DS-260 Previous Addresses - Wife cannot remember

[NotAFish 11]

Hi,

 

My wife's CR-1 application recently got moved to the NVC stage and I am working on my wife's DS-260.  

 

From the period of 2007 until 2013 my wife lived in several places in Ho Chi Minh city but does not remember the addresses. 

 

Her home town is Thanh Hoa.  

 

I understand that the best answer is to try to remember, but that does not appear to be possible.

 

What should we put for those years?

 

Thank you!

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

She can at least write down street, ward, district... That's what I filled for my aunt. Good luck.

[NotAFish 11]

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She can at least write down street, ward, district... That's what I filled for my aunt. Good luck.

Thank you very much, but she doesn't remember the streets or wards, she remembers the major streets near the streets she lived on, but not the small street (hẻm) names.

 

She remembers the districts, so that's positive, but not the rest and is extremely fuzzy on the dates (especially since there were many short stays with friends during that time).

 

Do you have any further advice?

 

Again, thanks for your help!

[Letspaintcookies 2,310]

57 minutes ago, NotAFish said:

Thank you very much, but she doesn't remember the streets or wards, she remembers the major streets near the streets she lived on, but not the small street (hẻm) names.

 

She remembers the districts, so that's positive, but not the rest and is extremely fuzzy on the dates (especially since there were many short stays with friends during that time).

 

Do you have any further advice?

 

Again, thanks for your help!

Would a look at Google maps might help? Don't know how good the maps are for that area but that helped me to remember a street number that I totally forgot 

[onek 306]

5 hours ago, NotAFish said:

Thank you very much, but she doesn't remember the streets or wards, she remembers the major streets near the streets she lived on, but not the small street (hẻm) names.

 

She remembers the districts, so that's positive, but not the rest and is extremely fuzzy on the dates (especially since there were many short stays with friends during that time).

 

Do you have any further advice?

 

Again, thanks for your help!

If she doesn’t remember, at least someone in family, friends, neighbors that she might be in touch with should be able to help her at least to narrow down to street name. 
Just writing the district May not be very helpful  

[NikLR 13,228]

Did she have a permanent address at that time where her mail was sent and these were just temporary stays like a hotel? 

[pushbrk 12,979]

She does the best she can, including "research".  Can she read a map?  Can you teach her to read a map?  Google Maps is an amazing tool, but takes some effort and learning.

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by pushbrk

[WandY 430]

You are WAY overthinking this. My wife just provided general information, basically just putting something down which was close to where she lived. She also had many addresses, but skipped the temporary/short-stay ones. It's not that important. Just put down a couple and go from there. It doesn't matter. (I say this after helping many VN with applications). Good luck.

[NotAFish 11]

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You are WAY overthinking this. My wife just provided general information, basically just putting something down which was close to where she lived. She also had many addresses, but skipped the temporary/short-stay ones. It's not that important. Just put down a couple and go from there. It doesn't matter. (I say this after helping many VN with applications). Good luck.

 

Thanks, I was assuming and hoping that this was the answer.  The small streets and alleyways are very very often not marked on Google maps, and we would have had to travel to HCMC to try to go to all of the locations and figure out addresses.  It would have been a Herculean task. 

 

For the ones that she skipped, did she just extend the time from the previous/next address and note that somehow on the form?  I understand the system requires the entire time to be covered.

[onek 306]

1 hour ago, WandY said:

You are WAY overthinking this. My wife just provided general information, basically just putting something down which was close to where she lived. She also had many addresses, but skipped the temporary/short-stay ones. It's not that important. Just put down a couple and go from there. It doesn't matter. (I say this after helping many VN with applications). Good luck.

I would NOT just put something down for the sake of it nor skip temporary/ short-stay ones.

 

You must be honest and sincere when dealing with immigration or risk getting denied the visa. Everything on the application must be taken very seriously, 100% true and honest when dealing with immigration.

[pushbrk 12,979]

2 hours ago, onek said:

I would NOT just put something down for the sake of it nor skip temporary/ short-stay ones.

 

You must be honest and sincere when dealing with immigration or risk getting denied the visa. Everything on the application must be taken very seriously, 100% true and honest when dealing with immigration.

While I don't really disagree, sometimes doing the best you can to tell the truth, is really the best you can do, for "accuracy".  For some places, actual addresses as we westerners think of them just don't exist.  Mine in the Philippines starts with Yellow/Orange gate, name of road, district, city.....  For some, their address may just be a district.  Perhaps the OP's spouse can look at a map enough to get the district etc.  Dates too are not always accurate.  Sometimes the BEST YOU CAN do is get the season and year right and pick an approximate date.

 

Still, there's a big difference between the best you can and "just putting something down...."

[NotAFish 11]

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I would NOT just put something down for the sake of it nor skip temporary/ short-stay ones.

The DS-260 specifically says not to include temporary/short-stay addresses, only places where residence has been established.  Do you have different information?

 

I don't think it is putting something down just for the sake of it, I think it is putting the best information possible down but with the knowledge that that information cannot be complete.  Google maps doesn't show names for many of the small streets and alleyways in Vietnam, and even when it does it is often wrong on address numbers.  I can't tell you the amount of times I followed Google maps to wrong places before I just gave up using it and went with the normal Vietnamese way of just getting close and asking people where an address is.

 

My goal is to find out how to correctly put in the information within the limitations of both the system and the accuracy of information at hand.

 

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You must be honest and sincere when dealing with immigration or risk getting denied the visa. Everything on the application must be taken very seriously, 100% true and honest when dealing with immigration.

Yes, that's well understood.  I don't think I have in any way indicated that we wouldn't be honest and sincere.

 

I appreciate the input.