Hello everyone I am new here so please forgive me if I already ask question that’s been posted. I have a question, my fiancé and I have known each other for a year online and then I decided to go see her in person and after we met for a week we got engage. Me and my fiancé have been reading some posting and her friend just fail because they said that the timing was too short how could you make up your mind so fast and they got blue. So naturally it makes me worry because that sounds like our case. Please any input on this matter would greatly be appreciated. And also my fiancé live in the countryside and I would like to go to HCM city a week before the interview do you have any recommendation on what is good Hotel that all my stuff will be safe in?

Thanks!

Sounds strange. The requirements for a K-1 visa are that you able and willing to marry. You have the finances to support your fiance(e). The relationship is true. The End.

Newb1,

I think you have good cause to worry, and I think you're a fool for getting engaged after being in each other's presence for only a week. I think that I can safely make this judgement because I am also a fool for having done the same thing - got engaged a week after I first met my wife in person - except that my wife and I had known each other on line for 6 months, not a year, before that meeting.

We've been married for over 3 years now, and we still talk about how lucky we were that our first impressions on meeting have proven to be correct and that we have fulfilled each others expectations. My sense is that we are in a minority. Today I cannot believe that I did that, despite the fact that it turned out well for us.

How well do you know the culture of Vietnam and the general nature of Vietnamese women? Although all people with a common culture are not the same, it does help to understand a person correctly if you can judge their attitudes and behaviors in the context of their own culture rather than the context of your culture.

Yodrak

Meeting the minimum requirement to get an approved petition is not "The End". They will also need to satisfy the consulate that the relationship is bonafide to get the visa. In the recent past, there have been significant marriage fraud ring exposures dealing with Vietnam. In those cases, The paid USCs took trips to Vietnam to meet the minimum requirements followed by a quick filing of a visa petition. Such a circumstance may rightly be viewed unfavorably by the CO in making his determination of the legitimacy of a visa applicant. I think the OP has a very valid concern, especially with the circumstances surrounding the consulate they will be dealing with.

Thank you for taking the time to reply with such wisdom and grace unlike the other two remarkes before you I understand and have the same view as you on the matter I just like to hear it from a second person. Thank you and may you have great luck in what ever it is that you do.

Newb1

Hence why I said "The relationship is true" = your term bonafide.

Being true and appearing true are not the same thing.

OMFG!!! I said the relationship is true...nothing in my statement said "Appeared". True means true.

true
–adjective 1.being in accordance with the actual state or conditions; conforming to reality or fact; not false: a true story.

Let me elaberate a bit more on this:

The K1 visa requirements are simple. You must be a USA citizen. Lawful permanent resident "green card" holders of the United States are not allowed to obtain fiancee visas. Both you and your fiancee must be free to marry. This means that if either of you has been married previously, you are either divorced, widowed or the marriage was annulled. You must have met your fiancee in person within the previous two years. If your fiancee lives in a developing country she cannot legally obtain a visitor visa to meet you in the U.S. This means that you must travel outside the US to meet your fiancee. Finally, there is a minimum income requirement for the fiancee visa petitioner.

Newb1,

Like Yordrak, my fiancee and I also had a very brief courtship and engagement. We were not so lucky, and proof of relationship sent our case down the road of hell. Four years later and we are still trying for a visa, although proof of relationship is no longer our holdup. But it set us up for years of bureacratic torture, something we have weathered.
my thoughts to you would be to take your time and build your case. Not just from the standpoint of providing more evidence, but truly taking the time to know your future spouse and the country/culture where she comes from. Spend quality time together to really get to know who it is you are going to spend the rest of your life with. The Consular officers can only see proof that appears on the surface. How you two relate to each other, solve problems, plan for your future together; these are things that are important long after she gets a visa.
From the Consulate's perspective, they are interested in seeing how much evidence you have PRIOR to your engagement. This has been something many people have been held up on. If you have a year's worth, that's good. Continue to build on that. In Vietnam, an engagement ceremony is the norm. I would strongly recommend having one before filing your I-129. It would be better to spend your money on a trip that would allow the two of you to grow closer and provide further evidence in your case, than to plan on making your next trip at interview time.
Take some advice from someone who has suffered. Take your time, build your relationship, build and document your case carefully. Good luck!

Newb1,

I think you mis-understand my post.

Yodrak

Newb1,

I wouldn't discourage you from filing an application for a K1 visa after visiting for only a week. This was in fact my own intentions, but a divorce gone haywire kept me from doing it. Heck, you did know her for a year online before taking that trip, which is far more than I did. But enough about me.

While I wouldn't discourage you from filing for the visa- and as long as you have photographs from your trip showing you've met you will probably be approved (assuming there isn't a bunch of other stuff I don't know about), I would highly encourage you to make at least one more journey over there while you are waiting for the interview. It's not a mandatory thing, but it will look much better in the eyes of the consulate to show you have an ongoing relationship. Since you are new to the process I will make it clear that having your K1 application approved by the USCIS (NOA2) is not the same as being approved for the visa itself- this part will be done by the HCMC consulate and their standards are MUCH tougher than the USCIS.

You are engaged- so assuming you've already had the engagement ceremony, you should begin the process. Heck, they may ask why you got engaged in January but didn't file for a fiance visa until June if you waited for a second visit. That would be kind of wierd, right? "I was sure I wanted to marry her, but I wasn't sure I wanted her to be with me just yet" This is something you say after you've been married for a while. "I was sure I wanted to revisit Vietnam with her, I just wasn't sure I wanted her to come back with me"

Try very hard to make it over there at least one more time though. You won't regret it.

My logic is that who knows their going to marry the girl until after they meet. Therefore, who really collects any evidence before the engagement party? Unless, of course, your intentions are carved in stone after the first email. I have no evidence that we even met before our engagement, I have a couple pictures of our first incounter but aside from that, I threw away the plane ticket stubs, hotel intineraries, I have nothing. Let's just hope it works out for us. My main worry's the financial issue...11 days it'll be known. Oh, good, safe hotels in saigon? If you have more than 25 dollars a night to blow for a room, dont worry about safety. Last time I was there, I scored a 10 dollar a night guesthouse, even that was suprisingly nice and safe. Just keep your money with you unless the room has a safe and give a copy of your passport and visa to the front desk, never trust them with your originals, ive learnt the hard way from doing that before.

The flight ticket may not easily to save, but I think the emails are stable if you use Yahoo mail and Gmail. The size of 1GB is enough for you to store emails for years. When you love or like someones, you may want to keep their emails. Beside, the identified tags of the flights which also can help, I hope you didn't throw away. The visa on your passport can help as well.

About money, why don't you use the card, you can withdraw from ATM when you need, don't bring along many cash.

Hien