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- On July 5th, 2019, USCIS will permanently close
its field office in Manila, Philippines,
as part of the Trump administration's efforts
to reduce legal immigration.
After this date, there will be no USCIS
international field office located in the Philippines.
The office began redirecting Form I-130,
Petitions for Alien Relatives, to the USCIS Lockbox
on May 14th, 2019.
For U.S. citizens residing in the Philippines
that used to qualify for direct consular filing,
will now need to submit their petitions by mail
with USCIS lockbox facility in Chicago.
The USCIS field office's services
included refugee applications,
initial review of family reunification visas
and foreign adoptions.
They also considered parole requests for people
outside the U.S. for urgent humanitarian reasons
and processed naturalization documents
for military members who marry foreign nationals.
USCIS has posted the detailed arrangement
on where each application should be sent to
after the office closes.
The U.S. Embassy in Manila also announced
that they will assume responsibility
for certain limited services previously provided
by the USCIS to individuals residing in the Philippines.
To clarify and alleviate fears,
the USCIS field office is not the same as the U.S. Embassy.
The US Embassy in Manila is still open for business,
and processing visa interviews.
The closing of the USCIS field office
will not affect current ongoing family visas.
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