ForumTitleContentMemberSexCountryDate/Time
Philippinesim trying to schedule for my interview appointment online

Priority date is the date on the NOA1.

Case ID would be your MNL number that you received from the NVC. 


CaryhMalePhilippines2014-09-23 10:31:00
PhilippinesGetting Divorce - Need Advice

 

That is how I am reading it now too.  It is a bit confusing how it is written. As long as the USC files, then the divorce is recognized...
 

 

Written by lawyers in Bisaya, converted to Tagalog, then to Taglish, and finally to English by an Ilongo speaker. That is my interpretation to how laws are written in the Philippines.  :lol:

 

 

Actually then the divorce can be recognized. This is no automatic process. The divorced Filipino must petition the court to review the divorce. Which will look at the divorce paperwork and the laws of the location it was given to determine if the divorce was properly given. If the court decrees it was properly given, then that court ruling can be forwarded to the NSO, to finally get the CEMAR annotated. I've heard its up to a 6 month to a year long process. But much cheaper and faster than an annulment. 


Edited by Caryh, 24 September 2014 - 01:48 PM.

CaryhMalePhilippines2014-09-24 13:43:00
PhilippinesGetting Divorce - Need Advice

 

Ah, yes you are correct.Thanks for pointing that out!  I always get confused about that:)  I verified here:

 

http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=20090

 

The above rule, however, admits of exceptions. One exception when divorce can be recognized in the Philippines is in cases of mixed marriages or marriages between a Filipino and a foreigner. In such cases, the foreign spouse may avail of divorce from his own country or from any other country which his own State will recognize. This is anchored on the 2nd paragraph of Article 26 of the Family Code of the Philippines which provides that ?Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.?

The two elements for the application of the above provision are: (1) there is a valid marriage that has been celebrated between a Filipino and a foreigner; and (2) a valid divorce is obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry.

 

This is actually saying the divorce must be filed by the non Philippine Citizen. That is not an exception to the rule. If the Filipino files for it, they need to annul in the Philippines. If a foreigner files for it, the Philippine citizen can go through the process of getting that divorce recognized in the Philippines and having their CEMAR annotated back to being single. Although it will show the previous marriage.


CaryhMalePhilippines2014-09-24 12:00:00
Philippinesbaggage issue

2 bags @ 50 lbs apiece for any international Delta ticket. BUT if you are going on from Manila (like I did to Cebu) the charge for luggage from Manila to Cebu is quite a shock. Nearly 100 dollars If I remember correctly.


I know with Cebu Pacific you can prepay the extra baggage when you book the flight and save some money. The domestic flights are so cheap in the Philippines, I don't mind the baggage fees so much.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-05-16 07:05:00
Philippinesbaggage issue

2 Free bags from Manila to anywhere in the U.S on Delta as long as you stay on Delta. Watch the weight of the bags as they can get you that way, look on the website but I believe its 50lbs each bag, of course converted to Kilo's... Check Delta.com to get all the accurate info than rely on us.. Have a great trip!!!!

http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/baggage/checked/index.jsp
Its still two bags. And 50 pounds and 62 inches is still their limit per their web site. Although I've never seen anyone at the airport pull out a tape measure to check the HxWxD dimensions.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-05-14 15:11:00
Philippinesabout annulment

thanks again my fiance told me that some got approved without cemar and mc annotated but they provide it on their interviews but some are unlucky got rfe im a little bit confused on what to do coz i want my fiance to be with me asap thank u for answering :)

 

If you want to be safe, you wait and file after the CEMAR is annotated. The court approved the annulment, but its not official until the NSO annotates the CEMAR. She could not remarry in the Philippines unless she had the annotated CEMAR, and the I-129F petition requires both are free to marry when the petition is filed.

 

There have been people denied because a court signed off on a divorce, but the paperwork wasn't certified for weeks later, but they filed an I-129 right after the judge signed it. Some may slip by, but do you want to go through the whole process to get denied at the interview because you filed before the CEMAR was annotated?


CaryhMalePhilippines2014-10-10 10:13:00
Philippinesabout annulment

hi can you help me regarding annulment case of my fiancee she got her decision last aug2014 she has her decision and finality can we used this already for filing fiance visa? coz she told me that her mc annotated will release after 3mons coz she's living in mindanao thanks 

 

She'll eventually need the annotated the CEMAR, showing the marriage has been legally terminated. This won't be needed until the interview stage. But do make sure the decision has been filed with the NVC so the CEMAR can get annotated. Until this part has been completed, she is not free to marry as the K-1 requires.

 


Edited by Caryh, 10 October 2014 - 09:25 AM.

CaryhMalePhilippines2014-10-10 09:24:00
PhilippinesUS Manila Embassy allows petitioner to attend the visa interview?

They typically will, but it is up to the CO. 


CaryhMalePhilippines2014-10-17 14:00:00
Philippinesexit clearance for bb stamp

Did you get your CFO stamp in your passport. They won't let you leave unless you've got the CFO stamp.

 

I'm a bit confused about your husband and son having the balikbayan stamp. They entered the country with you and hold American passports? 

 

 

Mods if you can move this to the Philippine forum, this is a country specific question.

 


Edited by Caryh, 08 October 2014 - 10:06 AM.

CaryhMalePhilippines2014-10-08 10:05:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsTime from RFE response to NOA2
I heard within a week after replying to the RFE on our K1. But I've heard of others that have waited months to hear after responding the the RFE. Doesn't seem to be any way to know for sure when they're getting back to your petition.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-02-28 15:46:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsWooooHoooo!! NOA2!! :) Yay!
All depends on the postal service in her country. Once it leaves the USA, the USPS disavows any knowledge of a package's existence. Personally with how much is riding on it, I sent everything via Fedex. How long do you wish to be delayed if it doesn't get there or gets lost?

Congrats on the NOA2!

Edited by Caryh, 28 March 2012 - 03:23 PM.

CaryhMalePhilippines2012-03-28 15:22:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reportsoops, the USCIS "forgot" my application
I would help the person running against your Congressman, and write him to tell why you'll work against him or her.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-04-02 14:06:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsThey're drving us insane!
No one is moving you case backwards because you call. But if your case is getting messed up and delayed for some reason, getting your senator or congressman involved can give them a kick in the butt to get working on your case. I've heard of RFE's causing long delays in the past. I'm not sure why some seem to get processed fast and others slow. My wife and I had one and we had our NOA2 within a week of our reply to them. Our petition was in California, which was moving very fast with approvals at the time. But then they had a huge back log sending the approvals to the NVC. It was taking them 30 days so the process could move forward again.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-04-09 11:54:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reportsvisa denied
You were there and they denied him? Ouch, I feel so sorry for you.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-04-17 16:24:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsConspiracy to deny....
To only send in the I-129 and the check means he didn't even read the instructions that come with the form. Someone had to be super excited or in a very big rush. At least you're at the right place now. If you get an RFE instead of a straight reject, be very careful to be very complete. Start gathering everything now like you're starting from scratch, because you're going to need it all if RFEed or denied.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-04-30 18:09:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsConspiracy to deny....

I only sent the application... My fault... I didn't know!!!! :crying:

Ouch that hurts. I'm not talking the money, I'm talking the lost 150 days. At least you've now found yourself to the right place to get it done right now. We have a conspiracy going here to, its to help everyone get together with their loved one.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-04-30 13:34:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsI opened my eyes!!!
This is exactly why people are supposed to really know each other and be truly committed to each other. I see the failure as a two direction failure. There are some who will do anything to get to America including trying to think they're in love, while there are many Americans that seem to fall in love with the idea of being in love. No one on either side should enter into this process unless they really know the other person and are truly committed. People are not shoes you try on for a while, particularly when you have them giving up their lives in their home country to be with you. Also Americans are not a meal ticket and free pass to a better life. In both cases they are human beings, not tools to get something you want. These type of situations are exactly why they make it hard to get through this process. I just don't understand why people go into it so lightly. I guess I should be glad he was a dog, and she can dump him guilty free. But now we have another dog running around in America, who probably didn't deserve to get here. Another dark stain on the process, and another reason while some will try to make it even harder on the people with real intentions of making a working marriage. To those that seem to think the 90 days is a trial period, what did that letter mean you both wrote and signed saying you intended to marry? Do you often sign things you don't believe are true?
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-05-15 08:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsHow do people do this??
I was apart from my wife for years before we got engaged and she came here. All I can say is it got pretty stressful and harder after we filed the k-1. Stress was from worry if something goes wrong. The hard part is knowing we were finally close to being together forever. Just try to keep busy. Text, phone calls, web cams, whenever you can. When you can't, just try to keep your mind occupied abd busy. I'm sorry to say it won't get easier until she's here. But once she is here, the time apart will seem like nothing. Now its the hours in the day we're working until we're together again that gets to me :lol:
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-05-25 17:51:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsThe K-1 Visa brakes were slammed on us
Now that has got to hurt, I'm so sorry for you. I'm fairly sure the issue is the Birth Certificate is wrong, and as its wrong, its not legitimate. Unfortunately they do not have an easy system to fix such errors there. Some things work easy in the Philippines, others are seem just impossibly hard and silly.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-06-13 10:20:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsNVC's research respone :)

I did exactly as you said. thankfully I had a really nice person and explained to her (nicely) the situation. She told me that it hasn't been sent but to give it 15 days for NVC to receive it because of that " Service request " that I submitted. Hope things can move a little faster :blush:


If I recall correctly, they gave me about the same time frame. But things moved fast at that point. I'm not positive, but I'd venture to guess, some of those nasty customer service reps are just burned out from all the people that go off on them all day. They deal with emotional and upset people all day and have little power or access to information. Staying nice to them, even joking a bit, might turn some of their days around and maybe they'll help the next person more than they did me. Although that one that totally went off on me when I was being nice, she can burn in hades. I would have said have a nice day, but she hung up on me. :rofl:
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-05-04 14:09:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsNVC's research respone :)

OMG!!!! I cant believe that they said that to you. I was thinking that maybe because I got my NOA2 in exactly 4 months they will take about a month to forward it to NVC. But its annoying to see everyone's petition being received 1 week after their NOA2! :huh:
Yesterday I couldn't help it, but I'm defitenely going to try and contacting them again, hopefully I'll get a nice person this time. Now, I have a question for you, when I spoke to someone on Tuesday (05/01/2012) I was told she put in request that I will receive notification in 2 weeks by mail stating when my petition was received at NVC. Does this mean that NVC will get it in 2 weeks? Not sure if this is the request you submitted at USCIS? Because if I'm going to get a notice within 2 weeks stating the date it has been received at NVC, it must mean that they'll have it within that time frame.

thank you so much for your input, I'm gonna keep calling until NVC has my petition! :yes:



They put in a "Service Request" for us. This is the specific term they use. You can't get another service request for 30 days. Two days after the service request went in, we were notified our petition had been forwarded to the NVC via priority courier. A couple days after that, we found they had it but had not issued the number yet. Next day I got the case number. They always say its going to take longer than they will normally get things done. But things can drop through the cracks at times to, after all there are thousands of these cases being processed. Our bio appointment letter for adjusting status was never issued until we put in a service request. We had to wait 30 days while everyone else was getting their's in two weeks. It sounds like you currently have a service request in. As to the letter, we never ever got a letter stating the NVC had our petition or had forwarded it to the embassy. Only calling the customer service line got us our case number. I'd give them a couple days and then call to see what's happening. You may find your petition is out for scheduled shipping, in transit or delivered at the NVC. Next is NVC entering they have it, then assigning a case number, then forwarding. We did get some email updates on the service request to, but they were usually a day or two behind what I found out by calling. Just stay pleasant regardless if you're getting a good person or a bad person when you call. If it was a bad one and you didn't get any real information, try again.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-05-04 10:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsNVC's research respone :)
Those are not USCIS employees. They contract out phone support. So much for the people that say moving immigration services to a private company would improve it. But I agree with you, I have ran into some of the rudest people I've ever dealt with calling USCIS. One actually said, "Whats your problem, you got your NOA2 fast so its not big deal if we take 90 days before sending the petition to the NVC". I've also talked with some very nice ones to. I learned when you get a looser, just say have a nice day, hang up and try again. I've rarely gotten more than two loosers in a row. When we were waiting for our approved petition to get to the NVC from the CSC it was taking about 30 days for California to forward them. We did manage to get one customer service person to put in a service request a little early and got ours there about a week ahead of what most people were waiting at the time.

Edited by Caryh, 04 May 2012 - 09:15 AM.

CaryhMalePhilippines2012-05-04 09:12:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsManila Case Number!!!
Congrats. Well wishes on an easy medical and interview!
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-06-22 14:55:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsRFE: Met my fiancee within the required 2 year period?

Yes, just send them what they require. :thumbs:

I don't know why people are having a hard time understanding your situation. You see your family three or four times per year, and you thought the USCIS would appreciate the fact that you have had a long-term relationship with your fiancée and you have two kids with her. The only thing you didn't do is to send any evidence from the two-year period immediately preceding your filing, but you do have that evidence and you will be sending it in.


I'm a bit confused how they keep assuming the comment "I periodically fly to manila maybe 3-4 times/year to be with them.", means he suddenly stopped doing that in 2009. This totally sounds to me like what he has always been doing over the long years of their relationship, and currently still does. He just didn't understand one of the steps towards approval is proving the in person meeting in the two years previous to filing. Although the front loading of the petition should make it easier on his fiancée at interview time.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-07-02 10:19:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsI cannot determine if my case has been touched

Where does it shows that it's been touch ????


When you've set up an account, you log in and look at "My Portfolio". The last touch is actually the last updated column. My wife's AOS has been sitting at 4/30/2012 since that date. Who knows what they did back then, since it was transfered at the end of November and nothing has happened with it since. Moved from one ignored box to another ignored box apparently.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-07-03 15:19:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsI cannot determine if my case has been touched

Whenever I check my i129f status, I show Initial Review. It has been the same since I received NOA1. Some here appear to show a touch date and I am not able to see such date on mine. This is what I see: Also at the bottom it says expires 06/30/2012 which has past. What does this mean?


You need to create an account to see the touch date. Then when you check the status of the case number, you can log into the account and it will show the last touch.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-07-03 14:54:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reportshow often do u check your email and USCIS web to check ur status??
My wife has been here 7 months and I still check it daily :rofl: Back while waiting for the NOA 2, I would check a few times a day for about the last month of waiting. I got the text message and email before checking the web site one morning. BTW the web site was updated the same day as the text and email showed up, so sometimes it works.


OK OK we're waiting for our green card now, so I really do have a reason. If we're not dropped into the forever wait bit bucket, we should see it in a week or two.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-04-10 11:34:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reportsrumor when entering US
Wiping tears from my eyes from laughing at this thread. I think the average Filipina would have an easier time singing or reciting the US national anthem than the average American would singing or reciting Lupang Hinirang.
CaryhMalePhilippines2012-12-21 13:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsWho is the best person to call / write?
You can try your senators or your congress person. I went to both a senator and my congress woman. With the senator I followed the procedure outlines on their web page. Filled out an authorization form and faxed it in. I received a written response that came after my wife's green card was approved. They were pretty slow. With the representative I faxed in their authorization form and talked with her immigration liaison. He got right on it and had an answer to us very shortly. More than likely, your rep is going to have less people coming to them, and may be able to act faster. The senators have an entire state making requests for help. The next thing to consider is some elected officials will not get involved in immigration issues.
Your first stop should be their web site to see what form they may want you to fill out. Next I recommend calling and finding out who to talk with, then talking directly if possible. I wouldn't reply on just one rep or senator, like in our case, I went to our rep and one senator. Both worked on the case, but one got on it much faster. Both were known for being helpful to citizens requesting help. If you're not over the currently posted time frame for processing, their not going to be able to help much. But if you are, USCIS coming under the scrutiny of elected officials seems to get their butt in gear normally.
CaryhMalePhilippines2013-01-22 15:03:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsWrong RFE??
Excellent news for you! Probably not good news for whoever was supposed to get the RFE. I hope they still get their copy in a timely manner.
CaryhMalePhilippines2013-02-07 13:54:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsWrong RFE??
Sounds to me as if you've been given someone else's RFE. Did you talk with a second tier customer service agent? The first person you get don't appear to have access to any case information, and only hand out canned answers, or submit canned inquiries for you which result in canned "wait longer" answers. But one thing I did learn when we did our K1, is they can and do loose documents you send. We got an RFE for items that were included originally in our original petition. You could always make an infopass appointment and find out for sure.
CaryhMalePhilippines2013-02-06 16:14:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsRFE

i received a txt message today .. when should i receive a hard cope of a letter?? any ideas how long it takes?


Now thats getting tough to remember exactly, but I think it was about a week until the letter showed up. What I do clearly remember, is it felt like forever waiting for the letter.
CaryhMalePhilippines2013-02-08 16:00:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsRFE

no i got a txt message/// cant wait to see what they want from me


thank you for kind words! i feel better now!! what did they want you to send them when you got FRE??


It was hard to tell actually. While some get clearly worded RFE's, our's was just copy and pasted rules sections, with no explanation of the deficiency. One part was the rule requiring the letter of intent, we included original signed letters of intent, but we sent new ones where they were signed in a different color than the printed color. The originals were printed and signed in black ink. Another was the rules section on having met in the previous two years of filing and of having a valid relationship. I had sent what I thought was plenty of proof of the previous two visits. This is were I really went to town in the RFE and added a lot more proof and a decent length letter detailing how long I had know her. It was about 8 years at that point. Third was proof of my citizenship. I had a sent a copy of my birth certificate, and a copy of the bio page from my passport. Resent a copy of every page of my passport and sent an original birth certificate. Two of the areas it appeared I had sent enough, but a helpful and nice tier 2 customer service rep told me sometimes they loose things and to resend everything I sent before plus more, since there was no way to be sure they had not lost something, or maybe they wanted more proof. It was the relationship and meeting section of the RFE reply that made my wife's interview a breeze. The IO just made nice comments to my wife about things in the file and every time she asked if he'd like a copy of something, he'd say I already have it :rofl: There were no tough questions, just things like what do you plan to do in the USA, and you've really known your fiancé a long time. She was so worried before hand to, for what went very very easy, but that was a good thing.
CaryhMalePhilippines2013-02-08 15:55:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsRFE
Its a sad event, but it can be a blessing in disguise. I did such a good follow up to the RFE I got on the K1 I filed, that my now wife flew through the interview. I think I was in a fog during the entire filing process. So much depended on these papers, I was so excited, I was so worried, its like my mind was constantly bouncing around. I thought I had it down perfect, but the RFE told me I made some mistakes. I really took my time and was very careful with the RFE. My now wife was all excited and wondering when I'd send the response. I told her I wouldn't rush it, something I think I did with the original petition, I super organised and explained exactly every thing I include in my response. When I returned the RFE I had total confidence, and six days later we had the NOA2.
CaryhMalePhilippines2013-02-08 14:48:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsRFE QUESTIONS

SO im still waiting since march 5th to my reply for a rfe. Its now almost may and i still have not heard anything about a no2. I know once and probably will hit the 60 day mark i can file an service request correct? What exactly does this do?? What happens after the 60 days? Do they have to give me a descion in a short time frame?


Sorry to say, they can still do what ever they want. Every service request I ever filed resulted in a canned form letter telling me to keep waiting.
CaryhMalePhilippines2013-04-22 13:52:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsGot an RFE on May 30

Look at the bright side, it means your case is close to completion. Its much better than wondering when they're going to ever pick up your petition. My wife and I had an RFE to, at first our reaction was like your's. But I used the opportunity to front load the petition at that point, and it made the interview process very simple and easy on my wife. Later, we were both very happy we got the RFE.

 


CaryhMalePhilippines2013-05-31 08:41:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsNOA2 wait over a year

Members, thank you all for your support. Today my k 1 got approved. Looking forward to the next step, more advice is welcome. God bless ya`ll

 

Great news! its amazing how fast this suddenly happens when you're over due and the a congressman or senator asks why.


CaryhMalePhilippines2013-11-07 09:20:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsNOA2 wait over a year

Members, thank you all for being in here. I had an appointment at my local office about my over one year NOA2 wait,I was told that they have my RFE response, good it is not lost. But worse of it all, they told me that a decision should be made in four months. Is that realistic? after waiting for over a year and being on RFE review for over five months, what do you think guys? Also, I contacted the office of my senator, they asked me to fill in a privacy release form and they are inquiring about my petition but I dont know if they can have it expedited. Do you think the Senator will really help or pressurize them to make a decision before four months? I dont think there is any fairness in USCIS? If they havent lost my petition and everything is okay, then why do they take so long to make a decision?

 

The USCIS appears not to like the attention of Senators and congressmen. Yes its not fair they've sat on it so long, and they know they've messed up sitting on it so long, unless they had to investigate something and that can take a while. So getting the attention of congress often spurs them to dig out your file from where its been buried and finally get it done. There's no guarantee it will happen quickly now, but when you're over due, generally it will help move it along.


CaryhMalePhilippines2013-11-04 09:00:00
PhilippinesI was asked why does the Phils have a high incidence of scam. Agree or disagree?

People on this site are too quick to label people as scammers; especially if it's a woman from the Philippines.

 

As I've said before, most of the "bad" Fil-Am marriages I've seen are bad because of the US citizen. 

 

A man who goes to the Philippines, acts like he is kind, wealthy, and generous - but totally changes when the marriage finally takes place is, in my opinion, just as guilty of a scam as anybody else.

 

But also, not every failed marriage was a scam.  I can go for weeks or months without ever speaking to anybody in my family.  But my wife still talks to her mom almost every day.  She is just so much closer to her family than I am.  If she had got here and found that she simply could not be so far away from her family; that wouldn't mean she scammed me.  It would just mean that the difficulties in this type of a relationship were too much for us to overcome.  Thankfully, our marriage is fine, but I can understand how  hard it can be. 

 

But too often, people have had this happen to them and then post here on VJ about how "my Filipina" scammed me.  And then the entire herd of people who just wait to criticize Filipinas jumps in.  It does get a little old.

 

I understand completely what you're saying here. This is a pretty common complaint of Filipinas in the USA. They're so close to family that being separated suddenly causes all types of problems with them dealing with the separation.

 

But to make a point towards the Philippines being a high fraud country, the Philippines is a country that runs on fraud, bribes and corruption. Everyone knows how to find a fixer for just about any thing. They might be a real fixer, or they may be just trying to take someone's money, so even the fraud creators are often scammers. I know a Canadian who lived in the Philippines. He married and had children with a Filipina and eventually the marriage went sour. A few years later he meets another Filipina and decides he wants to marry her. So he found a fixer to fix his marriage record showing him once again as single. The then married this new Filipina, which created quite a stir when he died and two wives showed up to collect all the assets from his business. But he was smart and left a will leaving it all to his daughter back in Canada. 

Another Filipina, coworker of my sister in law. Meets an American and wants to come to the USA on a K-1. Only problem was she was married to a Filipino who left her a number of years earlier. At first she was going to use her sister's identity to get the K-1. But her sister decided she might one day get an American to. So the American pays for a Fixer within the NSO to fix her CEMAR and get it turned into a CENOMAR. She's been in the USA a number of years now, married to that American and they have children together. 

Both of these are cases of fraud that happens constantly in the Philippines. In the later case if the marriage had failed I could see the husband complaining he had been a victim of fraud because she was already married. Even if he knew that fact up front and even paid to get it fixed. 

How many people here with families or in laws in the Philippines haven't heard of the free rice handed out at election time? Or you want to get someone charged with a crime and arrested, but the cops do nothing until you pay them something? 

Is their fraud in the Philippines? Its full of it, but that doesn't equate to marriage fraud. Although in a society that deals with so much fraud and corruption, can there really be any doubt that there will be scammers that will scam a person into marriage in order to get into the USA? 

From what I've seen many cases of claimed fraud are angry spouses in failed relationships, and there was no intent to commit fraud at the beginning. But I'd be foolish to think a society with such a high level of endemic corruption, isn't going to see a higher percentage of scammers than from countries that don't see as corruption in their society.


CaryhMalePhilippines2014-02-27 12:45:00
PhilippinesI was asked why does the Phils have a high incidence of scam. Agree or disagree?

 

 

http://www.gao.gov/a.../650/647871.pdf Pg 20, Footnote 33

 

With global access to the Internet, fraud scams used in one country or continent have 
quickly made their way to others, and therefore high-fraud countries and 
posts have shifted from year to year. For example, only 4 countries were 
among the top 10 countries for visa fraud in both 2005 and 2010: the 
Dominican Republic, Ghana, Jamaica, and Peru.
 
The other six countries among State?s 2005 Fraud Ranking included: Bangladesh, El 
Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nigeria, and the Philippines.

 

 

The report also notes below - So

 

"What GAO Found

Certain countries and visa categories are subject to higher levels of fraud. In fiscal year 2010, almost 60 percent of confirmed fraud cases (9,200 out of 16,000) involved applicants from Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, India, and Mexico. Department of State (State) officials told GAO that fraud most commonly involves applicants for temporary visits to the United States who submit false documentation to overcome the presumption that they intend to illegally immigrate. Fraud is also perpetrated for immigrant visas and nonimmigrant visa categories such as temporary worker visas and student visas." 


Edited by Caryh, 27 February 2014 - 09:19 AM.

CaryhMalePhilippines2014-02-27 09:18:00