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| Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |  Review on August 7, 2025: |
farquaad
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
IR-1 Pass at Ho Chi Minh today, smooth experience. I am the petitioner, and accompanied my wife during every step of the process.
Key takeaways:
- You can't bring bottled water past the security checkpoint. They have plenty of water inside.
- We arrived 20 minutes prior to our scheduled interview time, 7:40am. Although we arrived significantly after the line had first formed outside the Consulate, it seemed to make absolutely no difference to the order in which we were interviewed (details below) and we were eating lunch by 10:30am.
The Experience:
As others have noted, if you've been to the American Citizen Services area, this is a completely different entrance, security checkpoint, and waiting area, all with a different layout. Could be that today was a particularly easy-going day in terms of atmosphere, because we didn't find the waiting area to be overly crowded or noisy. I am hot natured and worried I would turn into a puddle, but that did not come to pass thanks to the industrial-sized ceiling fans providing a constant breeze. We sat next to a booth that was nothing but nonstop Denials (not a single pass the entire time at that particular booth), which was a teensy bit unnerving. Wife and I occupied ourselves chatting and people-watching, and though we brought materials to keep ourselves occupied we didn't even take them out. We were too interested in what was happening around us and had our minds on the impending interview.
If it wasn't already clear from other reviews/posts, for immigrant visas first you get a number and are called in order to hand over your original civil documents. However, that's a quick process and once it's done, people are called up for their interview out of order, with high numbers, low numbers, and everything in between called with no obvious rhyme or reason throughout.
From the beginning of our application process, I made up my mind to submit the minimum bona fide evidence, because we have lived together the entire time since marriage. With the I-130 I submitted 15 carefully chosen photos, the leases of the apartments we lived in together with both our names on them, and my Vietnam Temporary Residency Card my wife sponsored me for after we got married. I took the initiative to write a one-page Relationship Timeline that I also included with the I-130, because I read on here that some people in Vietnam were asked for that, and I really didn't want to have to go through any extra steps. That's everything. We didn't submit any additional bona fide evidence to CEAC or at the interview.
The interview was a nice experience. I jumped in and helped my wife clarify some of her answers by pulling out the timeline I had written (see above) and handing it to her. She handed it across to the interviewer and I think that helped. I pulled out a copy of the printed photos I had submitted when the interviewer asked if my parents had come over from the US to Vietnam for our Vietnamese wedding (they did).
The questions focused on how we met and how our relationship become romantic. They were just a smattering of some of the basic kinds of questions I had already read on this forum. The interview felt like it took 3 minutes, maybe 5 tops. Wife and I both agreed we actually wanted it to go on a little bit longer, we had prepared so much and sort of enjoyed the process of clarifying our story for the interviewer. But it was over quick.
Overall, I liked the way the Consulate was set up and guided people through the process. 5/5
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #33736