Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 filing Overseas	So my wife filed her N-400 and the check was cashed and we received the NOA1 dated 3 October 2014. However, when we checked the case status it says it can't find the status of the case. I called the 800 number and the gentleman on the phone could not find it and said to call back next week. I was wondering if anyone else has filed that works for the US Government and is posted overseas. Did they send your package to the nearest embassy for processing or did you have to go back to the US for everything?	sam357	Male	Philippines	2014-10-28 06:38:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	Fingerprinting Overseas in Japan	I may try the Japanese route. The embassy won't book an appointment for it and having no luck with the folks on base. Thanks	sam357	Male	Philippines	2014-04-02 04:16:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	Fingerprinting Overseas in Japan	Hopefully someone can give me some help. I am living in Japan now and need to remove conditions for my wife. We have everything but the fingerprints we have to send. I contacted the US Embassy because USCIS told me to go there to do her fingerprints. However, they said they don't  do that. I also contacted the base at Yokota and was told they don't either.    Has anyone done this at one of the bases in Japan? Yokota, Yokosuka, Camp Zama? It doesn't matter to me I just want to get this done.    Thanks	sam357	Male	Philippines	2014-04-01 07:08:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	2x2 picture?	You do need to submit them if you are overseas on military or government orders when you submit your package.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2014-05-02 23:11:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	The Journey Is Over - Now We Are In Hawaii TOGETHER	Congrats!	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-07-23 03:38:00
Philippines	am I cheap?	You are being used in the worst way and being robbed. I am fortunate that I live close to the PI and I go every month and have an apartment with my fiancee. You are spending more money in a week than I spend all year to have an apartment, electricity, cable and Internet access along with food for my girl. I grew up in the PI, but I am not Filipino, and have been going back for years. I see this happen to many men who don't listen to good advice. Once you get her to the States you will be in for serious heartbreak, she will dump you as soon as she gets the chance to get somebody that she thinks can provide a little more. You should just cut your loses and move on...	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-05-01 12:30:00
Philippines	Bohol as vacation destination (not visa related)	I have been to Bohol many times. I love that place and people are great. You can book your own room but the last few times I have been the package tour from Zest air was cheaper. You can check them out here http://www.zestair.com.ph/	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-04-26 04:43:00
Philippines	Scheduling Interview	I paid the visa fee on the 30th of May but I keep receiving the following error: Please check date of issue of Fee receipt. It is valid 2 working days up to 1 year from date of issue. Are you entering details of the Fee receipt issued in your name? If the data is rightly captured and unable to create a new appointment select ‘Exit’ button and contact our help line for further information. Has anyone experienced this? If so how did you fix it? Thanks	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-06-02 12:37:00
Philippines	DS156 or DS160	Read a bit further on the Embassy's website. K-1erz don't use the DS-160 in Manila. The beneficiary will need two copies of the DS-156, one copy of the DS-156K, and two copies of the DS-157. Best wishes on your visa journey! Thanks for the info.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-05-18 04:13:00
Philippines	DS156 or DS160	I see alot of people on here saying they are still using the DS156 and DS157. However, on the USEM website it says to use the DS160 online version and it replaces the previous mentioned forms. So is it the online DS160 or the DS157/7?	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-05-18 03:44:00
Philippines	Foreign fiancee preparation	Aloha y'all. We will send the I-129F packet next week, and I want to research specifically what we will need for the fiancee in the Philippines. What can she assemble now? What all forms and documents does she need? I have looked on some of the stickied threads above, but a lot of those links are dead. So if anyone has a link to a more complete list, please share it with me. Basically, we want to be prepared for when we get the approval, we are ready with what we need. Yes, I know we have a long way to go, but it's better to be prepared. Also, what are the costs for the medical exam and vaccinations, etc. Or is there a link to that info? Thanks folks. This link will help you prepare. It is from the USEM: http://photos.state.... Packet _3_.pdf	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-06-15 05:29:00
Philippines	Sputum Test	Did you really say that!?! 2 months is not so bad for me..plus I go to the PI every month so it is not like we don't get to see each other. I don't mind waiting a little bit longer until she can leave there.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-06-20 04:11:00
Philippines	Sputum Test	Ok..my fiancee finished the sputum three day test and the results were negative.. . She said the doctor showed her the X-rays and explained everything to her. She did not have a spot on her lungs but her lungs looked "thin and light" so that is why they wanted to do the test, sounds like some BS to me but you have to play the game. So now we have to go through the two month wait. Luckily I am able to travel to the PI every month to see her so no problem. However, this just seems crazy that they just arbitrarily do sputum tests when they see nothing on the X-rays..... It is all good though, two months is a piece of cake. Just wanted to let others know not to worry too much about the sputum test.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-06-17 06:58:00
Philippines	Do we need to wait for Manila #	I will just tell you what I did. I waited four days after my NOA2 email and called and got my MNL#. After that I paid the Visa fee and then had her do the medical (glad I did...Sputum test). Once we knew we had to wait the two months it gave us time to get everything else together. Knocking out the medical right away just makes it much easier the rest of the way..IMHO.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-07-28 21:32:00
Philippines	What's your favorite area in the Phils?	I think Bohol is probably the place I want to live in eventually but Angeles City will always be in my heart since I grew up there.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-07-31 06:10:00
Philippines	Sputum Test	I found out today that September appointments are available, but i am still being told that we have to wait until St Luke clears her. I have tried unsuccessfully to schedule the appointment online but it does not like anything i enter for teh receipt number, I've tried the passport number as well as the actual receipt number. Any ideas? Anyone have a good number an American at the Immigrant Visa Unit in Manila? You can call this number..(214) 571-1600. I called and got a September appointment. There are a few left in August as well..(as of two days ago).	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-07-28 21:37:00
Philippines	Sputum Test	Happy to be a part of the club. Don't feel alone. We are on the third day of the test today. Plus she told me there was about 200 people there for the test when she arrived the first day.... . Just hang in there and it will be over soon.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-06-14 15:32:00
Philippines	Visa Approved	Yes congrats on a smooth approval! I hope it goes as easy for us except my fiancee will be without me at the interview. She is happy but nervous. I know she will be fine because there is nothing to hide. Try telling that to her! Haha. Congrats again on the painless interview!! Wish us the best! Trey, Just tell her to relax and answer the questions. Have her practice with someone on doing the interview. I saw a couple of ladies get tripped up and they had to go sit down and come back up for a second interview. But if she relaxes she will be just fine. Good luck.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-09-10 00:52:00
Philippines	Visa Approved	Thanks. Best of luck to you both.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-09-09 15:06:00
Philippines	Visa Approved	Well our visa was approved today and the process was mostly painless. I will try to get a short synopsis of everything I did from start to finish. Others may have done it their own way and that is fine, just sharing what I did. When I filled out the initial petition I scanned it and sent it via email to my fiancé and had her sign it, scan it, and send it back. We also did the any other documents she needed to sign this way as well. I had her go take some pictures, scan them and email them to me as well. When I got them I used the online tool on the USCIS site and made sure they were the right size and then I printed them out on some photo paper. Everything was accepted and I didn’t receive an RFE for anything. I know other folks mailed and got original signatures for everything but that just didn’t make sense to me. However, everyone needs to do what gives them peace of mind and I was fine with doing it this way. When I got my NVC notification I waited a couple of days and called and they gave me my case number. When we got this we paid the Visa fee at BPI and did the medical the following week, which I am glad we did because she had to do the Sputum test so that pushed us back a few weeks. Once the results came back negative we scheduled the interview. We could have done it earlier but I wanted to be here to ease her mind as I know she was nervous. We got to the embassy about 5 am, I wish I wouldn’t have gone so early as there is really no need. I am glad I read one review the other day though about not standing back by the seawall. If you listen to the hawkers they will tell you to line up by time but don’t listen to them at all. The guards will come out and tell everyone to line up by time inside the barriers. You go through a line outside where they check your appointment letter and her passport. Make sure you get a 2GO delivery form at this point, they forgot to give us one. You go through security screening and get in another line where your DS forms are checked and given a number. Once inside the interview area we dropped off all the DS forms, appointment letter at window 39. This started the process. We had to wait a while and was called to Window 56. Now this is where my experience may differ from most. We handed the affidavit of support, supporting documentation, and supporting evidence. There was a Filipina screener there and she asked my fiancée only 3 questions…how we met,had she been outside the country and how often I came. When she told her I am there every month she was a little surprised. She asked me about my daughter and did I have a job, I just gave her my employment verification and she was fine. We only had three pictures because I hate taking them but I had one of my daughter and my fiancée taken when she came over with me one trip. From there we got went next to the fingerprint station and this was the only headache. The fingerprints didn’t take but they didn’t tell us until an hour later so we waited all that time for nothing. Once the fingerprints were taken again we went back and sat for another 30 minutes. We got called up to window 61 and we greeted the American consular. He was friendly and looked over the paperwork. Once we were sworn in he asked her..1.How did we meet. 2. Had she traveled outside the country. He asked me what brought me over and when I told him I am here all the time we just pretty much talked and joked about the PI for a while. He then looked at my fiancée and told her congrats that she is approved. After that we went to window 68 and 69 for the 2GO form which we changed to a pick up at a 2GO outlet. The process was pretty simple and we had our forms all together. However, like I said I am in the PI every month on business or vacation because I live in Guam. It was pretty easy to see we had been together for a while and it was not a scam marriage. I would still recommend having all that evidence that people suggest because I saw a few get turned down and they had books of evidence where we only had a small binder holding our forms. Good luck to everyone on their journey as well.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-09-09 02:02:00
Philippines	POE	I'm confused on why you would get your bags in Honolulu...she will be on the same flight going onto Houston....the flight number does not change. I'm assuming it's the same plane. Will she still need to claim her bags? You have to pick up your bags in Hawaii so you can clear US customs. That will be the first and last time you have to clear customs.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-09-17 02:35:00
Philippines	POE	That is not correct. You will go through immigration in Guam but you will clear customs in Hawaii. Your bags will be checked all the way through. They will explain it to you on the plane. I live in Guam and take the flight often. In fact most people don't realize there is no US Customs in Guam. The US controls immigration but Guam has their own customs you have to clear. Guam is a territory not a US state. Edited by sam357, 16 September 2011 - 05:56 AM.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-09-16 05:54:00
Philippines	Question On Booking Plane Tickets For Fiancee	I was wondering if I will encounter any problems using Expedia to book the plane tickets for my fiancee once her visa is delivered? I created her account on Expedia and made myself her travel arranger, so I can book flights with her traveler information and pay them with my credit card. An Expedia call center agent (a Filipina I'm pretty sure) said that this was okay. From a few other discussion on this forum, however, it seems that sometimes people at the airport may ask to see a credit card number (but not all the time does this happen). Do you think this would really happen? I was thinking about using Japan Airlines/American Airlines, or perhaps Philippine Airlines/Delta. She could fly to LAX using Philippine Airlines and just pay cash, but I don't believe she could find a ticket for say, United Airlines, going from LAX to SAT. I think it's just better if I can create her entire itinerary, well, actually two (1st is from MNL to LAX, then 2nd is from LAX to SAT - much cheaper to separate the flights like that). If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear. If you book it through Expedia or any third party like Travelocity you will not need to present the credit card to the airline as they pay the carrier on your behalf when you buy the ticket from them. If you book directly through an airline, such as Delta or Phil Air then they may ask for the credit card.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-06-07 06:27:00
Philippines	waiver	TB? I think you are talking about the vaccinations. We are in the same boat. My fiancee got here, we got married, need to adjust status and she got pregnant the week after she got here and can't take all the shots. On the DS3205 (i think that is the form), the Doc has to put a waiver due to medical reasons, so she can't get them right now.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-10-26 04:00:00
Philippines	Wants to give up and Return to Philippines?	I think you are asking for trouble to have a support group or anyone else talk her into staying. If she doesn't like it and wants to leave then you should let her go. It is better to end it now than to god forbid you get a kid with her and then she is still miserable and wants to leave later.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-10-26 18:05:00
Philippines	4 days ......	Good luck on your wedding and your marriage.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-12-07 18:01:00
Philippines	Post Sputum Timeline – Questions	We had to go to the sputum test as well. I also read that St. Lukes made the appointment but I didn't want to rely on them. I think my wife's culture was supposed to be ready around the last of August so I scheduled her appointment with the embassy for the 5th of September. I had her call a couple of days before the date they gave her and they told her to call back the next day. When she called back they had her come down the next day to finish her exam. I hope this helps and good luck.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-12-28 05:49:00
Philippines	Fraud wife being removed from US	Some of you might remember my topic from a couple months ago but here it is: http://www.visajourn...amous-marriage/ Basically, she was married in the Philippines in 1982, hid that marriage, married US Citizen#1 in 1991, came to the US. Divorced both Philippine Citizen and US Citizen #1 and married me, US Citizen #2. I never knew the facts until 2010. Well, on January 13, the immigration judge ordered her removal. We are still in divorce proceedings and I am now wondering if once she goes back to the philippines, and since the Philippines does not recognize divrce, does her original marriage to the Filipino supercede our US marriage? How can she be both married to the Filipino in the Philippines and to a US Citizen in the US? Do I even need to obtain a divorce? Yes, I have a lawyer. What about an annulment since she wasn't legally able to get married?	sam357	Male	Philippines	2012-01-23 23:23:00
Philippines	Medical Interview Problem HELP!!	We had the same issue. If they think she might be pregnant she will not get the shots. When she gets to the US and she is not pregnant, she just has to get them done in the US. Like someone else said, if she has the disk she passed. They will just note it on the DS-3025 (I think that is the form number), that she will get the shots in the US, no worries.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2012-01-30 23:28:00
Philippines	bad american or bad problem	Darren, maybe you should just let them sort this out themselves. If the girl is over 18 she is an adult and free to do as she pleases. You will not be able to save her from every foreigner that comes along. She got into that situation on her own accord, let her leave on her own. You can give her advice and tell her the guy is no good but that is as far as you should go. Remember how everyone bashed you when you were dating your then fiancee?	sam357	Male	Philippines	2012-06-06 04:07:00
Philippines	cooking	We had a cook when my wife first came. After the two kids came we had to start cutting back on expenses so I said "honey, why don't you learn to cook and we can get rid of the paid chef". She said "OK honey, then you learn to screw me properly and we can get rid of the gardener too." Best thing I have read in this thread....	sam357	Male	Philippines	2012-06-17 18:42:00
Philippines	sending money to the family back in the phils	Most of this is good advice and one post is just bad advice. I kept a place in the PI for two years with my GF living there and it costs me no more than $350 a month for bills and to take care of her. That included rent, cable, internet and electricity, so you are really doing good by them to send them $300 a month. You are not obligated to send anything. I know it makes your wife feel bad because she wants to help but you will go broke and crazy trying to extend yourself to please someone who is selfish. I would send my GF extra each month if she wanted something which I had no problem doing. When she was preparing to come here we had a long talk and she talked to her folks and told them how it would be. She even let me know they can only get something if it is really needed and that I would not send anything without asking her first because she knows some requests will be BS, which is just fine with me. I would cut them off and not send a dime. First I would talk to the wife and let her see for herself how selfish they are being.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2011-10-05 04:53:00
Philippines	22 Aug. Visa collected, 23. Aug. CFO done & 24 off to SeaTac,WA	Congratulations and have a safe trip	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-08-23 04:16:00
Philippines	Interview Calendar filling up FAST! (K1)	You are correct the only date you will see is the next available appointment. However, you can check back everyday as people cancel appointments all the time and then it updates.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-09-13 19:12:00
Philippines	Sept 11 Interviews in progress right now	Status Just went to AP now what do I do?   It's just a waiting game for you now. It could be nothing or they could be looking at your case a little more closely. Most of the time it will be over within 30 days.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-09-13 05:39:00
Philippines	Available interview dates	My sister-in-law had a 25 Oct date yesterday. I cancelled her appointment and got made one for the 25th of September since her fiancee is computer illiterate. If you see the date on the appointment website you have to cancel yours and select that date real quick. Why didn't you move your appointment up?	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-09-17 03:43:00
Philippines	Flying with child under age 2 to Phils	Save your money. We flew with our 14 month old and it was no problem .	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-09-18 22:56:00
Philippines	K-1 Question	Nope, done at the embassy all the time.   FPU (Fraud Prevention Unit) most likely will sit her down and talk to her (no glaring light bulb though).  The embassy may only be confused as to who is who that introduced you two.   May only need to clarify that is was YOUR brother that introduced you to HIS sister in law...   Sounds good. I will let her know.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-09-25 11:27:00
Philippines	K-1 Question	Stokes interview? I thought they were only done during the green card process.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-09-25 10:19:00
Philippines	K-1 Question	Ok understand the confusion, her fiancées brother is married to her sister. Hence her brother-in-law or sisters husband introduced them.	sam357	Male	Philippines	2013-09-25 10:15:00