to be for her to get into the US faster while we wait for the spousal visa to be processed, but the spousal visa is being processed faster, so honestly, what's the point in the other one?
Your tax dollars at work.
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They work too slow, like mine here I am in the process bringing over my mother. They asked for $380 a moth after they sent my money order because I need to pay $400. They are the one sending me that amount to pay. What I can say, shut my mouth I guess. Good luck to the next step. Good luck to the interview.
just be patient guys, you'll get there.. :)
Googleheimer,
I don't know if you're still following comments on this blog, but I'd like to thank you for posting all your experiences. I'm engaged to a Filipina with plans to bring her back to the US after we get married (in the Philippines), and yours is hands down the clearest, most succinct explanation of the process I've found anywhere, certainly including the official ones. Thank you so much. Do you have any plans to make some final entries detailing the interview process and/or arriving in the US?
I had actually lost track of this blog and forget what the last information posted was, so I'll just address a couple of important things here.
First and foremost, when your wife gets scheduled her interview at the U.S. embassy in Manila - DO NOT GO WITH HER. My neighbor in PH did this and they had to go through a lot of extra steps because they were told that the purpose of the immigration is to unite families, and since he was already with her it didn't apply. He basically had to go back to the U.S. and refile.
Fortunately, he was a little ahead of me in the process, so I got a heads up about that. I stayed with my wife until the last week before her interview, and then came back.
When they schedule her an interview, they will first schedule a medical appointment at the hospital. This is a general physical and chest x-ray (to look for a past TB infection), and I think also an HIV test. Once you clear medical, she will go to the embassy for the interview. She should take all the photos she can of the two of you together, and will also ask her about how the two of you met, where you're from, if you have any pets, etc. Just general questions to make sure that you really know each other and are not scamming the system.
She will leave her passport with them and go back home after the embassy appointment. Her passport will be delivered by courier a week or two later, with the Visa already inside.
Once she arrives in the U.S. they will send her a green card that is good for two years. You're good to go from that point. Shortly before the two years is up they will send you more paperwork to fill out. SEND THEM EVERYTHING YOU HAVE WITH THIS PAPERWORK. My first time through they sent it back to me and told me it wasn't sufficient. I resubmitted with every photo we had ever taken, every rent receipt (with both our names on it), receipts for trips we had taken together (even the flight boarding passes), receipts for meals, etc. The file I sent was literally 8" thick because I didn't want them to tell me it was still unsufficient.
After that they will schedule her an appointment at your nearest immigration office, which, in my case, was in Memphis. I have no idea what they do there because I wasn't allowed in the back, but she was in there no more than 5 minutes. I think they just looked at her paperwork and took a new picture. I think the main purpose here is to make sure the person with the green card is the same person the visa was issued to (I guess some people try to sell it maybe).
After that they issue a new green card that has the marriage restriction removed and is good for 10 years. She can apply for citizenship at any time after this, or she can just remain a resident, whichever.
The main advice I can give you is to get as much paperwork (even if its just receipts, or boarding passes showing you flew together) that has both of your names on it, and save absolutely everything. It's better to flood them with paperwork than to not have enough.
All things considered, I sort of wish I was still in the Philippines. That was the best year of my life and I really do miss it, as well as missing my family there. I hope to be able to return one day.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for the prompt and extremely helpful information. We won't be getting married for a few months yet, so I'm a little ahead of things here, but I wanted to be ready to hit the ground running and not be trying to figure it out as I went along. Your blog has been really great for that. Thanks again!
No problem. If I were to boil my advice down to a few key pieces, it would be:
1. Save EVERYTHING, receipts, whatever. Write each other small notes or emails, even while you're together, and save those. It all helps prove you're a real couple.
2. Take as many pictures as you can. Not only of the two of you together, but of you with her family. If your camera is digital, any mall in the Philippines has a place to print them out.
3. Teach her everything you can about your life back home. ..address, phone, parents names, brothers &sisters,,,,they will ask at her embassy interview.
Im glad you found the info helpful. The process would have been a lot less stressful for me if I had just known what to expect. I remember before I went there USCIS told me the whole process took 2 months. Boy were they wrong. I started in Feb 2006 and we were together in the US May 2007. Thats a little more than two months.
I was also lucky to have a website earning enough money that I could afford to live there all that time (going to their immigration every two months for a new passport step). Most people go there, get married, then go back to their job in the US while they wait.
thank you for the info
we are waiting the next step
after our initial receipt 2 months now
they say 5 months so i think the next step is the form above and interviews im worried about my financial
but hope everything goes smooth and quickly
i truly miss the philippines. someday i will be back there
On financials, I believe they want you to be at 126% of the poverty line. If you work at all then you probably meet the requirement. In my case, I had to submit a copy of a tax return as evidence. Most of my work was cash, and even though I lived overseas the entire year and wasn't required to report it, I did so just for the documentation. I ended up with some fees associated with it that took me a few years to pay off, but at least I crossed the threshhold.
Foreign nationals who are temporarily in the U.S. may file and submit Form i765, Application for Employment Authorization to obtain an EAD. Each employment authorization document is issued for a specified period of time based on the foreign national immigration situation.
This is a one such common scene in terms of visa application with all the fuzz and hassle that comes along with the process. Some resorted to an immigration attorney to help them with the immigration process, and let their attorneys worry and fill all the loopholes. I suggest that to make things worry free, someone can try and consult immigration attorney before doing the process by themselves.
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