Philippines Forum

lblampman
Joined 2016
Posts: 266

6 years ago

Back to the future...er...Philippines!

6 years ago

Hi All,

On April 19th we wing our way south from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, where we'll stay one night in a hotel close to the airport. Then on the 20th we fly to Manila.

We've rented a place in Imus, Cavite, which I'm anticipating will be quite different from living in Polangui, Albay in the Bicol Region of Luzon. I know it's going to be a lot more crowed and busier, but it also has a lot more available in the way of services, shopping, restaurants, and such.

Ostensibly, this move is to acquire a U.S. immigrant IR-1 "spouse visa" for my wife. The only way I can really provide for her if/when I die is to make sure she has access to my Social Security benefits and that takes getting her to the U.S. (or U.S. territory) so she can get her citizenship (she can also do it by spending 5 years as a resident in the U.S. but then to receive benefits she has to stay in the U.S.).

I need to live in the Philippines again for 6 months in order to be eligible to file the visa petition directly at the U.S. embassy in Manila, and that has a lot to do with choosing the location we did. I was thinking of Cebu or Dumaguete but when I'm ready to turn in the visa paperwork the required trips to Manila for either of those places was going to be too expensive. My wife was also a lot happier about being close enough to some family and friends in Cavite and Santa Rosa, Laguna to visit them on occasion.

We've been in Chiang Mai just about a year and we've enjoyed it quite a lot but time marches on and things change, so now it's back to the Philippines.

I have a lot of qualms about returning to the U.S. (a lot having to do with costs there), so maybe we'll be in the Philippines longer than is currently planned! LOL

Les

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