CFO........... Commission on Filipinos Overseas...

My wife had the CFO seminar just after she applied for the visa. For her that was the best option. The CFO requested a document that she did not have with her because there was no mention of the said document on their website. But, at least, the seminar still went ahead without the said document. She went back the next with the document (she lives in Cebu) but had she been from say, Mindanao, she could have returned the CFO offices a day or two before her flight to the UK with that document and get her passport CFO' stamped at the same time.

We could not puzzle out the CFO appointment system.

Kieran, Kaye's little boy, my stepson, seems to need to be registered on the PDOS system, which seems to be separate from the system used for fiancées of dangerous foreigners.

So to play safe we registered on both systems and Kaye is off tomorrow for the PDOS seminar, taking Kieran with her, as he has no school tomorrow. And on Monday she is registered for the fiancées lecture and grilling.

Kaye asks what should she wear? She is a shorts and T shirt sort of a girl, but should she dress formally?

Help wanted...

Hi @Methersgate as far as I can remember, there is no dress code. But to be on the safe side, might be better to wear shoes that don't show your toes and jeans instead of shorts. I was wearing jeans, trainers and a white t-shirt

Thank you very much. I have passed that on to Kaye.

Yeah I agree. A lot of government departments like you to dress 'respectfully' - no shorts or sandals. Given that they have the ability to ask for any obscure document they want if they want to make your life difficult, and I've heard stories of people being asked to produce (for example) a CENOMAR for the foreign party, or parents birth certificates - its probably a good idea not to upset them.

That was the cue for a trip to SM for an outfit! 7,000 pesos later.... (OK that wasn't fair of me, she bought small K a pair of shoes that cost more than hers did...)

PDOS forms and CFO form all printed off at the Internet cafe... route planned... here we go... what will go wrong THIS time?

Small boy has his sticker, but Mummy has to go back on Tuesday to get hers, as despite leaving home in Quezon City at 5 am and taking the MRT to Quirino they were still late arriving so K missed her seminar. K says thank you for the advice on clothes and it is correct - she wore jeans, flat shoes and a long sleeved top.

Yes. A child MUST have a CFO sticker in her or his passport. Otherwise they cannot leave. Teenagers have their own CFO session to attend, children under 12 do not need to attend, but they all need the sticker.

The procedure is to download and complete the PDOS Bar Coded Registration Form from the CFO website.

http://www.cfo.gov.ph/

There are two different websites which you can get to by clicking on the circles under the big banner

First the website for Filipina spouses and fiancees:
http://gcp-appointment.cfo.gov.ph/

That is the one that we talk about a lot here.

Then there is the PDOS website:

https://cfo.ph/PDOS_Reservation/

You have to go to this website to generate a Barcoded Registration for each parent and for each child.

When you input the child's date of birth, the software will generate a result saying "Exempted Minor". This means exempted from attending the seminar; it does not mean exempted from the CFO sticker!

The child does not need to attend the CFO if under 13, but a parent or other proxy (duly authorised if not a parent- details on the website) should attend on the child's behalf with the child's passport and one other piece of photo ID (school card is the obvious one). The form must be submitted and the child's passport will have the essential sticker attached.

I must record my thanks to Choi and John, who helped K and I with this.

What a pain in the neck having K go to CFO twice. They really won't make it easy for you, Andrew, huh?

Ho hum. At least it's nearly finished. My best wishes to you both and the little one.

Thanks Anne. We have spent so long that this final thing is no problem for us. She says the people in the CFO were nice, so she has no worry about going back there. She actually took little Kieran with her, as there was no school for him today, and she had nobody to take care of him. That was probably a good idea, as he is a nice polite little boy. He just sat quietly with a colouring book.

Good to hear it went well for her. I bet you're very excited to see them.

Well done Andrew, the information you have shared about your visa journey will surely help others in the months and years ahead, if all the settlement visa applications were straight forward none of us would learn as much about the process

It will soon be time for one of your more memorable airport pick ups, enjoy

Thank you Timmers!

I will write up the "lessons learned" in a separate thread for ease of reference once it is all over!

That might be a good idea for a sticky "lessons learned from settlement applications."

At least then we can have a lot of visa sticking points in one place.

Hello

Good day everyone!

This thread has been incredibly helpful and I wanted to say a Maraming Salamat to everyone here who has contributed.

My fiancee is Indian, but resident in the UK on Tier-1 Visa.
I got my GCC certificate earlier this week, which mentions his nationality as being Indian.

In the coming days I will be applying for a UK Marriage Visitor visa so we both can get married in London.

Will there be a problem getting a CFO sticker which says "UK" even though the GCC certificate says his nationality is Indian? Our destination (and my visa) will be UK, so I hope they can grant us a UK sticker.

If in the future we travel to India from Manila (to meet his parents), will I also need a separate India sticker? Does the CFO grant stickers for 2 different countries at the same time?

Thank you everyone once more!

~Carla.

Hello Carla, welcome aboard British Filipino

You do not need to apply for the CFO passport sticker.
That is only applicable if you hold an immigration visa for settlement in the UK.

You've mentioned you intend to apply for a UK Marriage Visitor Visa. This is a short-term visa (6 months max) for the sole purpose of getting married in the UK and then returning home before the visa expiry.

Is that what you mean,

or are you actually meaning you want to apply for a settlement (permanent) visa for the purposes of getting married and then applying for an extension of leave to remain as a spouse? In this case your fiance needs to be holding Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) which is also known as 'Settled Status@

What is the immigration status of your fiance ?

If you will travel to India from Manila with your husband you will not need a CFO sticker since you'll be travelling with your husband on your pre-entry tourist visa.
Alternatively, as a Philippine passport holder you can get a tourist visa on arrival at certain entry ports (Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata).

Hello Micawber

Thank you for taking the time to reply!

My fiancee is in the UK on a Tier-1 visa valid till June 2017.

We intend to get married in the UK with me on a UK marriage visitor visa, and then after that come back to Manila to apply for a Dependent Tier-1 visa.

So you don't need a CFO Sticker for your marriage visit visa, but you will need one to leave the Philippines when you've been granted your settlement route visa.

Thats good news! Thank you for confirming.

Although there is a part of me that just wants to try and get the sticker anyway to avoid any buereaucracy at immigration (or just any whims/fancies of an immigration officer ) - my main concern is the prohibitive costs of tickets in case we are denied boarding (for both me and my fiance, who is currently here in Manila with me).

Can I still apply for the sticker even if it is a Marriage visitor visa? Also, will there be a problem getting a UK Sticker even though the GCC certificate says his nationality is Indian?