All Filipinos going abroad as fiancées, spouses or family members of foreign nationals are required to attend the CFO's guidance and counseling session in order to secure the Guidance and Counseling Certificate (GCC) and the CFO sticker. You can't leave the airport without it.
You will also need to present this certificate together with your visa, at the Immigration office at the international airport on your day of departure.
To attend the Guidance and Counseling program of the CFO, you can go to the CFO office in Manila or Cebu. The counseling session runs for a minimum of four hours and is meant to provide you with adequate information regarding inter-marriage and migration, the cultural and social realities of living abroad as well as available support networks for women in distress.
After you comply with all the requirements and finish the counseling session, you will be given the Guidance and Counseling Certificate which you will have to bring along with other pertinent documents, to the CFO, for registration.
Once you have your USA visa, you will need to register with the CFO and received your CFO Sticker which will be affixed on your Philippine passport. So while you can attend the seminar before you get the visa, you will have to return after you have the visa in your passport to get the CFO sticker.
You can use the CFO office in Metro Manila or Metro Cebu, whichever is most convenient for you. There are not other places to get this done.
Please check the schedule of the counseling session before proceeding to CFO because it is country-specific and the slots are limited only to 15 per session. It is on a first-come-first-serve basis. Click the link below to go to the CFO site and see the schedule.
The fee for the counseling is PhP 400.00.
All persons leaving the Philippines on a family visa must attend the CFO Seminar. Click here to read about it.
CFO Certificate
CFO Sticker