bryonm4

Yes, the lotteria burgers aren't the same. There's KFC too if you're looking for a familiar sign.

Here's a new place that I've heard good things about:

BEST BURGER'S IN TOWN LOCATED ACROSS FROM THE SAIGON CENTER

ADDRESS: 122A PASTEUR ST DISTRICT 1 HO CHI MINH CITY

Yeah we ate at the KFC at least 4 times. I ordered a 3 peice meal on the picture it shows 3 big peices of chicken however when you get your 3 peices each one is about the size of half a wing. All 3 peices had about as much meat on them as 1 drumstick here. Tran got a kfc card when I was there we get 10 or 15 percent off. There is 3 or 4 nice places to eat close to her house. Most places I ate at are out of peoples houses there not formal resteraunts like here so I'm not sure even if they have names.

Would you recomend taking a notpad and writing everything down for a chonology? I never did that the first trip but im thinking of doing that this trip

Quan An Ngon is one of my favorite places to eat in Saigon. It's close to the Reunification Palace.

You can day trip to Vung Tau and hang on the beach to recharge the batteries.

My in-laws always love to go bowling. Either at Diamond Plaza or out near the airport.

The tour of the Reunification Palace is interesting. Like the War Rememberance Museum you hear the history from a different angle. The HCMC city museum is OK.

A Dinner cruise one evening is fun too.

I will be going to the beach on my next trip, The taxi is to expensive and the bus ride is to painfull my back and bottom they were soar for a week from that bus.

I tried to get her to bowl but she was afraid to, I have a feeling we will be hitting the Diamond a few times she likes to shop and drink lattes at the pizza hut.

We did go to the war remnants museum, the museum of vietnamiese history and the Saigon Zoo and some park where they had dragon dancers from China.

The hotel I stayed it was less than a block from her house Mini Hotel 173 I think its a franchise it was 17$ a day now its 17.20 a day The lady that runs it was really nice she washed my cloths for 1$ a day and folded them also. I wanted some american food so we tried the Milwaukee grill and cafe but it wasn't that good. No mc donalds but they had a place called the lottotarian thats there version of mc donalds im sure I spelled it wrong.

I will write these other places down and show them to her and see what she thinks

What is the Dam Hoi? I guess i could get my fiance to tell me but please answer anyways......I guess im in the same boat as Bryon hey thats funny cuz my name is Brian also. Im just trying to figure out the correct course of action and get things squared away before my next trip to Vietnam hopefully this comming May or sooner.

After you read this website it will scare the hell out of you. It scared the hell out of me and its the main reason why Im retaining Marcus Ellis

http://www.ilw.com/articles/2006,0323-ellis.shtm

When I was there I purchased a table for her family 16 people it was 200$ she wanted 10 tables but I didn't bring that kind of money. For the wedding so far I sent 1k with 3k more before I get there for 15 tables and wedding stuff. I will have to take a total of 4 more trips 2 to get married since I cannot take a month off then 1 midway point before interview then 1 for interview. Total with the lawyer its going to cost me between 10k-12k. I have a CD that is worth about 13K, I didn't want to cash it because I was savaing it for our retirement. I dont make alot of money working for the gov so I'm forced to take a second part time job so I don't have to spend my retirement to bring her over. We were planning on haveing a child but now we might not be able to because we are both 43 and thats getting to old to concive. If I wouldn't have listened to that damn lawyer and went out there a another time or two she would be here with me right now.

The first trip was about meeting her and her family collecting Souvenirs for my family and site seeing. This second trip will be a more relaxed one besides the time it’s going to take to do the paperwork to get married and wedding I’m estimating 3 days, I will be looking for some fun stuff to do. I took a 3 hour very uncomfortable bus ride to an amusement park that was more like a carnival than a Disney land very disappointing. I did go to the Saigon zoo, the war museum, and a natural arts museum and a festival at the park. Does anybody have any good recommendations or street address of places we can go that doesn’t cost a fortune?

What do you two enjoy doing? Are you doing a "honeymoon" after the ceremony?

Vung Tau is down river from Saigon, not expensive to get to via the hydrofoil, and a nice seaside spot.

Dam Sen, Suoi Tien, etc. are nothing like Disney parks. But in the greater HCMC area that's what is available.

When I fly back the second time we are going to some beach for a honeymoon. This time we have to stick in the city to do paperwork. I went to the diamon mall on the top floor they had a pizza hut and you could go bowlling. I would like a good place to eat although we did hit a few good spots and maybe a show or two. Not sure what they are famous for, I googled the heck out of Vietnam all the time but nothing really jumps out at me.

She received one blue sheet. All they asked for was a credit card statement with my name and address visable on the receipt, i also sent credit card statement showing hotel stays and ATM transactions over in Vietnam, as well as a 6 page letter telling about our relationship and it was notorized.

They gave us a blue the first time and asked for a chronology because the lawyer suggested I send the credit card recipt for the plane ticket with her for the interview. She turned in the chronology then they handed her a white. I was denied for non bonifiede. They said I only made 1 trip that was true but then they said I proposed to her after 2 weeks of meeting which was a false because I proposed after almost 8 months of meeting. Then they also said she didn't know where I worked and she anwsered correctly twice durning the interview. They also said she didn't know the name of the college I went to but they didn't even ask her that in the interview. Bottom line is they didn't think we were legit because i made 1 trip. There is nothing I can overcome when there the ones that made the mistakes do I go with her to the interview with a Q-tip and clean the ####### out of there ears so I can overcome? I am in for a 1 year or longer wait and alot of suffering to prove I am legit. I just keep collecting information dont give them anything they could use against me because eventually they will see how much I love her and they will let us be together.

The 6 page letter about your relationship was it your chonology? I have read where people say to make them short with just important dates on there like when you met, engagement when you filed ect. I didn't do that I put in a bunch of stuff I wished I would have left out. Make sure she takes all the stuff to Ellis when she see's him

The first trip was about meeting her and her family collecting Souvenirs for my family and site seeing. This second trip will be a more relaxed one besides the time it’s going to take to do the paperwork to get married and wedding I’m estimating 3 days, I will be looking for some fun stuff to do. I took a 3 hour very uncomfortable bus ride to an amusement park that was more like a carnival than a Disney land very disappointing. I did go to the Saigon zoo, the war museum, and a natural arts museum and a festival at the park. Does anybody have any good recommendations or street address of places we can go that doesn’t cost a fortune?

Contact your congressmen and Marcus Ellis. They may be able to stop it. I contacted mine and they tried to stop it but they were to late. Ellis might be able to go in there and stop it.

If it does get sent back your in for a wait, I would have her do a consult with Marcus Ellis its very reasonable but do it quick because they will go over all the info from the interview when its fresh in her head and he will recomend what is best to do.

Well I could send something saying that I'm getting married no need to send money or gifts, congradulation notes accepted. That way when she goes to the interview she can have a bunch of cards to show them.

I'm leaving Febuary 21st getting married on the 28th coming back on March 7th. None of my family can attend. I know that will look bad at the interview but my mom passed away and my dad hates flying both my brothers cannot afford it and work at jobs they cannot get away from. I got burned on a K1 visa because I didn't follow vietnam cultural norms will they burn me a second time on my K3 visa and say I didn't follow american culture and norms since my family and friends were not there to shower us with wedding presents? We have a fan fare that comes out every sunday with engagements and wedding info I'm going to put our names in it after we get married. Should I still send inventations out to everybody even though nobody can attend?

The integrated WC is malfunctioning on my laptop. I have disabled it and am using an external cam now. The picture sucks when it's dark. I figured it was the cam. WRONG. I just hooked the cam up to my new laptop and it works great. Anybody have any idea why it would work so good with the new one and not the old one? The picture quality on the integrated cam is excellent and still is when it works. The problem is sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

P.S. Yes I've restarted! I've done everything I can think of, including reinstalling the software

Some webcams are more sensative to lighting and certain settings. I use yahoo messinger, on the messenger bar click the drop down then click preferences. Click on webcam from the left menu then click camera settings on the right side. You can move the settins around to adjust the picture. What makes the most difference is the Indoor/Outdoor setting brightness and contrass. Try adjusting those until you get the picuture you want. I have the same problems and that seems to work for me

Tnaks. I'll try that when I can actually get a good connection with this aircard. You would think Midland, TX would be big enough to warrant decent connection speeds from Sprint.

When your connected and talking online check your networking tab in Task Manager. if its not topping out at 100% when you are talking on the camera then your connection speed should be just fine

This doesn't have anything to do with Yahoo. My Sprint connection is so poor here that I can't even log into Yahoo.

If your connection is so you cannot log into chat it is understanable that your camera is not going to work. However once you have a better connection and if its still dark I would check those yahoo settings.

The integrated WC is malfunctioning on my laptop. I have disabled it and am using an external cam now. The picture sucks when it's dark. I figured it was the cam. WRONG. I just hooked the cam up to my new laptop and it works great. Anybody have any idea why it would work so good with the new one and not the old one? The picture quality on the integrated cam is excellent and still is when it works. The problem is sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

P.S. Yes I've restarted! I've done everything I can think of, including reinstalling the software

Some webcams are more sensative to lighting and certain settings. I use yahoo messinger, on the messenger bar click the drop down then click preferences. Click on webcam from the left menu then click camera settings on the right side. You can move the settins around to adjust the picture. What makes the most difference is the Indoor/Outdoor setting brightness and contrass. Try adjusting those until you get the picuture you want. I have the same problems and that seems to work for me

Tnaks. I'll try that when I can actually get a good connection with this aircard. You would think Midland, TX would be big enough to warrant decent connection speeds from Sprint.

When your connected and talking online check your networking tab in Task Manager. if its not topping out at 100% when you are talking on the camera then your connection speed should be just fine

The integrated WC is malfunctioning on my laptop. I have disabled it and am using an external cam now. The picture sucks when it's dark. I figured it was the cam. WRONG. I just hooked the cam up to my new laptop and it works great. Anybody have any idea why it would work so good with the new one and not the old one? The picture quality on the integrated cam is excellent and still is when it works. The problem is sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

P.S. Yes I've restarted! I've done everything I can think of, including reinstalling the software

Some webcams are more sensative to lighting and certain settings. I use yahoo messinger, on the messenger bar click the drop down then click preferences. Click on webcam from the left menu then click camera settings on the right side. You can move the settins around to adjust the picture. What makes the most difference is the Indoor/Outdoor setting brightness and contrass. Try adjusting those until you get the picuture you want. I have the same problems and that seems to work for me

Thanks for the info Im getting a single entry Visa because a multiple issue takes 10 days to review. I plan on going back in a month later to pick up the marrage certficate will it be a problem getting another single entry visa that soon?

No, there shouldn't be a problem with that, but there's lots of stuff I don't understand about your case.

First, your avatar shows (though everyone's is so tiny it's hard to tell) a person, presumably you, sitting with an Asian woman. It might be some random Asian woman, but presumably, that is your fiancee-soon-to-be-wife. Furthermore, given that you mention "paperwork" for a wedding in Vietnam, I therefore conclude that this avatar photo was not taken in the U.S. It could have been taken in some other Asian country like Singapore or Malaysia, places where she could freely travel and you could get a visa-on-arrival. While not beyond the realm of possibility, it seems rather unlikely that that is the case.

In the end, I must guess as best I can that you must have visited Vietnam before. So you must not be that terrible at filling out forms. What did you do before?

Also, I don't understand your only entry into your timeline, to-wit:

November 6th they wanted more info then on november 28th they denied and sent back to CSC on december 4th.

Again, I must guess that you applied for a K-1 and the petition was denied. Now you are starting over again with a K-3 or CR-1. No one can give you good advice if he doesn't know anything about what's happened so far with your case.

In conclusion (and I'm sure everyone is thinking it's about bloody time), just do what Joe Six-Pack said, and they will call you if there's a problem (they called me the first time because I sent the wrong fee). Which there won't be.

Good luck to you, and just remember, when they give you the live, still-beating snake heart at the wedding, just shut up and eat it. You'll be a hero.

The first time I got the visa with the plane ticket it was threw a travel agency so they just asked me some questions over the phone I faxed them a copy of my passport and sent a picture and that was it.

Last time I arrived I had problems finding english speaking people at the airport. I would rather get the visa first and cut down on the number of lines to stand in so it goes a bit smother this time.

That is my Fiancee and I in the picture at her home in Ho Chi Minh city. I did get the K1 denied and I am going there to marry then we will be filing for a K3.

I'm just going to do what Joe Six Pack suggested but the questions are very vauge like place of work do they want city or the actually company name. I just put the company name if they have a problem with it they can call me.

Thanks for the info Im getting a single entry Visa because a multiple issue takes 10 days to review. I plan on going back in a month later to pick up the marrage certficate will it be a problem getting another single entry visa that soon?

Hi, I'm not very smart when it comes to filling out forms I know one wrong thing could get it denied or delayed. My plane leaves on the 21st for Vietnam and I have some questions. I'm filling out the visa appliccaiton. I don't have allot of space because they want everything in caps

Place of birth are they looking for country or city state and country not sure?

passport issued by? Mine doesnt give a name but it does say Authority Department of State is that what they want?

they list format for some boxes as dd/mm/yy and others they do not list a format. I assume you would use the same format for all boxes where they want a date then?

It says at the bottom date and place of application that woudl be the city you are mailing it to and the date you filled it out. Do they need the state and country also?

Here are the instructions the consulate sent me and they don't anwser any questions when you call them on the phone. If you use all caps you run out of room very quickly also there is no place to put your town/city at the bottom of the form not sure where I would put it?

) HOW TO FILL OUT THE APPLICATION?

- ALL ITEMS MUST BE FILLED-OUT COMPLETELY IN UPPER CASE LETTERS.

- DO NOT USE PO BOX ADDRESSES.

- ITEM 10 (NAME, ADDRESS OF YOUR CONTACT IN VIETNAM) IS REQUIRED FOR "BUSINESS TRIPS" ONLY.

- PUT YOUR TOWN/CITY ON THE LINE "PLACE" AT THE END OF THE FORM.

- IF YOU DO NOT HAVE VISA APPROVAL NUMBER, JUST LEAVE IT BLANK. THE EMBASSY OF VIETNAM WILL TAKE CARE OF IT FOR YOU.

FYI:

If you're married to a VNs Citizen living in America, you can apply for a special 5 year visa for only $20. Ask your wife to read the Washington DC VNs Embassy's web site, in VNs language.

P

is it for multiple visits also?

If you go to this website http://www.vietnamembassy-usa.org/consular...ices/visa_info/ there is no fee listed. Since the consulate is closed until Friday I would like to know how much it will cost. I plan on going over feb 21st my fiancee would like to get married feb 28th.

Has anyone who is married to a Vietnamese National done this? It appears to be possible. I see that a ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) is required and any income the spouse made in thier home Country would have to be counted towards the total income. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, you can file your tax return as married. The new law has changed for spouse without social security number. In order to get the ITIN for your wife, you will need your wife original vietnamese Passport or Vietnamese Identification card ( Chung Minh Nhan Dan ), copy of your marriage certificate license. Then file your tax as married joint return, just leave your wife social security number blank, sign your tax returns with both signature, you and your wife. You can sign for your wife. Make sure you include all documents as I stated with your returns and send it to Philadelphia. I don't remember the address but you can look it up under IRS.gov. After they received your tax returns they will process your tax and issued ITIN for your spouse as same time. Good Luck.

Do you send her original Passport or Identification card to the IRS along with the W7? I assume the IRS will send them back so I can return them to her in Vietnam. I just worry about them getting lost in the mail even if I send it Fed Ex.

I plan to file jointly once I get married I don't think I can get her original password but I know I can get a copy of it and have her do a W7. I'm not sure if you can collect on the stimules money or not I have heard some people say yes others say no.

Here is a link for more reading you might be able to go back and amend your last years return also if you were married then

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=35061

If you do the K3 then you will still have to do all this anyway but K3's take longer.

Really? Seems like they are taking the same amount of time at the California Service Center.

I-129F Petition for Alien Fiance(e) K-1/K-2 - Not yet married - fiance and/or dependent child 6 Months

I-129F Petition for Alien Fiance(e) K-3/K-4 - Already married - spouse and/or dependent child 6 Months

I-130 Petition for Alien Relative U.S. citizen filing for a spouse, parent, or child under 21 6 Months

https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/Processtim...eviceCenter=CSC

The marriage in Vietnam can be problematic, but it can be accomplished in less than a month. I know this for a fact because we did it. 3 weeks after I hit the ground we had the certificate. Our trick? When we started bickering at each other in the interview they started laughing and said we must be in love.

My boss said he would only give me 2 weeks off I was hoping I could wear him down and talk him into 3 weeks during a holiday or something like that but he didn't budge. If I go there 2 times for 2 weeks each time then it should be no problem.

Did you get the interview before or after the wedding? Im not sure how this will go down im leaving it up to her and mr Nam but from my understanding her sister will pick a date that is good for us something with an 8 in it for good luck as they are Chinese.

Here is the notorized statement my previous attorny had me send in with the chronology I took out the names is only difference

To whom it may concern

I am HIS NAME HERE and am a long time friend of HER BROTHER NAME HERE who is the brother of HER NAME HRER. We met well over 10 years ago in Las Vegas while on vacation. I also have known MY NAME HERE for many years; he had done some computer repairs for me many years ago. Both of which have been good friends thru the years. Early 2007 while visiting with MY NAME, he got talking with me and mentioned that he wanted to meet someone with good family values. Later while I was visiting with HER BROTHERS NAME, he had mention to me he had a sister who was single and was interested in meeting a good guy, so I helped get them together.

When the deficiencies that got the first visa denied are overcome then the second visa is usually good to go. Most that have gone through it once learn the process and know more what is expected the second go around. That makes it a lot easier. Now if there were some serious problems the first time and you can't overcome them then no matter how many times you try one will not receive a visa. From what I remember from the problems you had they suspected a fraud happening. That is very tough to overcome and just switching from K1 to K3 will not insure a visa. Good luck and God bless.

1. they denied because I only made 1 vist.

Only 1 visit is required for a visa also in a notorized chonology I stated my job changed on april 14th so I couldn't take time of for second trip yet. I will have to take more trips to marry her so that will be overcome

2. they denied because of vietnam social norms and I proposed after meeting within 2 weeks

Vietname social norms do no set American policy I also sent a notorized chonology stating we started communicating online back on aprli 28th meaning we met online back on april 28th so we actually met over 6 months before not 2 weeks. That should be overcome if we get an interviewer thats fair and looks at the emails and letters we have 6 months before I proposed and not looking for things to make up to deny us the visa

3. they stated she didn't know where I worked what I did for work or where I went to school.

She stated where I work and they didn't understand her english but its not that bad, she also stated what I did and was never asked where I went to school but they lied and used those as all reasons against us to deny the visa. Her English is better now and if I make more trips they wont deny her just because she is not fluent in English

The real reason I think they denied us was that I only made 1 trip and when they asked her how we met she said I told my brother I wanted a husband and my brother friend is friends with Bryon. If we have her brother and my friend sign an affidavit saying how they met and how the pictures were exchanged and I take more trips it should be easy to overcome. There was no fraud and I will be there for her next interview to fight on BS reason they give this time

I hope I can be of some assistance to you. I haven't read this entire thread however, so if I repeat what has been already stated please forgive me.

First off many of the I-12f petitions that are denied and sent back the USCIS are expiring. This is totally dependent to the service center that initially denied your petition. You are going to want to contact your senator/congressmans office to assist you with this. When was the denial? Do you know if for sure it has left the consulate? They are not always truthful with you, so it is very helpful to get your representative involved. They will sent it via diplomatic pouch, and they will give it a registry number. If by chance it is still at the consulate it would be wise to tell your experience to your representative, and to ask for assistance in convincing the consulate to give you the opportunity to give them proof that will address their concerns.

There are some flags, yes. You are actually lucky that they gave you any reasons at all. I would gather all sorts of information that can back up their concerns. But you did say something that struck a note with the above bolded statement. You see, at my husbands interview it was going pretty good until they asked him if he had relatives in the US. He said he had an ex brother in law and a sister. Now they assumed that the ex brother in law was american, and was married to the sister, and they got divorced. They asked him why they got divorced. Here is the real story. The ex brother in law is Moroccan, and was married to his sister in Morocco. They got divorced and he came to the US. The sister that is here is a different sister, and she married a man that is a Moroccan, but has his US citizenship. They are still together. So as you can see it was a big mix up.

The interview continued, but was about the sister, not me and my husband. They asked when was the first time I spoke with this sister. They asked how often we spoke, when we met, etc. They even asked if his sister arranged our marriage. Now think about this last statement I said. They are asking if she paid me to marry him. This is why I am bringing this up to you. I would bet that the consulate has a similar idea about your relationship with your fiance. Add in that you had only been to visit once, and the lack of her knowledge, or ability to express, facts about you. I can see how they could come to this conclusion.

Your first move it to keep it at the consulate and gather evidence to address their concerns. If you are one of the lucky few they might give you another chance. But if not then you will still need this evidence if the USCIS sends you a NOIR (notice of intent to revoke), or if it is cancelled and you need to refile. One way or the other you are going to have to address these concerns or you will get another denial.

If they have truly sent it back then your representative will need to work with the USCIS to find if they have decided to expire your petitions. They won't send out a notice if they do, so you are left hanging on what to do next. If they choose to expire it you will be free to file again. At that point I would think very seriously about going back as often as possible and getting married. They are looking for a solid commitment, not a once meeting and poof you are together.

This link, although large, will give you plenty of material to study.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3896

Do not despair. It has happened to many of us in Morocco. We have fought and we have one. My husband has been here 2 years now. It took an additional 15 months after his interview to get him here, and it was well worth the fight. I am, however, exhausted from it. This is not a journey for a weak relationship.

Thanks for your response

I have contacted both my senators and my congressman and they sent email and faxes however it was to late my petition was sent back. I think they beleive her brother is paying me to marry her because in the interview they asked how we met and she said "I told my brother I wanted a husband Bryon watned a wife. My brother's friend showed a photo to Bryon. " So with the fact that I only made one trip they might have denied. I asked my senator if I should file a freedom of information act to see why they denied it and she said that will only draw more attention to it and make it harder. After my consult with Marcus Ellis he advised to file rebuttal with affidavits from friend and her brother with explaination of how the photographs was exchanged and how they met. The problem with that is they were friends from a long time ago they don't remember exaclty how they met the lawyer I had before had me send a notorized statment from my friend simular info so I don't know how the results will be any different the next time.

Also Byron. I see from the rejection reasons no reason why they could not be overcome. This stuff has happened to others and then the second time around gets ok'ed. If you want this visa bad enough then just go get it.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I plan to marry her sometime in march then go back about 2 months later to pick up the marriage certificate. I was also told on a K1 they look at the info up until the time of engagement and with the k3 they look at the info up until the time of marriage. I didn't have alot of info up until the time of engament saved because I didn't know I was supposed to but I have a ton of info saved up until the time of marriage because now I know to do it. So that should make a big difference also.

Be prepared for obtaining a marriage certificate in Vietnam, especially time. I don't want to sound discouraging but getting a marriage certificate in Vietnam takes a lot of time, especially when it involves foreigners. I said that because most local polices in Vietnam will ask for bribery if they know you desperately need a marriage certificate for visa purposes. They will ask you wait, come back and so on. If you have a lot of time to spend in VN, then do a K3; otherwise do a K1. (The most troublesome I find with K3 is to get the marriage cert in VN whereas with K1 you do all paperworks in the US which is very straightforward and transparent.)

Good luck.

Cam

Im actually taking 2 weeks in vietnam to get married and do the paperwork and then I will come back in a month or two to pick up the certificate. I have a person there helping with the paperwork so there will be no rush on it. They will let me know I think about a month ahead of time when the interview will be so it shouldn't be any problem. I failed at the K1 because I was not prepared and from what I hear if you get the K1 denied its almost impossible to get it approved of a second time although I have heard of some success cases. I'm going with what M.E. suggested and I also think taking the extra trip will work in our benifit because every trip you take adds to the bonafides.

Thanks

Also Byron. I see from the rejection reasons no reason why they could not be overcome. This stuff has happened to others and then the second time around gets ok'ed. If you want this visa bad enough then just go get it.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I plan to marry her sometime in march then go back about 2 months later to pick up the marriage certificate. I was also told on a K1 they look at the info up until the time of engagement and with the k3 they look at the info up until the time of marriage. I didn't have alot of info up until the time of engament saved because I didn't know I was supposed to but I have a ton of info saved up until the time of marriage because now I know to do it. So that should make a big difference also.