Embassy Closing in Manila

USCIS Field office closing (Not the Embassy)

On July 5th, 2019, USCIS will permanently close its field office in Manila, Philippines, as part of the Trump Administration’s efforts to improve legal immigration processing. After this date, there will be no USCIS field office located in the Philippines.

Over the years we at Olvis have had many expats that came to the Philippines and got married and after several years decided that they wanted to take their wife and return to the United States, because they were resident in the Philippines they could do what is called a Direct Consular Filing. This allowed the US citizen to go to the US Embassy in Manila and file directly. This process was much faster and the visa was usually done in less than 60 days. With the closing of the field office this process is no longer available and all spouse petitions need to be filed in the United States

The office began redirecting Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, to the USCIS Lockbox on May 14, 2019. For U.S. citizens residing in the Philippines there is no more direct consular filing (DCF) you will now need to submit the I-130 petition for Alien Relative or Spouse by mail with the USCIS facility in Chicago.

USCIS has posted a listing of where each application should be sent to after the office closes. Please click this link for a more complete understanding as to what petitions are affected. Field office

It is important to understand that the USCIS field office is not the same as the U.S. Embassy. The US Embassy in Manila is still open for business, and processing visa interviews. The closing of the USCIS does not affect the processing of Fiancée and Alien relative petitions that have been filed in the United States.