Originally posted by admin@Feb 15 2006, 09:00 PM
A Bloody BIG Blip at the time though eh?

It's strange the the embassy out on the edge of the world Manila, is run by back in the community ex-crack heads who are intent on making life as miserable as possible for everyone else. The problem is, they don't realise that although it's a pain, we have love in our lives, unlike those miserable buggers

I felt lucky, relieved, proud, glad, boastful, surprised, shocked, devastated, emotional even, I'm still not sure, but my wife got both her tourist AND settlement visas in one day each.

I'm the kind of guy who worries himself sick about that $hit for weeks beforehand, convinced that the power of the Philippines would rise up and somehow trash all our carefully plans, but things went surprisingly smoothly.

The peripherals, like getting the certificate of non impediment, collecting the actual stamped passports, accrueing certified copies of genuine documents, etc, were sullied by the usual Filipino don't-give-a-damn, bahala-na, I-don't-care-as-it's-not-mine stuff, but the BIG day: applying for the visa, was almost totally painless.

She got the visas four and six years ago consecutively now, but it shows that anything is possible, even in the Philippines.

As with the visa we just got for the mom in law last November; long, careful study and planning of the application is essential. You can destroy your case with just one missing document, one lost letter, one wrong word on a statement. Swamp them with paperwork and evidence, and they'll get bored of trying to dig holes in your life.