Min. Income Req.

[dalegg 143]

Dalegg,

if u rent a room in orange county, its only about $300 and if u live with a family member, it could be lower. i cut down on most of my expenses: like DSL, cable, cellphone services, car ins, health ins, etc. my expense comes down to basically food & gas. well i understand some people cant live the way i live. but if u do something for so long, u will use to get to it.. my expense will go thru the roof when my wife gets here.

Okay, and right now what city in Vietnam does your wife live in? And is she older or younger than 30?

[ngoc 0]

Dalegg,

if u rent a room in orange county, its only about $300 and if u live with a family member, it could be lower. i cut down on most of my expenses: like DSL, cable, cellphone services, car ins, health ins, etc. my expense comes down to basically food & gas. well i understand some people cant live the way i live. but if u do something for so long, u will use to get to it.. my expense will go thru the roof when my wife gets here.

Okay, and right now what city in Vietnam does your wife live in? And is she older or younger than 30?

hmm... shes live in HCM and shes 24 and im 28.. why do u ask?

[patricks 0]

Ngoc Oi,

I always say......" Knong Sao Dau"

No Star Where

No Problem

Go for it! Don't listen to us "troublemakers", Prove us wrong.

However, I'd strongly suggest you find a sponsor.

Just curious, why is your family so negative about your relationship? Is it because she's a VNs national or something else?

[STL_HCMC 0]

Ngoc,

This is what I was pointing out with my strong suggestion for finding a co-sponsor. This 'no frills' lifestyle you have now suits you just fine, but like you said, "...my expense will go thru the roof when my wife gets here," the consular officer interviewing you will also likely consider this as well (i.e. those understandings of cost of living standards I talked about earlier).

STL_HCMC

.. my expense will go thru the roof when my wife gets here.

[dalegg 143]

Dalegg,

if u rent a room in orange county, its only about $300 and if u live with a family member, it could be lower. i cut down on most of my expenses: like DSL, cable, cellphone services, car ins, health ins, etc. my expense comes down to basically food & gas. well i understand some people cant live the way i live. but if u do something for so long, u will use to get to it.. my expense will go thru the roof when my wife gets here.

Okay, and right now what city in Vietnam does your wife live in? And is she older or younger than 30?

hmm... shes live in HCM and shes 24 and im 28.. why do u ask?

Because I think you are going to be headed straight for problems here. Your wife being a young woman from the city confirms this. You know your wife better than me, but take it from me- financial problems are a killer for marriages, and you are going to have these right from the get go. All I can say is be careful. Vietnamese women are different than American Women, but in the end they are all women, and within a year of her being here, she will be an American woman too. This is not to say anything bad about women in general, but they do get bored.

I've meddled enough. Don't mean to be a troublemaker. It's really just curiosity. By the way, I think she will probably get the visa even without a co-sponsor, but you wil need to spell out your expenses to show how it is you are living here in Orange County for $500 a month. Good luck.

[STL_HCMC 0]

Hi Ngoc,

STL HCM,

regarding the videotaping, are we talking about utilizing the Yahoo Voice Communicating as a videotape? i cant think of any other way other than that... i am vietnamese and i speak it fluently;however my wife lacks in english. i'll have her take some english courses, i guess.

I'm not 100% sure about the requirements of the videotape. You might create a separate post on the Asia-Pacific Regional Forum and ask specifically about the videotape. I know I've seen some others on here that have had to do it.

In addition to this, we are talking about a visa application that is intended to lead to permanent residence and/or U.S. Citizenship in the United States - where English is the common language. With your income situation as it is, the officer might well question how you plan to support yourselves and avoid having her become a public charge to the United States seeing that she has little command of the English language.

Most of us USC's, who can speak little to no Vietnamese, find it relatively necessary to have the fiance(e)/spouse doing the interview in English

wouldnt it be easier for the fiance/spouse to do the interview in their native language, vietnamese? im a little puzzled about that.

There are a lot of us United States Citizens (i.e. petitioners) who cannot speak Vietnamese fluently. We are engaged/married to Vietnamese - like you are! Therefore, if we (i.e. English speaking USC's) are going to marry a Vietnamese from Vietnam, and we would like he/she to successfully be approved for a K-1 or K-3 visa at their interview, than our fiance(e)/spouse must show the interviewing consular officer (i.e. an American) that he/she has a good understanding of English to prove that we are able to communicate well in our 'bona-fide relationship' (i.e. in a common language we both understand - English).

If you spoke ONLY English - and were married to your wife - who cannot speak English as well - how would you communicate in your relationship? That is the question that arises sometimes during the interview!

excellent websites links. it even has the "switch to vietnamese" language option. im too lazy to read all that but i'll ask my wife to do the reading for her own good:=) Thanksa lot!

I'm glad you enjoyed the excellent website links.

Just a word of caution, it has been my experience - and I'm sure many others on here would agree - that this K-1 / K-3 visa process doesn't have much room for being lazy! If I were you, I'd be reading up on every piece of relevant information I could get my hands on. Don't leave this all to your wife to read. Remember that you - as the United States Citizen - are the petitioner for your wifes K-3 visa!

All of this is just pure advice to you and things you might look into further. There are many things to read up on regarding the process at the US Consulate in HCMC. VisaJourney is an excellent site for that and there is a well established group of us (i.e. petitioners of Vietnamese) on here that shoot ideas/tips/hints/stories back-and-forth very often.

STL_HCMC

[STL_HCMC 0]

Ngoc,

I completely agree with Dalegg on this. I hope we don't seem like we are coming across as troublemakers - I'm certainly not spending my time typing all of this for that reason.

In addition, I hope we don't come across like we don't think you have a chance at this visa. What I - and I think the rest of us - are trying to do is communicate to you the specifics and details that might well be necessary to prove your case during the interview AND increase your chances for success on the first try.

It is your job to prove your case as best you can on paper so that you can then prove it to the interviewing officer. That is why it is important that you BOTH must understand everything.

Yesterday my fiancee delivered her packet 3 papers to the consulate and saw many blue slips of people coming out. I couldn't help but think to myself how many of those people WEREN'T afforded the chance to read up on tips/hints/stories on VisaJourney!

We are all here to support each other and we are a pretty easy going group here on the Vietnam side of VisaJourney! No question is stupid or dumb and ask away as many as you want!

STL_HCMC

I've meddled enough. Don't mean to be a troublemaker. It's really just curiosity. By the way, I think she will probably get the visa even without a co-sponsor, but you wil need to spell out your expenses to show how it is you are living here in Orange County for $500 a month. Good luck.

Go for it! Don't listen to us "troublemakers", Prove us wrong.

[ngoc 0]

Patricks,

what you mean "go for it"? little lost there

well, my family are very narrow-minded people, they think that this girl im marrying will scam me or something like that,... and my boss recently just refused...so theres no way in hell they're gonna co-sign the paper and be responsible for her for the next 10 freakin yrs.

Patrick, are you vietnamese by the way? i overheard you say a couple of words in viet. yeah thanks for the encouragement.

Dalegg, STL HCM,

well this is my plan for the time being regarding my income:

if they do question the 2004 yr income, i will them that my annual salary is 23,000, but during that yr i had to stay in VN for 2 more months to finish up the paperworks and stuffs. and please have a look at my 2003 and 2005 salaries, its above $20,000. i also have a checkin account assets with this amount of money.

my wife, she is currently studying nails at the moment and she have relatives who can land her a job from right the get-go when she gets in the US. also we are planning to move to another state so that the cost of living would be alot less than it is in cali.

well, that doesn work, then im screwed.

yeah i ve read alot of the members post, thats why im being a little lazy with the others

Edited May 6, 2006 by ngoc

[dalegg 143]

Yesterday my fiancee delivered her packet 3 papers to the consulate and saw many blue slips of people coming out. I couldn't help but think to myself how many of those people WEREN'T afforded the chance to read up on tips/hints/stories on VisaJourney!

We are all here to support each other and we are a pretty easy going group here on the Vietnam side of VisaJourney! No question is stupid or dumb and ask away as many as you want!

STL_HCMC

That's right buddy. And some of the answers you gave me, you better make sure your wife answers with more certainty. For example she better not tell them you are saving $900 to $1000 a month with $500 a month expenses. I wouldn't be suprised if they asked such questions. They WILL try to trip you up and inconsistencies will put you in blue slip limbo.

Also- I've never heard of someone who's husband speaks Vietnamese having to produce a video. You speak Viet, right?

[STL_HCMC 0]

It was the linked post below that made me think of the videotape. After reading it again, I guess scy made it as a precaution.

Linnk: Videotape Reference

STL_HCMC

Also- I've never heard of someone who's husband speaks Vietnamese having to produce a video. You speak Viet, right?

[ngoc 0]

It was the linked post below that made me think of the videotape. After reading it again, I guess scy made it as a precaution.

Linnk: Videotape Reference

STL_HCMC

Also- I've never heard of someone who's husband speaks Vietnamese having to produce a video. You speak Viet, right?

i've never produce a video before, ever... i probably know how with the right guidances. i speak fluently vietnamese...

yes i will definitely trained her for the interview. probably, exagerate a little more about the savings part..

some people tell me they only look at the most recent yr and some tell me otherwise. i mean you just dont know what kinda mood that CO is in that day.

[dalegg 143]

if they do question the 2004 yr income, i will them that my annual salary is 23,000, but during that yr i had to stay in VN for 2 more months to finish up the paperworks and stuffs. and please have a look at my 2003 and 2005 salaries, its above $20,000. i also have a checkin account assets with this amount of money.

my wife, she is currently studying nails at the moment and she have relatives who can land her a job from right the get-go when she gets in the US. also we are planning to move to another state so that the cost of living would be alot less than it is in cali.

well, that doesn work, then im screwed.

yeah i ve read alot of the members post, thats why im being a little lazy with the others

Not just tell them you earned $23,000, right? You should be able to prove this. Your wife can earn some pretty good money doing nails here. My wife has a friend that moved here with her husband last year and she took a course to learn that. She's now making about $3000 a month, which sounds great, except that she works 12 hours a day and gets 2 days off a month. I'll bet those are two GREAT days though! I shouldn't be too harsh on you about your finances. Our women like to work, that's for sure, so you'll do fine. Just take some time before making little ngocs.

Edited May 6, 2006 by dalegg

[STL_HCMC 0]

Ngoc,

FACTS...FACTS...FACTS! There is no room for exageration in this bud!

STL_HCMC

yes i will definitely trained her for the interview. probably, exagerate a little more about the savings part..some people tell me they only look at the most recent yr and some tell me otherwise. i mean you just dont know what kinda mood that CO is in that day.

[dalegg 143]

Ngoc,

FACTS...FACTS...FACTS! There is no room for exageration in this bud!

STL_HCMC

I know! Ngoc, your killing us. I'm starting to understand why there are so many blue slips coming out of there now. This is not a place to say or do anything that cannot be backed up, particularly when it comes to income.

[ngoc 0]

Ngoc,

FACTS...FACTS...FACTS! There is no room for exageration in this bud!

STL_HCMC

yes i will definitely trained her for the interview. probably, exagerate a little more about the savings part..some people tell me they only look at the most recent yr and some tell me otherwise. i mean you just dont know what kinda mood that CO is in that day.

yes, i will give them the best facts that i could. the $500 is just an estimate amount. i gotta alotta homework to do.