Passfire

My wife lives in Cebu City, Philippines and is sinking into depression
worrying about the requirement process and having all the proper papers when
she goes to Manila. One thing she needs still is her birth certificate on
security paper, which apparently can only be obtained in Manila. Does
anyone know if it would be possible to obtain this document by mail from
another island? She was working with a lawyer in trying to do this, but he
did not deliver. Where in Manila would one need to go to get this and how
long does it take?

Also, does anyone know the fees she will encounter in this process? This
page says $335 per applicant:
http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/rp1/wwwh3213.html

My wife says the application fee is only $65. I've seen other sources that
say $100.

Any estimates on how long she may need to stay in Manila to get the medical
exam and go through the visa interview?

Any help is greatly appreciated. This process is so stressful I'm on
freakin Paxil now just to be able to work my job!

-Kyle

Michael D. Young

Passfire wrote:

    > My wife lives in Cebu City, Philippines and is sinking into depression
    > worrying about the requirement process and having all the proper papers when
    > she goes to Manila. One thing she needs still is her birth certificate on
    > security paper, which apparently can only be obtained in Manila. Does
    > anyone know if it would be possible to obtain this document by mail from
    > another island? She was working with a lawyer in trying to do this, but he
    > did not deliver. Where in Manila would one need to go to get this and how
    > long does it take?
    > Also, does anyone know the fees she will encounter in this process?
    > My wife says the application fee is only $65. I've seen other sources that
    > say $100.
    > Any estimates on how long she may need to stay in Manila to get the medical
    > exam and go through the visa interview?

Hi All!

Well first if you want a lawyer in the Philippines that will really help you and
not rip you off contact Jeanie S. Pulido.

http://www.philonline.com.ph/~jsplaw/index.htm

As far as the birth certificate goes you used to be able to order it by phone
through the NSO helpline. This is the NSO Website and the number is on there.

http://www.e-census.com.ph/default.asp

Unless their service has greatly improved don't order it online through the
Website. Did she get her passport yet or have you filed anything with BCIS.
Not to overly worry you, but the NSO is famous for having people's name and date
of birth wrong in their records. So that might be something you need to deal
with once you do get the birth certificate and Jeanie S. Pulido can help you
with that as well.

Needs police clearance from the NBI and any other country that she live in for a
year or more since age 16. She can get the NBI clearance in Cebu City.

http://www.nbi.doj.gov.ph/

CENTRAL VISAYAS REGIONAL OFFICE
Cebu City
Tel. No.: (032) 252-5631 / 253-5629

The nonimmigrant visa fee is $100.00 now You also have the price of the medical
exam, which unless that's gone up is $85.00

She needs to take the CFO class, which she can take in Cebu City. That's only a
few hundred Pesos.

http://www.cfo.gov.ph

CFO Cebu Desk Office
Room 301-302 GK Chua Building
Sanciangko Street
Cebu City, Philippines
Telefax: (032) 255-5253
E-mail address: [email protected]

This guy can hook you up with good plane fares to and from the Philippines:

http://www.mich.com/~travelisfun/index.html

Go Join Maganak Yahoogroup for more help.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MAG-ANAK/

Then you have the travel tax (2700 pesos) and departure tax ( 100 pesos leaving
Cebu and 550 pesos leaving Manila) when she leaves.

http://www.philtourism.com/ttax.html

OK that should keep you busy for a while. LOL


Take care,


Mike

Marchael

Hello Kyle,

I am a filipina too, I've ordered my birth certificate from NSO thru phone. I called this # 737-1111 and the lady I spoke with asked me personal info and then I was told it will be delivered and will takes 8 working days. She gave me bank where I need to pay the fee of 275 or so but it wont be more than 300 pesos, I just forgot the exact amount. I got it right at my doorstep in less than 8 working days.

This is nationwide so I don't think your wife needs to travel all the way to Manila to order her birth certificate. Your wife can call the # anytime she wants, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, even Sundays and holidays, Nationwide! this is what written on NSO leaflet they distributes.

To answer your qs about the fees. the visa fee for her interview would be $100. She must pay this thru designated bank. St Luke fee would be $95. When she go to any designated bank, she need to pay it by peso, banks don't accept dollar payment. With St. Luke she will pay the fee right there.

For St. Luke will takes two days, first day would be for her physical and for the next day for her shots and results of physical.
About the interview at Embassy it wont be walk in starting May.
Read down what I have found out recently.


U.S. Embassy to Schedule K Visa Interviews

Effective May 2003, the U.S. Embassy will discontinue the walk-in
system for K visa applicants on Fridays. K visa applicants will now be
given appointments for their visa interviews.
According to Consul General David Donahue the new procedure is
primarily a security measure, “Security has become a major concern and new
procedures have been put into effect to help ensure the safety of
Embassy personnel as well as our visa applicants.�
Mr. Donahue also explained that the number of K visa applicants has
been steadily increasing since last year and the walk-in system is no
longer a practical way to process visa applications.
K visa applicants are fiance(e)s or spouses and children of American
citizens. Once the Embassy receives the approved K petitions from the
National Visa Center in the U.S., it will queue the applicants for
interview and notify them of their medical and interview appointments.
This is the procedure followed for the other immigrant visa applicants.
The Embassy, however, will continue to devote Fridays for K and V
processing.
Mr. Donahue explained that the purpose of the K visa is to expedite
the travel of beneficiaries who could be subject to a long period of
separation from petitioners during the petitioning process. “The K visa
is a non-immigrant visa that allows beneficiaries to enter the United
States and to remain there until they are able to apply for lawful
permanent residence status instead of having to wait in the Philippines as
the U.S. Immigration law previously required.�
The Embassy encourages applicants to come prepared for their
scheduled appointments with all the necessary documents to avoid delays in the
processing of their applications.

Hope this help you a little.

God Bless
Michael & Lyn Welsh

Passfire

Thanks for the help!

When I was in Cebu getting married I also had to obtain one of these
"security paper" birth certificates. I had a lawyer get one, which took a
few days, but the document he gave us looked like something printed on a
photocopy of security paper, not real security paper like the example birth
certificate shown me at the counsolate. The counsolate reluctantly accepted
it for the purposes of getting our marriage license, but I hope this one
that can be obtained over the phone is the real deal.

I'm wondering what the effects of this new appointment process will be for
getting the visa interview. According to this webpage, appointments are
already three months out!! Am I looking at the right thing here?

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

Thanks again for replying to my plee for help. It's nice to hear from
Filipinas who successfully got through all of this. Out of curiosity, how
long did it take you to get to America?

-Kyle Kepley

Passfire

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the link-loaded response! That really helps me out.

I've been using a lawyer that helped out with our marriage in Cebu. It's
hard to tell when I am being ripped off there because everything is so cheap
compared to American legal help! The fact that he fell through on something
as simple as getting a NSO birth certificate was pretty lame though.

My wife already has the easy stuff like the CFO class, the NBI security
clearance and passport. I just want to be sure everything goes right the
first time on the visa interview. I went the I-130, K3 route, only because
I didn't know the fiance visa was faster until I was married and back in the
states. It took about 4 months for the K3 to get approved on my end, now
I'm trying to figure out how the system works on her end. With all the info
the government has already been given by me on the K3 application, I really
don't see why there is a need for my wife to fill out yet more application
papers! I was under the impression that my K3 submission WAS the
application, but apparently the Philippines has it's own visa application as
well? That's what I'm still unclear on. Is my wife applying for a visa in
the Philippines as well, or merely interviewing as part of the requirements
for a visa that I have already filed in the US?

Thanks again for the useful post.

-Kyle




    > Hi All!
    > Well first if you want a lawyer in the Philippines that will really help
you and
    > not rip you off contact Jeanie S. Pulido.
    > http://www.philonline.com.ph/~jsplaw/index.htm
    > As far as the birth certificate goes you used to be able to order it by
phone
    > through the NSO helpline. This is the NSO Website and the number is on
there.
    > http://www.e-census.com.ph/default.asp
    > Unless their service has greatly improved don't order it online through
the
    > Website. Did she get her passport yet or have you filed anything with
BCIS.
    > Not to overly worry you, but the NSO is famous for having people's name
and date
    > of birth wrong in their records. So that might be something you need to
deal
    > with once you do get the birth certificate and Jeanie S. Pulido can help
you
    > with that as well.
    > Needs police clearance from the NBI and any other country that she live in
for a
    > year or more since age 16. She can get the NBI clearance in Cebu City.
    > http://www.nbi.doj.gov.ph/
    > CENTRAL VISAYAS REGIONAL OFFICE
    > Cebu City
    > Tel. No.: (032) 252-5631 / 253-5629
    > The nonimmigrant visa fee is $100.00 now You also have the price of the
medical
    > exam, which unless that's gone up is $85.00
    > She needs to take the CFO class, which she can take in Cebu City. That's
only a
    > few hundred Pesos.
    > http://www.cfo.gov.ph
    > CFO Cebu Desk Office
    > Room 301-302 GK Chua Building
    > Sanciangko Street
    > Cebu City, Philippines
    > Telefax: (032) 255-5253
    > E-mail address: [email protected]
    > This guy can hook you up with good plane fares to and from the
Philippines:
    > http://www.mich.com/~travelisfun/index.html
    > Go Join Maganak Yahoogroup for more help.
    > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MAG-ANAK/
    > Then you have the travel tax (2700 pesos) and departure tax ( 100 pesos
leaving
    > Cebu and 550 pesos leaving Manila) when she leaves.
    > http://www.philtourism.com/ttax.html
    > OK that should keep you busy for a while. LOL
    > Take care,
    > Mike

Michael D. Young

Passfire wrote:

    > Thanks for the help!
    > When I was in Cebu getting married I also had to obtain one of these
    > "security paper" birth certificates. I had a lawyer get one, which took a
    > few days, but the document he gave us looked like something printed on a
    > photocopy of security paper, not real security paper like the example birth
    > certificate shown me at the counsolate. The counsolate reluctantly accepted
    > it for the purposes of getting our marriage license, but I hope this one
    > that can be obtained over the phone is the real deal.
    > I'm wondering what the effects of this new appointment process will be for
    > getting the visa interview. According to this webpage, appointments are
    > already three months out!! Am I looking at the right thing here?
    > http://manila.usembassy.gov/wwwhappo.html
    > Thanks again for replying to my plee for help. It's nice to hear from
    > Filipinas who successfully got through all of this. Out of curiosity, how
    > long did it take you to get to America?

Hi All!

Unless you were born in the Philippines you wouldn't be able to get a BC from
the NSO on security paper. I assume you went to the embassy in Manila or
consulate in Cebu City to get the “Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of Legal
Capacity to Marry�. Is that what you are talking about?

The BCs from the NSO on security paper do kind of look like a bad photo copy.
The security paper isn't so much the paper material as it the designs that run
through the paper. The paper my wife and daughter's are printed on have a blue
and purplish tint to them. My wife ordered both hers and our daughter's BCs
over the phone through the NSO helpline and had no problems.

You are look at the nonimmigrant visa interview schedule. That's for tourist
visas. K visas are handled by the immigrant visa section.

Since the new process hasn't started who knows what will be the effect. In my
opinion it's not going to make things easier, since you will now have to wait on
them to give you an interview date. Maybe a good guess would be the amount of
time it takes them to schedule an interview for a spouse visa, since those have
always required an interview.

I filed the K-1 petition with the Vermont Processing Center the middle of Oct.
2001 and the visas were issued the first week April 2002. They got hit with an
Admin. Review that held things up for almost two months or they would have been
here late February or early March. There were no K interviews at that time.


Take care,

Mike

Michael D. Young

Passfire wrote:

    > Hi Mike,
    > Thanks for the link-loaded response! That really helps me out.
    > I've been using a lawyer that helped out with our marriage in Cebu. It's
    > hard to tell when I am being ripped off there because everything is so cheap
    > compared to American legal help! The fact that he fell through on something
    > as simple as getting a NSO birth certificate was pretty lame though.
    > My wife already has the easy stuff like the CFO class, the NBI security
    > clearance and passport. I just want to be sure everything goes right the
    > first time on the visa interview. I went the I-130, K3 route, only because
    > I didn't know the fiance visa was faster until I was married and back in the
    > states. It took about 4 months for the K3 to get approved on my end, now
    > I'm trying to figure out how the system works on her end. With all the info
    > the government has already been given by me on the K3 application, I really
    > don't see why there is a need for my wife to fill out yet more application
    > papers! I was under the impression that my K3 submission WAS the
    > application, but apparently the Philippines has it's own visa application as
    > well? That's what I'm still unclear on. Is my wife applying for a visa in
    > the Philippines as well, or merely interviewing as part of the requirements
    > for a visa that I have already filed in the US?
    > Thanks again for the useful post.
    > -Kyle

Hi All!

No problem. I verified the medical exam cost with a guy that his fiancé was
just approved yesterday and it did go up from $85.00 to $95.00. I just hope her
name and date of birth are correct on the NSO BC. My advice is to get the NSO
BC first and go with the name and DOB on that for everything else.

Well I kind of feel the same way, but BCIS decides who gets in the country and
the Department of State (DOS) issues visas, so you have to deal with both.

You have petitioned BCIS and now based on the BCIS petition approval your wife
can apply for a K-3 visa with DOS.

You are going to need to send her copies of your last three years tax forms
(1040) with W-2s, letter from your employer saying you have a full time
permanent position and includes your yearly salary amount and notarized form
I-134. I would hold off on getting and sending those until you know the
interview date, unless you think it's going to take you a while to get them.
Plus just to be safe I would send her the original of any document you sent to
BCIS as a copy. Better to have too much than not enough.

Take care,

Mike

Passfire

Hi Mike,

    > Unless you were born in the Philippines you wouldn't be able to get a BC
from
    > the NSO on security paper. I assume you went to the embassy in Manila or
    > consulate in Cebu City to get the "Affidavit in Lieu of a Certificate of
Legal
    > Capacity to Marry". Is that what you are talking about?

Yeah, that's what I meant. The BC wasn't for me, it was for my wife. I had
brought my own, but the one she had for herself was pretty crude looking and
they wouldn't accept it. The one the lawyer got for us actually had white
paper with the lines on it, but the stuff the consulate wanted to see was a
pinkish paper with the blue and red curvy lines running accross it. Sounds
like the phone-ordered BC is the way to go.

    > You are look at the nonimmigrant visa interview schedule. That's for
tourist
    > visas. K visas are handled by the immigrant visa section.

Ah, that explains it. I was wondering if the K was considered immigrant or
nonimmigrant. So the $350 application fee I saw listed must have been for
the tourist visa.

    > Since the new process hasn't started who knows what will be the effect.
In my
    > opinion it's not going to make things easier, since you will now have to
wait on
    > them to give you an interview date. Maybe a good guess would be the
amount of
    > time it takes them to schedule an interview for a spouse visa, since those
have
    > always required an interview.

One thing that seems bad about the new procedure is that the embassy just
sends out interview dates, rather than allowing the applicants to have a say
in the matter. What if the applicant can't make the date? Does
rescheduling put them at the back of the que? If the walk-in procedure has
been working all this time, then why change it? Oh yeah, that dubious word
"security" that has been used as an excuse for every bad idea spewing out of
governments since 9/11!

    > I filed the K-1 petition with the Vermont Processing Center the middle of
Oct.
    > 2001 and the visas were issued the first week April 2002. They got hit
with an
    > Admin. Review that held things up for almost two months or they would have
been
    > here late February or early March. There were no K interviews at that
time.

I filed my K3 at about the same time, and it was approved in late Februrary
as you suspected yours might have been. My wife was notified about two
weeks later, but anxiety and medical problems have prevented her from
persuing the requirements on her end for the last month though. Talk about
STRESS! Just when you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel,
something like that has to happen.

I noticed the K3 has what seems to be an expiration date of about 4 months
after it was issued. I wonder if this can be extended or what this date
even means?

Thanks again for your quick and helpful responses. This list really seems
to be a great resource on this subject.

Regards,

-Kyle

Michael D. Young

Passfire wrote:

    > Ah, that explains it. I was wondering if the K was considered immigrant or
    > nonimmigrant. So the $350 application fee I saw listed must have been for
    > the tourist visa.

No that's for an immigrant visa. Tourist visas are nonimmigrant visas just
like K visas, so they pay $100.00. Just that the immigrant visa section handles
K visa processing, which I assume is because people applying for K visas need
the medical exams and most of the same requirements as people applying for
immigrant visas need.

    > One thing that seems bad about the new procedure is that the embassy just
    > sends out interview dates, rather than allowing the applicants to have a say
    > in the matter. What if the applicant can't make the date? Does
    > rescheduling put them at the back of the que? If the walk-in procedure has
    > been working all this time, then why change it? Oh yeah, that dubious word
    > "security" that has been used as an excuse for every bad idea spewing out of
    > governments since 9/11!

Well everyone else is treated like that too. Just for some reason they were
giving people applying for K visas a break. Up until last September there
wasn't even a interview for a K visa in Manila. It could be for security
reasons, but I'm sure people weren't just walking into the embassy on what they
are calling a walk-in interview. You have to show ID to get into the embassy.
Even as a U.S. citizen I needed to show my passport to get in. I just know
from dealing with the Manila embassy, the less you need them to do something for
you the better off you are. Not sure what happens if you miss or can't make
an interview, but I'm sure they aren't going to break their necks to give you a
new date. Best to show up even if you need to be wheeled in on stretcher. LOL

    > I filed my K3 at about the same time, and it was approved in late Februrary
    > as you suspected yours might have been. My wife was notified about two
    > weeks later, but anxiety and medical problems have prevented her from
    > persuing the requirements on her end for the last month though. Talk about
    > STRESS! Just when you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel,
    > something like that has to happen.

You filed Oct. 2001? Sure you don't mean Oct. 2002? I filed the K-1 petition
then and the visas were issued April 2002. April 17th they will have been here
a year. My wife and daughter are out camping right now with the Brownies. I
would love to be a fly on the wall for that, since my wife's obsessed with
cleanliness and they have no place to bath or shower and I'm sure no one brought
any rice. LOL

    > I noticed the K3 has what seems to be an expiration date of about 4 months
    > after it was issued. I wonder if this can be extended or what this date even
    > means?

You talking about the K-3 petition? From what I was told from the Manila
embassy when my wife and daughter applied is they unofficial revalidate the
petition once the petition packet arrives from at that time INS for another 4
months. Slow as they are I bet many petitions will expire with this new system
by the time the interview takes place. I wouldn't worry about the petition
expiring as long as your wife is making an effort to apply and complete the
process.

Send her some roses. This company has great service and good prices.

http://www.islandrose.net/

This ones good for sending gifts. I sent my wife's whole family gift
certificates for Christmas. Saved the hassle of buying, wrapping and shipping
gifts to the Philippines.

http://www.gcphilippines.com/default2.asp


Take care,


Mike