Use rendered Trade Gothic type face (default)
Use fonts available on your system
Set font size to medium (default)
Set font size to large
Set font size to x-large
Set layout to "Jello" (min-width:770px \ max-width:1200px) (default) 
Set layout to "Fluid" (width: 100%)
Set layout to "Fixed" (width: 760px)
Place navigation on the right of the screen (default)
Place navigation on the left of the screenBetween paying $131 for a US visa application and trying your luck in the slot machines, I’d choose the latter. At least with legalized gambling, you get a free Coke and a sandwich. Not with the d*ickheads-in-residence at the NIV Unit of the US Embassy in Manila who go through their job without rhyme and reason. I actually thought being a “diplomat” was a distinguished, honorable profession until you encounter them in real life (okay, I dated one of their ilk in my younger years, but that’s another story!)
Cases in point: they don’t maintain eye-to-eye contact. All they care about is making notes on their computer screen
They talk to their counter seatmates (and laughing at that!) while Filipino visa applicants are there in front of them, waiting for their fate to be decided.
Some of them actually use headsets with microphones so that the rest of humanity can hear the interrogation and humiliating comments they subject Filipino visa applicants to. Comments that are uncalled for and unwanted, like this personal encounter I had with a certain Mr. Norman Culbertson (???) who told me to get a fiancee visa when I was clearly JUST applying for a vacation!
It would have been better if Mr. Culbertson just denied me up front and put the X on that blue slip, but no, he rattles on further to say: “if your boyfriend is serious with you, why don’t you tell him to get you a fiancee visa? You don’t even have to apply for it, we will process it for you.”
Well heck, Mr. Culbertson, I detest your insinuation. An engagement (as you proposed) is different from the real purpose of my travel, which is a booty call vacation! You also forgot that I don’t have to get a fiancee visa when I can aim straight for a spouse visa 
or go apply for the dang journalist visa. You keep a one-track mind and nitpick on my love life and clearly disregard the fact that I’ve had two US visas, Schengen visas, the Japan, China, South Korea visas yadda yadda yadda. Clearly, I don’t have the character or inclination to settle out of the country soon? And the fact that I’ve shown you the 10-year mortgage contract to the house I just bought in Manila as well the full custody of three minor children means that am really not exchanging my life in the country for anywhere else - right here, right now.
Shortly after this post came out, a friend called to agree with me on what I pointed out here. She told me of this family of eight who owned a building in Makati and got denied , and just because they wanted to go see Disneyland! That’s more than $1000 in visa fees down the drain.
It is a pity really. There’s no place for honesty in these US visa interviews; in fact, honesty can get you nowhere. The fact that I have an American boyfriend lends me highly suspect as a potential immigrant, but other more compelling proofs I presented (previous visas etc.) would have excluded that possibility as well.
As reader Doug, an American, commented in my other US Embassy post: “If some of the other countries had the same rules we had for immigration, very few Americans would get through any embassies unless they were ready to lie through their teeth. No, it’s not a perfect world, but some people actually tell the truth, and stereotypes and bias should not be the guideline for inclusion, as it is only the vehicle for exclusion. American embassies should not serve to exclude but to include based on real, accurate facts, not on innuendo.”
MY conclusion is that : the US Embassy Manila’s NIV Unit has no directly measurable standards and benchmarks for granting US tourist visas. It is based merely on the gut feel and false psychology of their dumb*ss visa officers whose sense of judgment are, more often, erroneous and skewed. They don’t even take a moment to ask for vital documents to prove your case and study them, the kind of scrutiny that your $131 deserves. And that is why I say it is almost like a scam.
Paging US Embassy Manila Non-IMmigrant Visa chief Karen L. Christensen, hope you read this and get your act together. The officer who insulted me by saying I should get a fiancee visa deserves the supreme karma of being assigned to the US Embassy in Afghanistan. 
Stumble It!
How very rude for them to suggest such a visa for all to hear? I am appalled. And they tell us to be honest with our travel reasons? Geesh.
@ Noemi, I was sooo mad with that unwanted comment from the US Embassy officer that I couldn’t drive straight
Oh my. And there I was thinking of applying for a visa soon. A friend told me that now is the best time to apply. Could just be a rumor.
$131 is still $131! The least they could do is to take our applications seriously.
It’s unfortunate that you had to go through all of this. But I don’t know if writing about it would work to your advantage either. But if it did, congrats. After the the hassle, I don’t know why you would still want to go there anyway. It’s just the US!
Jerome,
It IS just the US, but the point was for Anna to join me on my vacation, and meet my family - clearly, that didn’t happen :’(
Instead, I split my vacation between two families, and spent altogether too much time in Dubai’s terminal and Dubai hotels, as a result.
There’s no way I’d apply for a fiancee Visa for Anna, only to become an absentee husband - won’t end my contract until September ‘09, which means two vacations a year, spaced at six-month intervals. Ugh.
What’s a boyfriend and girlfriend to do? Now, we’re both wishing we’d tried the journalist Visa opportunity we’d found way back in May :’(
The only silver lining here so far is strengthening our resolve and keeping our relationship healthy, if only to prove our NIV Manila pundits way wrong.
@$$-clowns
Hi Mr Z,
Very tough for both of you. I’m just worried about Ajay writing about it the way she did. I don’t know, some people are paranoid about writing bad stuff about their bosses on their blogs for fear that these people can get back at them, so what’s gonna keep the US govt from looking for more evidence to keep her away from your country? I remember a Filipino friend who lambasted an embassy officer in Laos (I think) and she had a hard time going to the US ever since. I mean, she felt insulted, and she talked back, and applied for US visa here in the Philippines, and wondered why she was still denied. And I also wondered why she even bothered applying again. But anyway, goodluck to both of you.
I won’t be harassed. & you call America the GREATEST democracy in the world?? - replying from my iPod
Fairness in Visa processes and entrance interviews is not the hallmark of greatness - it’s our economic prowess, and stubborn, unilateral approach to world politics.
Of course, you’ll never witness the great Democracy in action, if you never visit her shores again.
Gotta love that DHS.
Fiancee vise is a lot faster than spousal visa though. It’s less than a year but with a 90 days visa expiration. You have to get married atleast not later than 70 days and you won’t have that filipino wedding with all your friends and relatives will be there.
when I was interviews for a K1 visa, they looked at all our documents, including photos. The consul whom we were assigned to asked questions though not even document based. It lasted 10 minutes with simple personal questions. But that may also be because I have my fiance with me on the interview. (A strategy we thought of)
Tourist visa is almost impossible to get. Petitioning relatives alone takes 10 years in waiting.
I feel your pain.
This blogging and saying things that it’s not correct just because they’ve been denied on their visa application…So normal for someone who can’t handle being rejected.
You as a visa applicant should provide a “legit” documents and those consul officer sometime they don’t bother looking at the documents since it’s almost always applicants give them a fraudulant documents. They do not spend too much time on one person since they have to interview hundreds of visa applicants a day! All you have to provide is a very strong ties here in the Philippines. They give thousands of visa a week and a lot of those visa applicants went “TNT”!!! Go figure!
You can’t call them names and blog it to the world…you do that you’ll likely to get refuse, again…they do take notes and it’s stays in the system! Whether you’re from a prominent family, a celebrity or a politician some of them get refuse, too. Joseph Strada the dingbat ex pres was denied.
wow what a comment.a no brainer. how do they know if they documents are genuine if they do not even bother to look at them.
Do they have ESP?
Not because one presents fraudulent document, everyone is guilty of the same.
i can sense you are not a Filipino. I have also ESP.
we cannot figure because you do not provide the figure. say how many of the 1000 go TNT? You are psychic too?
SHEESH.
Hi Analyn,
Did you try to speak up for yourself and reason out? I moved to the States in 1996 at 23, while I still love the Philippines, I know I would still have a better life in recession era USA than back home. It’s just a cycle really, anyway, that is not the point. Having moved here at an early age, I learned that you will never get what you want in the US if you never fight for it and stand up for yourself.
If you are feeling looked down upon, ie. the consul avoiding eye contact, you should have called his attention, say “hey mr., look me in the eye,” I am going to try to reason to you and you should hear what I have to say, yada yada yada, and then 1. I am … 2… so on and so fourth. Just don’t be overly aggressive and remain calm, remember, inside the embassy, you are in theory outside of the Philippines and in the US teritory.
The next time you go to your interview, do not be intimidated. Get your money’s worth, if you have to recite your entries in your blog do so, but never say “yes sir, I understand” and then bitch in your blog.
I really don’t know why some people here are worried that I’ll be declared a persona non-grata when I owe nothing to America, I am not itching to go there and I plan to retire and die in my country
My boyfriend can follow me if he must. Besides, there are other countries in the world who will be more welcoming.
Dave, what you told me is applicable in a normal setting, not in the embassy setting where you are given a time limit and the consul almost always never changes his mind once he makes the decision.
I still believe that the US Embassy NIV Unit does an injustice to Filipinos and is not doing the work it’s supposed to do. I am not speaking for myself alone, or blogging for my own benefit. I am articulating the sentiments of others who have been treated the same.
And oh, this is my blog, so I can pretty much bitch here when there is reason for it. Believe me, I will bitch only when there is ample reason. If you don’t like what you read, don’t read me.
Annalyn,
don’t let your emotion get the better part of you. That’s just how it is, a lot of people get denied visa, some are given the stamp. Try again next time and reason out. It’s not like they advertise for your hard earned $131, they did not convince you to pony up the bucks, you decided you want to go to the US instead of Europe where there is so much more to see. So there, people get denied sometimes even the filthy rich ones, your ego is making you sound bitter. It’s your blog though …
All,
The anger and frustration come from a lack of transparency in the selection process, and the criteria cited by Embassy sources, on the website itself, seems heavily discounted.
Ajay has three children she loves dearly, and her intent is to raise them in Manila.
Ajay also just purchased a new home, and a condition of the home loan is continued employment with her Philippine employer, PAGCOR. PAGCOR benefits are nothing to sneeze at, in the Philippines.
Yet, this isn’t enough to guarantee her return? I can’t see a life reliant on her Stateside relatives being enough to move her to leave three children and a new home.
You have to admit, this is quite a leap of logic for anyone, much less an NIV official.
Why the tourist Visa? I only get two vacation periods a year, and with over fourteen months out of the States, it was time to return home. With Ajay in my life now, I didn’t want to spend a year alone, in a new relationship.
How could I put in for a K1, when am due to return to Iraq? Could never be the absentee husband in a new marriage, that’s nuts.
Of course, there’s no way to present this on the Embassy forms, and no way I can be present for the interview, either. If I had known, I would have applied when we first met.
This should help to explain some of the bitterness and frustration, I think. How would you feel, if you presented $130 and your time for an driver’s license, were never spoken to directly by the clerk, and they laughed and joked with others, while denying you, 300 seconds later?
I poke over here every once in a while, since I know Mr. Z. from way back.
The bias at the embassy probably runs deep if the front line representatives can get away with that behaviour consistently as implied. Therefor, it would serve no purpose to complain to a supervisor or up their local chain-of-command, someone needs to light a fire under the backsides from a little higher up.
My suggestion (and I know virtually nothing about the Philippines, so take some of it, at least, with a grain of salt) is twofold. Personal blogs - and even political blogs, to a degree - don’t really have the reach and heft, or power, that traditional media still commands - at least outside the younger generations and youth. An exposé or documentary of sorts in local traditional media can then be used to attract attention to the issue from non-local media in a manner that most blogs just will not be able to manage.
And for the second part of the push, I would suggest that Mr. Z. try what he can as well, though it might be a bit harder to do so from Iraq. Well-reasoned letters -to-the-editor in hometown and respected national papers would be a good start. I’d also advise writing or filing a formal complaint with the US State Department, whichever division manages foreign embassies. And, capping it off with a letter (not email, not phone call) to one of his Congressmen (Representative from home district, or a State Senator - might want to spend a bit of time looking up voting records and the like, but Representatives tend to take their constituency a bit more seriously than Senators do, in part due to the shorter terms in office and in part due to the smaller constituency).
Heck, try writing to one of the American investigative journalism shows (I don’t watch television to know which are reputable, so bear with me if an example is inappropriate) like 60 Minutes or Dateline, and see if you can’t get them interested in an exposé/documentary that will reach an American audience as well. With an aspect of the current political climate being both change and repairing America’s image abroad, this actually might be an ideal time to do so?
No guarantees that it will do any good for your personal situation, or that it would have any immediate impact on the embassy or those seeking visas through them, but from my understanding, a lot of big changes start from little steps.
Good luck, and I’m sorry that we have such poor people representing us in our embassies abroad.
–autumn
Hey Autumn,
Well-reasoned, and effective advice. Going to the air waves is definitely a last resort, but I do appreciate the other advice. Too bad you’re busy coding games, think you’d be useful in the NIV Section in Manila!
Thanks for the visit,
Mr Z
Sometimes it’s all about appearance and the way you present yourself. They probably thought you are a maid or a probinsyana mail order bride with old, fat and balding fiancé, and you wouldn’t wait for the fiancée visa because your intention is to jump the gun and ditch your ugly boyfriend? Plenty of possibilities just one scenario. Really, you are lucky you’re allowed entry in Hong Kong without a domestic help visa. Now if you look like Gretchen Barreto, certainly, you wouldn’t have a problem. Pandora’s box honey. Truth hurts really. Marry your fiancé before he meets a more exotic one.
Tsk. Tsk. Longkat, I pity you. Because you’re probably the one who looks like a maid or probinsyana with the ugly boyfriend
A fat, matronly bitch wasting internet time for want of true friends or a semblance of a social life. You can’t even give your real name or email because you’re such a COWARD.Be thankful that am not deleting your email. How low can you go???
Now go, open your mouth and give that fat and balding visa officer a good head
hello ajay, i just read this. US visa approval is purely subjective. sorry to say that, but that is the truth. i may be one of those lucky few who got approved. the first time i applied, however, i was denied. the consul focused on my post-grad studies in education and not my ultimate purpose which is to spend a short vacation in the states. nakakainis talaga yung mga ganyan.
Mines is a simple story. I was assigned to the Philippines with the military. I left a son there and after several years, with the help o the American Redcross, was able to locate him and is mother. He is now 23 years old and for the past six years I have tried to get him to the US, especially to meet his grandparent. His Grandfather died without ever meeting his only grandson. Now his Grandmother is going through cancer treatment and we fear she will never meet her grandson. As of yesterday, 9/16/08 he was again denied a visa to come to the US. Someone explain this to me? What makes this so ironic, I adopted a daughter while there in the Philippines and she has enjoyed growing up in the US and as an adult in very successful. Why cant I get my natural son here? Is this too much to ask? Karen L. Christensen, answered a complaint to Senator Isaksons office, and led us to believe that she would assist in securing his visa all to no avail. I cant afford to keep spending money for nothing. Can somebody tell me what has to be done to get him here? Can anyone forward this posting to the attention of Mrs, Christensen, Chief, Non-immigrant Visa Unit, maybe she isnt aware of what is going on, with her people. I can be reached at wendell@neomastino.com I hate to post my email publicly but I have reached the ends of my wits. We have been trying for six years without success. Thanks
Long story, I lived in the Philippines many years ago. During that time, I met a young woman name Vicky Martinez. Vicky was an accounts representative for the Manila Hilton Hotel in 1983. After returning to the US, I lost contact with Vicky. I have tried for may years to locate Vicky without success. I have contacted the Hotel that has changed names and they act as though it is a joke, but I am desperate and sincere in my efforts. Vicky was very outgoing and a beautiful person. I currently have a son in Manila attempting to locate Vicky and his sibling without success. If anyone can assist, it would be greatly appreciated. There is a special reason why we are trying so hard to locate Vicky and if you assist, I assure you you will be rewarded for you efforts This is no joke and I can be contacted at ccypohio@yahoo.com. Serious email only. This is a free email site that can be shut down at any time so please be serious!
[...] are the hardest places to get visas from. In the meantime, the US embassy visa stories continue, here and here Share and [...]
OO nga
mari replied:
hello ajay, i just read this. US visa approval is purely subjective. sorry to say that, but that is the truth. i may be one of those lucky few who got approved. the first time i applied, however, i was denied. the consul focused on my post-grad studies in education and not my ultimate purpose which is to spend a short vacation in the states. nakakainis talaga yung mga ganyan.
>>> HELO MARI, JUST WANT TO CLARIFY, THE 2ND TIME U APPLIED U WERE APPROVED, AND THAT TIME U WERE TAKING UP POST GRAD IN EDUCATION? MASTERAL BA OR CERTIFICATE? IM PLANNING KC TO APPLY US VISA A 3RD TIME (AFTER 2 DENIALS),& RIGHT NOW IM ALSO TAKING UP POST GRAD IN EDUCATION. its really hard for me coz my parents are immigrants. and the author of this article is right, they dont keep eye contacts,parang u wana say something but parang nagdadalawang isip ka kc parang busy sya sa computer screen nya…..