vietazn

In every country there is a popular perception of what it takes to be successful in the US. In VN, everyone thinks you need to have a nail or hair salon. Most of the nail salons in Northern California are owned and staffed by VN girls.

Check out the employment terms before you let your wife decide to work in a salon. Many of the salons around here don't pay wages. The girls are contractors rather than employees. The shop keeps the entire fee, and the girls only keep the tips. They often have to pay rental for their station out of their tips. There's not much the girls can do about it because there's a glut of qualified girls to staff the shops. If they complain then they'll get canned and replaced in the same day. The situation may not be the same in other parts of the US, but in Northern California there are at least 5 qualified VN girls wanting to work in a salon for every available job, and there are far too many salons. Many new salons go out of business within a year.

More like check out the health hazards of nails before joining.

Want to know cheapest way to send money. I've only seen $2 per $100. Any place lower?

If they don't work and still have the money to spend, then call them one day and say this....................

The economy really stinks over here in the US and I just got unemployed. I know (from my wife) that you all have lots of 24K gold in reserve at home. That's how you're able to live without any actual employment. How about send us 5 Luong/cay so we won't foreclose on our mortgage? It's called "reversed mortgage".

Too funny and ironic when thinking about this, don't you agree?

PS> Then, we shall know who really is FAMILY (willing to help you when in need), and who is NOT.

Good point. Don't have problem sending money for people who really need it. But there are a lot of people in Vietnam milking Viet Kieu family, while not attempting to make a living and/or sitting on land, cash, and gold and splurging.

You can open a bank account at Citi with just $50.

In Vietnam, they don't traditionally exchange christmas gifts so it wouldn't be a big deal if you didn't get them anything. It's more of a western tradition that's slowly growing on them. It's always a nice surprise to recieve something though, even if it's just a small token of appreciation.

Right. Why give Christmas gifts to people who are not Christians? It'll make them spend the next year worrying about having to give back for such an unexpected gift. There's always Tet...

Get the provisional SS card first, then open joint and individual bank accounts.

These two should allow you to get the rest easier.

Not sure why the consulate would care about car loans and insurance because it doesn't show up in the application.

Whatever you do submit should be in your name, if possible. Like phone bills, plane ticket receipts,...

Recommend scanning the documents and then printing in black and white on laser printer,

and label them as copies. The copies I made on copy machines did not look very good, but

the ones on laser printer looked great.

No way the "real" unemployment numbers is 6.5% in VN.

Of course it doesn't include those not actively looking for work

because they are either discouraged or it pays too little. It also

doesn't include all the underemployed people like cyclo drivers and

people who drive the xe om. Many don't work because they have

Viet Kieu helping them out. It looks like at least 30% are unemployed

because everyone in VN looks like they just hanging out.

A lot of people do well in VN by lending money to others.

You need to think about this more. The reason you wrote for not having dam hoi yet is for

families to attend both the same day. That just can't happen because you must

marry in the USA. You can have dam hoi and wedding the same day like many

people do, but her family won't be able to attend in the USA. So the only choices

are to have dam hoi in VN or have dam hoi and wedding in USA. But the consulate

will see inconsistency with the reason given in your post. This inconsistency and

not following rules of k1 visa will hurt her credibility in the interview.

Be consistent. Don't translate the address.

when you say e-mails, you mean just a list of e-mails, or the actual e-mails printed out?

Chat logs, on skype, i use an exporter program which lists the day, time, and duration of the calls and the name of the person i'm calling, but it doesn't list the caller. i guess, i can have my fiancee print out hers too and they can match it up?

i think i might just send occasional letters, even if it doesn't help with immigration, i'm sure she'll be happy to receive them.

Using skype is a gamble that the consulate official knows what skype is. You really have to prepare your documents in a way that dumbs it down for them. The entire emails should be printed out, organized and labeled. A few sample chats along with chat log should be good, organized and labeled. The entire interview is maybe 20 minutes, so any reasonable person off the street should be able to pick a random document and know instantly what it is.

Good to have some snail mail, such as for special occasions.

One week. But like mentioned above, many people did not get their visas when they came back to pick it up.

Having the W2's can be helpful if you have a lot of pre-tax deductions.

recommend localphone

cheap, good voice quality, and simple website

Disney, HBO, and BBC are shown in Vietnam, without voiceover. Many movies and TV shows on DVD can be bought on the street for 50 cents. So if you bring any DVDs over, they might laugh at you.

$50K to $100K, plus all expenses paid for. Otherwise, the only way anyone would do it would be

desperate, poor people. The family in Vietnam usually pays because Vietnam is full of rich people

with a lot of cash and land, who can live well in Vietnam, and the only thing they wish is to

live in the USA. There's probably families who will pay even more, especially if they are truly

finding a long-lasting union.

Not a shocking video at all, considering that nail salon people talk explicitly among themselves

about not liking to service fat people or people of certain races.

Extend the visa, if necessary. Make that decision when it becomes an option.

No point in delaying the interview because the process might take longer than

expected.

It's an odd reason for wanting to delay. Because most Vietnamese people know how to

get around that problem the easy efficient way, especially for education that might not

be worth anything in the USA...

Congress can stop all legal immigration tomorrow if it wants to. No protection from that.

It will be an issue when they ask if there was a Dam Hoi or not, or if they request pictures of the Dam Hoi.

If that happens, then better be able to explain why there wasn't one. There are some good reasons for not

having a Dam Hoi, and these do include age or marital history.

Shouldn't be a problem since 10% of population has that last name.

Especially if you're fiance is from Ho Chi Minh. Not sure what a family

tree would do if that's the case, except make the case stand out and making

it appear that a family connection might be possible.

No evidence that divorce is red flag, but it might take longer to get the relevant background

information on the woman side. Because some change their names when marrying while some do not,

some change their names back after divorcing while some do not, and then there's the maiden becoming

the middle name. Add that to a bunch of people with same names and you have a lot of places for errors.

Forget about due process. Congress can do whatever it wants to regulate immigration.

It can stop all Vietnamese immigration if it wants to, just like it did to Chinese people

long time ago.