OK, I've posted previously about my complications with the Tokyo Embassy. Briefly: My fiance is a Vietnamese citizen in Tokyo, and was asked in an e-mail for info about a bunch of visa-related documents. Then she was called and asked specifically for evidence of a relationship and a birth certificate. I thought that was strange, as these are normally things you bring with to the interview. But we put together a thorough package of photos, e-mails and the birth certificate, and got it sent the very next day.

OK, so it took something like 3 weeks just to see a response on that. And apparently they weren't satisfied there. This time she received a letter asking for 3 things:

1) Additional evidence of her birth
2) An explanation of her late birth registration
3) A copy of her previous passport

An explanation on #2: It turns out that although she was born in '76, her birth was registered in 1982. Both her parents are deceased, so she can not get a first-hand answer. However after doing a little research on the Internet, even today delaying birth registrations until around school age is pretty common in Vietnam. So I noted what I just said as the explanation, in a nutshell.

For #1 she sent several official documents, and she sent a copy of the previous passport as well. And several other documents that were specified in that previous e-mail that we were confused about.

We sent that early/middle of last week, and we asked for a July 3rd interview. So they get back to us today with another letter -- apparently they need my approval for a 4-month extension on the I-129F. I faxed it tonight, underscoring the desire for an interview next Monday. Someone called from the embassy saying they would still need time to "review documents" and that Monday would not work. Due to an initial slip of the tongue, it sounds like July 10th might not even work.

The most frustrating part of this is that the Embassy is like a black box, they stonewall on giving answers of any sort. My fiancee has been called several times, but she's been pretty docile about it. I finally caved in and paid ~$15 for their visa info line, and the guy could not give me any specific answers about my case. I wasted money to get someone with no connection to my case who was not willing/able to give any sort of justification for all the extra document requests (normally things that you just bring with to your interview), or any idea when they might give us an interview date.

So just wanted to share my wonderful experience thus far, and wondering if anyone has faced similar pre-interview document requests, has any advice for us, etc. Thanks.

I am sorry, but I had to laugh about these two requests. Evidence of birth--well, she is here, so she must have been born! And how would she know why her birth was registered late--it certainly wasn't her responsibility to register her own birth.

I am glad you got everything sorted out.
Good luck!

I am sorry, but I had to laugh about these two requests. Evidence of birth--well, she is here, so she must have been born! And how would she know why her birth was registered late--it certainly wasn't her responsibility to register her own birth.

I am glad you got everything sorted out.
Good luck!

Yeah, a little ridiculous isn't it? Here is the full quote for #1:

"Secondary evidence of your birth. e.g. government, financial, work, medical, school, church, correspondence, other documents with English translation."

So I guess they want to make well and sure that she was born.

Also, I know that they are really organized and professional when they write #3 this way:

"3)copy of previous ppt"

That may get you by if you were writing an informal e-mail to a friend. Maybe...

Seriously, bureaucrats are the worst. And then they take 3 weeks to "process" these documents.

It seems pretty clear that Tokyo is having trouble reconciling her identity with her submitted birth documents--I don't see why you are so surprised by this. You shouldn't expect Tokyo to be familiar with what is common practice in VN, IMO.

Your job is to make it as easy as possible for them to say 'yes'. However difficult Tokyo might be with you at the moment, I'm sure it's better than going through HCMC!

This is a bit strange actually, considering recent events, but some very good news: my fiancee just got a notice for an interview on Monday, 7/10 at 2:00 PM.

This letter was dated Thursday, the 29th. On Friday, after I had submitted my approval of extension, someone called her and said that an interview for the 3rd would be impossible (initially she slipped and said the 10th, which I took as a bad sign that even that would be impossible), and that they still needed time to process some documents. No mention that an interview date had been established in a letter sent the prior day.

So maybe this is just a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing? So long as she got this notice, can we consider it a sure thing that she'll get an interview on that date, regardless of what else we've been told?

Well, never mind that. She was called today and told that they still need time to process documents, so the 10th would be too early. Seriouly, these bureaucrats...