BlueTornado

Dear all,

I am so excited to have just received the interview letter(email). I am a US citzen my wife is a VN citizen. We are going to HCMC.

Can I accompany my wife to her appointment? Also can our 4month old daughter come aswell(she is already a USA citizen)? I thought I could, but online it mentions translators or aids only. Did something change, because I thought family presence(husband and children) was encouraged.

Thanks for all the help in this process

I know I am late to the party. We were just told by the NVC we are documenteraly complete. So we were looking at the next step.

What is the deal with the ds-5540?

We have both been living in VN (i for 2 years, her for her whole life) is she supposed to fill it out by herself or with me? She has no tax history but i do. She just gave birth to our daughter (now officially a us citizen). She is not working. We did not plan on her working in the USA just me. Does she include my money in her assets? We have one joint account(in VN) and both of us still have a personal Account(mine in usa hers in VN) do we put all three? Does she list my tax returns?

also I have been working in VN and do not have health insurance or a USA job yet. I have some possibilities but because we don’t have any appointment dates it is all speculation, the same with employers insurance or personal insurance.

so it will look like she will put diddly-squat on the form, is that going to be a problem despite, my well employed dad filled to be our joint sponsor?

thanks again for all the help i have received while working to get to this point.

Thank you all for your quick responses.

It looks like i will just have to stay in VN untill the boarders open and I know we could make the interview together.

No, right now the three of us are in VN.

last year we traveled to the USA for thanksgiving.

i wanted to visit again this year before the possible interview date or luner new year in February( whichever comes first we were planning to end our vacation in the USA for either event)

It is not my intention to commit fraud. It is a concern she may need to return to her interview, but VN is locked down they will accept her as a returning citizen, but not me. At this moment if I leave I cannot return to Vietnam yet.

Consequently i am worried about our family getting split. So encase they don’t open the boader to foreigners, can i petition to let my wife stay in the USA in some way with me and our daughter. Such as getting a new interview location.

i planned to return to VN for it as long as we can all stay together. Which I figured wouldn’t be a problem if the appointment was later.

the state department timeline says they are reviewing cases from May 8th so that is 3 months also US travel docs says it averages 3 months(obviously this is subject to fluctuations) the HCM Consulate says it’s running normally.

lets say the NVC finishes in November  would the appointment follow immediately or is it then going to be another X amount of months till the interview date?

also last year we visited for 2weeks at thanksgiving and they stamped her visa for 6months no major questions. I was hoping it would be that easy again(yeah just blind hope)

Just throwing this out there...

We are waiting for the NVC, everything is submitted(and one document was just resubmitted because of an error)

We really wanted to visit the USA again before my wife’s tourist visa expires. We were going to visit family in the USA In September and return in January.

The concern is will the NVC really only take 3ish months till the appointment? Meaning is November really a possible date for the Ho Chi Minh Consulate?

Because currently Vietnam has closed its boarders to foreigners so my fear is she would need to return to HCM with our baby by herself(or worse yet without the US/VN-baby)

Can we request a new location or go through an adjustment of status if she gets approved for her appointment?

Thanks for the input.

Yes that is my concern, my household is now three and my fathers/joint sponsor also would need to add one(an another American citizen though due to the counselor birth report while abroadCBRA) 

Short version: our baby was born after submitting all but the police report to the nvc.(she will get a usa passport by CRBA) The police report will come in a day or two for my wife. Do i and my joint sponsor both need to submit another i-864 to adjust household count? Or can i just write a note/addendum to send along with the package(we still earn too little and my joint sponsor earns well above the poverty level)

Long version: My wife was pregnant and we started the nvc submissions. I did the i-864 and my father submitted a joint sponsors i-864 which he has a very nice job and can easily clear the poverty level. We submitted everything except the police report for my wife. That was delayed. It is due to be given to her in a few days.

meanwhile our daughter was born abroad. We plan on taking her to get a passport with a CRBA in a month or so when they are up to traveling. Both are healthy but resting.

now when her police report comes in do we (my dad and i)need to submit another i-864? We can’t recall or cancel the one we sent already, but we can still add, or can i just write a note to explain seeing how i still don’t earn quite enough and my father still earns plenty so the end result is the same?

thanks everyone

23 minutes ago, NancyNguyen said:

1. You fill I-864 as main sponsor, household of 3.

 

2. Your dad file I-864 as only joint sponsor, household of 2 (if he is not married and has no dependents.)

I am a little confused, for this example: my father files 2 (dad + me)

I file 3 (my wife + kid + me)

or i file 3 (dad + my wife + me)

I am confused about the I-864. I am filling online withe CEAC/NVC for the next step. I am doing the I-864 form, but I do not earn enough, so My dad offered to help. Does he also file a I-864 or I-864ez. Is he a joint sponser? Because we will be staying at his house initially and I am still registered at his house while I am teaching overseas, should he file an I-864a as household member?(or not because I am part of his household not the other way round)

Also, family size, my wife is due to give birth in a few weeks so do I log it as 3 or 2? By the time we interview it will definitely be 3

I forgot to add, we will be getting and american passports and Child Birth Abroad for our child. She will not require any immigration paperwork.

Any help would be nice, I have not found much for the online application process.

Thanks

We have money saved and i am working on appling for insurance. Staying in the USA my father kindly offered his basement apartment for the summer. I will most likely temporarily return to landscaping during the summer. I keep in contact with my former boss.

unfortunately this means on paper i will only have(hopefully my insurance card) our joint savings and a letter of support from my dad.

Early may puts her at 35weeks. Both japan air and Korean air allow women to fly up to 36 weeks.

we both work at an English center and my contract is until the end of May so we were trying to reduce the early termination fee, and try to make it closer to November if at all possible.

her b1/2 is good until September so we can always visit my family after the birth. I was an EMT and i know in a healthy birth the doctor just a referee, but if something goes wrong and in general i am much more comfortable with US hospitals.

i was shocked when i traveled in November for thanksgiving the cbp were really nice and the process was simple and painless.

So all, I have a question for those of you here who keep their ears to the ground.

I have been married legally for about 1 1/2 yrs living in Vietnam. I am an US citizen.

my wife is pregnant and we have a due date in June. I would prefer to have the baby in America for safety sake.

my wife has a b1/2 visa and we visited my family for 2 weeks for thanksgiving. We also delivered my packet for cr-1 to my sister to mail as soon as i send her the last pieces(time line and emails)

my hope was to return to the USA with my wife on her current visa. Have the child and return to Vietnam (hopefully after Thanksgiving if CBP allows) await the interview and celebrate Tet with her family in VN.

Does the new stricter rules about ‘birth tourism’ affect me? My child already has a right to a US passport and we plan to complete the cr-1 for my wife all above board. We plan to return to VN just we wanted to try and get an extension to November for Thanksgiving(my family’s reunion day) It gives her relatives a chance to see the baby and for her to celebrate Tet again.

i am open to any thoughts or suggestions,

thanks

sorry for being long winded

Do you all think it would be risky to ask for another week?

we applied for 2 weeks. She got approved and her visa is valid for 1 year 27th of sep 2019 to 24 sep 2020

the temp guy we are hiring to cover my teaching shifts is available for 3 weeks. Can we leave for the USA a week earlier and ask CBP for 3 weeks?

thank you all for your input.

My wife was just granted a B2 visa to visit for Thanksgiving. We both live in Vietnam and teach English right now. I am a us citizen.

We can not find any clear explanation for what will happen when she arrives at the JFK airport. We plan to see NYC then go to Boston to visit my family for the holiday. This is my family’s biggest holiday my siblings all return to my father’s house so my wife is excited to meet all of them. We will file our CR1 soon in hopes it will finish sometime after the current school year.

Does she need to bring any evidence to the USA port of entry? Like our marriage certificate or photos of her and my dad and sister who came for the wedding here in Vietnam? Should we bring our work contacts and a letter from our employer granting us 2 weeks vacation?

Will the fact we haven’t yet applied for immigration but were planning to during this 2 month period waiting for November make us look sneaky and not just slow to file?

I am kinda nervous we will travel together she will separate from me at the CBP line and will get stuck without being able to contact me.

Any help to alleviate nerves would be good.

Thank you, this website has been a great resource for is to compile our CR1 paperwork.

Thank you both givionte and uss voyager for you advice.

to respond to givionte: I have never received mail here, the closet thing is I had a packaged mailed to my workplace(it seems fairly common practice here, I have never seen VNpost or the other delivery come out of the city center to the farming wards). I recall now that I think I am still registered at the police station as living with my wife's parents, so maybe I can get that record. I also appreciate the mention of a timeline, I forgot about that and will try and write that out soon. I have new hope when you said the fact I live with my wife in VN my help our argument.

To respond to uss voyager: My father kindly offered to be a USA cosponsor for finances and an address to help us. I am still register locally in the USA as living in my fathers house. In regards to photos, we did have a professional photographer for the wedding, the selfies refer to the year prior and six months since we only have the odd collection of selfies and one or two work photos from company trips. I was worried a selfie doesn't say much in regards to time and location. I can ask about the utilities and maybe we can adjust it for our new apartment. I am about equally two hour between Hai Phuong and Ha Noi in Nam Dinh, but I live outside the city of Nam Dinh firmly out of structured environments. Life here is generally laid back, we had to request the neighbor to write a contract for rental, she was just going to have us stay there unofficially, possibly even for free just so their house would stay in good repair.

Thank you for your advice and support so far.

I appreciate the advice tsh, my concern is i don’t have any insurance beyond the “work insurance” issued by the company i work for, it is really basic. I was on my dad’s insurance in the states. I don’t have any bills here in VN. Thats where i say it fuzzy. Even living in the rental the paying of utilities is done in cash here. I have no real address in this village. I don’t recive mail etc. I use Google duo which has no records.

i have been in Vietnam for almost a year now, so i am a bit removed from the US. Thats why i plan in doing most of the packet and just sending to my sister to mail to the USCIS

Hello all,

I am a Native USC, I married my wife from Vietnam in September 2018 after knowing her for a year and a half. We had a wedding ceremony in the Church in February 2019 in line with the holiday of the Lunar New year. I am working on the I-130. I have been living in Vietnam(with her parents) since august 2018. I have been working as an ESL teacher at the same company as my wife(she is a translator, she was hired about 2 month after me as an opening appeared). I visited Vietnam twice prior to this once with a mutual friend(her cousin) which is how I met her, and a second time in which I came to ask her parents for permission to date their daughter. The third time I intended to get the marriage certificate from the Vietnam government then return and wait for the Church ceremony in February, but I was offered a job and an extra room and stayed.

We are having trouble finding hard evidence of a bona fide marriage.

-we recently created a joint banking account here in Vietnam.

-I should have receipts of three trips to VN(plus one return from a week vacation to visit my family at thanksgiving)

-marriage certificate

Unfortunately that is about it as far as hard evidence.

-we have a history of nearly daily email correspondence from when I first met her and tutored her English until we decided to date and then get married.

-we have no record of our web calls because the iPhone does not save the Wi-Fi calls in a orderly manner.

-a neighbor of her parents  just moved out and a gave us a hastily written contract to rent their house, but the date is wrong and their are no house numbers so legally I am moving from the same general location to the same general location.

-My Dad and Sister were present for the wedding, and we have a variety of photos(mostly selfies) from the wedding and 2 times I have visited prior.

-We have 4 letters about our relationship 2 from our dads, and two from employers. One, my former USA employer who knew me and were present for the back and forth debates and discussion about getting married and eventually quitting to move. Finally, a letter from my current employer a USC who directs the English center where I work, who was present for the discussions from the beginning as I was trying to secure the VN marriage certificate and arrange for the Church wedding here.

-about 30 photos from when I first came, to the wedding, and then to our end of school year vacation to Da Lat.

I am worried this is not enough hard evidence. Their is a lot of fuzzy area in Vietnam as far as no street addresses or records or receipts for dinners etc. Just the legal document of my tourist visas, work visa, bank account and two marriage certificates the binding one from the government and for my pastor in the usa from he the Church here in VN. We have been staying at her parents house prior to moving next door this month. I have read a lot of the guides and info here, and I am worried this is not compelling enough to tell our story convincingly.

Any help or advice is appreciated

finally I want my sister to act as my USA counterpart for mailing and preparing. I will send the partial packet to her and she will grab the final evidence(print photos and copy plane tickets) I listed her as the preparer of my I-130 was that correct?

I am asking the people here what are their experiences or thoughts about my wife visiting the USA with me for one week?

i am married to a Vietnamese national, we just got the certificate a few days ago. I plan on beginning the cr-1 process by submitting an i130 soon. I just got a job offer to teach in VN until May, and my wife may also be able to work with me. I want to return home for a week for thanksgiving. The school provides board so we will not own property, but my contract will be until May and we will have a joint bank account.

Do you think the recent employment, that is contracted until May and a short itinerary(1week vacation) would be a compelling evidence we would return? Or does all that only apply to me and does not affect my wife? I would love for my wife to visit at that time but i do not want to jeopardize the cr-1 we will be applying for any help is appreciated thank you.

We will be legally married in a few days. Yes the wedding photos are often taken well before the wedding so albums can be printed to be seen at the wedding party. It seems a bit contrived but that the tradition here. So i will be legally married soon. The Church ceremony comes in a few months.

Hello guys,

 I am looking for some advice about the cr-1 visa. I will hopefully be completing the governmental half of the paperwork for a marriage in Vietnam. I had heard i can start the i-130 paperwork as soon as i have the marriage certificate in hand. The wedding at the Church will happen at my next visit in February. I am worried about the “bona fide” proof to submit. We do not live together, or share a bank account. Even pictures or religious certificate will be hard because the wedding is not for a few months. We had wedding photos taken(her uncle is a photographer and offered to do them this trip) but none of a service. I could get affidavits from people we have consulted during the preparation of this process, but that and daily emails is all. Their may be an excess of proof after February because i am considering staying in VN until the visa clears, but for the next few months it will be slim. This is my third visit to VN.

i really wanted to get a 6month jump on immigration and some people on this forum made it sond possible, but the extra proof is making me nervous. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Thank you all for the quick responses.

A follow up question would be, is the marriage certificate enough by itself? I know I and my girlfriend have only know each other for a year, do we need to worry about "proof of validity"? The wedding celebration after the church will be large and include family from both countries, but the marriage certificate will not have any fan-fare.

also as a side question, I know it is possible for the beneficiary to visit after filing for the CR-1, realistically what are those chances? Is that the same as the B2 visa problem?

Thank you again. This website has been an excellent resource.

Hello, I am a new member. I am looking for some advice regarding the timeline for me to begin filling for immigration. I was hoping to file for a governmental marriage when i visit her in September. We plan on having a wedding in her Church in February in line with the Lunar New Year. Nearly all of her family will attend and about 4 +/- of my relatives will attend from the US. My question is can I begin to file for the CR-1 after September and get a jump on it, or am i better off waiting until the Church wedding because it will an actual celebration and more convincingly "bona fide"

I met my girlfriend while visiting VN with a college classmate. She was his cousin who was studying English. I have been helping her with English for 1 year (Daily E-mails and 3 facetime calls a week) and I have been officially dating since January(More E-mails but less calls do to different job schedule) I have visited her and her family specifically in April for 2 weeks. Part of the reason she wants the government marriage so soon before the wedding is her uncle thinks it would give her a better reason for a tourist visa to meet my family in November before the actual wedding we planed in February.I would also appreciate thoughts on that. I am 27 she is 26. She lives in Nam Dinh about 2 hours south west of Hanoi.

I would love to be able to file soon to try and get a jump on the paperwork to get her here sooner after the marriage because we know we are looking at about a year if we are lucky before she will be able to move here. Thank you for your advice

Also if some one could move this to the VN portal I would appreciate that. Thanks again.