Let me take this opportunity to greet each and every one of you a happy fiesta! At this time of the year, all roads lead to Cebu to celebrate the feast of the Señor Santo Niño to whom we raise our petitions and prayers.
Cebu is home and always will be. Every Cebuano I know in the US --immigrant, citizen, or undocumented, always yearns to go back to our beloved city at this time of the year. Across America, Cebuano communities in the US are holding novena and fiesta celebrations as a way to reconnect with their roots.
Next year, the whole world will be watching us as we commemorate the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines. Let us not lose the fact that it is by divine design, not by random accident that the infant Jesus, the Santo Niño, who basks at the very center, chose Cebu to be the cradle of Catholicism in Asia. What a gift and a responsibility to us Cebuanos! The year 2021 will be such a momentous year to watch out for!
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It is also this time of the year when I receive a lot of questions pertaining to the fiancée visa. Perhaps, US citizen boyfriends come to the Philippines to visit their Filipina fiancées. One of the queries often posed is how to make sure there is a high chance of approval.
As I always tell my clients, presenting a fiancée visa application is just as simple as telling your love story. Make sure everything is well documented. From plane tickets, itinerary, emails, photos taken while in the Philippines, cards, gift receipts, letters from friends and families. All these should be kept and presented as convincingly as possible to ensure that the application gets approved.
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This column is not a substitute for professional legal advice obtained from a US licensed immigration attorney. The information contained herein does not constitute a warranty or guarantee or legal advice regarding a reader’s specific immigration case. No attorney-client relationship is and shall be established with any reader.