In light of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announcing the permanent closure of its immigration office in Manila, which handles processes including petitions for immigration, refugee/asylum, naturalization, among other documents, the US Embassy in the Philippines assured the public that all services would continue.
“The US Embassy in the Philippines will assume responsibility for certain limited services previously provided by the Manila USCIS field office,” the embassy said in a social media post. “All other services will be transitioned to electronic processing or performed domestically in the United States.”
In terms of processing visas, the embassy assured there would be no changes.
“Immigrant and non-immigrant visas will continue to be processed at the embassy,” they affirmed.
With regard to Form I-130, which is required when a US citizen or permanent resident is seeking to establish a relationship with an alien relative, petitioners must complete the process by mail.
The office is scheduled to shut down next month, on July 5.
According to USCIS, the last day documents were accepted at the office was May 31./WDJ