Gina Flies to Cebu - for the CFO Seminar

[ginapeterb]

Gina Bennett flies to Cebu - for Pre-Arrival Cross Cultural Seminar


Ok having had a long discussion today witth the si Misis, she is winging her way out to Cebu as we speak to attend for the Comission on Filipino's Overseas, pre-registration, Cross Cultural Seminar.

From the Conversations that she has had with the CFO in Cebu, it now appears that the procedures and requirements for Spouses of Foreign Nationals, and once again I repeat, SPOUSES and not fiancee's etc, is slightly different in that their appears to be more of a evidence of relationship and marriage required.

So it appears that this is the following procedure now at the St Mary's Euphrasia Foundation, who actually conducts the counselling on behalf of the CFO.

Monday Morning 9.30am - Pre-Registration for the Counselling Seminar which takes place at the St Mary's Euphraisa Foundation.

Requirements.

2 Valid Forms of ID
1 Passport Size Photo
NSO Marriage Certificate (not local municipal marriage contract)
Passport
Evidence of Husbands Divorce Decree Absolute (If married before)
Wedding Album Pictures
Other Album of Pictures showing long relationship
Photocopy of the UK Clearance Visa obtained at British Embassy.


This is for the pre-registration session, where it will be determined if the applicant has all the relevant documetation.

If so, a P250.00 fee is then charged.

Applicants will then be sent away to come back for the Afternoon counselling session which starts at 1.30pm.

The Counselling Session

The Conselling Session is now deemed a "Cross Cultural orientation Seminar aimed at orientating the Filipina spouse of the foreign national into the pitfalls of such an alliance, there willbe a series of lectures, videos, about UK Life, and the Filipina Spouse is expected to be knowledeable about the information imparted, at the end, they will now tested as to their retention of such knowledge.

The Final Interview


At the end of this 3 hour session, the Emigrant Applicant will then be personally interviewed by a counsellor who will then ask the applicant questions about her knowledge of the UK, her husbands family, and where she will live.

if the counsellor is satisfied that the Emigrant is familiar with her new life abroad, she will be approved and told to return on the Tuesday to collect her Counselling and Orientation Certificate, then an Emigrant number and stamp will be placed in her passport, at that time she is free to fly.

I will of course keep you informed on this thread at what actually happens, but this is the procedure explained to Gina today by the CFO Counsellors, the actual Certificate is to be collected from the CFO in Osmena Boulevard Cebu, and not from the St Mary's Euprasia Foundation, they are just the conductees of the seminars and counselling, not the issuers of the paperwork.

You may also wish to note the following:

To enable those spouses who are coming from other Islands such as Mindanao, Sulo, Jolo, Mindoro, Leyte, Bohol, Negros, and other smaller islands it may be neccessary for them to fly the night before to be there in time for the Monday Morning Pre-Registration document check.

This is at the CFO at Osemena Boulevard, thsi is at 9.30am every morning, now that the United Kingdom Seminar is every day at 1.30pm.
This may involve a 2 night hotel stay, the Midtown Hotel Cebu is ideal for this, rooms are around P1500.00 to P1700.00 including a buffet breakfast, its ok, folks, i have been there.

So when comtemplating the CFO Cebu experience, it may involve a 2 night stay and return flights to Cebu Mactan International, remembering that you cannot collect your Counselling Certificate until Tuesday Morning.

Will keep you all posted as more information tlows my way, lets see what really happens on the day.

[peterdavid]

The CFO - what a load of absolute cobblers. Sounds like they're getting worse. Sheer crab mentality - jealousy.

500 pesos is enough to turn a corrupt filipino employee and get you that stamp if they get arsey.

And anyway, even if they say no, it's irrelevant. Buy a return ticket to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, etc, fly there, (no CFO stamp needed), then buy a ticket to London and forget the return flight.

The philippines, with its laughbly deluded sense of importance, has still failed to realise that its nonsense laws and restrictions on freedom are completely ignored by the modern world, who couldn't care less if there is a CFO stamp in the passport before allowing you to fly to the UK (visa is all that counts), and who happily ignore the nonsense Philippines instruction banning filipinos from travelling to Iraq.

Once she's out of that country, you're home free. Maybe 1 in 100 immigration guards genuinely wish you well as your filipina travels on to her new life in a less backward country. The rest let you through with gritted teeth, overwhelmed with crab mentality and seething that one of their own has managed to escape her slavery there, and with a foreigner as well!

Get her out of that hellhole and don't look back!!

[ginapeterb]

LOL :lol: I hear you Peter, I read your post and cant stop LOL, everything you say is want I want to say, but I can't believe that its costing me £100.00 to get a poxy emigrant stamp in Gina's passport, I am just relaying the information that is coming from Gina as she does battle with that pathetic piss poor excuse for a commission, what a joke.

I agree, soon she will be out of that self important collection of corrupt Islands, that the rest of the world laughs at on a daily basis.

[peterdavid]

£100?? It makes you pig-sick doesn't it.

If the system is unchanged from before, they'll give her a form to fill in once she's in England, to be sent back to the Philippines within 2 weeks of arrival (they dont provide postage though, what a surprise) and it's got all sorts of backwards questions on it like "have the British local government/social service authorities treated you with respect", etc, ie, all the things filipino authorities DON'T DO, as if they are then going to do something about it if for example "your new in-laws haven't made you feel welcome" (another question - can't remember what the actual questions were but they were along those lines). How we laughed at the absurd backward questions as we ripped it up and threw it straight in the bin.

It's almost as dumb as the British Embassy staff security clearance check which all Embassy staff have to go through. One of the questions is "have you ever been involved in terrorism, yes or no". Err...duuhhh. Why would anyone tick yes?

What this dumb commission is too stupid to work out for itself is: If the very 'nightmare' they're trying to pretend they're helping to avoid happens (ie, a filipina finds herself with an abusive foreign husband in a strange country), why on earth would he allow her to fill in a form and tick the NO box next to "has your new husband made you feel welcome" or the YES box for "does he beat you"? And then allow her to go and work out how to post it back to the Philippines, and give her the money to pay for postage. If they can't even provide a prepaid envelope, how are they going to be any help whatsoever to a filipina in a foreign country?? Idiots.

Still, gives us all a laugh. The Philippines makes it such a confrontational and anti-foreigner system, that once you've rescued one of them from that hellhole, you can't help but laugh at them for their ineptitude.

[ginapeterb]

If the system is unchanged from before, they'll give her a form to fill in once she's in England, to be sent back to the Philippines within 2 weeks of arrival (they dont provide postage though, what a surprise) and it's got all sorts of backwards questions on it like "have the British local government/social service authorities treated you with respect", etc, ie, all the things filipino authorities DON'T DO, as if they are then going to do something about it if for example "your new in-laws haven't made you feel welcome" (another question - can't remember what the actual questions were but they were along those lines). How we laughed at the absurd backward questions as we ripped it up and threw it straight in the bin.

Well didnt know about that one Peter, so she gets a form to fill in, asking "Does your husband beat you", this is incredible, who do these people think they are ? its the biggest case of State Interference, I have ever seen, talk about the Nanay state, interfering, what a joke, I will have fun when i see that form, and thats a great one "Have your new in laws made you feel welcome ?" She will put this, "My new in laws dont even talk to their son my husband, and dont make him feel welcome, but they like me ! hehehehehehehehehe

I cant wait to see what happens next ?

Where do these people come from, what planet do they live on ? what is all this crap that Filipinos have to go through, have you noticed whenever you see A Filipino or Young Filipina walking around, they always have a plastic wallett style folder full of bits of paper, the whole society runs on bits of paper, they always have it, have you noticed, having said that, I know of a freind of my freind who is American, he has put in for his Wife's visa over 1 year ago, at the Nebraska Service Centre, they have sent the file to Manila, which should be another 6 weeks, he has been told that the file is in "Transit" and we all know what that means.

Sometimes we moan about the British Procedures, but I really feel for the U.S. Guys, do they have to do some waiting, many of them as much as 2 years to get their girl over, and then have to face being declined.

I think I will really look forward to seeing sight of this Q and A form, from those idiots down at the CFO...

[ginapeterb]

Well as the saga runs on, I did here briefly from Gina today, although only by text message to let me know that she had completed the CFO Seminar however as i had previously said, She cannot fly back to Bacolod tonight, she requires to stay another night and collect her Certificate of Cross Cultural orientation tomorrow at the CFO-DFA and then her emigrant stamp, I have yet to get any idea as to how she saw the whole experience, but no doubt she will tell me tomorrow.

[ginapeterb]

The CFO Seminar - the way it was !

Gina and I had a chat today, and I got the following out of her regarding her CFO Experience.

Firstly, the registration went smooth at 9.30am, then the applicants were asked to come back at 1.30pm for the counselling session at St Mary's Euphrasia Foundation.

The session lasted 2 hours, starting with a video called "Magandang Gabi - Bayan" its basically a look at pitfalls, that occur between Foreigners and Filipinos, the video showed first

1. A Story about an Australian guy who got his wife to strip nude and took glamour photos of her, and she appeared in a magazine.

2. An American from Tennessee who got his wife to open up a joint account with him, then after she transferred her savings from Philippines, got her to sign some papers, and she found out after returning home to the Philippines, that they were divorce papers.

3. An Australian guy who married his filipina wife, murdered her for the life insurance.


Apart from that, not much else, after the video, the applicants were then given a series of advices, including being given the details of the various Philippine Embassies in their respective countries of destination in case they needed help, also names of groups in those countries that can help them if the husband starts beating them up.

Then they were given some more advice about what to expect, with documentation, and information about what type of visas they had, and how long they were valid for.

At the end of the 2 hour session each applicant was then interviewed for 5 minutes about their relationship, questions such as, "How well do you know him", "What is his favourite colour, etc" then at the end, they were told to come back the next morning and collect their certificates of attendance, and their emigrant stamps.


Thats it folks, not much else to tell. an anti climax dont you think


Happy reading.

[Admin]

The video sounds like something I have to order under the counter.....can Gina get me a copy? :lol:

Now I'm thankful I got everything arranged in Singapore, and married here, so easy, never had a problem with Embassies/Immigration, unles you count the Philippine Embassy in London putting Pings wrong name on the passport, and charging us again to correct their mistake!

Anyway Pete, it all works out in the end, and you'd better get busy with that toothbrush cleaning the house. Start with the light bulbs, and work your way down :lol:

[ginapeterb]

Originally posted by admin@Jun 22 2005, 07:38 AM
The video sounds like something I have to order under the counter.....can Gina get me a copy? :lol:

Now I'm thankful I got everything arranged in Singapore, and married here, so easy, never had a problem with Embassies/Immigration, unles you count the Philippine Embassy in London putting Pings wrong name on the passport, and charging us again to correct their mistake!

Anyway Pete, it all works out in the end, and you'd better get busy with that toothbrush cleaning the house. Start with the light bulbs, and work your way down :lol:

Quoted post

I cant wait to see what happens next mate

[walesrob]

Originally posted by admin@Jun 22 2005, 07:38 AM

Now I'm thankful I got everything arranged in Singapore, and married here, so easy, never had a problem with Embassies/Immigration, unles you count the Philippine Embassy in London putting Pings wrong name on the passport, and charging us again to correct their mistake!

Quoted post

Elsa worked in Hong Kong for a while before we married and she suggested we get married there, but I wrongly assumed it would be too complicated as both her and I are foreigners in Hong Kong. Now I wish we had, as the hassle we encountered in Philippines was unbelievable, and we all know that Hong Kong is one of the most organised and efficent countries in Asia. The British Embassy in Hong Kong have "real" "Human" "Beings" working there who don't act like little idiots as in Manila. Indeed getting married in Hong Kong is very straighforward (in the case of a civil marraige) and of course your guaranteed an easy ride with visa applications also...

[kentish]

Originally posted by admin@Jun 22 2005, 08:38 AM
you'd better get busy with that toothbrush cleaning the house. Start with the light bulbs, and work your way down :lol:

Quoted post

And start looking for rice cooker, stock your kitchen cupboard with sacks of rice. When shes here take her to pinoy festival because she will want to get the groceries there (as in mamalengke) like toyo, suka, patis, bagoong, balut, penoy, salted eggs(itlog na pula) and many more.

Oh and dont forget to check for cheapest way for her to ring her family back in the PI once the plane touch down....

anything else???????????

[kentish]

And yes hide those items that reminds her of your ex if any

[moi]

And yes hide those items that reminds her of your ex if any

Quoted post

That's very true indeed! :(