USC Marrying fiancee in Vietnam

[jac_chappin 24]

Hello!

Can someone share their experience with me?

I heard USC marrying in Vietnam is a very complex process from a bureaucratic perspective.

Below are some questions I have:

1. How long did it take?

2. What can be done ahead of time to expedite the process

3. What kind of evidence did you produce indicating you were single? How did you obtain it?

4,. What pitfalls can I avoid?

Any information would greatly be appreciated

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

If you marry in Vietnam, you cannot use the K-1 visa you applied for.

[BPham 0]

In my case, if it weren't for 2 errors in a birth-date and new passport discrepancy with older passport, it wouldn't have cost us so much in bribery money. The forms are redundant with so many lines of addresses, and birth-dates; they're just looking for you to make a mistake. If you know your Vietnamese, you can fill out the forms keeping in mind EVERYTHING has to be in the Vietnam diction (for instance, Thailand is Thai Lan, and American is Hoa Ky.)

I did the paperwork with my dad. If you have any particular question, feel free to ask. Also the 'mental exam' is not required to be done in the US, it'll just redone in Vietnam regardless. This will save yourself ~150 dollars and the time spent looking for a Vietnamese doc that'll perform it.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

In my case, if it weren't for 2 errors in a birth-date and new passport discrepancy with older passport, it wouldn't have cost us so much in bribery money. The forms are redundant with so many lines of addresses, and birth-dates; they're just looking for you to make a mistake. If you know your Vietnamese, you can fill out the forms keeping in mind EVERYTHING has to be in the Vietnam diction (for instance, Thailand is Thai Lan, and American is Hoa Ky.)

I did the paperwork with my dad. If you have any particular question, feel free to ask. Also the 'mental exam' is not required to be done in the US, it'll just redone in Vietnam regardless. This will save yourself ~150 dollars and the time spent looking for a Vietnamese doc that'll perform it.

"America" is "Mỹ". "United States" is "Hoa Kỳ".

[rostov007 29]

Hello!

Can someone share their experience with me?

I heard USC marrying in Vietnam is a very complex process from a bureaucratic perspective.

Below are some questions I have:

1. How long did it take?

2. What can be done ahead of time to expedite the process

3. What kind of evidence did you produce indicating you were single? How did you obtain it?

4,. What pitfalls can I avoid?

Any information would greatly be appreciated

1. Start to finish, Mid July-Mid November

2. Get familiar with the apostille process in your State. The bureaucracy is not just in Vietnam. For each document provided, you need a notarized copy, an apostille packet, and a Vietnam consulate packet before you go to Vietnam to file.

3. In my case I needed a: certified copy of my divorce decree from my county clerk, a "no marriage records" document from my State Vital Statistics office, both of those documents needed apostilles, then they were both sent to the VN consulate in San Francisco and sent back to me with the Consulate stamp on them. Then I took them to Vietnam.

4. We first went to the marriage registration office in HCMC and tried to do it ourselves, but graft was rampant and we didn't want to deal with it, so we hired a VN attorney for 200usd who took care of everything for us and got us our marriage certificate in 4 months. The best 200 I ever spent because while she may have had to pay money to someone, I never heard about it and because it would have had to come from her fee, I'm sure she didn't spend any more than it must take regardless. Before we hired the attorney we were getting the runaround, do this, do that, come back tomorrow, etc. It was very stressful on our new marriage so it was a blessing to hand it over to someone else to deal with, for such a bargain price.

Good luck,

R

[Dan_P 5]

1. Start to finish, Mid July-Mid November

2. Get familiar with the apostille process in your State. The bureaucracy is not just in Vietnam. For each document provided, you need a notarized copy, an apostille packet, and a Vietnam consulate packet before you go to Vietnam to file.

3. In my case I needed a: certified copy of my divorce decree from my county clerk, a "no marriage records" document from my State Vital Statistics office, both of those documents needed apostilles, then they were both sent to the VN consulate in San Francisco and sent back to me with the Consulate stamp on them. Then I took them to Vietnam.

4. We first went to the marriage registration office in HCMC and tried to do it ourselves, but graft was rampant and we didn't want to deal with it, so we hired a VN attorney for 200usd who took care of everything for us and got us our marriage certificate in 4 months. The best 200 I ever spent because while she may have had to pay money to someone, I never heard about it and because it would have had to come from her fee, I'm sure she didn't spend any more than it must take regardless. Before we hired the attorney we were getting the runaround, do this, do that, come back tomorrow, etc. It was very stressful on our new marriage so it was a blessing to hand it over to someone else to deal with, for such a bargain price.

Good luck,

R

What you need from the US is the Affidavit of Single Status and your original passport. Link to what is involved is below. It cost me i think $400 for it, including the notory fee, and the check with the county and the state, as well as the translation done by the Vietnamese consulate. Make sure everything is correct, if not, have it corrected in the states. way easier than trying to fix it in Vietnam. it is only good for i think 6 months, so don't get it done too early, or you will have to redo it.

http://www.vietnamembassy-usa.org/consular_services/marry_a_vietnamese/

My description below is based on my experiences in Nha Trang, each province can be different. Some locations have power of attorney, so your fiancee can start the paperwork before you get there. Nha Trang does not allow this.

The medical was i think around $30-40 for both my wife and I, and we were done in a few hours. We had to go to the psychiatric hospital, and there were patients just wondering around the halls. The interview was pretty short and simple, and we had to do a standard test matching patterns ( i forgot the exact name of the test)

my single status affidavit had to be translated into Vietnamese, even though it already contained Vietnamese. Some other items had to be notorized or what not.

I paid $700 in Vietnam and mine was done in Nha Trang, they said provinces are more expensive than TP.HCM. Maybe, I could've gotten it done cheaper, but in the end, it was worth it because it was done in 6 weeks, which fit into my trip perfectly, and it was someone my wife trusted. My fiancee at the time had to go to the local authorities to get some documents done as well. Let's just say that there was some discrepancies within...but in the end it was done. They will interview both you and your fiancee at the Justice Department. If you do not speak Vietnamese, I think you will have to bring an approved translator. The dates and times of the interview given in your receipt are subject to change, both dates were changed. If you have a perfect case, then you don't really need assistance. But, if anything goes wrong, the assistance will help you to correct things much quicker. Some things may be "overlooked"

As a warning, if you don't get assistance from the beginning, people are less willing to jump onboard midway, or it may cost more and include delays...

Edited June 18, 2011 by Dan_P

[Dan Nguyen 3]

Hello!

Can someone share their experience with me?

I heard USC marrying in Vietnam is a very complex process from a bureaucratic perspective.

Below are some questions I have:

1. How long did it take?

2. What can be done ahead of time to expedite the process

3. What kind of evidence did you produce indicating you were single? How did you obtain it?

4,. What pitfalls can I avoid?

Any information would greatly be appreciated

You can download the marriage application forms from Vietnam Embassy website.

Once your marriage application is accepted, it takes Vietnam Justice Dept (So Tu Phap) of your district about a month to process. The process is somewhat similar to applying for an immigration visa. You will be interview to show you have bona-fide relationship so save all your evidence.

Vietnamese officials likes to give you the run-around. For example, they will say that a certain document needs to be certify by local police (Cong An) or some other government body but when you go there, they might not want to do it for one reason or another.

Both you and your fiancee are require to provide documents to show you are single. Your fiancee can get this done in Vietnam fairly easily. You need to get a certificate of no marriage from the state you live in. This also has to be authenticated for foreign use by the Common Wealth of the state you live in. Wouldn't hurt to have it authenticated by the State Dept also. Make sure that the name of the registrar that signed your certificate is on the authentication document and not somebody else. This happened to me and I had to go all the way back to the U.S. to do it again.

You also have to pass a Mental Health Examination in the U.S. This form is included in the application although it will be rejected and they will make you take another one in Vietnam. At least we had to. Yours case might be different.

You need a lot of patient when dealing with Vietnamese official. They like to go at their pace, not yours. lol

Edited June 18, 2011 by hnguyen3k

[rostov007 29]

1. Start to finish, Mid July-Mid November

2. Get familiar with the apostille process in your State. The bureaucracy is not just in Vietnam. For each document provided, you need a notarized copy, an apostille packet, and a Vietnam consulate packet before you go to Vietnam to file.

3. In my case I needed a: certified copy of my divorce decree from my county clerk, a "no marriage records" document from my State Vital Statistics office, both of those documents needed apostilles, then they were both sent to the VN consulate in San Francisco and sent back to me with the Consulate stamp on them. Then I took them to Vietnam.

4. We first went to the marriage registration office in HCMC and tried to do it ourselves, but graft was rampant and we didn't want to deal with it, so we hired a VN attorney for 200usd who took care of everything for us and got us our marriage certificate in 4 months. The best 200 I ever spent because while she may have had to pay money to someone, I never heard about it and because it would have had to come from her fee, I'm sure she didn't spend any more than it must take regardless. Before we hired the attorney we were getting the runaround, do this, do that, come back tomorrow, etc. It was very stressful on our new marriage so it was a blessing to hand it over to someone else to deal with, for such a bargain price.

Good luck,

R

Since for us this was so long ago, I actually got the timing on number 1 incorrect. We married in mid July, we filed to register our marriage in early October, we received our certificate in early November. Sorry for leading you astray.

[Dan Nguyen 3]

Hello!

Can someone share their experience with me?

I heard USC marrying in Vietnam is a very complex process from a bureaucratic perspective.

Below are some questions I have:

1. How long did it take?

2. What can be done ahead of time to expedite the process

3. What kind of evidence did you produce indicating you were single? How did you obtain it?

4,. What pitfalls can I avoid?

Any information would greatly be appreciated

After you get your certificate of no marriage authenticated, you might want to make a copy and mail or email it to your fiancee to take to Justice Dept. and ask them if it's acceptable. Could save you a trip back to U.S.

[confusedasheck 21]

What do you do for single status affidavit if you are a USC but live in a foreign country?

[jac_chappin 24]

Thanks much to everyone who responded!

My fiancee is currently waiting for a k-1 interview but I just want to do some research as a contingency.

Thanks a bunch.

BTW - So states do issue a certificate of being single? What's the actual nomenclature for it? I live in California!

[long&kieu 1]

I just got one completed over there, it was a crazy mess, let me know if you have any questions...

Thanks much to everyone who responded!

My fiancee is currently waiting for a k-1 interview but I just want to do some research as a contingency.

Thanks a bunch.

BTW - So states do issue a certificate of being single? What's the actual nomenclature for it? I live in California!

I had to go to the county office where issue a paper saying that they did a search from the last x amount of years and can declare that your single...

[quann 26]

Thanks much to everyone who responded!

My fiancee is currently waiting for a k-1 interview but I just want to do some research as a contingency.

Thanks a bunch.

BTW - So states do issue a certificate of being single? What's the actual nomenclature for it? I live in California!

why are you worrying about marriage in vietnam if she's going on a k-1 interview? you don't have faith that she's going to pass the k-1 process?

[Dan Nguyen 3]

What do you do for single status affidavit if you are a USC but live in a foreign country?

You can get a relative to get it for you.

[jac_chappin 24]

quann -

Our relationship is pretty solid and have lots of evidence of a "bona fide" relationship.

We are in the process of preparing for interview and will do the due diligence to cover all basis.

I think she will pass as my fiancee's English is pretty good and she knows me well.

Just exploring incase I have to go the marriage route.