I am happily married to a woman from the Philippines. This blog was created to help others successfully navigate the world of Filipina Dating.

Filipina Visa: Spousal vs. Fiancee

The next step after meeting your future wife in the Philippines will be to make a decision regarding her visa. I’ll share a few basic things I’ve learned regarding bringing your wife or fiancee back to the United States (I’m not sure how it works with other Western countries).

Fiancee Visa vs Spousal Visa

The fastest way to get her back to the USA would be through a fiancee visa (get engaged in the Philippines then marry her in the USA). This process usually takes around six months for the visa to get approved. Once approved you have 90 days to get married after she arrives in the States.

The decreased waiting time is the primary advantage of the fiancee visa, and this is why many couples decide to go that route. If you want to be together in the USA as quickly as possible then it is probably the best way to go.

But there are some perks to using the spousal visa which I will describe:

Advantages of the Spousal Visa

The other route is the spousal visa (marrying in the Philippines). A spousal visa usually takes about nine to twelve months to get approved. This is slower, but there are a few advantages to it:

*You’ll probably find it less expensive to do a wedding in the Philippines and she would probably love to exchange vows in front of her family.

*Once her visa is approved she’s further along in the process as far as getting a green card goes (if she enters the country on a spousal visa she’ll have her green card within days of her arrival and her social security card within weeks).

RECOMMENDED: I recommend Christian Filipina for those who are serious about finding love in the Philippines.

*It is easier to verify the authenticity of your relationship–she can get her married name on her passport and you’ll give them an official government marriage certificate from the National Statistics Office (NSO).

*You can use a cosponsor/joint sponsor for the affidavit of support. The US Embassy is much more strict about co-sponsorship for fiancee visa. Here’s why: the affidavit of support filed for a fiancee visa (form I-134) does not really impose any legal obligation on the joint sponsor. The one for the spousal visa (form I-864), on the other hand, is considered a legally binding contract (the government can sue you and the join sponsor if you use welfare after arriving in the US).

These are just a few more things to consider.

Your wife will need to stay in the USA for about 3-4 years before she can apply for US citizenship.

I’d highly recommend you get the folks at Filipina Fiancee Visa to help you with the visa process. There are fees involved, but this is one of the best investments you can make. I’ve had several interactions with this company and I haven’t been able to stump them with my questions (some of which have been quite complicated).

You can try do all the paperwork without assistance, but most of the guys I know decided to get professional help. The problem is that just one mistake on one line of a form can send it to the bottom of the pile and delay the process for months. I’ve had several friends warn me about precision with the paperwork.

Note Regarding Tourist Visas

I would strongly advise against trying to get a tourist visa, to shortcut the process. The US Embassy will smell this from a mile away and you may jeopardize your chance of bringing her to the United States.

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Filipina Scammers and Fake Pictures

I’ve devoted a lot of this blog to helping readers identify scammers on Filipina Dating Websites.

Here’s another tool you might find helpful in knowing if a picture is fake: Tineye.com

This website is basically a reverse image search site. You give it an image (or image url) and it tells you if there are similar images online. This may give you some idea of whether or not the pictures on a profile are fake. I think it would be especially helpful for catching those using pictures of Filipina celebrities (it happens all the time).

RECOMMENDED: I recommend Christian Filipina for those who are serious about finding love in the Philippines.

Just keep in mind this is only one tool–you’ll need to follow my other warnings in order to keep from getting scammed.

Christian Filipina (ChristianFilipina.com) Review

One of the questions I get from time-to-time is this: “where can I meet a good woman from the Philippines?”

One answer is to buy a ticket to Manila (or some other city in the Philippines) and start from there. The problem with that answer is practicality: Most of us can’t just drop over a thousand bucks on a plane ticket to randomly search for a date. You also have to keep in mind that there’s no guarantee you’ll meet someone just because you travel there. It’s probably in your best interest to have someone in mind before you buy your ticket.

The vast majority of Western men seem to meet Filipinas online. This is a good option to get started. I know of some who just start chatting with women on social media, but I think this is kind of a “blind” approach. You might just end up wasting a lot of time trying to sort through profiles and trying to figure out who is single.

I think you are better off joining a site where you can find single women who are specifically interested in meeting Western men. For those who are considering this, I’d recommend ChristianFilipina.com. I’m not saying all the other Filipina dating websites are bad. I’m not even saying that I have spent countless hours comparing them all (I haven’t).

What I can say is I did use a few Filipina dating websites back in my single days, and I think ChristianFilipina.com sets itself apart from the others.

RECOMMENDED: I recommend Christian Filipina for those who are serious about finding love in the Philippines.

I can also tell you that I have known the owner of this particular site for quite some time (almost ten years). We go back to the early days of this blog, when I was first writing to give advice for men (like me) who were looking for love in the Philippines. I believe he sincerely wants to help men meet quality Filipinas with traditional Christian values. I also believe they work really hard to keep scammers from joining the website.

Another thing I like about ChristianFilipina.com is specialization. Here’s what I’m saying: some of the other sites are part of huge networks that include other websites that focus on other countries (Russia, Brazil, etc.). But ChristianFilipina.com is focused specifically on the Philippines, and as far as I know, isn’t part of any other such networks. The website owner himself is married to a Filipina, so I know he respects both the women of the Philippines and the men that are looking for love. The end result is quality over quantity and more attention to detail.

This website also kind of has a more spiritual feel to it. When you log in there’s a daily Bible verse on the right-side column. It seems to attract some of the girls who may be reluctant to join some of the other sites–women with more traditional moral values, which is what you want if you are looking for a wife. Just consider the kind of pictures on ChristianFilipina.com vs. other dating sites and I think you’ll see what I mean.

Note (2017): this post was originally written years ago, but I still stand by it 100%–my opinion hasn’t change.

Just CLICK HERE if you’d like to check it out. It’s the only website I recommend for Filipina Dating.