JacksonNY

The process to approve a marriage in Germany performed in Vietnam, takes up to 10-12 months. German embassy considers Vietnam to be a country with "unsecure documents" - there is extra steps to verify all the documents issued in Vietnam. While we plan to do that in any case, we are not planning to do it right now. Especially, since I reside in the US now, which makes it difficult to deal with german authorities, because right now I am not a german resident.

So anyway. My question is, whether the marriage in Vietnam is going to be accepted by the US.

I am J1 trainee here for 18 months, employed with a startup company here in Manhattan with a normal salary and all that.

hi everyone,

I am from Germany and currently on J1 here in the US.

Now that my girlfriend (vietnam citizen) got denied for a B2 tourist visa, we are looking into options.

My idea here is simple:

I will go to Vietnam and get legally married there.

It will be a difficult and different subject to get this marriage approved in Germany, once I return to Germany.

But what about applying for a J2? Is this enough for the US? What do they want to see for a J2?

Would they care that this marriage has been performed in Vietnam? While I am german citizen?

At this point I would be legally married in Vietnam, not in Germany though.

If I would have known she would get denied for the B2, I would have married her last year already. He had plans to do that in Germany, thats why it was delayed.

I would be very happy if someone could bring some light into that.

Thanks alot!

Just a feedback to that:

she went to the interview, after some questions she got denied.

they didnt look into any of her documents, especially not my sponsoring documents.

the worst part is however, they didnt even bother to look in her passport.

so her travel history was irrelevant.

very sad.

@Boiler -- I saw that too. First of all UK and Germany have a VWP, so most people can easily travel to the US without B2. Probably, only those who wish to stay longer than VWP allows might want to apply for a B1/B2 (and thus get refused sometimes). also there might be legal foreigners living in Germany and the UK who cant use the VWP but wish to visit the US with a B2 and get refused. But actually the PDF says its by nationality and not by country - so that rules out my last idea.

anyhow, maybe somebody can bring light into that "ADJUSTED REFUSAL RATE" - especially, what ADJUSTED means here. That would be interesting

And unfortunately (fairly or not) Vietnam visa applicants don't have a good track record with B2 visas to the US.

according to the wikipedia link in my first post and its official source the refusal rates for Vietnam are not that bad.

Actually, they are quite good compared to most other countries. it was different in 2013 though.

@Boiler -- as far as I understand, a J2 is only issued for a "spouse" or your children. As long as we are not married, she wont be able to get a J2, correct?

@aaron - thanks for your input!

you are saying that any invitation letter and an affidavit of support are irrelevant for the B2 application.

however, I dont understand one thing: the embassy would want her to prove that she can actually afford this trip, no?

and as she cant afford it by herself, I would need to prove that I am able to afford all travel expenses and also offer accomodation, no?

another thing: we currently don't know which semester she will start in germany, Sep/2015 or March 2016.

as far as i understand a B2 is always valid 12 months (for Vietnam according to Wikipedia).

does that mean, IF she gets a B2 issued it will be valid for 12 months in any case?

however, the duration of stay handled seperatly? who decides how long she is allowed to stay?

We dont want to raise any suspisions and ask straight for 6 months, after all she might be able to stay only 6-8 weeks.

In any case, she will not stay longer than B2 allows. We would be more than happy to get 8 weeks.

Maybe it would be possible to extend the duration of stay once she arrived, in case she can stay lets say 3 months.

and yeah, some people say "visum" in german (singular) and "visa" (plural).

i forgot in english (and often in german too) most people just say "visa" in any case.

Thanks aaron!

so for 1) it actually does give me some hope.

for 2) i was hoping this would demonstrate her intentions of going to Germany and NOT the US.

for 3) yes, it indeed does sound confusing. However, in our case, it does make perfect sense.

there are no advanced courses in Vietnam (C1-2), but they are offered in NY (and of course in Germany).

Instead of wasting 2-3 months in Vietnam and waiting for the next semester in Germany, she

would rather attend any German course that is available. And since I am not in Germany right now,

it could be just aswell in NY (with a F-1). This is just an idea.

@Boiler as far as I know her uncle has a US citizenship. However, as Vietnamese tend to do in the US,

he did try something fishy with a visum for a relative in Vietnam which failed. I am scared this could

backfire to us and don't really want him to be involved in the process.

hi there,

I am German citizen currently on a J1 in NY. I am 35 and

worked in Germany for 7-8 years and I'm going back after my J1.

Since 2012 I have a vietnamese girlfriend, she lives in Saigon and

just finished her Bachelor in Chemistry at the University.

We see each other 10-14 weeks a year, usually 4 weeks in Asia,

as she is allowed to travel most of South-East Asia, and 7-10 weeks

in Germany. She has been in Germany 2 times now.

She applied for the European Visum (Schengen Visum) successfully

twice with my sponsorship (thats how it works for EU).

Our future plans are to stay in Germany, she is currently learning advanced

german language and will apply for a student visum in Germany this summer.

Now, since I dont have much vacation here in the US, I would like to invite

her to the USA for a period of 1-3 months. See NY and maybe travel to

nearby attractions over the weekend.

Clearly, neither her or me have any intention to immigrate into the USA, as

our plans are actually to stay both of us in Germany, in a legal way with

studying and later marriage (we are a couple of 3 years, so we know what

we want).

To help her getting a B2, I do want to send an Invitation Letter and

a I-134, Affidavit of Support. As she doesnt have enough money to support

her trip. I understand that most people say, this is not helping.

If I look at the "refusal rate" here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_visa#Adjusted_Visa_refusal_Rate

For Vietnam it was 14.3% in 2014. That sounds promising.

1)

Her passport is full of stamps including Malaysia and Singapore

and 2 EU Visa for 2013 and 2014.

How much will that help to overcome the assumption of her to immigrate into the USA?

Does the interviewing officer even look through her passport?

Clearly, she has returned from any country without overstaying even 1 day.

2)

Will her certificates in german language help? She has achieved a german level

which allowes her to apply for a student visa in germany

3)

As she still requires more levels in german language (usually, this is done in Germany),

she could aswell apply for these courses here in New York, as there is actually an

official German Language Institute, and simply finish 1 course here (usually 8 weeks).

Is that a scenario that could work?

One more thing. She does have an uncle here in Alabama. But she doesnt really

want to visit him, just me. I was wondering if that could be a problem, i.e. "do you have relatives

in USA?"

Thanks for any ideas and feedback