Disregard yesterday's post! Becuase my fiance called me about 11pm last night saying she got package 3

Anyway, we are really happy to say the least. But still not ready to fill them out and send them back quite yet. Whew.. still have a few things to get in order. Uh.. you guys said DHL is the best way to send documents overseas, hey? I sent somethng last week USPS Global Express Guaranteed (deleverd by Fed-ex) and the postal workers were so confused by it! I even got it from that post office and they acted as they didnt see it before.. They were like.. "how come it says Fed-ex on it?" It really freaked me out about using them agian...

Congrats!!! Do use DHL ... They have big operation center in Saigon (near Tan San Nhat Airport) and branches all over the city. I have used USPS Global Priority (claimed to arrive in 5 days, took 3 months), FedEx (arrived 2 days later but got stuck @ custom for 2 weeks) and at last, DHL only took last then 4 days and delivered to my wife's door. One thing we all should note that even our carrier here in the US give you a garrantee date, do not rely on it because they only garrantee the time it takes to transport from the US to VN. Other than that, its our of their hand. The matter now depends on the Vietnamese Customs and there is no telling of these people.

Uh, we also noticed they had her name all messed up in the cover letter. They put her middle name as her first name, and her first name as her middle name. Is it something to be concerned with?

If they had her name wrong, I would be concerned. Be sure to follow up. Next time, anything you sent to the Consulate, make sure to put the case number under her name to eliminate problems. Who knows what goes on behind the closed door of the mail room @ the Consulate. Your file could be someone's drink coastal for weeks. I kid you not. When I was in college, I used to work for a goverment agency, there was this lady would put all the files under her desk to use as her foot rest. At 3PM everyday, they would all stop working and gethered in the lucnh room to watch Jerry Springers. Although I do not intend to generalize everyone who works for the goverenment but it is a sad fact that we should all acknowledge.

Absolutely you should be concerned about that. That sort of thing cost us an extra month of waiting after the interview.

They have my fiance's name spelled three different ways.

What should I do about this? Is it better for me to contact the consulate or for her to contact the consulate? I know we ahve been confused about how to put her name in the forms. Because she has 4 names. I dont know, maybe its better if she talks to someone about it since she knows more about this. Anyway, they had it as : "Last name, Middle name First name Mothers Maiden"

songsparrow,

Congratulations on receiving packet 3. It seems, as I read on here, and in my own experience, that just about the time when we all seem to get bent out of shape about the non-arrival of packet 3, there it comes the same or next day. I've really learned to push the patience button with this process!

I think we should ALL put the K-1 visa petition and application process down as a project management job on our resumes! HaHa! It is sure close to a second full-time job sometimes.

Again, congratulations to you and your fiancee songsparrow. Read that packet 3 information a few times just to make sure you digest all of it. There are some detailed instructions in there. Do your best and get it returned ASAP, then you can join the packet 4 wait with the rest of us.

I've told my family in St. Louis to send all of my documents via DHL. Better to be safe than sorry!

Best of luck to you both!

STL_HCMC

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To Everyone With Name Questions:

I emailed the US Consulate in HCMC back in Nov 2005 regarding the Vietnamese name issue, and was given a detailed reply. I've included the excerpt of their email reply below, using a general Vietnamese name, instead of my fiancee's.

Example Name: Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong

I quote from the consulates email reply: "In general, for a Vietnamese name like your fiancee, we will understand Nguyen=Family name, Thi=Middle name and Minh Phuong=First name."

Below in more clear terms:
Family Name = Nguyen
Middle Name = Thi
First Name = Minh Phuong

After receiving this reply from them, I proceeded to use this format throughout the K-1 I-129F application, as well as all documents thereafter. It makes sense too. My fiancee tells others (e.g. first meeting someone) her first name in the same format as the consulate replied to me with.

Hope this helps some of you!

STL_HCMC