American citizen living abroad-processing my wife's (Filipina) visa to the U.S.

[theprocess]

Hello,

I am an American citizen currently living in Manila (The Philippines). My wife and I have been married for almost 9 months. I would now like to apply for her visa, but am at a loss as to how to begin this journey. I'm not sure what visa to apply for on her behalf. Since I'm living abroad with her this seems to have complicated matters a bit. Would it be better for me to move back first and then process my wife's visa from the States? If we were to start the visa process while I lived in the Philippines, and then moved back to the States ahead of my wife, would that affect the application? What financial requirements are there, in terms of my earnings? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and best wishes to everyone!

 

[Jackolantern]

Contact the US consulate in the Manila and ask if they allow DCF (Direct Consular Filing) for your situation. That would involve directly filing the immigration petition (form I-130) with the consulate there, which is almost always faster than filing it with an immigration service center in the US and waiting until it's processed and forwarded to the consulate.

But DCF has certain restrictive conditions, mainly the requirement for the US citizen spouse to have lived legally in that country for X number of months, and not all consulates allow it. And towards the end of the process when they require proof of your finances for the I-864 Affidavit of Support, you'll need to have acquired a US job or find a US-based joint sponsor, because income from a job outside the US doesn't count.

For the income amounts required for the Affidavit of Support, download I-864P. Note that you can use assets to offset the income requirements; for a case like yours (marriage to a US citizen) every $3 of liquid/sellable assets owned by you or your spouse reduces the income requirement by $1.