Getting your lady to the States
O.K., you have found your true love and wish to bring her to the USA, you have two choices. You can petition her as your fiancée or you can marry her in the Philippines and petition her as your wife. By far the best of these choices is the fiancée visa. A fiancée visa will result in your intended arriving in the USA from 4 to 6 months sooner than if you marry her in the Philippines.
In order to petition your chosen one with a fiancée visa (I-129F), you have to have met the lady in person and have some evidence of a relationship. You should have pictures of the two of you together and should exchange plenty of letters. You should also have proof that you visited the Philippines in the form of airline tickets, hotel bills and the entry stamp in your passport.
When you file INS form I-129F for your fiancée, you should include copies of the proof mentioned above. Once you file, you should receive notice of acceptance from the INS in about 4 weeks. After approval, your paperwork is sent to the State Dept. and then our embassy in Manila which takes another 6 to 7 weeks. Your fiancée is then informed by mail to complete a checklist which includes obtaining a passport, getting a national police clearance from the Philippines, obtaining a copy of her birth certificate and getting an Affidavit of Support from you. This is an INS form which you can get at any INS office (I-864). It requires you to provide proof that you are financially able to support your fiancée and also requires you to guarantee her support. Anyone who makes over $16,000 per year can usually qualify. Once your fiancée has all the items on the checklist, she sends a form provided to the embassy in Manila and they schedule an interview for about 4 weeks later.
Before the interview, your fiancée will be required to undergo a physical examination, chest x-ray and blood test. She should take all the evidence of a relationship between the two of you to the interview including pictures and letters. During the interview the interviewer will read your mail. Your most intimate correspondence will be read by a US Government official so don’t bring anything you don’t want them to read. The most important question your fiancée will be asked is "Why do you want to marry this man?" There is only one correct answer and that is "Because I love him".
Assuming your fiancée passes the interview, she will return the next week to get her visa. After that, she has to attend a seminar put on by the Philippine government after which she can get on a plane and fly to her destination, which is you!
Once in the USA, you must marry your fiancée within 90 days or put her on a plane back to the Philippines. Once married, you go to the INS and file a "Change of Status" form. The INS will then schedule an interview for the both of you.
If you desire to be married in the Philippines, you must first obtain an "Affidavit of Legal Capacity to Marry", a legal document to satisfy government officials in the Philippines that you can legally marry your intended. To do this, you take your passport, birth certificate and copies of divorce papers to the embassy in Manila or the consulate in Cebu. You must also take your prospective bride, her birth certificate, photo ID and a lot of letters between you to prove that you have established a relationship. You will not receive this unless you have been writing for at least 6 months and have lots of letters to prove it. Anti-immigration sentiment in the USA has caused State Dept officials to be much tougher.
Assuming you pass this hurdle, you apply for a marriage license and can get married 10 days after it is issued. Once you get back home, you file INS form I-130 and wait and wait and wait. The procedure is much the same as for the fiancée visa but seems to take a lot longer. Our guess, the fiancée visa goes faster because it is just a visitors’ visa and not an immigrant visa. Your bride will have to make a special trip to Manila to get fingerprinted before they schedule an interview. These fingerprints are then sent to the FBI fingerprint center in Washington and this adds 6 to 8 weeks to the whole process.
In total, getting married in the Philippines takes about 4 to 6 months longer than petitioning her as your fiancée. Some of these girls want to be married in the Philippines in front of their family and friends. This can be accomplished at some future date after your bride has permanent residence by both of you returning to the Philippines to get married again.
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