Will an introduction to Vietnamese woman by her US relative be an issue?

[confusedasheck 21]

My friend introduced me to his niece who lives in Vietnam over the phone. After talking with her, I have this concern about her family in the US and the US consulate In HCMC. My friend is her uncle. Her parents, sisters, and brothers all live in Vietnam. Her dad's side of the family still lives in Vietnam. Most of her mom's side of the family lives in the USA. I do not have any relationship with any of her relatives except for her uncle (my friend). I've meet some of her relatives once a year or so before my friend introduced me to her and never had contact with them since. Would this be a problem? I know it's early in the game, but I really don't want to start anything if this is going to cause a denial.

An interesting point is that her mom had multiple opportunities to come to the US, but didn't want to leave Vietnam. Don't know if that makes a difference.

[luckytxn 2,264]

If you are stressing about this so much at this early time then you maybe should go no further. The stress level goes way up as this process goes along.

I was introduced by my now wifes Aunt and somehow got through the process. They do look at it as one thing in the overall picture. If you decide to carry on then what you need to do is show a legitimate relationship progress from the introduction to the meeting to the engagement/marriage to the visa try to the interview. Just by being here you find out from others that have done this before you the things needed to accomplish this. Also you can find the pitfalls. I had several strikes and many on this very forum years ago told me that I was due to fail and the first one was because I was introduced by her Aunt. I even was convinced that I would fail and have to fight and did things that I would have done differently if I had to do it over.

Don'y worry about the family here now. Don't worry about the Uncle introducing you. He must think highly of you to introduce you to his niece as that is a big responsibility on his part to find a good match. The consulate knows this happens all the time but also know that a lot of fraud happens and watches for this.

[hniHnitsuJ 8]

If you are stressing about this so much at this early time then you maybe should go no further. The stress level goes way up as this process goes along.

I was introduced by my now wifes Aunt and somehow got through the process. They do look at it as one thing in the overall picture. If you decide to carry on then what you need to do is show a legitimate relationship progress from the introduction to the meeting to the engagement/marriage to the visa try to the interview. Just by being here you find out from others that have done this before you the things needed to accomplish this. Also you can find the pitfalls. I had several strikes and many on this very forum years ago told me that I was due to fail and the first one was because I was introduced by her Aunt. I even was convinced that I would fail and have to fight and did things that I would have done differently if I had to do it over.

Don'y worry about the family here now. Don't worry about the Uncle introducing you. He must think highly of you to introduce you to his niece as that is a big responsibility on his part to find a good match. The consulate knows this happens all the time but also know that a lot of fraud happens and watches for this.

I totally agreed. Don't worry too much, and just go slow slow. You should be fine!!! I was introducing my wife from her uncle, who is from Viet Nam, not US.

[utst10 0]

My wife's aunt introduce us and we got married within 3 months after I met her.

I was able to bring her over to the US no problem. Look at the guidelines and addres all the possible "red flags".

If you can meet all cirterias, then you should be able to do the same.

Money, on going relationship status, trips, records, etc.

If you make say 19,000, you meet the poverty guideline but then they make raise the question this could be for money.

If you don't enough visits, this further emphasize that. If you don't have enough evidence during a visit, then that' not acceptable.

Kinda see how a CO would think? When I bought a ticket for my wife (before she even interviewed), I estimated that her chance of success was like 80%.

True to that, she passed on the day that 90% of the people being interviewed failed!

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

My friend introduced me to his niece who lives in Vietnam over the phone. After talking with her, I have this concern about her family in the US and the US consulate In HCMC. My friend is her uncle. Her parents, sisters, and brothers all live in Vietnam. Her dad's side of the family still lives in Vietnam. Most of her mom's side of the family lives in the USA. I do not have any relationship with any of her relatives except for her uncle (my friend). I've meet some of her relatives once a year or so before my friend introduced me to her and never had contact with them since. Would this be a problem? I know it's early in the game, but I really don't want to start anything if this is going to cause a denial.

An interesting point is that her mom had multiple opportunities to come to the US, but didn't want to leave Vietnam. Don't know if that makes a difference.

I was also introduced to my wife by her uncle. Similar situation to yours - many family members in the US, most of whom I didn't meet until after I started corresponding with my wife.

Being introduced by a family member can be a potential problem, but mainly if it's one in a list of factors that make the relationship smell more like family reunification than a genuine relationship. Those other factors are the same as for any other case where they suspect fraud, and mostly boil down to circumstances that make it look like the relationship was a brief formality - very short development of relationship before meeting, only one visit to VN, no engagement ceremony or rushed/cheap engagement ceremony followed by very small party, filing petition soon after returning from first visit. Another negative factor is income that is under or barely clears the minimum requirements for a sponsor. This makes it look like maybe her family is paying you to do this.

All of these things contribute to a suspicion that relationship is a sham for the purpose of evading immigration law. The introduction by a family member provides the "why" part of the equation.

You have plenty of time to make sure you don't have any of those "sham relationship" red flags. If you address that stuff sufficiently, the introduction will merely be a footnote in your case. You can address it with evidence you frontload with your petition.

BTW, if your fiancee's family is like most VN families, be prepared to spend a LOT more time with them in the future.

[confusedasheck 21]

Thank you for all your answers. That makes me feel much better. At least there is hope.

I understand the requirement for multiple visits no more than once year apart (or is this nine months for Vietnam?). I am prepared to make that sacrifice if I think we can get along. I don't intend to rush anything.

I am not worried about financial requirements. I can meet them.

@Luckytxn. Yes, you are correct. He does think highly of me. I've known him for 10 years.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Thank you for all your answers. That makes me feel much better. At least there is hope.

I understand the requirement for multiple visits no more than once year apart (or is this nine months for Vietnam?). I am prepared to make that sacrifice if I think we can get along. I don't intend to rush anything.

I am not worried about financial requirements. I can meet them.

@Luckytxn. Yes, you are correct. He does think highly of me. I've known him for 10 years.

There is no requirement for the interval between visits. Feel free to visit as often as you like. If you can only get time off once a year, or that's the best you can afford, then that's also not a problem. Just save the evidence that you communicate on a regular basis in between visits. The main thing is that it doesn't look like you did only what you needed to do in order to meet the bare minimum requirement, which is a single visit within the past two years, or that you went from being internet friends to a committed relationship, complete with engagement ceremony, within a week or two of your first face-to-face meeting.

[luckytxn 2,264]

As Jim said all of them make the Consulate take a harder look. I also had a short time between introduction and then going to meet for the first time. After about a week there we had an engagement party and when I returned I started the process for the fiancee visa. I only went that one time to see her and somehow got a visa. All of these things are red flags and are looked at. I also tried to create positive flags by having plenty of income and a nice savings and sent this all in along with two nice IRA's info. I also sent deeds to my home along with copies of deeds of several pieces of land I own. I am not sure this helped at all but I am older and had a nice financial setting to show. I had been divorced for about 15 years at that point. We did get a blue slip asking for a list of relatives of hers in the states and a timeline. She took this in about a week later and got a pink.

You on the other hand are starting off on a clean slate and can take the time needed to develop the relationship more properly to what the consulate is looking for. Read this forum and start developing the relationship and keep all proof of doing so. When you do go keep all flight info and boarding passes and any and all receipts you incur while there. Take plenty of pics of you two in different settings and what not. Start right away saving all logs from any chats whether on the phone or in emails or my fave on yahoo messengers. Never can have too much proof of a developing relationship. Make sure she knows you well and if she needs it have her start learning English early as possible. If she is anything like my babe then you will have a bright future ahead. You are lucky in that you have come here early to learn and not like most that have come here until after the process has gone along and then all one can do is pray. Pray is always good but doesn't help relieve the stress from knowing that mistakes have been made that could have been prevented. Again God bless you both and I hope for the best.

[Kevin and 10]

I was introduced to Tuyen by her brother, who I went to HS with. He is a family friend. I'm positive that was the reason for our first denial, but in the end we got a visa.

I started the process before I found VJ and I'm sure it would have gone smoother if I had known some of the issues CO's looked for. You're lucky.

Good Luck!