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

I just don't understand why they are holding up the passport in Cebu without the CFO seminar. I haven't experienced that a year ago when I tried renewing my passport.

We spent about a month, comprising two spells of approximately 2 weeks.


The number of photos that are required is stuff of forum myth and legend. There is no fixed figure specified. My agent said about 20 would do. The emphasis wasnt so much on quantity but more on spreading the selection across different settings and with different clothes on. So they didnt look like they were all taken at the same time on the same day.

We actually submitted 40 just because we wanted to.

Well all we can do is put together the best application we can and hope for the best. Not sure what we'll do if it's refused :'(

I've done some more searching. I wanted to include this in case it's of use to others:

This was on the Irish visa website. So they can only really refuse if you haven't got the correct documentation.

I feel sure your refusal would be covered under 3.1(iii) "abuse of rights" as you are moving to Ireland to avoid border controls with regard to your wife. Now, whether they'd be legally correct is of little consequence since the onus - and cost - would be on you to prove them wrong in the European Court.

As I said before, you'd be better off choosing a Shenghen country. But up to you.

But it states that the onus of proof is on them, not on the applicant. How could they prove an applicant's future intentions? And how can the application of Surinder Singh be viewed as an abuse anyway?

The Home Office does consider the application of Surinder Singh to be an abuse when it is patently used to circumvent immigration controls, as in your case. Quite recently the minister responsible, James Brokenshire, stated (in the Telegraph) that the Home Office would be clamping-down on those using the SS route and that it is looking at introducing the same financial requirements as for a Visa for those non-EU spouses intending to settle in the UK.

As I understand you will get CFO if you want to use your husband last name,,that's a requirement for the 1st time and the one who renew their passport,,once you get CFO certificate you will keep the reciept so that if you have your visa you go back their to claim the CFO stickers,,,

Yep, my wife has been told by local NSO that a Guidance and Counseling Certificate (GCC) issued by Commission on Filipinos Oversea (CFO) is necessary to allow her to apply for a new passport in her married name.

The GCC doesn't require the applicant to already have a visa, which would be impossible to achieve when applying for UK Settlement visa with passport in married name.

What is alarming about blogs here, is the ability for CFO to chose what they wish is necessary as 'other documents'

http://cfo.gov.ph/index.php?option=...artners-of-foreign-nationals&catid=140#ThirdA

I have suggested take everything that is needed for UK Settlement visa including a paper copy of prepared uk visa application which are available from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-for-uk-visa-for-family-settlement-form-vaf4a

you don't have to have started the online application process.

Fingers crossed that she doesn't have to revisit.

You mean aquiring the full and final CFO certification, before the visa has been approved?

If wishing to have the CFO sticker applied to your wifes married name passport with settlement visa, then the process requires 1st obtaining Guidance and Counseling Certificate (GCC) from CFO, after which the maiden name passport with GCC and Marriage certificate is then submitted for application of new passport in married name.

Once partner receives new married name passport can then eventually submit passport with visa application (Applications forms, financial evidence, english language ability test cert, TB medical test, passport size photos, marriage certificate, husband and wife individual application statement letters, proof of regular correspondence (chatroom downloads (facebook and skype is easiest), photos of wedding and elsewhere, proof of uk accommodation and intention to settle, birth certificates, financial support (international money transfer statements)).

When eventually she receives passport with VISA stamp (label) applied, then will need to return to CFO for final registration and application of 'sticker'.

I can only assume that the whole process is more messy if obtain VISA and CFO sticker with just maiden name passport. No idea of necessary process to transfer VISA and CFO sticker to a new married name passport later?

My wife did just that. She got both the visa and the CFO sticker in her maiden name. She eventually changed to her married name here in the UK when she renewed her passport here.

Thanks for info.
I had thought that the visa process would be smoother if the application was made in the married name, rather than the maiden name? The idea also being that when the visa is having to be renewed approx 2 1/2 yrs later, then it will be in her same passport. Then Indefinite Leave to Remain would be applied to her next passport renewal, since the Philippine passport would be due for renewal by then.

My wife's ILR application was conducted in her maiden name too. The marriage certificate is the key cross referencing document.

Thanks for the info guys. I had thought that a miss match of surnames would have lead to problems later on, despite usually stating both married and maiden names.

I have to say that we never once have had a problem relating to this. My wife normally used her old maiden name and my surname in applications here in the UK eg for plane tickets or for the doctors surgery. Whenever we presented her passport we also presented a copy of the marriage certificate.

We did it this way for 3 reasons:

1] Cheaper.
2] Less messing about in the runup to visa application.
3] And to avoid a potential error created by the DFA (some people have found that the NSO have been known to misspell names in passports and the like)

For spouse of foreign national:

• Marriage Contract (MC) in Security Paper (SECPA) issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) or Certified True Copy (CTC) of MC issued by the Local Civil Registrar (LCR) and duly authenticated by NSO. Transcribed Marriage Contract from the LCR is required when entries in NSO Marriage Contract are blurred or unreadable.
• Report of Marriage duly authenticated by NSO if married abroad
• Original and photocopy of Commission of Filipino Overseas (CFO) Guidance and Counseling Certificate of Attendance (required for first time applicants or renewal of passport to be used for the first time the surname of the husband) for those have spouses using their maiden name I think when they renew their passport and using their husband last name I think it's obligate for them to have gcc and CFO sticker,,,

Why, Why, Why?
My wife has succeed in obtaining the Guidance and Counseling Certificate (GCC), but classically that despite the online application form not requesting it. She had to record on the form completed at the CFO, my 'education status'!

What on earth has education status of spouse got to do with deciding if your spouse can or can't attend the counseling?

Thinking on her feet, she gave some details, brilliant and proves what a load of rubbish such a requirement is.

I've probably now been recorded as having a Phd in brain surgery LOL.

The same scenario occurred, when we were registering intent to marry in the Philippines.
The forms were not completed until i had given my last education status, yet there is absolutely no way to check....

4 words - Only in the Philippines