Melrose Plant

This is an American forum. "Learnt" is definitely British. My spell-check is even squawking at me that I wrote "learnt." Twice. The Oxford dictionary is indeed the standard. But not in the U.S.

I apologize preemptively if my tone sounds patronizing, but from what I've gathered by reading this website, many of you may not be very familiar with Japanese food and cooking. I consider myself to be relatively knowledgeable on the subjects, and especially considering the threads that pop up here seeking advice for helping a Japanese spouse overcome homesickness, I wish to share what I know.

You are correct. Being pretty heavily Vietnamese in this forum, we don't know a lot about Japanese food.

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I'm of the opinion that when a couple from two cultures cohabit, the food they eat ought to be proportionate to that arrangement.

If your spouse is from Japan, you should find a source of Japanese ingredients for your spouse to use, and you should learn to cook some basic Japanese dishes yourself.

I wish you could convince my wife of that. The proportionate part of that anyway. We eat about 95% Vietnamese, 5% from any other part of the world. I wonder if you have observed the same as me--that Americans tend to be more "omnivorous" than people from older parts of the world. I cannot personally imagine eating only Vietnamese food every day for the rest of my life. The thought is actually kind of depressing. Yet, that is exactly what most Vietnamese eat. Every day. For all their lives. We really are the Great Melting Pot.

Luckily, we found an Asian Supermarket which is owned by Vietnamese. Not Thais, not Laos, not Chinese. That is definitely a boon to us. And you would be shocked to find out how cheaply we eat. In today's economy, that makes up for a lot of things that are lacking in Vietnamese cooking.

Seek out a local Asian or international foods grocer. Mixed in on the shelves amongst the Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese products and whatnot, you should find an assortment of non-perishable Japanese basics to combine with fresh ingredients from the American supermarket. American supermarkets often have an 'international foods' aisle where you can find a few of these items, but they will likely be domestic versions of lesser quality and higher price. For example, the Stop & Shop nearby has packaged sheets of nori seaweed, imported in bulk from Japan and re-packaged in California for about $5 each. The Asian market sells the same basic product packaged in Japan for half the price. Tubs of domestic miso paste at Stop & Shop are twice the price of their larger Japanese counterparts at the Asian grocer's. This is common to nearly every Japanese product the Stop & Shop has. The Asian market also has certain Asian vegetables that are simply unavailable elsewhere nearby.

If you can't find an Asian grocer, and if you live in a part of America where even the most basic Japanese ingredients are unavailable, seek out a source on the Internet. There are many Japanese import companies in the United States from which you can mail-order these products from an online catalog.

Next chapter to soon follow…

I hope your wife is getting on well in the U.S. I used to do 80% of the cooking when I was married to my former wife. Now it is less than 5%. I am awaiting further installments of this thread. Haha, my wife will say I need to get a Japanese wife.

Congratulations on your interview. One of your questions has been answered, now you know when to buy your plane ticket for because you have an interview date. I sure wouldn't buy one for your husband until the pink slip is in hand. I fretted over that issue myself, buying a one-way ticket on short notice for my wife. It's not a problem. The major airlines have offices there in Saigon, and you'll most likely be able to get a ticket on your same return flight. If you're lucky, like we were, you'll even be able to sit next to each other!

Good luck! Let us know how things go.

That place is a piece of work, isn't it? I'm frankly not surprised that this happened to someone eventually. During my wife's medical, they made her run up and down the hallway for about 15 minutes in very high heels, and then told her she had high blood pressure. This even showed up at our Port of Entry interview. It's hogwash. No one before or since has been able to get a blood pressure reading anywhere close to what they were claiming. And I actually believed them for a few days. Maybe they felt like picking on my wife 'cause she's on the heavier side and from Hanoi.

Yes, it is true that the U.S. wants a 2" x 2" (5.1 cm x 5.1 cm) photo, and in the end that's what we have to give. However, I believe that this requirement is mere fetish, and can be used for an excuse to reject photos according to the whim and mood of the person with that peculiar power to do so. Here is the reason for my belief:

I was curious. I have heard about the 4 x 6 (cm) thing before. I was thinking maybe Vietnamese passports are different. I dug out my own passport (U.S.) and my wife's (VN). I measured the photos. They are EXACTLY THE SAME. Furthermore, they are neither 5.1 x 5.1 nor 4 x 6. They actually measure about 3.5 x 4.5. Obviously, they cut them down some. If they do that, I'm thinking that 4 x 6 is rather closer to the final product than is 5.1 x 5.1. So why does the U.S. require a square photo when that's not what ends up on your passport? I'm sure someone somewhere has an explanation.

And now for something somewhat irrelevant, but not completely (and in light of the unofficial forum police these days, I am hesitant to post ANYTHING irrelevant). I just got my driver's license renewed a couple of months ago. Iowa now requires that all Driver License photos be taken without eyeglasses. Even if you're blind as a bat without them. This is the opposite of the passport rules, which state that you should wear glasses for the photo if you normally wear them. My wife now looks at my driver's license photo and says, "Who is that handsome man?"

[insert your favorite interjection here], this thing has degenerated a lot since this morning. It was a simple question, it's a Vietnam-intensive forum, and the rules say you can talk about whatever you like concerning SE Asia. Why do you guys have to be so mean spirited?

Just remember, there's some poor dude out there who can't read, and probably will never be able to learn. It's very difficult to do as an adult. He's probably going to be dirt poor and downtrodden all his life. Then there's this other dude out there trying to help the illiterate dude the best he can, and give him some hope. And no, this second dude's name is not Jesus. So, what did YOU do this week?

In our case, it was more than two months between when she sent in Packet 3 and the interview date. However, keep in mind that's for the Ho Chi Minh City consulate, which we all know is busy to the extreme with these immigration cases. Your mileage may vary elsewhere.

I would look at the timelines of other Indonesia people on VJ. If the timelines are complete, you should be able to deduce the answer to your question.

Copies will be just fine. And I think somebody asked about W-2s somewhere, also. Same thing. Copies are OK.

I have made inquiries. According to my unimpeachable source, not being able to read is an insurmountable impediment to getting a commercial drivers license, even with money changing hands. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Then again, you know where my information comes from. Ask someone else for a second opinion. Ask Jimbo when he gets back. He'd probably know.

You know, I had some divorce issues myself, and I was assured that it was going to cause trouble for my case. In the end, it did not. I think it can be a very negative factor IF there are any other iffy things (perceived or real) about your case. I also believe it does a lot of good to front-load your original petition, as Dan mentioned.

DPNH: You actually had to edit that post? Why? Did you discover a way to make yourself look like an even bigger horse's patoot than on the first go-round? It's a legitimate question, and I'm sure Mr. Six Pack has already inquired locally without success. It is not a question your average Vietnamese would be able to answer in clear English. You ought to know that.

Don't worry, Jonas. The vaccinations are done at the medical. It took us one full day to do it and get the results. It's probably better that you're not there anyway. Going into one of those hospitals would give you something else to worry about.

Van and I did our vows and exchanged our rings. We both singed on the dotted line, as did my father and her sister as witnesses to the event. Then Van and I kissed, and that was pretty much it. No fuss, no mess.

They have vows in Singapore?

And the TIMELINE is a MUST. You WILL get a blue slip without one. Here are some samples: TIMELINES

You can't make a blanket statement like that and have it be true all of the time. Yes, we had our timeline prepared, but they didn't look at it. She could have walked in there with an empty briefcase and passed. But maybe it was the obvious laboring under the strain of 20 kg worth of evidence that convinced them. Nah, I don't think so. I think it was overkill on the I-129F.

Then again, don't listen to me. I may be special. Marc Ellis said that in 20 years of practice, he'd never had them not ask about certain divorce issues. In my case, they didn't ask. There's a first for everything, thank the Lord.

Bryon, I disagree with your original assertion that it's all about the money. I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination. I went out of town, left my son for long periods of time, worked (and mostly froze) my a$$ off to make enough money to have all this happen.

Don't worry, she will have her visa in the end if you don't give up. You will eventually prevail, it's just a question of when.

I'd like to travel around some too if it's not a huge hassle? I've been told to STAY OFF the motor bikes..LOL I'd really rather not ride behind her either. I'm 6'3" and am sure I'm gonna look like a monkey...you know..LOL

Kevin

Why have you been told to stay off motorbikes? It's just like riding at Sturgis, only quieter. And people are going to stare at a big, white guy no matter what you're doing, so it's no use worrying about how you appear to other people.

I say this half jokingly, but then I've got 25 years' riding experience in everything from mountain roads to the beltway around Washington, D.C. It didn't take long to get into the Vietnamese motorbike rhythm. Joe Six Pack should weigh in on this subject. He's out there riding around just fine (OK, with one mishap), and his experience has been with much larger equipment.

Yeah, I agree. Keep everything. Of course, in our case, we didn't need anything, because they never looked at anything, but you never know, right?

Of your 3000 pages of chats, did they actually look at any? Did they look at your Marc Ellis style timeline? Just curious.

Congratulations. You have a beautiful baby.

Sorry to hear your news. Best of luck to you and your wife.

Ok... After 4 trips to Saigon, The consulate has stopped the dance for documents and has issued my wife a pink slip.

Informing her to return on the 31st of March to pick up Visa.

Has anybody been misled at this point? Is it another tease?

No, I think you're OK. The 31st would be a normal wait for visa issuance. Congratulations to you both.

Isn't it rather interesting that this thread has made a U-turn somewhere along the line? First, we were talking about getting the hell out of Vietnam, now we're talking about moving to Vietnam. OK, who's the highjacker?

My story is an awful lot closer to home, but it may be somewhat entertaining.

As a construction worker, I often have to travel some distance to my job. If I'm lucky, I can drive it every day and don't have to stay away from my family. It was February of 2005, and I had just got laid off from a job that was really close to home. Not knowing what the future held, I decided to take a job 110 miles away from my house. One cold morning, after it had just snowed, I was driving to work at 0-dark-hundred, and I was about halfway there, and I felt I had to take a #######. After several more minutes, I realized that wasn't NO WAY I was going to make it to the job site. Suddenly, I remembered that less than 10 miles away there was one of those roadside parks you often find on American two lane roads, and I remembered that there was a Port-a-John there. I held on for dear life.

When I finally got to the park, it was gone! I mean nowhere to be seen! As I stood there in the inky blackness broken only by the beam of my headlamps, my toe found a piece of something buried in the newfallen snow. It was blue in color. Further excavation revealed that it was in fact the Port-a-John, flattened out flatter than flat. I mean, somebody must have run over this thing about 25 times, either that or they used a road roller.

Anyway, luckily I always keep a roll of toilet paper in the car, and a nearby tree served as adequate cover in the darkness. Sometimes, you just don't have a choice.

Freaking Vietnam Government! I just had to pay almost $6000 USD in tax because the freaking Vietnamese government requires to pay tax on worldwide income for expats. I already paid my US taxes now I have to give this corrupt government tax money on income I earned in the US. This freaking sucks. I can't wait to leave this country.

Corrupt government? The whole country is corrupt, right down to the concrete worker who built your house. Even my own sweet wife. Still, they're no worse than the Chinese, and maybe a bit better. Did you ever see my post about how a building gets built in Vietnam? It's scary.

Congratulations! The easy part is over. I know you are looking forward to the hard part now.

As Jimbo might put it, I can't imagine who would want to drive a lorry in Vietnam by choice.

Well if you want to be King of the Road here it's the perfect job. Those guys don't stop for sh!t.

That's only because the equipment no longer has any brakes. The horn still works, though.