HOW TO: Get a U.S. Visa

My mom has been pushing us to get our US Visa for some time now so we can visit them and our relatives in the US. They were asking us to go to the US last August for a reunion but Jill and I was too busy [procrastinating] to process our papers.

After putting off our application and interview for more than half a year, we were able to get our visa last January 2015

Here are steps that we did to apply for our Visas. The US Embassy website has steps listed but it's not really that clear and details seem lacking that I had to do some guess work to complete.

1. Go visit US Embassy website and read up. 
2. Pay your visa fees. You can pay through banks (you need your passport on hand)We opted to pay via BPI Express Online -- you need to be enrolled to use. There's an official instruction published it the US Embassy site but it's not accurate.
1. Go to this site and take note of the reference number listed (under step 2). 
• The reference number will change every time you refresh or revisit the page.
• You're not required to complete the stated step 1 yet at this point.
2. Log-in to your BPI Express Online account.
3. Enroll for a new payment bill: Payments & Reloading > Bills Payment > Enroll All Other Bills 
   
4. Fill up the required details:
• Company Name: US MRV (VISA) FEE PAYMENTS(USVISA)
• Reference Number: the reference number you took note of earlier
5. Continue and finish the enrollment process.
6. Once enrolled, you can now pay via: Payments & Reloading > Bills Payment > Pay Bills Today
• Make sure that you are paying the correct amount for your Visa type. You can check this page for the latest visa fee and equivalent conversion rate.
7. BPI would send you an email confirmation on your payment. You can print this to serve as proof of your payment as you won't have a traditional O.R. issued to you.
8. Your payment should be valid for one year.
9. Notes:
• Each applicant needs their own MRV reference number, i.e. one reference number per applicant
• You can pay for different application fees in one BPI Express Online account, i.e. you can pay fees for other people through your BPI Express Online account. Just enroll each MRV reference number separately.
3. Create your Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application aka DS-160.
1. You need a digital ID photo, that follows these guidelines, to complete this step.
• This photo does not need to be identical to the picture required to be submitted to the embassy. You can just take a photo with your phone, digicam or webcam.
2. Go to the DS-160 site.
3. Select your location (PHILIPPINES, MANILA) in the drop down box.
4. Click on the START AN APPLICATION to create your DS-160 form
5. On the next page, fill up and take note of the following information:
• Application ID
• Security Question and your answer
6. Continue and fill up the rest of your DS-160 form
7. You do not need to finish the form in one go. You can save your form and retrieve it to finish at a later time. Just make sure you have the information from Step 5.
8. Once done, a confirmation page will be displayed. A similar form would also be sent to you via email. You need to print this and present during your interview.
4. Create your profile.
1. Go to the applicant profile page.
2. Click on the New User? link.
3. Fill-up the information needed and create your account.
4. In this page, you can link the following to your profile:
• Your MRV payment 
• Depending on the time you made your MRV payment, it might not be readily available to be linked.
• Your DS-160 form 
• Any family member that is applying for a visa with you
5. Notes:
• Each applicant needs to create their own profile.
• You do not need to complete all the information in one go. You can create this profile first and just add the payment and DS-160 information once you have them.
5. Set your interview appointment schedule
1. Log-in to your applicant profile and schedule an appointment.  This is better than calling the call-center for your appointment -- you can easily browse through the available schedule and set your schedule 24/7.
• Note that the schedule you set would also reflect to the family member you linked with your profile (this is not the same as the Group Appointment).
2. I suggest to go for the earliest time for the interview. Your scheduled appointment does not necessarily mean that you will be accommodated at that time, it only means you are allowed in the embassy at the set time. A 7:15 AM schedule can easily be take up to 11 AM to finish. 
6. Go for the interview
1. Make sure that you have your required documents available for the interview:
• Valid Passport (prepare your old passports as well -- though the consul did not ask us of this)
• DS-160 confirmation
• Appointment confirmation
• 2" x 2" ID photo
• have this taken in a photo studio, they should know the US Visa requirement -- other embassies have different size and face ratio requirements
• should you forget your ID photo, there is a photo-booth within the embassy.
• O.R. or online payment confirmation printout.
• Supporting documents (we prepared the following but was they were not asked by the consul, but better safe than sorry)
• Certificate of Employment with the following info:
• Current title or position
• Annual or monthly salary
• Date started or number of years of service
• Leave approval for the travel dates stated
• BIR Form 136 to support your COE.
• Bank Certificate with current available balance, date account opened and daily balance average (year-to-date).
• For BDO, you needs to request this on your branch and it takes a day to be released -- unless you ask very very nicely :)
• For BPI, you can ask from any branch as long as it's the same type (BPI, BPI Family or BPI Direct). The certificate would be available immediately.
• Costs 100 per account for both bank
• Bank Statement
• For BDO, 100 per page. You can readily get 6 months worth of transaction.
• For BPI, free for the last 3 months (readily available). 6 months worth of transaction needs to be requested. We only got the 3 month statement.
• Marriage Certificate -- just in case.
• Any documents that can help you prove that: 
• You can financially support your travel to the US
• You have strong ties to return to the Philippines -- family, property, business, work, etc.
2. Do not bring any electronic device (no cellphones or tablets), drinks, or food.
• BTW, you can bring your keys (which I was wondering before going to the embassy :-) )
• There are food and drinks available within the embassy premises.
3. What to expect when you get there:
• There are queues outside the embassy waiting to go in.
• Ask the guard, attendant or people on the queue, what appointment time they are lining for -- find your appropriate line.
• FYI, you don't need a black pen inside the embassy.
• Earliest Non-immigrant Visa schedule is 7:15 AM.  On the day of our interview, there are earlier lines that are for Immigrants and Seafarers.
• There are numerous lines that you'd be queuing on:
1. Line to enter the embassy
2. Line for the first security check
3. Line to get a number -- some checking of papers as well.
4. You're seated in the waiting area before entering the main embassy building. This is the area where you can buy food and drinks, and have your ID photo taken. Your number will be called whenever your next station can accommodate you.
5. Once called, you line up for a quick security check.
6. Line for pre-checking. You validate and correct information in your DS-160 form.
7. Line for finger print scanning.
8. You get to be seated again and wait for your number to be called for the consul interview.
• Depending on the number of people inside, you might be asked to seat outside in the waiting area and be asked to enter at a later time.
• The numbers are not called in order (psuedo random maybe depending on available people inside). With luck your number can be called ahead and get to finish early.
4. For your interview, just keep calm. Don't be over eager. Provide information and documents only when asked. And remember to just be honest -- assuming you have no ill intentions for going to the US :-p.
• The interview would be done in just a few minutes and the consul would inform you if you're issued a visa or not.

If issued a US Visa, your passport would be sent to you within 5 working days. In our case, we received our US Visa in 3 days.

If you are not personally receiving your passports (through an office receptionist or your household), you need to prepare an Authorization Letter and photocopy of your valid ID.

There you have it. We hope this post would help you on your application process. Good luck!

Put in the comments any questions or other tips that you might have for the US Visa application process. We'll do our best to answer them :)