Intro to fellow Vietnam forum members

[hungryfornoa 21]

Hey all,

 

I thought I'd introduce myself to Vietnam forum members here.

 

I live and work in NYC on LPR and will become eligible to apply for naturalization in 2 months 👊. I met my wife and got married last year in Vietnam. It took like forever to get the I-130 application filed (long story short... went through two awful lawyers in succession, 1 in NYC and 1 in Ho Chi Minh, before I took matters into my own hands.).

 

It took a long time obtain evidence of joint finances as we didn't have any joint ownership of property or live together (I work in NYC and she lives in Ho Chi Minh.. also she is not working as we decided it does not make sense for her to work in Ho Chi Minh for next to nothing as I make more than enough for both of us and enough to convince to the USCIS/NVC/Consulate that she will not become a public charge. Finally managed to open a joint account in NYC with HSBC through HSBC Advance International Banking Center and filed a joint tax return in US for 2018 (getting an ITIN for that also was not easy as most CPAs were unable to do so when my wife is not in US). Anyways, we finally submitted our I-130 in August 2019. 

 

We have been visiting each other every 4 months or so, both in Vietnam and other countries in Asia (China, South Korea, Japan). From my research, it seems like it will be an exercise in futility for her to apply for a US tourist visa to come and stay with me for a month or so as it will be hard for her to show ties to Vietnam (no property ownership and no employment). So next step while waiting for I-130 approval is to see what I can do to get her tourist visas to Schengen countries or perhaps Canada. If she can visit Toronto, then I can easily work from remote location in Toronto for my NYC gig and stay with her. Or perhaps, ask my employer to see if they would allow me to work remotely from somewhere in asia for a month or so every so often.

 

I'd love to hear from other folks in this forum.

 

DT 

[Liam2021 551]

A few things you need to think:

-join ownership is not need( you both live in different country, and believed me the CO not even bother to ask about it at the interview).

-Wedding: This is one of big thing likely 100% being ask at the interview.

-communication and time spend together: this is the main and critical. Make sure you included as much as evidence showed you spend time and communication with each other( pictures, chat logs..)

-I'm assuming you was born in VN and immigrate to USA, so you and your spouse got the same culture norm, that a good thing.

 

[hungryfornoa 21]

Good to know about joint finances... but now that we have it, I did include it. If nothing else, it should aid in convincing the CO of bona fides.

 

Also included wedding photos and a timeline of relationship that had info on the all the vacations we took to see each. Had photos, airline tickets, hotel confirmations, visas + passport entry/exit stamps for all of the trips we took to see each other every 4 months.

 

I'm not from Vietnam, I met my wife while traveling.

[WandY 430]

I would quit worrying about how to visit together using visas and other countries. And she won't get a tourist visa for U.S. Just go to VN. Wait for the U.S. process to work. Don't complicate things. Make sure to attend the interview in Saigon. It's a crazy experience and just being there will help her. Good luck!

[hungryfornoa 21]

Yeah I hear ya... the other countries are primarily to maximize our time together while we wait for this visa journey to complete as I can only take so much vacation to be with her.  

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

On 9/8/2019 at 2:28 PM, WandY said:

Make sure to attend the interview in Saigon.

 

22 hours ago, hungryfornoa said:

Yeah I hear ya... the other countries are primarily to maximize our time together while we wait for this visa journey to complete as I can only take so much vacation to be with her.  

Just double down on the attending the interview. There is no solid proof but all indications is that the petitioner being there helps. They may not even talk to you, but just being there somehow increases the likelihood of visa being approved. 

[hungryfornoa 21]

Thanks, I will plan to attend the interview.... given that I just submitted my I-130, that's a long time away. F2A appears to be like 24 months from NOA1 to NOA2.

[cyclone27 710]

My wife attended interview alone and no issue with her approval, ☺️

[Liam2021 551]

Just go for the interview with your spouse if you can. You don't need to ask why, just go for it if you can, then after the interview is over, you will understand why ☺️

[hungryfornoa 21]

Yeah. I get it. There may be data points of folks getting approved without having the petitioner present at the interview. That may well be the case, but the success rate appears to be higher when the petitioner is present. Since we are only guessing based on a small subset of observed data points, it's best to go with anything that increase your odds of success.. even if they turn out to be unnecessary in the end. The cost of not doing so is greater if you get denied. I'd rather lose $ than lose time... especially time together.

 

Have their been any reported cases of beneficiaries being able to use tourists visas to come visit temporarily while waiting for NOA2? Unlikely for it to work in my case as my wife will have hard time showing ties back to Vietnam (other than property deeds or family) that actually require her to return (no job or school). 

Edited September 14, 2019 by hungryfornoa

[hungryfornoa 21]

My USCIS account page for the I-130 shows (as seen in the attached picture), 1 document as having being uploaded by USCIS. The document filename ends in part4, even though I see no other docs uploaded. When I downloaded it and looked at this TIF file, it contains some random pages out of all the documents I submitted with the original application in an intermingled, no particular order. It only has about 5% of all the pages of docs I submitted.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? What should I do about this?

 

[Millikkl 15]

On 11/16/2019 at 12:43 PM, hungryfornoa said:

My USCIS account page for the I-130 shows (as seen in the attached picture), 1 document as having being uploaded by USCIS. The document filename ends in part4, even though I see no other docs uploaded. When I downloaded it and looked at this TIF file, it contains some random pages out of all the documents I submitted with the original application in an intermingled, no particular order. It only has about 5% of all the pages of docs I submitted.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? What should I do about this?

 

This happened to mine as well. It is a portion of my travel evidence, but that is it. Did you ever get any more info on this?

[SmallTownPA 71]

On 9/9/2019 at 9:24 PM, cyclone27 said:

My wife attended interview alone and no issue with her approval, ☺️

For a IR/CR-1 it may not help but a K1... I absolutely think it does help.  Many consulates will not allow USC to attend, which I find odd.  One way you can show proof a bonified relationship is to support your fiancee in important matters.. like getting an K1 visa.

 

The second someone figures out what USCIS/DoS is doing, let the rest of us know.