Visa's need advise

[krapier66]

I am planning on moving to the Philippines within a year, probably heading to Cebu.   I am single, but currently talking to a woman there and she will relocate to Cebu for safety reasons where she lives (Missamis Occidental).  Yes, things change (I am keeping an open mind because whom knows what will happen when I meet her) and part of the reason I am writing this.  We have talked about marriage so currently the "plan" is to get married.   I plan on us being there in the Philippines for probably two years.  I have family here in the states I do not want to live with out my entire life.  She is fine with moving here with her teen daughters.  

So I have done allot of reading about Visa's and still confused at what the best options are.  

Option 1)

Visitor Visa - This is fine if I want to keep going to Manila to get extensions.  From what I read they I can only extend out for 16 months at most.  Considering the cost of traveling every month, not such a good idea plus I will probably need at least two years before I will be ready too return to the states.

Option 2)

Fiance' Visa - That would be great but I am going to have to rely on Visitor Visa's till we can get married.  I do not even know if I can get married while on a visitor visa, I know here in the states that immigration frowns on marriage on visitors visa so it makes me wonder about the same in the Philippines.  Plus I have read it could take a very long time to accomplish getting married, up to two years

(hence the plan to stay their two years at a minimum, plus building up capitol for the return back (not going to be cheap as their will probably be four of us) to the states)

Option 3)

Special Resident Retiree's Visa (SRRV) Courtesy/Expanded - This seems to be the best option since plans change, and maybe the fastest to getting me off the Visitors Visa sooner.   I do not know actually how long it will take.   I know its not the cheapest either upfront.  I can not start it here because I do not have a bank account in the Philippines as of yet.

Yes, I am a veteran and over 50 and I can meet income guidelines.

 

I would like to get some feedback on what you would do in my situation.. 

I am thinking of doing all three.  Visitor to start things off, apply for both Fiance' Visa and the SRRV at the same time.  Not very cost effective, but I am really "on the bench" on this trying to figure out the best way to go about this.

Thanks in advance for any advice here.

 

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

27 minutes ago, krapier66 said:

I plan on us being there in the Philippines for probably two years.  I have family here in the states I do not want to live with out my entire life.  She is fine with moving here with her teen daughters.  

Then it is all quite simple.  You are from the US so you get 30 days free on arrival.  Then you get an additional 29 day tourist visa.  Then you get 6 month temporary resident (tourist visa), repeat as required until ready to leave.  You get 3 years.  If you want to be here longer than that you fly to Hong Kong and back and repeat as needed.  It could not be simpler.  The hard part is getting her to the US but people do that on fiance visas all the time with a little luck and good management.

[earthdome]

1 hour ago, krapier66 said:

Plus I have read it could take a very long time to accomplish getting married, up to two years

If there are no complications you can complete the process in 1-2 months. FYI there is no divorce in the Philippines so if you fiancee was married in the Philippines and the marriage was not annulled or she is not a widow it could indeed take years. Getting a previous marriage annulled can be very expensive and take years.

 

[krapier66]

She says she has never been married, so with any luck that is the case.  Like I said earlier I am keeping an open mind about the situation.  I believe her and what we talk about, but only in person will I be able to verify everything.  I have heard to many "scams" so I am being as open minded of all the possibilities that could arise, which she is aware of also. 

 

Thanks for the reply's so far.   

[Jollygoodfellow]

What I see with this topic is that so much old info on the net when we talk about visas. Dave answered it to as what the rules are today. Yes keep an open mind and come for a visit before committing to anything. 

[Gerald Glatt]

Not sure you will get a visa for her daughters.  

[krapier66]

Why is that?   Long term they want to be adopted because there father abandon them well over 10 years ago, short term I have not looked any possible issues we may encounter.

[Ram1957]

Might be good to have her get her Certificate of No Marriage (CENOMAR) issued by the PSA / NSO. That way you can be sure she is not married. Better to be sure than waste alot of money to find out that she can't get married.

[krapier66]

Yea we will need that any way from my understanding, and it wouldnt save me much because I am still going regardless.  I have always wanted to go and last year my opportunity to go came up so I am going to make that happen.

[bigpearl]

1 hour ago, krapier66 said:

Yea we will need that any way from my understanding, and it wouldnt save me much because I am still going regardless.  I have always wanted to go and last year my opportunity to go came up so I am going to make that happen.

Welcome to the forum, I'm sure all of us wish you the best with your plans and hope it all work out well.

Not sure if you have been to PH before or studied about this fine country and people. Myself having lived here for 2 years on and off over the last 6 years (both of us living in Australia ATM) still scour and contribute to expat sites, there is a wealth of information archived and most times it's just a matter of searching to find the answers or if outdated just ask. I enjoy and learn from these sites but feet on the ground is the only way to know if it's for you.

Cheers, Steve.