wreath

As I've mentioned in previous posts, we're gearing up for our interview coming up on the 28th. We've now been staying in HCMC about a week, and Linh's medical exam was scheduled on the 20th (Vaccinations on 19th). The medical exam was scheduled at Cho Ray. I had reservations about it since it was notorious for bribery, unprofessional staff, and uncleanliness. But, Linh was more comfortable going there, and since she's the one going through the exam and not me, I went along with it.

I was actually surprised because it seemed, at the very least, the visa department seems very professional, the staff polite, and from my wife's accounts were quite clean and didn't seem to accept/allow "coffee money" anymore. I was ready to give full approval of Cho Ray on here since afterwards I also read that the staff in the visa department are actually trained by iom. This all changed when they told us Linh needed a Sputum Culture since she'd had TB four years ago, and they wanted to be certain it wasn't active (as far as I can tell it wasn't since I've been living with her over 2 years now, I didn't catch it and no one in her family has it).

The reason I say it all changed is because the procedure and area for the Sputum Culture (directly outside the visa department) is a complete nightmare. Not only is the staff unprofessional and rude, but the method for extracting sputum is absolutely unclean. They have the "potentially" infected people sit together, UNMASK, inhale/exhale deeply, and cough into a small container to produce sputum. Cough right beside each other in a small general area where the uninfected can be infected.

The problem we have isn't so much this, though it scares us, but Linh hasn't been able to produce a sufficient sample of Sputum to satisfy the nurses/doctors. She's followed the suggestions accordingly. We get up at 5:30am to get to the hospital around 6:00am (they start calling people at 6:30 though she usually isn't called until 7:10). She drinks a ton of water the night before, doesn't brush/rinse/eat/drink in the morning before the sample is taken as instructed. We've even had to resort to buying acetylcysteine a mucolytic agent to make it easier for her to cough up sputum. The medicine doesn't help and no matter what she tries she's unable to produce very much sputum. What really scares us is that she's spoken to people in there who've been at this for 2-3 weeks and more because they are unable to produce enough sputum for them to begin testing.

We're resolved to the extra two+ months it takes to get the results for this sputum culture, but we can't even get to the part where they even begin testing. I've read about other methods of getting the sputum including having a tube go into your stomach to get at the sputum over the course of three days, there's also a salt-water mist using a nebulizer to inhale for about 20 minutes that produces enough sputum to only require 1 day. I really prefer this second nebulizer method, but I don't even know if Cho Ray offers it as an option.

Tomorrow will be our third trip to Cho Ray (two days with no results so far), after this third attempt at producing sputum we'll likely walk back into the medical exam area and try to request an alternative method to produce sputum. Continuing like this with no results just isn't an option.

Does anyone have any suggestions/advice? Anything would be greatly appreciated!

maybe smoke a cigarette?

Hello,

When i was in vietnam i got my wifes name tattooed on my arm and now she wants a small stars or some thing on her ankle but shes afraid when she gets her medical they will note it and think shes a ####### and deny her, has anyones fiancee or wife had a tattoo at interview time and got denied from it or know anyone who has? thanks

great thanks for everyones comments. my wife always bought me hero in vietnam but she says they are kind of a bootleg cgarette there i never saw any kind of tax stamp on the bottom of those so maybe i wont have her send me that kind.

That has to do with bringing into the country and not shipping them... The people that send them are sending them through the postal service... Fed ex etc are too expensive and require customs documentation most of the time...

so can she mail me 200 cigarettes a month? i dont understand how i would pay duty or would the postal service charge her that when she mails them?

my wife wants to send me some cigarettes but i told her i dont know how she can but then i remembered at my old job there was a vietnamese man there sold vn cigarettes all the time. Is it ok for her to send me some for my own personal use or does anyone know how the guy i worked with was getting them here? she asked the post office and they said she can mail them but they dont know if i will get them

Thanks

hello im here in vietnam and having a great time and enjoying the weather.but i brought my wife a dell net book but she can only share service with the owner of the room she rents.problem is we got about a 70 foot cord but the male plug in fits loose.we had about 5 people come to fix it but they all just put on the same kind of loose fitting male. they say i need a master master male but dont have in vn.anyoneone else have this problem?can they replace the female in the computer? i have asked my wife to ask but she has no idea whati mean i guess or is to shy to ask?anyone have any

Hello, has anyone ever had wifi on flights to vietnam? i will be flying on united,I looked n there web site but can only see where they have wifi while still in the states and doesnt say anyhting about flying overseas.

I google Travelosity and it gave me an error.

1180 is a good price.

how long is the ticket? 1month, 3 months, 6 months, or 1YR?

ILL LEAVE MARCH 8 AND BACK THE 20TH

i got my tickit on travelosity for about 1180 dollars. i booked it about 2 weeks in advance.

I just read in my email news vietnam that vietnam wants to crack down on internet game playing and its side effects. and will pull the plug on all I S Ps from 10 pm till 8 am. I hope this doesnt happen. my wife stays online day and night and chats to me every day about 630 am her time. has anyone heard anyhting about this?

hey does anyone have a wife in vietnam they will be claiming on there income tax?I have heard you can but ha dn r block and some others dont any thing abut the tax number thing you have to have .

thanks

Most of the beneficiaries in here weren't born yet back then!

1987 was year of the cat both my wife and i are born in cat years. but im water and she is fire.

I say b. s. prolly. i juust found out my ex wife has been telling people i made her take of my shoes and smell my socks. this is not true at all, however she did take off my shoes from time to time and i would ask her if my feet stink and she would smell my sock make a funny face and smile and throw a sock at me.how can some one defend themself againsnt alligations? i can only say look what she did .. she ran off with a 60 yr old man that was married for 25 years .do you really think thats what a good person does?beleave what you want.

If you want to know my opinion it is simple. Do you love your wife? I already know your answer. So this is my advice, ignore it, she is used to it. If you keep confronting him and talking to her about it the situation will keep getting worse, once she is in USA then you are done with it. Also as others have mentioned, it is not good to argue. There might be a reason, maybe he is affraid once she is gone then he will have no one. Many reasons people act strange, and they are always usually because they themselves are scared about something. Seriously, you are in america, and she is here, there is nothing you can really do, but as another post said, when you send money, send it to her father, or send him a little here and there. It is customary for family in USA to send money back and help the family. In any situation, the most important thing is your love for your wife, dont add to her stress by arguing with her father. I am not siding with him, but seriously she IS living under his roof, and with the culture here, if she does something that he feels is a disgrace, it DOES affect him. Good luck, and try to not add to any stress.

Jerome and Binh

good advice ,her dad has alot money i just cant see sending money to him when he doesnt really need it. i have bought him some gifts some after shave and some candy and shirts he said he has many shirts and dont like chocolote . but my wife says he loves chocolote. i told my wife maybe when im back ill buy him a motobike see how that goes. i just think hes doing some thing and dont want anyone to be on the road same time he is.i cant imagine what the big deal was about her haveing her own motobike. now shes got one in her name but still have only one motobike in the house and hes on it.ill go there when i come i guess but i really wont enjoy it . and yes i knew her dad was strick and her mother not at all but i thought it woud change after we married.hes a english teacher for people going abraod all the girls in her class have boyfriends there in vn while there husbands are in usa and canada. maybe he knows this and worrys some thing ill just try to keep my mouth shut and deal with it. some one told me >"you think your a man but in vietnam the man is the man who like dad" i guess maybe so

yeah i did her paper. but i feel like he sees me only as a sponser not a husband and im not happy about much.I dont think i would have been allowed to even meet her if he hadnt thought i would be spending all my time with him. i hardly got to even talk to my wife when i first met her it was always me and her dad breakfast lunch and dinner with exception of a couple hours each day. even if i send her perfume he will put it on an have to sit and examine all the things i send her and then email and tell me he can prvide her with all she needs. about makes me feel like i married a 12 yr old. i dont know what to do if theres a problem with opur paper.

she is adopted. she has a brother in usa that is her mothers son but only her dads step son.

Sounds like she needs to move out.

but her dad will try kick her mom out too. so if we do anyhting her mom pays the price either in getting yelled at or kicked out.i moved her out before and first her dad got sick same as going to die. then i got email from her dad saying my wife was the only one who can care or her mother. then her mom got sick . so she went back home everyone got better and it all started over again with his power b, s.

hello everyone

i need advise about my father in law . he has always been very strict to my wife and never allowed her to have friends or go anywhere, if shes washing clothes or doing some thing he will tell her to clean a door or window , and hes means right now stop what ur doing and clean door or window. since we have married hes about the same way. my wife was talking to me the other day and said her hair was damaged so i told her to take some of the money i sent to her and go have it cut. i saw a style that would look good on her and we talked about it. well when she got home and sent me web cam her motuh was wide open and she was crying. i called her number and could hear her dad yelling at her and her mother. her dad was blaming her om for not displine her enough.

i thought he was crazy so i sent him a emailtelling him i sent her money and we talked about a style i liked and i told her to go get it, so if there was any problem i felt it was my fault. i told him we are married now an both adults and i had no idea we would need his permiision about a hair cut. i aslo asked him what decisions we would be able to make as husband and wife where we woudnt have to check with him first. i gt no reply.

since that time my wife had planned to leave the home and we talked about a motobike she mentioned to her dad that i will send her money for a motobike and again he threw a fit. yelled and screamed at her and her mother . i called his house this time and asked him what was the problem. he said he had a moto there she can use . she doesnt need her own.he said her friend from english class got one but her husband was rich . i told him dont worry about my money i will get her a moto,

well after that i was taling to my wifee on the net and he started talking to her om and then got louder and louder and yeelled to tell my wife if she dont floow everything by his frame she can get her dog face out of his house and never go back there again and if she leave her mom go too.i was so mad i was sick. and what haooened after that. her dad traded in his moto and got the style she liked and puit in her name of course they still only have one moto so #######.

anyways i told her when i come to vietnam i dont want see her dad.and guess what happend. she cryed and got mad and said maybe will will divorced. she said all her friends from english have good relations with there in laws. i told her that her friends from english class prolly drink and there father in law does too. i told her il come and smile be nice but so hard for me to be fake about that. hes acted more like a jealous b f since we bbeen togther than anyhting. he would call everyday when we was on honeymoon at 6 am everyday

. and when in town he would come to our hotel and knock on the door to ask her a question every morning . he was sitting on the side walk when we went to justice deot to sign our paper. and aside of all think s he can tell me dont drink this pepsi and dont eat that bad for health and go take a shower . hes overbearing and nothing fun avbout him at all. what can i do??? when i go o her house she will say out loud D0ONT WORRY MY DAD , and ask me whats wrong right in front of hima nd make me even more uncomfortable. what can i do???

If you are talking about Mark Ellis, he told me and my fiancee we Had to wait for it to be done.

strange

hello i was wondering if anyone here has used a cosponser and if so did your cosponser receive any notice or receipt . Is there name beside the petitoners on the paper work? how do they know if they are really a cosponser or not? im asking because when i married abraod before i made enough money also i was told they wouldnt accept co sponsers for k-1. so i got one just for a little extra show of support .the person i used never received anything.

thanks

I know 3 people personally that have done this, and all petitions were sent back, checks not cashed with letters stating that the original petition MUST be closed BEFORE a new petition can be granted. Until it is closed, allowed for a rebuttal, or allowed to expire you cannot have multiple petitions. When the Embassy denies it they do not actually deny anything, the embassy only has the power to GRANT a visa, they CANNOT DENY ANY visa, only RECCOMEND it to be denied, all the denials are done stateside, not at the embassy abroad, this is why they will not allow a second petition to start until the original one has been delt with.

To the OP, you must wait until they send you notice that your case has been closed. This is a must, or many people would continue to refile as soon as they recieved a denial in hopes of getting a different CO and then getting a visa. Anyone who tells you different has been miss informed.

Jerome

i know someone that was told to refile k-1 after being denied by a famous lawyer there in hcmc. he told him everything should be good all the way back up to the interview stage.the people he told that was in fraud investigation though.they hadnt been completly denied so i dont know.

could i send a certifid latter to heer adress and send in the reciept for evidence or do i need to get a lawyer . also relitives in u s a , how detaile does the list need to be? does it have to include her aunts kids and does it have to include phone numbers? thanks so much

As seems to be common Tuyen got a blue slip. It was asking for 10 year residence history from both of us and another, the third, timeline. I did not find Visajourney until after we had made some "mistakes", the big one being getting engaged on my first trip. We followed the advise of her family but I should have done more checking myself. The blame for our setbacks must fall with me, I know I should have dug a little deeper.

Tuyen went to turn in the requested info and before should could even give them the paperwork they handed her a failed slip. She had already been very ill for weeks and this was almost devastating for her.

Tuyen said she had no problems with the questions; how did we meet, when were we introduced, what did the birthday cards and xmas cards from my family say, do we have wedding plans, relatives in USA.

I am heading to VN in two weeks so we can spend so time together and talk about what we want to do next. Is doing an appeal an option or do we want to stop waiting for the US government to tell us when we can start having a "real relationship" and get married in VN next year so we can start working on having a family. We know that getting married and having kids does not help the immigration issues but I'm not getting any younger and we both want children.

You would think they would know about vn people there and not think much about getting engaged on the first trip. I got married on my second trip because her family worried what the neghbers may be thinking or that there daughter may used and forgotten. My wife parents thought if we wanted to be together we should go ahead and get married . alot girls are used by foriegners there and the familys worry about that.

Jerome,

Do you own any property in Vietnam? If so, do you have to pay more tax than the local?

Wreath,

Are you White? If so, you can probably find a good job teaching in Vietnam. If you are Vietnamese--forget about it!

yeah im white but i think we will have trouble because this is my 4th marrige and my second one abroad and my wife is half my age and we married within a year after i divorced. she has a brother in usa and some other family here too. we didnt have a dam hoi becuse her parents just thought we should go ahead and get married . it her second marraige. so i hope for the best but expect the worse

I called the DoS and was told the approval letter was sent out on Friday!

I still will not believe it until my wife is actually here...

1. get the letter

2. get the visa

3. get the plane ticket & get here.

4. she gets home

congratulations