US Visa Application - Part 2: Honesty is the Best Policy

The first step to getting a non-immigrant US visa is to go to this website:

https://ceac.state.gov/CEAC/

click on the 1st option and you will be directed to this page:

Scroll down and select the location where you are and click START AN APPLICATION. You will then see this:

Take note of your application ID , print it if you can. I personally just wrote it down. Scroll down to choose a security question you want to answer and click CONTINUE.

will then be directed to this page:

It took me roughly 40 minutes to completely answer this all the way to the security background questions. As you can see, details about your passport, travel and US contact will be asked. I had the following ready:

• my passport
• my SSS ID card 
• the name, address and contact details of the person I will be visiting
• if somebody else will pay for your travel expenses, the name, address and contact details of the one sponsoring your trip should also be ready.
• information about my work

TAKE A TIP:

• Read carefully and answer each questions as honestly and accurately as possible.
• I found the right sidebar helpful too.
• Don't leave any questions unanswered and tick the DOES NOT APPLY button if the question is not applicable.
• You can leave an item blank if you see *OPTIONAL 

If at any part you failed to complete a needed data, you will not be allowed to proceed to the next page and will be alerted.

A box with letters written in red will show you which items you failed to answer, a corresponding red arrow will point to the items that needs to be answered. 

The security and background part is answerable by yes or no.  Read everything carefully. After completing all the security questions, you will be asked to upload a photo.

My cousin Ken was kind enough to take my photo and upload it. Please make sure that the photo you will upload satisfies the photo requirements. Click here to see the requirements set for visa photo. Please note too that should your visa be approved, the photo that you uploaded will be the one that will be attached to your visa. My cousin Ken took a couple of shots before we were able to find a suitable one to upload. 

While I was having my photo taken, Ken reminded me to:

• Remove my eyeglasses 
• Not to tilt my head 
• not to show my teeth when I smile

After the photo was uploaded and has been approved, the next step will be to review all the information that you have provided.

Should there be an item that you feel needs to be corrected, click on the edit portion and you will be able to make the necessary changes.

After making sure that all given information are correct; you will be asked to confirm the location where you will submit your application:

After which you will be asked to electronically sign your application and submit it.

There! A bit time consuming, a few clicks here and there but not really very difficult.  Next post will be paying for the application fee and getting scheduled for an interview.

US visa Application - Part 1: tell you a secret!

I was granted a 10-year multiple entry B1/ B2 visa which I received just yesterday. And as a sign of my gratitude, I will help the American embassy with "walang sikreto" its public service campaign against visa scams. I was at the embassy last October 16 for my interview and I saw this tarpaulin in the waiting area:

to know more about the embassy's scam-busting campaign click here

The secret? There is no secret! I went through the process unaided and only paid for the 6720.00 pesos (equivalent to 160.00 dollars) application fee through the bank. You really don't need to pay for assistance in obtaining a US visa. I hope this campaign can help put a stop to US visa application scams.

Want to apply for a US visa? Follow my next posts and I will try to be as detailed as possible and hopefully be of help. 

FOODIE FRIDAY - cafeteria foodtrip

I had grand fitness related plans for Friday. I was supposed to wake up early to jog and then proceed to the badminton court for at least an hour of shuttlecock-smashing-calorie-burning activity with my cousin Ken. But Ken's dad ( whom I fondly call my fake father), was rushed to the hospital Thursday night and had to spend the night there. Needless to say, Ken can not join me with my fight-the-bulge plan so I just went with him to the hospital.

I was not able to take a decent breakfast and was already hungry. Ken munched on a piece of oily bread he purchased at ministop while we were on the bus and had with him a pack of roast beef flavored potato chips. We arrived at DLSUMC a little before 10am, Ken's mom was waiting for us. My fake father seem well, and really did not look like he needed any assistance. He was ready to drive himself home but has yet to obtain a clearance from his doctor. Before Ken's mom left, she told us to have our lunch at the hospital's cafeteria. We nodded but in my mind I was already placing my order for twice baked potato halves at the pizza place just across the hospital building. An hour later, 2 of my fake father's siblings arrived. Ken and I decided to check out the hospital's cafeteria. Ken's mom was right, there really was a lot going on in the cafeteria. Aside from the usual rice and ulam stalls, there was a hotdog stand, a fruit shake stand and also a nook that sells RTW's. I decided to eat an early lunch, fish fillet and tortang talong cooked on banana leaf while Ken who had rice for breakfast just ordered lugaw with egg. All these for just 125 pesos, I find that reasonable. While waiting in line to check out our food, I asked Ken to grab a bottle of lemon iced tea from the chiller, he said we should try the fruitshake.

I had this feeling that it was one of those fruitshake stands that uses fruit-flavored powder mixes. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that they use fresh fruits. Being starved, I ate while Ken was still waiting for his mango-strawberry shake. The fish fillet was nothing fancy, it was so crunchy I thought I was eating fish crackers,the tortang talong was too oily. And I think their food warmers are not working since everything I ate, including the rice was as cold as a healthy puppy's nose. When Ken returned to our table, it was my turn to get my shake. Avocado is my favorite, but it is out of season so I was not surprised to see "not available" across the photo of the avocado on the fruitshake stand's signage. I spent quite a while looking up at the pictures of possible shake combinations when something on the menu piqued my curiosity.

Cheese? Fruitshakes with cheese?  Seriously? This I got to try. I ordered for a mango-peach-cheese shake. The lady preparing my shake grabbed a pack of presumably mango and peach slices and tossed it in the blender, then she took a thick slice of cheddar cheese and tossed it in too. She added a cup of crushed ice, evaporated milk and sugar syrup and turned the blender on. I paid 50 pesos for my shake ( 20oz with fresh fruits... Very reasonable...) and told Ken that my shake has cheese. He took a sip and liked it too. 

I found my shake to be a bit sweet, the mango dominated the peach. But i love the way the cheese made my shake creamier. The cold cafeteria food may have disappointed me but this fruitshake managed to put a smile on my chubby face. 

After 2 hours, we went back to the cafeteria for merienda. We both ordered a hotdog sandwich.  30 Pesos for a king size tender juicy hotdog... not bad . The best part was we get to put our chosen condiments. Lucky for me since I am not really fond of mustard. They have thinly sliced cabbage and carrots available too. This time Ken ordered a mango-cheese shake, i opted for bottled water. We went back to my fake father's room and watched The Grudge. I wanted to go back to the cafeteria before going home to get a fruitshake again. But I think my conscience whispered "glutton".

Going to the hospital is not something I find very enjoyable, it can get very depressing. But the cheap cheap cafeteria food ( talking about the hotdog sandwich here) and the yummy fruitshake made my day not as gloomy as I expected. 

FOODIE FRIDAY - say it with donuts

I am ignoring that red line under the word donut. I will spell it the way I grew up associating everything that is colorful,round with a hole in the middle and diabetes-inducing sweet with Dunkin' Donuts. 

For a time Dunkin' dominated the my donut world. Mister Donut was also a part of that world, because it was readily available at 7-11 branches. Then came Go Nuts Donuts, and I really went nuts for their amazing glaze and pastillas flavored donuts. Then came Krispy Kreme DoUGHnuts. What's with the UGH? Goodbye amazing glaze for this additional UGH gave me the "world-famous-melt-in-your-mouth-doughnut" ... Krispy Kreme's original glazed.  I have yet to try the newest kid on my donut block... J. Co Donuts. I always pass by their MOA branch and I am not exaggerating when I say that the lines are too long. Yes I am curious to try it, but patience is a virtue I do not have. It is still so hyped-up so everybody wants to be the first to try.  Besides, I have yet another donut place.

Not too crowded and serves me the best cheese flavored donuts. And it can get cheesier. I first learned about this place when my nephew came home with a box with little donuts spelling out I - L-O-V-E-Y-O-U ... or something to that effect. This was a present from his girlfriend. 

Sweeter that your average sweet without making your bloodsugar shoot up. I also did the same for my group. With the knowledge that we will be having burgers for dinner, and eventually will be needing something sweet for dessert, I asked my cousin ken to visit Cello's Doughnuts & Dips branch near Zark's burgers and had this 1 made:

Cute isn't it? I was able to convey my message of thanking my team and everybody got their fair share of dessert. I even got to take 2 donuts! I tried the A of "thank" cheese flavored, yummy , yummy , yummy and also the N of "NH", finely crushed m&m's ... I still like the cheese. 

I think they are famous for the cheese and oreo topped donuts. The usual round donuts are readily available. But if you want something like this done, you have give them at least 3 hours lead time. Each letter cost 30 pesos. Feel like shouting out your message? Get them in bigger letters for 45 pesos each.

Sweet Friday everyone!

Kissing taxi rides goodbye

I commute, everyday. If I am lucky, I get to hitch with friends. But more often than not, I take a jeepney ride home or if I can find someone to split the cab fare with, I take a taxi ride to the nearest place where a shuttle service terminal is. I was not born with a silver spoon. Don't be deceived by the fact that I graduated from an exclusive university. My family was able to afford it because my mom invested in an educational plan with the remittance my dad was sending us while he worked as a bartender in a cruise ship where he eventually met a girl and left us. Whatever school fees my scholarship did not cover was paid with the help of my supportive relatives. Yes I grew up with household helpers but not because my mom was too lazy to look after us but because she had to work. No I was not an english-speaking child, I may have a good command of the english language, maybe because I got into reading at an early age, with books that I borrow from classmates. We are not rich, comfortable yes, but there are times we also struggle to make ends meet.

Numerous facebook posts on incidents involving commuters like me disheartens me. Stories of taxi drivers working in connivance with holduppers, taking everything and forcing you to surrender your atm cards together with the security codes, taking all that is of value and leaving you in an unfamiliar place. Consider yourself lucky if they will not sexually assault you.

I take taxi rides not because I do not want to squeeze myself in an over-crowded bus but because I have had a long day at work and I probably don't have enough energy left to stand in a bus for at least an hour. I take taxi rides because I can not afford to buy a car. I take taxi rides because I do not know how to drive and even if we do have a family car, only my mom who will turn 60 years old soon is available to pick me up. Taxi riders are not from the elite, they are from the working class, who punches their timecards and takes orders from bosses. 

I'm not trying to say that the target for crimes like these should be those who are uber rich. My point is, those who take taxi rides are taxpayers and I hope that the government can help keep the streets safe for the riding public. Until then, I guess I will have to really save some energy for that bus ride. 

Sunday Secret - start today

My favorite secret from postsecret.com for this week is : 

What made this secret special is not the realization to be a better person... But the desire to start today. We all know what we want in our lives, to live a healthier life, to move on from a hurtful relationship, to improve our craft, to learn a new skill... But like participating in a marathon, we all wait for the gun start before we make a move. 

No more waiting for a sign, or for a better time, the time is now, today not tomorrow.  To get closer to what I want, to stretch further to reach my desires and to wake up and pursue my dreams. 

love at first oily bite

ZARK'S BURGERS !!! Got introduced to this place only last July when they offered the jawbreaker promo. A burger that has 3 patties,bacon,spam...the works, that normally costs 250pesos was being sold for only 150pesos. I wanted to try it, but it was such a great hit that we needed to find the right connection for us  to get to experience it.  I have to admit though that I was a huge failure with the jawbreaker.It was just too much for me. 

For my birthday, considering the huge appetite of my sister and my nephews, I decided to treat them to Zark's too.  

Situated just across DLSU, This place is filled with memorabilia and photos of archers in basketball action. I doubt if an Atenean will feel at home

Notice the catsup dispenser's missing nozzle? This is not a place for Posh Spice but a haven for hungry vikings!

The famous Jawbreaker! 3 patties, bacon, spam, tomatoes,cheese, lettuce, mushroom .... If you think you can finish this in 5 minutes (including the huge serving of fries and a glass of lemon iced tea), then take the jawbreaker challenge and pay nothing for your calorific meal! 

My personal favorite. Double cheeseburger, with mushroom,caramelized onions, lettuce and tomato! Just right for me. I was able to finish this thing without feeling like a bloated blowfish ready to throw up! 

This too looked promising! flame-grilled half-pound black pepper crusted patty. That crunchy looking thing sticking out is a slice of bacon... breaded and deep-fried to crunchy perfection. Got so inspired by this I am thinking of having deep-fried bacon for breakfast some time soon! 

I am not a huge nacho fan but this was a welcome treat too.

3 weeks after my dinner with my nephews, I also brought my airport staff for a very late September birthday celebration. There were 3 of us who turned a year older and the initial plan was to have a pizza feast at Yellow Cab. But we later realized Yellow Cab may not be able to satisfy the group's appetite and most of them got curious with my Zark's stories so we then decided to bring the group to Taft Avenue. Most of them tried the jawbreaker (but none was brave enough to take the 5-minute challenge) but only 3 guys were able to finish the whole thing. most of them left a patty untouched, there was even one who obviously got overwhelmed by the size and only managed to eat the spam! We ordered a total of 25 burgers (including take out for those who were on duty and were not able to join us)and paid less than 6000 pesos. Not bad since we all went home with overstuffed tummies! 

I have only tried 2 Zark's burgers so far, and I plan to try more! They have one wrapped in bacon, patties in between Krispy Kreme donuts, burgers with blue cheese dressing... but I doubt if I will have enough courage to try their tombstone burger! Does the name intrigue you? Have a look at their menu and see if you can handle it.