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I immigrated to the United States from the Philippines in 1990. I then petitioned my son and my daughter with a priority date of September 21, 1992.
I was informed that when I became a U.S. Citizen, it would change my son and daughter’s petition from a F2B to a F1 (First Preference), which would enable them to immigrate to America sooner.
I was proud to become a U.S. Citizen on August 28, 1997. When my son received the notification, in 2002 from the U.S. Consulate in Manila, that he was to have an interview on March 1, 2002, I was overwhelmed with enthusiasm. He completed his physical along with all of the other requirements. We also assumed that my daughter, would soon be receiving a notification for an Interview. Although, when my son went to his scheduled interview on March 1, 2002, the U.S. Consulate in Manila terminated his interview. The reason they gave was that since I changed my status from immigrant (Green card holder) to U.S. Citizen, my children’s date of priority for their interview also changed to an ever later time.
I do not understand this. Since I became a U.S. Citizen, my son and daughter must wait even longer to come to America? This all seems backward to me. I became a citizen of this spectacular country to live in a land proclaimed to be full of hope, happiness, and freedom for me as well as my family. Now we are expected to wait even longer for the petitions to be approved? This makes little sense to me.
I am proud to be a citizen and call myself an American. But there is another thing that troubles me; and so far, it seems as if no one is willing to help. Since my son’s petition was set back to a later date, I believed the same thing would probably happen to my daughter as well. So when my daughter did not receive the notification for an interview, we were not surprised. I was under the impression that the interview was also set back, just like my son’s.
From then, we were just waiting for the proper notification from the consulate to be called to another interview. But then we learned that my daughter’s petition was terminated since she supposedly failed to show up for her interview in 2002. How can this be? First of all, she did not receive a notification for the interview. Secondly and most importantly, showing up for the interview would have not done anything because of my status change from an immigrant (Green card holder) to U.S. Citizen, which would have delayed the interview date.
After hearing this news, I went to the U.S. Embassy in Manila of January 18, 2006 and spoke to a woman by the name of Kim Russell (vice Consul), which I later discovered was her given alias. When I explained the situation to her, she said my only option was to repetition my daughter. This is ridiculous! If I am to repetition her, we must, once again, wait many years.
I believe this is wrong. How and why would anybody in their right mind cancel my daughter’s petition for not showing up to an interview we were not informed of? On top of that, it is almost a certainty that the interview would have been terminated to a later date due to my status change. Becoming a U.S. Citizen is an honor and my daughter would not have missed such an important interview for the world. I explained all of this to Kim Russell, Vice Consul, at the U.S. embassy in Manila. Believe me when I tell you this, I was a Police Officer in the Philippines for seventeen years before I came to America and it appeared to me that she was not forthcoming. It seemed as if she was attempting to cover up a mistake that was made.
I am asking for anyone with advice that could help me with this problem.
Thank you for your time,
I was informed that when I became a U.S. Citizen, it would change my son and daughter’s petition from a F2B to a F1 (First Preference), which would enable them to immigrate to America sooner.
I was proud to become a U.S. Citizen on August 28, 1997. When my son received the notification, in 2002 from the U.S. Consulate in Manila, that he was to have an interview on March 1, 2002, I was overwhelmed with enthusiasm. He completed his physical along with all of the other requirements. We also assumed that my daughter, would soon be receiving a notification for an Interview. Although, when my son went to his scheduled interview on March 1, 2002, the U.S. Consulate in Manila terminated his interview. The reason they gave was that since I changed my status from immigrant (Green card holder) to U.S. Citizen, my children’s date of priority for their interview also changed to an ever later time.
I do not understand this. Since I became a U.S. Citizen, my son and daughter must wait even longer to come to America? This all seems backward to me. I became a citizen of this spectacular country to live in a land proclaimed to be full of hope, happiness, and freedom for me as well as my family. Now we are expected to wait even longer for the petitions to be approved? This makes little sense to me.
I am proud to be a citizen and call myself an American. But there is another thing that troubles me; and so far, it seems as if no one is willing to help. Since my son’s petition was set back to a later date, I believed the same thing would probably happen to my daughter as well. So when my daughter did not receive the notification for an interview, we were not surprised. I was under the impression that the interview was also set back, just like my son’s.
From then, we were just waiting for the proper notification from the consulate to be called to another interview. But then we learned that my daughter’s petition was terminated since she supposedly failed to show up for her interview in 2002. How can this be? First of all, she did not receive a notification for the interview. Secondly and most importantly, showing up for the interview would have not done anything because of my status change from an immigrant (Green card holder) to U.S. Citizen, which would have delayed the interview date.
After hearing this news, I went to the U.S. Embassy in Manila of January 18, 2006 and spoke to a woman by the name of Kim Russell (vice Consul), which I later discovered was her given alias. When I explained the situation to her, she said my only option was to repetition my daughter. This is ridiculous! If I am to repetition her, we must, once again, wait many years.
I believe this is wrong. How and why would anybody in their right mind cancel my daughter’s petition for not showing up to an interview we were not informed of? On top of that, it is almost a certainty that the interview would have been terminated to a later date due to my status change. Becoming a U.S. Citizen is an honor and my daughter would not have missed such an important interview for the world. I explained all of this to Kim Russell, Vice Consul, at the U.S. embassy in Manila. Believe me when I tell you this, I was a Police Officer in the Philippines for seventeen years before I came to America and it appeared to me that she was not forthcoming. It seemed as if she was attempting to cover up a mistake that was made.
I am asking for anyone with advice that could help me with this problem.
Thank you for your time,
