Question for board about my fiance visa....

[red]

Hello everone. Hope you had a Happy Holiday Season. As some of you know, i am still having problems getting my fiance here from the Philippines.She took her physical at St. Luke's and submitted all paperwork in April of last year, but has not yet had an interview. I call every 2 weeks and my Congressman even wrote them to ask what was taking so long. So far, i have had no luck.

Since my fiance is a nurse she can work a one year nursing contract in the UK (England). She wants me to first go to the Philippines and for us to get married. Then she will go to the UK. At the end of the year she was told by some of her nursing friends that she could then come to the United States much faster and easier than she could if she stayed in Manila, because the Embassy in the UK is much faster than the Embassy in Manila, and she will be my wife at that time.

My question for the board....Is this a good idea?? She seemed excited about it. But i am skeptical.

I guess it would change everything, but i don't know if it would be for the better. We are both frustrated at this time, and i am at my wits end with this whole thing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated by both of us.

Best Regards
       Red

[Dave H]

... in response to Question  for board about my fiance visa..., posted by red on Jan 25, 2003

[This message has been edited by Dave H]

Hi Red,

Sorry to hear that the problem is still going on. It doesn't sound like a good idea for your fiancee to go to the UK. It will just complicate matters more and add a few more years to the process. Tell her not to believe everything her friends tell her...then go sit (or sh...it) on your Congressman's desk to get their attention! Sounds like he/she never got a response and didn't follow up. Good Luck!

Dave H.

[Esiang]

... in response to Question  for board about my fiance visa..., posted by red on Jan 25, 2003

Not a good idea...

     For all I know there's no more interview for
fiance visa since 2000 or 2001, you should know this if you
are reading the rules at http://usembassy.state.gov/manila/

    After taking medical and submitted all the paperworks,
you will only have to wait for the visa.My best friend gets
her fiancee visa after 3 weeks.

You should keep calling the embassy in Manila and check your case, try to make these people rush your papers you have all the right,it's your embassy. Spousal visa is the one that takes so long for some more than 2 years,1 years but ours less than a year. We've tried to contact
Senators,Congressman all they say is balahhhh...blah....
blahhh......well nothing helps really, some even contacted
the President of the Phils.

    Esiang

[SJ]

... in response to Re: Question  for board about my fiance ..., posted by Esiang on Jan 25, 2003

As of around Nov. 2002 interviews are again part of the routine

[bryan]

... in response to Re: Question  for board about my fiance ..., posted by Esiang on Jan 25, 2003

I feel for ya man. We were @ the same point as you around the same time and Angie is here with her PR card, SS # and is curently in the living room studying for a GED she has to have to get financial aid for school. We are going to get her into an accounting program as business seems to be her calling. She ran the family business in Manila and is very sharp,she spent most of her secondary ED in a chinese school, very demanding although she had to quit her final year to run the store.

Anyway, I think I'd be makin a nuisance of myself @ this point if I were you. Im not sure what the hold up is, kids, documentation or whatever but i dont think I would accept anything that wasnt  a good explanation for the protracted hang up. Even then i would still push harder than once every two weeks. I'd be buyin into a call plan and makin my very polite and well intentioned needs known on a daily basis. Damn you'd think with the need for nurses over here they'd be rollin out the red carpet.

[Ray]

... in response to Question  for board about my fiance visa..., posted by red on Jan 25, 2003

Red,

When did your Congressman contact the embassy? I think you need to put the pressure on your Congressman to do his job.

Who have you been calling at the embassy? Did you speak to someone in the Immigrant Visa branch where they process the fiancee visas? Forget about that $6 info line because they don’t know anything.

If they have had all of her paperwork since April and the visa has not net been approved or denied, then the file probably got lost or misplaced at the embassy or at St. Luke’s. Does the embassy have her passport? The problem is in Manila and that’s where you need to solve it.

By going to the Philippines and getting married, you will be starting all over again with a new petition because she would no longer be eligible for a fiancee visa. You would be looking at maybe 6-8 months wait for a K-3 visa.

By going to the U.K., she would only complicate everything further. She could NOT get a K-3 visa in the U.K. if she was married in the Philippines. The K-3 can only be issued in the country where you were married.

Good luck,

Ray

[red]

... in response to Fiance visa, posted by Ray on Jan 25, 2003

Thanks for your response Ray. It was before Christmas that my Congressman contacted the Embassy. I will write and call him again this upcoming week to have him follow-up.

I always called the 6 dollar number, but will now call the Immigrant Visa Unit as per your advice. I did fax the Immigrant Visa Unit twice at 011-632-338-4129 and they did not even have the courtesy to respond to me.That was once last year and then again just 2 weeks ago. I guess i will fax them again next week. I have always been so polite, but maybe i need to be a little nasty.

Her physical and NBI will expire in April. This is a damn mess. Will she have to get another physical and NBI, if she is not approved by then? I dont understand what is the problem, and why they refuse to even respond to my simple questions.

Anyway, thanks a lot to you and to everyone here.

Best Regards
       Red

[Ray]

... in response to Re: Fiance visa, posted by red on Jan 26, 2003

Red,

Yep, it probably is about time to get nasty with them. But I don’t think it would do much good. You can still be polite and courteous, but be polite and courteous once or twice a day, five days a week. Time to be persistent. If you find someone at the IV branch that has a sympathetic ear, by all means make that daily “polite” call and keep bugging them until they issue the damn visa.

I think I would start calling my congressional contact once every 3 days, then every 2 days, then daily, then hourly, etc., until they get sick and tired of your polite ass. They are the ones who can get results from the embassy by getting nasty. If you think that your congressional office is dragging their feet, ask them for the phone number of your Senator :-)

If the embassy told me that she would need another physical or NBI clearance because they sat on her file for a year, then I think I would go postal on them :-)

Good luck,

Ray

[Mita]

... in response to Fiance visa, posted by Ray on Jan 25, 2003

Ask your fiancee to get you the trunkline number of the embassy or get it online.  You'll not get anything from the paid service line. Ask the operator for the  non-immigrant visa section  and they'll help you.
YOU have to do the calling and bugging and showing them your exasperation.    Believe me, it works.
Call from 10-12 noon Manila time.