Abby and Win’s Blog

After exactly three weeks our wait is over, we were suppose to go to Laguna today our province but I am not feeling well so we stayed home. Sherwin tried calling the embassy today but nobody is answering. So what we did is check the delbros(courier) website, it still says no data found.
Thank God our prayers has been answered. At 3pm in the afternoon my sister-in-law came knocking at our room telling us that messenger has a visa delivery for me. My husband was downstairs in a flash while I was still wondering why delbros didnt message us since the usual procedure is notification that the visa will be out for delivery. I was thinking negatively as I went down and that didnt changed until I opened the package and saw my passport with immigrant visa on it…….Yahoo!
We are so overjoyed to see that our prayers has been granted, we went to hear mass in the afternoon at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine.
The next thing to do now is confirm and get our ticket for our flight via PAL this April. And I still have 3 weeks to plan for our church wedding next year;)

Finally after the embassy has requested from the NSO in the last week of February, they received whatever the USE requested to validate our marriage. My husband is informed that they got the letter yesterday and is now into the consuls office to review our case. Well I hope everything will go well and that they will deliver our visa as soon as possible. Sherwin got a letter from his superior telling him their approval of his extended leave till the end of May. We will try to call the embassy again before the week ends for any update.
It’s good enough to know that our case is being taken care of and that its moving closer hopefully to the approval and visa release. Its now hard and expensive to get a ticket to fly back with my husband to america since it is peak season already. He may not be able to use his free mabuhay mileage since the next free flight will be on May 15. We plan to leave as soon as we get my visa since my husband has to take care of important things at work. We just have to wait for the visa to reschedule our PAL flights.
We have faith that God will make things happen for us in a way that will be best for both of us.

Sherwin and I checked-in last Sunday at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino for 3 days and two nights. The hotel is near Robinsons mall, a couple of blocks away from the USA embassy and there are lot of different international restaurant-japanese,thai,italian,chinese,etc., near it. Stay per day is around 8,000++pesos or around $180 per night inclusive of buffet breakfast. The rooms are very nice and clean as expected in a 5 star hotel, the service is great as well. We enjoyed our stay since we used their different ammenities like the swimming pool and sauna. We even went to the casino and gamble 200 pesos on our first night and won 2700 pesos;). We spent our winnings in one of the nearby japanese restaurant(teriyaki dragon).
For me, the best would still be Shangri-la Makati where we stayed in May last year. We have been together in Bay View Hotel, Manila Pavilion, and Mandarin Hotel while I have experienced staying with my mom in other hotels like Edsa shangri-la Hotel, Manila Peninsula Hotel, Diamond Hotel, Hotel Philppine Plaza, Hotel Nikko, New Renaissance Hotel, Traders Hotel, Heritage Hotel, Sheraton Hotel and some others but so far the best breakfast and room will be Makati Shangri-la Hotel. As for dinner buffet, the best will be at Hotel Philippine Plaza at 1500++per head.

Its been exactly two weeks since our interview, my husband called the embassy again and was told that the reason why we are under review is because the National Statistiics office(NSO) here in Manila has not yet sent them the request to check the validity of our marriage which they have submitted in the last week of Feb. So maybe thats the reason why he didnt asked us anything else(documents) that we brought since he will still have to review our case when they have the request they need to finalize our petition.
In one of the website which help us during the process to make the petition faster, there are couples who had their case completed almost the same time as ours has their interview date two weeks later than ours. This was just my observation which I told my hubby. There were three of us who has completed on the same date, two of them had their interview this week and has been approved. Perhaps the embassy has time to check whatever they need to check at the NSO, considering they are two weeks later than us. Well I am just trying to rationalize the consuls action since we really have everything to prove our relationship is real.
My husband cousin went to the same process as ours last year, but the thing is they received a letter from the embassy prior to the interview that the visa delivery may take long because they still have to make a routine check at the civil registry. At least they need not wonder whats happening with their case.
We are keeping our hopes up and continuously praying for our petition to be finally completed and hopefully a fast visa delivery.

My husband has talked to an employee at the congressman’s office and received an email that they have sent a letter at the USA embassy in Manila. Hopefully this will help speed up the process, my husband has extended his leave from March 26 until May 4 since we want to leave Manila together….we can’t take airport good byes anymore.

So my husband made a call to the US embassy in manila(thanks for the people at visa journey, we were able to find a number that will not cost us anything), he talked to Lorraine and he was informed that the reason why we are put on AR is that they have to do a routine check of all our documents from the NSO if they are true and valid. My husband says that if they want other proof that we were both not married before, we have it with us, but the thing is they never asked for it. Well he was told that even if we presented everything that we have, it wouldnt make a difference since they routinely do it. I dont know why they say “routinely do it ” when in fact we know a lot of people who are just approved and not put on AR. Considering the fact that what we have prepared are way beyond what they require from us, it is all useless since before we even get there seems like they have already make up their minds that we will be on AR.
My husband has called their congressman and emailed a senator to help us with our situation. I think it will only be fair for us to question them why we are put on AR, what is their basis to put us on AR? If they are not convinced with the relationship then they could have asked for more proofs which we had(more pictures,passport proving his visits 4x in a year, CENOMAR, gift receipts,etc), but they didnt asked. Instead we were reassured that we gave them everything they need.
Maybe I am just stressed out going through this endeavor. Maybe it is valid for them to do that..I dont know anymore. I just hope that we will be out of AR soon.
I know there are some who is going through the same journey as us, I know that it is not a great feeling been put in uncertainty. But all we can do is keep our faith stronger and keep believing that God is always here with us. We may not understand the reason why certain things happen, but whatever it is He simply knows whats best for all of us.