Register Marriage in VN AFTER Green Card

[astrlsrfr 1]

Can anyone explain the procedure for registering your marriage in VietNam AFTER completing the K-1 process and obtaining a Green Card? I have found this information:

http://www.vietnamembassy-usa.org/basic-page/legalization-document-marriage-registration

but it seems to assume you are not already legally married in the USA. Eg, it states you need to certify you are SINGLE, which of course we are not. Is there a modified version of that process, or is there a way to just do the process in VietNam directly?

Also, my understanding is that once the process of registering your marriage in VietNam is completed, I would be able to get a 5-year visa to VN, as well as legally own property (through my wife). Can anyone confirm that as well?

TIA

[ScottThuy 140]

http://mienthithucvk.mofa.gov.vn/Default.aspx?alias=mienthithucvk.mofa.gov.vn/en

here is the link for the visa... be sure your passport is not nearing expiration... if it is, then renew before you apply for the exemption. do a search of the VN regional for the word exemption.. you will find some important info in those discussions,

[rosepouliot 0]

This information is not applied for people who are already married in the US.

Here is the instruction of what you will have to do for registering your marriage in Vietnam, at Department of Justice office in Ho Chi Minh city for example. Sorry I can't find any other version in English, so ask your wife to help you translate it.

Procedure of marriage registration in Vietnam for K1 cases is like you make a note for the government to know you've already married to a Vietnamese at another country. It's much simpler than applying for Vietnam marriage certificate. Here are some important steps to remember:

1. Contact Vietnam Embassy or Consulate in the US about validating your marriage certificate, I'm not sure if you have to translate it to Vietnamese before or at the Embassy so you'll need to find out.

2. Bring the validated and translated marriage certificate to Vietnam.

3. Fill the Marriage registration form as in sample on the website I showed you.

4. Your wife will need to go to Department of Justice office where she lived, apply all the above papers, including photocopy of her ID or passport, household registration book...

Then the process will be completed in 5 days. And sure, once you both are legally married in Vietnam, you can definitely obtain a 5 year visa waiver to stay in Vietnam 3 months each enter.

About owning property through your wife, yes, that's true. But for real estates in Vietnam, so far I know you'll be only able to own 1 apartment with a condition that you're living in Vietnam and approved to live in Vietnam more than 1 year.

Hope this helps. Correct me if I'm wrong because I'll do the same for myself as well. Good luck!

Edited April 23, 2012 by rosepouliot

[astrlsrfr 1]

OK kool. Thanks so much to you both for explaining both the visa exemption & the post- green card marriage license processes. I'm not clear on as to whether or not the exemption can occur without the VN marriage registration - that one page delineating the required docs for the exemption doesn't specify if it has to be a VN cert or not. I will search more on the exemption keyword. But, we will be doing both anyway. The VN post-green card reg doesn't seem too complicated, but it does seem like a project that will take some time (like a lot of this stuff seems to).

We are in VN already, but without the part completed in the US - so I guess we can't start it until we return; and correspondingly we can't complete it till we come back to VN again.

I will follow up in kind on this thread with any clarification on the details we discover. Thanks again

Edited April 24, 2012 by astrlsrfr

[ScottThuy 140]

What is it that you want to do? If you want the visa exemption, then just apply for it .. no need to do anything in VN... it can all be done here via courier, use the link I provided.... If you want to own land.. ain't gonna happen unless you want an apartment and then its just a lease... She can own land and thats fine, but its not a good idea to be an absent ownet when it comes to VN land...

[astrlsrfr 1]

Right. My understanding is that its a communist land-grant system where land is technically "owned by all the people", and technically only "50 year leases" are granted - even to citizens. However, realistically, when you look at how it works (rollovers, discretion of assignment of the "leases", etc) the leases are tantamount ownership. I am guessing the system will be modified to actual ownership, on down the line.

Again, I am not planing to own ("lease") directly myself - but there is a possibility we will have some substantial investments in land here in VN. My understanding is that this can be held directly in my wife's name or thru a holding company. We will address the absentee thing by having some of her family occupy the land & /or manage it thru rentals. That is our preliminary idea.

Regarding the reason for registering the marriage in VN: mainly, I wasn't sure if that was a requirement for the visa exemption. Seems like you are saying it is not a requirement - which would be great so I could go ahead and start it when returning to the USA. However, there is still one other reason for registering the marriage here - that I can think of. When travelling, we've run into the issue of hotels not believing we are married & demanding separate rooms. I always tell them to go "F" themselves (more or less), but it seems like having the VN cert on hand would put that issue to bed (no pun intended) tooth-quick.. because in the cases where this has occurred, they seem to be asking for a VN marriage cert as proof.

[Dan_P 5]

I have been to hotels with my wife, and they never asked if we were married or anything.

[ScottThuy 140]

I have been to hotels with my wife, and they never asked if we were married or anything.

less of an issue in the south, but we were asked in HCMC a couple of times...

[Anh map 2,098]

less of an issue in the south, but we were asked in HCMC a couple of times...

I was woken up in the middle of the night a couple of times by the police as they were doing a room check. Fortunately those nights were when Linh was sleeping at her house. The hotels often know when there is a chance for a police visit.