Waiting....(on USPS and HCM Consulate Inquiry)

[Jack_ 0]

I mailed a Registered First Class letter to the HCM Consulate that left the US on July 17th with all the requested info they asked for when my spouse got blue after her interview on May 23rd, and have gotten no confirmation from USPS yet. I just requested an update via email from the HCM consulate. Does anyone know how long it takes International Registered Mail to get to VN from the West Coast, and how long should I expect to wait for a reply from the consulate? Keeping my fingers crossed that the postal service is lame in reporting international delivery, and hopeful that the consulate can provide me the with the update we are waiting for. Any help appreciated! TX

Edited August 17, 2011 by reddyb

[Anh map 2,098]

Why in the world would you use the regular mail for communicating with the consulate?

[Dan_P 5]

I mailed a Registered First Class letter to the HCM Consulate that left the US on July 17th with all the requested info they asked for when my spouse got blue after her interview on May 23rd, and have gotten no confirmation from USPS yet. I just requested an update via email from the HCM consulate. Does anyone know how long it takes International Registered Mail to get to VN from the West Coast, and how long should I expect to wait for a reply from the consulate? Keeping my fingers crossed that the postal service is lame in reporting international delivery, and hopeful that the consulate can provide me the with the update we are waiting for. Any help appreciated! TX

Should be about 10 days. Longest I've seen not counting mail lost in transit is about 15 days for regular first class to Vietnam. Personally, for something important, I'd use fedex or dhl

Edited August 17, 2011 by Dan_P

[WeatherEmperor 21]

For such important documents, I would use USPS Express Mail International. This gets documents to VN in less than 5 days with a tracking number. FexEx and UPS are also good. There is not much you can do now except for pray that the documents get delivered. Regular mail delivery in Vietnam is horrendous so I wouldn't keep my hopes up....

Edited August 17, 2011 by WeatherEmperor

[Jack_ 0]

Somewhere along the line the word Registered got lost in the shuffle. I will discuss "why in the world I would ever mail something this way below." (btw, not very helpful)

Registered Mail is considered to be the safest form of all mail, as it has to be physically locked up in a safe and signed for by every person who touches it at every station.

Apparently no one here has used this ever, but this was not the only question I had. Thanks, regardless; the documents are already mailed, so rather than duplicate them unnecessarily I will just wait.

Any idea how long one must wait for a reply from the embassy on a RFE response after submittal to a blue notice, or from an email inquiry? Thanks again in advance. :-)

Edited August 17, 2011 by reddyb

[hieumin 2]

RFE response from Consular after submital blue sheet might take days to months, everybody is different.

email from Consular might take 2-3 weeks.

I have sent my timeline to Consular in 2009 by first class mail and they received without any problems. I got lucky right.

[Anh map 2,098]

Depending on the items requested in the RFE the response could be immediate or the file could be in AP for a few days - several months. What type of information were you required to submit?

In our case the pink slip response was immediate as Linh submitted to documents and was handed the approval slip.

Trusting the mail in VN is a risky venture regardless of class.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Depending on the items requested in the RFE the response could be immediate or the file could be in AP for a few days - several months. What type of information were you required to submit?

In our case the pink slip response was immediate as Linh submitted to documents and was handed the approval slip.

Trusting the mail in VN is a risky venture regardless of class.

Well I know I never would have used regular mail.

[khoamythovn 1]

I would have never mailed anything to the consulate. I sent it to my wife via USPS Express mail takes about 1 week. It cost $30 for a few pages. We also responded to blue slip with 1/2 information from petitioner and 1/2 information from beneficiary. Once she had all the information for blue slip then went to consulate to turn it in.

[Jack_ 0]

I would have never mailed anything to the consulate. I sent it to my wife via USPS Express mail takes about 1 week. It cost $30 for a few pages. We also responded to blue slip with 1/2 information from petitioner and 1/2 information from beneficiary. Once she had all the information for blue slip then went to consulate to turn it in.

OK. You would never mail anything to the Consulate in VN, but you would mail it to your wife in VN who would then hand deliver it to the Consulate. Either way gets it to the Consulate, right? My wife lives an eight hour one-way absolutely intolerable bus ride from HCM, and ends up sick after every trip, and her father is very ill right now and needs daily assistance, so mailing the documents directly to the Consulate sounded like the prudent, responsible, and unselfish thing to do given the circumstances. And, just to clarify things again, the 10 year residential for P, 2010 tax return, and P's biography about how I met my spouse were all sent by REGISTERED INTERNATIONAL MAIL from the USA, which is not Regular Mail; it is actually considered to be the safest form of mail - by far. Whether any mail, special, regular, or non-descript gets delivered to anyone in VN I presume is a matter of personal opinion and conjecture. I am sure it is as bad as some claim, and as good as some "lucky" people claim - depending on one's personal experience. I got LUCKY I guess, as I received an email from the HCM Consulate yesterday letting me know they had received my REGISTERED letter, and that my case was Pending review by a Consular Officer, and that they would be contacting my Beneficiary Spouse with the results after this pending review. YEAH (I hope) !!!

So, given she is a CR1 with this being her first marriage and she is rapidly approaching forty years of age with no children, and this being my second marriage only after a twenty five year wait between my divorce and this my second marriage, I am hopeful for PINK sometime soon. I can only keep my fingers crossed, as our marriage is very real and totally bona fide in all manner and regard.

All the "Nay Sayer's" should maybe think about reserving all their criticism and leveling of apparent stupidity on people who are new and coming here for advice rather than negative criticism. Offering to share a little love, consideration, and kindness goes a long way, and might prompt someone to stick around this forum who are not as think skinned as someone like me; if you were fortunate and lucky to do everything "correctly" the first time so-be-it; you were fortunate and lucky, so perhaps you should show some gratitude for your fortunate and lucky situation, and extend kindness to others instead. Thanks for all who offered helpful and sincerely kind suggestions! As stated, I will keep you posted. Best wishes and good luck to everyone!!!

[WeatherEmperor 21]

OK. You would never mail anything to the Consulate in VN, but you would mail it to your wife in VN who would then hand deliver it to the Consulate. Either way gets it to the Consulate, right? My wife lives an eight hour one-way absolutely intolerable bus ride from HCM, and ends up sick after every trip, and her father is very ill right now and needs daily assistance, so mailing the documents directly to the Consulate sounded like the prudent, responsible, and unselfish thing to do given the circumstances. And, just to clarify things again, the 10 year residential for P, 2010 tax return, and P's biography about how I met my spouse were all sent by REGISTERED INTERNATIONAL MAIL from the USA, which is not Regular Mail; it is actually considered to be the safest form of mail - by far. Whether any mail, special, regular, or non-descript gets delivered to anyone in VN I presume is a matter of personal opinion and conjecture. I am sure it is as bad as some claim, and as good as some "lucky" people claim - depending on one's personal experience. I got LUCKY I guess, as I received an email from the HCM Consulate yesterday letting me know they had received my REGISTERED letter, and that my case was Pending review by a Consular Officer, and that they would be contacting my Beneficiary Spouse with the results after this pending review. YEAH (I hope) !!!

So, given she is a CR1 with this being her first marriage and she is rapidly approaching forty years of age with no children, and this being my second marriage only after a twenty five year wait between my divorce and this my second marriage, I am hopeful for PINK sometime soon. I can only keep my fingers crossed, as our marriage is very real and totally bona fide in all manner and regard.

All the "Nay Sayer's" should maybe think about reserving all their criticism and leveling of apparent stupidity on people who are new and coming here for advice rather than negative criticism. Offering to share a little love, consideration, and kindness goes a long way, and might prompt someone to stick around this forum who are not as think skinned as someone like me; if you were fortunate and lucky to do everything "correctly" the first time so-be-it; you were fortunate and lucky, so perhaps you should show some gratitude for your fortunate and lucky situation, and extend kindness to others instead. Thanks for all who offered helpful and sincerely kind suggestions! As stated, I will keep you posted. Best wishes and good luck to everyone!!!

None of us were being "Nay Sayer's". You created a topic on this forum and we gave you our opinions to the best of our knowledge. Please be mindful that the responses you have gotten come from people that have gone through this process before and want nothing more than to help educate you about this frustrating visa process with the Consulate in VN. That's how it works around here. I am glad to hear that the Consulate got your documents safely

Now you are going to have to wait for the Consulate to give you the results of their investigation. If they feel satisfied with the documents, a pink will most likely be issued right away. If they need more time, prepare yourselves for a potential long wait in AP. Please keep us updated on your progress. Best wishes,

Carrick

Edited August 27, 2011 by WeatherEmperor

[Jack_ 0]

None of us were being "Nay Sayer's". You created a topic on this forum and we gave you our opinions to the best of our knowledge. Please be mindful that the responses you have gotten come from people that have gone through this process before and want nothing more than to help educate you about this frustrating visa process with the Consulate in VN. That's how it works around here. I am glad to hear that the Consulate got your documents safely

Now you are going to have to wait for the Consulate to give you the results of their investigation. If they feel satisfied with the documents, a pink will most likely be issued right away. If they need more time, prepare yourselves for a potential long wait in AP. Please keep us updated on your progress. Best wishes,

Carrick

Here is an excerpt from your original post in reply to my original question on this thread, which I do not consider to be at all positive, and turned out to be entirely wrong: "Regular mail delivery in Vietnam is horrendous so I wouldn't keep my hopes up...."

This statement is very negative, and added no information other than an incorrect opinion. And, as I stated it turned out to be false, as my international letter got delivered, and the mail that I sent, AGAIN, was REGISTERED not Regular Mail. And, there is no need to comment about what others posted, as you are no more a mind reader than I. If you did not think they were at all negative I can clearly understand why. Suffice it to say some of the posts were not taken in a postive light, or I would have never commented as I did.

There is a big difference between being helpful and constructive and simply chiming in with your two cents that are negative and / or unhelpful. Let's leave it at this, and take whatever you can garner from my imploring those that respond here to be helpful and kind in their gestures, or likely it is best to not respond at all. Enuf said, OK - have a nice weekend too.

[WeatherEmperor 21]

Here is an excerpt from your original post in reply to my original question on this thread, which I do not consider to be at all positive, and turned out to be entirely wrong: "Regular mail delivery in Vietnam is horrendous so I wouldn't keep my hopes up...."

This statement is very negative, and added no information other than an incorrect opinion. And, as I stated it turned out to be false, as my international letter got delivered, and the mail that I sent, AGAIN, was REGISTERED not Regular Mail. And, there is no need to comment about what others posted, as you are no more a mind reader than I. If you did not think they were at all negative I can clearly understand why. Suffice it to say some of the posts were not taken in a postive light, or I would have never commented as I did.

There is a big difference between being helpful and constructive and simply chiming in with your two cents that are negative and / or unhelpful. Let's leave it at this, and take whatever you can garner from my imploring those that respond here to be helpful and kind in their gestures, or likely it is best to not respond at all. Enuf said, OK - have a nice weekend too.

.....Good luck on your case!

[ScottThuy 140]

Here is an excerpt from your original post in reply to my original question on this thread, which I do not consider to be at all positive, and turned out to be entirely wrong: "Regular mail delivery in Vietnam is horrendous so I wouldn't keep my hopes up...."

This statement is very negative, and added no information other than an incorrect opinion. And, as I stated it turned out to be false, as my international letter got delivered, and the mail that I sent, AGAIN, was REGISTERED not Regular Mail. And, there is no need to comment about what others posted, as you are no more a mind reader than I. If you did not think they were at all negative I can clearly understand why. Suffice it to say some of the posts were not taken in a postive light, or I would have never commented as I did.

There is a big difference between being helpful and constructive and simply chiming in with your two cents that are negative and / or unhelpful. Let's leave it at this, and take whatever you can garner from my imploring those that respond here to be helpful and kind in their gestures, or likely it is best to not respond at all. Enuf said, OK - have a nice weekend too.

Carrick was spot on. They lost so much of our mail (over 12 items total) using the postal service even registered that I quit using it all together and only use fed ex... if its important enough to get it there then its worth spending themoney to make sure it gets there.. the SO the consulate...

[Jack_ 0]

Carrick was spot on. They lost so much of our mail (over 12 items total) using the postal service even registered that I quit using it all together and only use fed ex... if its important enough to get it there then its worth spending themoney to make sure it gets there.. the SO the consulate...

In the two years I have known her my wife has gotten every piece of mail that I have sent her, and now, for the record, the HCM Consulate has gotten what I sent them as well.

Apparently everyone in VN has a very different experiences, so, as I stated, making negative or hopeless comments to someone new here, or making them feel stupid, is not at all beneficial, since

apparently everyone has such vastly different experiences. If there is a "next time" with the Consulate, I will send it by FedEx; I am praying and keeping my fingers crossed that they have what they

want now. It is hard to imagine that they would have doubt regarding the validity of our marriage, but given all the horror stories and mishaps I read about here I guess that any and everything is

possible. I only can hope that is not so in our case, and that our "good luck" streak will continue now that the Consulate has everything that they requested, and won't take too long. Best wishes!