My complete K1 case

[bee712 0]

Hi guys! It's been quite a long time since I first knew about VisaJourney and since then I have learned so many useful things. Together with Webtretho.com, this forum has helped me accumulate quite a complete approach to K1 visa and that's how my fiance and I have done our case. First of all, I would like to thank you guys so much for all the sharing and also, asking, and please keep the good work. You guys are life savers!

I have received my pink slip at the end of July 2009 and now that I have resigned from my work and am waiting to get together with my fiance this Sep, I would like to share some of my experience with you guys. Anyone who wish to share this piece of writing in Vietnamese version with their partner, please use this link: http://www.webtretho.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8077860

My fiance and I had known each other for more than 1 year when we started our petition in Jan, 2009. He is a half American half Vietnamese but does not know much VNese so we mostly communicate in English. We were introduced by my colleague whose husband is a good friend of his. He proposed to me while we were traveling abroad together, around 2 months before we filed the petition. I live and work in Hanoi, but I came from another Northern province so my filing needs some traveling (e.g., going back and forth between Hanoi and my hometown to get the Police Record and other needed documents)

Before filing the petition, we have discussed the strength and weakness of our case as follows:

+) Strength:

- The petitioner's income is pretty high and stable over the past few years.

- I do not have any relatives/ acquaintances in USA

- He travels quite a few times to VN to visit me (4 times in more than 1 year) and we travel to several places and countries together.

- My English listening/speaking skill is quite OK.

- He is a careful man so he keeps almost all of the flight tickets and invoices during his time with me.

+) Weakness:

- We have not had an engagement party

- His documents concerning his birth parents are a little complicated and confusing

- All members in my family are from the North

- And some other personal info.

We concluded that we need to: (1) emphasize and show our case's strength as the first thing to the Consulate; (2) prepare to answer and explain about our weakness.

Therefore, when filing the petition, besides the required documents, we add some more:

- 1 timeline (notarized)

- 1 batch of evidence (around 20 two-sided pages) - we scanned our most outstanding evidence including photos, tickets, invoices, etc. and make them small-scaled; then arrange them according to the timeline (based on each trip to VN), and finally print them on 2-sided pages. That way, the USCIS & Consular people can spend less time but still get to see all important evidence.

1 week after sending the petition to USCIS, we received NOA1 with WACxxxxx number. I regularly go to website: uscis.gov to check the status but all I got was always "pending status".

We waited for 3 months and 3 weeks, then the status changed to "Approval notice sent". 2 weeks later, my fiance called NVC ( you gotta call soooo many times) and was informed about our HCM2009xxxxx number and that our case has been sent to HCMC.

Total amount of time from NOA1 to HCM number is about 4 months.

Immediately after getting our HCM number, I sent an email to HCMC consulate and asked:

- Have you received our case from NVC?

- When will I receive package3?

- Since I am from the north, is there any authorized hospital/ medical center that I can go to and have my medical check?

Of course, I need to state my HCM number right at the beginning of the email.

A week later, I received a reply from HCM consulate: They have received our case and have already sent p.3 to my address and I can only have my medical check in HCMC. They also attached p.3 in soft copy. So I filled in form DS230-p.I and DS2001 (signed on both forms) and sent them back the day after.

1 week after sending back p.3 to the Consulate, pack 3 in hard copy - snail mail - arrived at my address.

During this time, I asked my fiance to prepare his employment letter, tax return transcripts (IRS), bank statements, and all documents regarding his other accounts and properties. I went back to my hometown to prepare my Police Record, my birth certificate and others as instructed in p.3.

2 weeks after sending p.3 to the Consulate, I again emailed them to ask:

- I have sent my p.3 on date ..., have you received it?

- Please let me know when I can receive p.4

As we expected, 1 week later, we got the response from the Consulate. They have received my p.3 but they couldn't inform me when I can receive p.4. They asked me to email again after a while.

I have learnt the lesson about snail mail the last time, so I decided to fly to HCMC, go straight to the Consulate and ask for p.4

Friday morning, 8 am, I was waiting in front of Information Window outside the Consulate. The nice lady behind the glass told me that I already had an interview date. IT WAS ONLY MORE THAN 2 WEEKS AWAY! I asked her if I could have p.4, she told me to come back at 1pm that day.

So I went to the photo-shop to have my visa photos taken, then I called my fiance telling him to buy the ticket to Vietnam to be with me on my interview date (His company must hate me!!!)

I arrived at the Consulate around 12:40 and the window opened exactly at 1pm. The same lady asked me for the cover sheet of my p.3, put a small yellow note on it which says "Appointment" and signed her name under that word. She gave it back to me and told me to go to the main gate.

I got through the luggage check section and proceeded into the main hall, got my ticket and waited. Just as everybody said, people are called in no order so you should always keep an eye on the electronic board, and I did, also because I am a little deaf.

When I was called to Window 9, a lady asked me why I needed p.4 and didn't receive it at home, I said something like 'I'm from Hanoi and need to have medical check in HCMC as soon as possible, please give me p.4". Maybe I was looking terribly tired so she didn't ask anything else and gave it to me.

Having p.4 in hand, I went to Citibank (on Nguyen Hue street) to deposit the visa fee, then went straight to Cho Ray hospital (since you need an appointment to have heath check at IOM). It was already 5pm on a Friday afternoon, they stopped receiving applications from 4pm. So I went back to my hotel, calling my boss to ask for 2 more days off (Mon and Tue) .

During the weekend in HCMC, I prepare the application as instructed by Cho Ray hospital: here

Monday morning, I went to Cho Ray very early. I used the side-gate on Thuan Kieu street. I put my application on the tray on the table, sat down and waited. At first I got appointment on the next Friday, but I talked to the nurse about my situation, so she gave me a Tuesday appointment.

For the rest of that day, I tried to have as much coconut as possible in order to have a "clean and clear" lung.

The morning after, I went back to the hospital, having my medical check. It was pretty fast and easy, I got my result the day after (needed to ask the boss for another day off) and took a flight back to HN that night. Luckily I bought VietnamAirlines ticket, can be changed anytime.

I started preparing all evidence. My fiance already received all the documents we need (tax paper, employment and bank statements, etc.)

I PRINTED ALL EMAILS AND CHAT LOGS:

- Gmail: This one is very convenient. You can email and chat on the same window. Voice & Video chat is awesome (even better than using direct telephoning). Go to settings and make sure you have checked the option of "Save chat history". On the right side of chat log/ email, you can see "Print All", I used the PDF maker printer, and put all of them together in one file and printing was then easy as a pie.

- Yahoo: make sure you keep Message Archive. I open this Archive, copy them one by one log to Word program and then print it.

- Skype: This one is very good too. Click on your partner's nick, scroll the mouse to the top of the window chat with him/her, you will see the option of "Show messages from: From Beginning". Click on this and wait, all chat logs will appear. Click right-mouse to choose "Select All", press "Ctrl +C" to copy, then paste to Word and print.

- We also chatted on meebo.com, webmessenger.yahoo.com, msn, etc. These things are quite the same, so make sure to check the settings/ options to see the program has chat memory option.

After printing, I arrange the documents as follows:

- All chat logs before the engagement as 1 separate pile. For each program's chat log, I put a cover sheet (A4 red hard paper) stating the period of time and program we used to chat.

- All chat logs after the engagement as 1 separate pile. Labelling as above.

- Email was done in the same way.

The total pack of our emails and chat logs weigh 7kg

FLIGHT TICKETS & INVOICES

- As we have already arranged this when filing the petition, all I needed to do was updating the new ones.

- I arranged them according to the timeline and the trips my fiance made to VN.

- I stapled all of them to different colored A4 hard papers. E.g.: All Pink hard paper for trip in Apr - 2008. All yellow hard paper for trip in Jun - 2008. That way, it will be easy for you to take out the exact evidence you need during the interview.

- For oversized evidence, this is how I did:

Pix 1

Pix 2

PICTURES + MAILS + WESTERN UNION

- All of us must have a whole lot of pictures but I only picked the ones that show the most clearly the places and our relationship. For each trip, I took out 4-5 pix and printed them in 10x15cm, stick them to A4 red paper according to timeline, and under each picture, I wrote the dates and places we took it.

- Mail: I took the mail out of the envelope and staple them both to 1 A4 orange paper.

- Western Union: Under each bill, I wrote the date and amount of money transferred.

Then we updated our timeline and my fiance got it notarized in US.

He flew to HN 2 days before the interview date. We took a flight to HCMC together 1 day before the date and arranged all documents once again. It was about 10kg of documents, I put all of them in a suitcase and pull them along, nice and smooth way.

INTERVIEW DATE:

(Be prepared, this is pretty traumatic )

Though I had been prepared so well, I was sick the night before the interview. I couldn't sleep, my blood pressure got really low and then I couldn't stop throwing up. My fiance was trying to calm me down and said "No more interviewing, you wont need to do anything tomorrow, dont you worry". AFter that, I had some Camomile tea (this worked really well as a calming tea to me) and got some sleep for 2 hours.

Morning came and like a magic, I didn't feel scared or much worried. I put on a nice formal pink dress and little makeup on. My fiance was dressed up, he looked nicer then I did, "too hot for an interview-supporter"

More to come... I gotta go fix the dinner now

[ScottThuy 140]

Great news!

cant wait to hear more... take a moment and so we have better data when determining forecasts for others...

You mentioned your family all being from the north and my fiance has that in common with you.. was there a way to address that issue in your packet? Is that really a negative?

Since we will be flying down from Ha Noi to get medical same as you did.. do you think there is anything can be done to save time in getting medical?

[thongd4me 69]

"The total pack of our emails and chat logs weigh 7kg"

Hat's off to you guys, the total emails & chats we are submitting is 111 pages.

Great work. Good organization.

As far as my approach went, I had around 10 long emails that were printed in full

and included all "header" information. These were spread out in time over 6 years.

The bulk of the submission was 90 pages of chats, which were culled from both

Yahoo & MSN chats that we did. With that much volume, I couldn't read all of them

completely in order to get it done in a short time, but I did do global replacements

of references to family members, replacing their names with abbreviations which

were very close to the actual name, in an effort to not be too cryptic. If either of

us is asked who that was in an interview, we could easily answer that, but if the

documents were somehow "lost" we could sleep better at night, even though nothing

embarrassing was said. We chose not to print out 7 (or more) kg of chats/emails,

but I'm sure your application will be strengthened by that.

The way I chose one chat or email over another was by looking for times when we

gave support and showed love by consideration for each other and each other's family.

That included most of our communications but I chose no more than one per month.

I also think it's a plus to have 100% of chats concluding with mutual "I love you's."

In the chats I chose nothing was edited out, but if there was something in a given chat

I preferred not to include, I just omitted that entire chat or email because there were

so many others to choose from. In order to complete this process in a timely manner

I skimmed though the first few lines or paragraphs to give it a thumbs up or down.

If they want more, there's plenty more where that came from.

[bee712 0]

Hey guys! I'm back. Dont know why Webtretho.com deleted more than half of my post, but if you guys want the complete story in Vietnamese, please send me message on this forum.

Here's how it went at the Interview.

We arrived at the Consulate at 6:30 am and were only allowed to stand across the street. 7 am sharp, they opened the side door (on the left side of the Consulate), people rushed to get there, so my fiance pulled the suitcase really fast toward that gate. I was slow so left back behind. Luckily, he was one of the first in the queue. We went inside the waiting room. He looked almost 100% Tây so I think any of you guys can walk through that side-gate to queue up with your wife/ fiancee. We waited for less than 1hour inside, then they opened another gate, through which we went outside again to queue in front of the main gate. When it was my turn to go through the main gate, they asked for my appointment letter, at that point, my fiance was not allowed to go inside with me.

So alone, I went through the luggage check section and later, getting my ticket. I waited until 9:30am when I was called to window 15 to hand in all my documents. The lady took all original copies into 1 pile, all the photocopies into another pile, she asked several questions like: What's your fiance's name? Where does he work? When did you get engaged?

This wasn't an interview to me since we talked in a quite friendly way. She even smiled when I mentioned his company name (a pretty famous movie maker company). Anyway, it would be helpful if your fiancee/wife can take this chance to mention something interesting in your profile or emphasize what is the most important thing out of her documents; because after talking with me, although she had put a band string around my documents, the lady took the band off, shuffled the documents again and re-arranged the order, I think she put the important ones on top of the others. She put my fiance's employment letter and IRS tax returns on top.

(A small note: some girls who were interviewed said that at first, the lady would take out the Timeline, and they had to ask her and explain to her so that she would put that Timeline back in. In my case, my Timeline wasn't taken out, but just a note to make sure you guys know about this).

After that, I went back to my seat and waited until 10:30 am, then got called to Window 9. My interviewer was an old thin man sitting next to a middle-aged translating lady. Both of them were looking very serious. I said hello to both of them, then started taking out 10kg of documents and fill up the window's bar with evidence, I put the most obvious and important ones on top so that they can see them.

He looked at me only once, then typed non-stop on his computer. I had my fingerprints taken and stood there and waited (I think 2-3 minutes) then he started to ask. His voice was really low, and his microphone had problem, and you guys already knew, I am a bit deaf, so the translator (with a different microphone) asked me again in Vietnamese. I was determined to speak in English. So it was like this: questions in English, then questions in Vietnamese, answers in English (!!!)

Here are the questions:

1. What does your fiance do?

2. How long has he been working for that company?

3. Where is he living now?

4. Who owns that house?

5. Where and When were you engaged to him?

6. How many times has he come to Vietnam?

I was a bit hesitant to answer 2 questions but the rest was firmly answered. After he asked 4 questions, I already saw the pink slip under my birth certificate. They had left it there even before the interview.

After asking those questions, he asked if I brought any photos, he looked at them very quickly. I offered to show him more evidence but he didn't say anything. Then he pulled out the pink slip, wrote something on it, signed and gave it to me. Only until then did he smile. He said "Have a nice day!" I thanked him and said goodbye to both of them, then I put all evidence back into the suitcase and ran to the nearest seat so that my heart can start beating again.

When I got out of the building, the sun was shining brightly outside, I smiled so big when seeing my fiance across the street, he saw me and immediately came to me and both of us were dancing on the pavement out of happiness WE DID IT!!!

In a nutshell, here's my timeline for K1 visa:

NOA1: Jan 22, 2009

NOA2: May 13, 2009 (check on USCIS website)

HCM number (telephone call to NVC): May 28, 2009

P3 (received by email from Consulate): Jun 04, 2009

P3 (sent to Consulate): Jun 05, 2009

P4 (received at the Consulate): Jul 10, 2009

Interview date: Jul 28, 2009 => PINK

All the best to the genuine cases! Always think pink and you guys will overcome all the difficulties and worries to enjoy the success!

[bee712 0]

@ ScottThuy: We were considering 'family members from the North' as a possibly questionable one because most of Southern people and foreigners think Northerners are members of the Party.

Some have reported that, after the interview, although the interviewee had received the Pink slip, the Consular staff called to her house asking if her father/mother/family member is a Member of the Party. After that, she got another call saying she wouldn't need to go to the Consulate on the appointed date to pick up the visa; so just wait until they call her again. She got the visa eventually though.

We think it won't do any harm to know about this and be more prepared.

For medical check, I had made an appointment with IOM even before I knew about my interview date. I was calculating that after NOA2 around 1-2 weeks, the consulate will send me P.3, I would send p.3 back immediately; and after 1 month they will send me p.4 which would announce the Interview date (often) exactly 1 month later.

So it would be like this: date p.3 sent back + 2 months = your Interview date.

I was expecting my Interview date to be around August 05. So in June, I called IOM to make an appointment as on 15 July. However, as you read from my post, I went to SGN to receive my p.4 and found out that my interview date was earlier than I had expected (28 July). So I went to Cho Ray hospital, thinking that I would just have to wait for a few hours and would have the health check. But it was not like that.

It is like this. Normally, you have to go to hand in your application at the desk, wait for 1-2 hours, then they will call you up and give you an appointment letter for health check, usually 3-4 days later. You can call them beforehand to make appointment, but this should be done like 1 month earlier.

So when I went to Cho Ray to hand in my application, the nurse lady was about to give me an appointment on a date 3 days later, but I explained to her that I flew from Hanoi and my interview was unexpectedly earlier, so she gave me the appointment for health check on the next day. She was really kind. I am not sure though, if she would do the same thing for anyone coming from the North.

So the best thing you guys should do is to estimate your Interview date and call IOM/ Cho Ray hospital as soon as possible (after p.3) to make an appointment for a health check. The health check appointment should not be too early, since you need to receive p.4 and bring your interview appointment letter. I suggest 2 weeks before the estimated interview date.

3 weeks before the estimated Interview date: if you haven't received p.4, you should immediately email them to ask for it or take a flight if possible to the Consulate to receive p.4. Thuy needs p.4 to deposit $ at Citibank and to have the health check.

Having an Interview earlier than expected can be a heart-attack for us Northerners! So stay alerted. The best of luck to you guys!

[bee712 0]

@thongd4me: well, the truth is we didn't get to revise the chat logs or emails. There were too many of them, we just printed and put them together.

So we were thinking something like: "God blesses whoever read the lines we talked... dirty!"

After all, they only requested to see the photos, none of the rest. But good preparation does make us feel much better.

I am sure as long as you have strong evidence like flight tickets, invoices and photos, the amount of chat and emails you printed won't really matter. Don't be too few, though!

[ScottThuy 140]

@ ScottThuy: We were considering 'family members from the North' as a possibly questionable one because most of Southern people and foreigners think Northerners are members of the Party.

Some have reported that, after the interview, although the interviewee had received the Pink slip, the Consular staff called to her house asking if her father/mother/family member is a Member of the Party. After that, she got another call saying she wouldn't need to go to the Consulate on the appointed date to pick up the visa; so just wait until they call her again. She got the visa eventually though.

We think it won't do any harm to know about this and be more prepared.

Wow.. this is the first I have seen this... if it is the case it could be a problem. Wow another hurdle... I guess if they have to call, they don't know....

Did you wait a few days for the visa or did she have to return back to HCMC to pick it up?

[bee712 0]

Wow.. this is the first I have seen this... if it is the case it could be a problem. Wow another hurdle... I guess if they have to call, they don't know....

Did you wait a few days for the visa or did she have to return back to HCMC to pick it up?

It is a real concern when it comes to political stuff like that.

I had to return to SGN to pick up the visa, 1 week after the interview. So, within a month, I had to take 3 round-trip flights between Hanoi and SGN. Pain in the ####!

Forgot to tell you guys: After having the Interview Appointment Letter in hand (p.4), Thuy needs to go to vaccination first before going to have her health check. She needs the yellow vaccination page in order to submit the application for health check. It wont take long, took me around 1 hour or so on that Friday afternoon to get vaccination done. Might cause a little fever and stiffness on the injected area but that should be fine after 3-4 days.

So make sure she has 2-3 business days in SGN for: Citibank deposit, (maybe visa photos taken as instructed in p.3), vaccination, and health check (only 1 day if you make appointment early beforehand).

[ScottThuy 140]

Wow.. this is the first I have seen this... if it is the case it could be a problem. Wow another hurdle... I guess if they have to call, they don't know....

Did you wait a few days for the visa or did she have to return back to HCMC to pick it up?

It is a real concern when it comes to political stuff like that.

I had to return to SGN to pick up the visa, 1 week after the interview. So, within a month, I had to take 3 round-trip flights between Hanoi and SGN. Pain in the ####!

Forgot to tell you guys: After having the Interview Appointment Letter in hand (p.4), Thuy needs to go to vaccination first before going to have her health check. She needs the yellow vaccination page in order to submit the application for health check. It wont take long, took me around 1 hour or so on that Friday afternoon to get vaccination done. Might cause a little fever and stiffness on the injected area but that should be fine after 3-4 days.

So make sure she has 2-3 business days in SGN for: Citibank deposit, (maybe visa photos taken as instructed in p.3), vaccination, and health check (only 1 day if you make appointment early beforehand).

Political stuff sux!!!

I am thinking we will be able to do the Med stuff in late Nov. but we will be very limited on time.. they wont let her get vaccinated in Ha Noi will they? All must be done in HCMC...? I am hoping to make appt and schedule everything so we can fly down on Sunday night and be back Tues night or Wed AM as I have to return Wed night.. I wonder if the MVR can be done at any Citibank or only the one in HCMC.

3 tips?

1 medical

2 Interview

3 Visa? How long was it to wait for visa?

[thongd4me 69]

@thongd4me: well, the truth is we didn't get to revise the chat logs or emails. There were too many of them, we just printed and put them together.

So we were thinking something like: "God blesses whoever read the lines we talked... dirty!"

After all, they only requested to see the photos, none of the rest. But good preparation does make us feel much better.

I am sure as long as you have strong evidence like flight tickets, invoices and photos, the amount of chat and emails you printed won't really matter. Don't be too few, though!

Warmest wishes to you, great interview story.

We're sending a lot in the I-129F package, but will have more in time for the interview.

Did you get a pic of yourself lugging the suitcase?

That's got to be a family heirloom for sure.

TD4ME

[bee712 0]

Political stuff sux!!!

I am thinking we will be able to do the Med stuff in late Nov. but we will be very limited on time.. they wont let her get vaccinated in Ha Noi will they? All must be done in HCMC...? I am hoping to make appt and schedule everything so we can fly down on Sunday night and be back Tues night or Wed AM as I have to return Wed night.. I wonder if the MVR can be done at any Citibank or only the one in HCMC.

3 tips?

1 medical

2 Interview

3 Visa? How long was it to wait for visa?

1. MEDICAL:

All vaccination, health care should be done in HCMC. Since you need to go there anyway for these stuff, you should conveniently go to Citibank on Nguyen Hue street (HCMC), it wont take longer than 5 minutes to deposit the money. Just remember to bring her passport and interview appointment letter. You guys can totally do all these stuff by traveling on Sunday night and back on Tue night. The schedule can be like this:

Monday: Have her visa photos taken. Go to Nguyen Van Troi street to have vaccination. Then go to Citibank to deposit $. Prepare application for health care (remember to include the yellow vaccination page).

Tuesday: Arrive EARLY at IOM/ Cho Ray hospital (Make sure you have made appointment for health check on this date). Submit the application. Wait for your turn to have health check. Return in the afternoon to receive the result. They will return the original docs to you.

As for my case, I only got the medical result until the next day's afternoon because at first they couldn't read my lung radiology for some reason

I think you or your fiancee should call the medical center you choose (IOM or CHo Ray) and ask how the process goes since things might have been different from the last time I was there. Two business days might be too tight, but if everything goes well with the health check, it will be perfectly enough time.

2. INTERVIEW:

Your fiancee should dress formally and wear light makeup. I wore a dress like this.

During the interview, I was standing up with my hands gently put on the bar of the window and a smile on my face. I think the way the interviewee answers the questions is very important. There's no thinking or guessing. Just stating the truth, straightforward, clearly and confidently. Look at the interviewer's eyes, don't look at the translator.

There are a list of questions which i am sure you can find somewhere in this forum. You guys can practice the interview together so that she will be able to answer in a short and clear way, with sufficient information. It's best if she can relate her answers to her evidence and offer to show them. I did do that but somehow the interviewer didn't want to see them. It was worth the try though.

3. VISA PICK-UP

1 week after the interview (pink slip), the visa will be ready for pick up.

I suppose you guys will need to fly to HCMC at least 3 times, 1 for health check, 1 for interview, 1 for visa pick-up, unless you guys choose to wait for 1 week there to pick up the visa. I am wishing the best of luck to you two! I look forward to hearing great news.

[ScottThuy 140]

Political stuff sux!!!

I am thinking we will be able to do the Med stuff in late Nov. but we will be very limited on time.. they wont let her get vaccinated in Ha Noi will they? All must be done in HCMC...? I am hoping to make appt and schedule everything so we can fly down on Sunday night and be back Tues night or Wed AM as I have to return Wed night.. I wonder if the MVR can be done at any Citibank or only the one in HCMC.

3 tips?

1 medical

2 Interview

3 Visa? How long was it to wait for visa?

1. MEDICAL:

All vaccination, health care should be done in HCMC. Since you need to go there anyway for these stuff, you should conveniently go to Citibank on Nguyen Hue street (HCMC), it wont take longer than 5 minutes to deposit the money. Just remember to bring her passport and interview appointment letter. You guys can totally do all these stuff by traveling on Sunday night and back on Tue night. The schedule can be like this:

Monday: Have her visa photos taken. Go to Nguyen Van Troi street to have vaccination. Then go to Citibank to deposit $. Prepare application for health care (remember to include the yellow vaccination page).

Tuesday: Arrive EARLY at IOM/ Cho Ray hospital (Make sure you have made appointment for health check on this date). Submit the application. Wait for your turn to have health check. Return in the afternoon to receive the result. They will return the original docs to you.

As for my case, I only got the medical result until the next day's afternoon because at first they couldn't read my lung radiology for some reason

I think you or your fiancee should call the medical center you choose (IOM or CHo Ray) and ask how the process goes since things might have been different from the last time I was there. Two business days might be too tight, but if everything goes well with the health check, it will be perfectly enough time.

2. INTERVIEW:

Your fiancee should dress formally and wear light makeup. I wore a dress like this.

During the interview, I was standing up with my hands gently put on the bar of the window and a smile on my face. I think the way the interviewee answers the questions is very important. There's no thinking or guessing. Just stating the truth, straightforward, clearly and confidently. Look at the interviewer's eyes, don't look at the translator.

There are a list of questions which i am sure you can find somewhere in this forum. You guys can practice the interview together so that she will be able to answer in a short and clear way, with sufficient information. It's best if she can relate her answers to her evidence and offer to show them. I did do that but somehow the interviewer didn't want to see them. It was worth the try though.

3. VISA PICK-UP

1 week after the interview (pink slip), the visa will be ready for pick up.

I suppose you guys will need to fly to HCMC at least 3 times, 1 for health check, 1 for interview, 1 for visa pick-up, unless you guys choose to wait for 1 week there to pick up the visa. I am wishing the best of luck to you two! I look forward to hearing great news.

I think if we get pkt 4 by middle of Nov We will be ok to do it as you said Mon Tues and wed if needed... she has same dress... she is very quiet and does not like to talk loud with people... She is affraid when my VN friend from US meet her in HCMC last month and talk loud... so no problem with her arguing with CO... she is confident and we have a list of over 250 questons that we have discussed and she knows everything comfortably now... I may try to call them on the fact that the website says the visa can be picked up next day at 4. specifically K visas at 4... I think that will be worth a shot if she gets pink at the first inetrview...I hope we can do the medical in Nov as she just told me she is affraid to go to HCMC and the hospital alone... 3 girls tried to rob her the first time I took her to HCMC and I was next to her at the time so she thinks everyone there wants to do something bad to her...

I really appreciate the input... I talked to her about the family party member issue tonight and she was surprised... that can be addressed easily enough

I actually asked someone here yesterday if a letter from a party official would help get the visa approved.. I guess I'm too used to the way things work in the north...

Cam on rat nhieu

[bee712 0]

3 girls tried to rob her the first time I took her to HCMC and I was next to her at the time so she thinks everyone there wants to do something bad to her...

That doesn't sound good. But you know what, I hadn't got to enjoy SGN much until I traveled on my own. 3 times before with my fiance (uhm... Ta^y) didn't make me feel as comfortable among Saigonese. Dont know why Maybe, she can venture this time for a try...

I really appreciate the input... I talked to her about the family party member issue tonight and she was surprised... that can be addressed easily enough

I actually asked someone here yesterday if a letter from a party official would help get the visa approved.. I guess I'm too used to the way things work in the north...

Cam on rat nhieu

Dont know if a letter from a party official will help, but one from US Consulate/Embassy staff will definitely work (happen to know anyone?). And you are most welcome

Edited August 24, 2009 by bee712