What if we don't follow traditions?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Jim, I mostly agree with what you said. However, the scenario above is exactly what a friend of mine did (he asked for my help in putting together his K-1 petition since his English wasn't good enough, that's how I know). He went back to VN for a visit in 2011 and met a girl. They fall in love. He goes back to VN a second time about 5 months later; they have an informal dinner with the girl's family, probably 20 people max. He comes back to the US and files the petition.

As I helped him put the package together, I told myself it was a trainwreck waiting to happen: literally the only evidence he had was a few photos from his first trip (fewer than 10), his airline tickets for both trips, about 5 months' worth of phone bills, and about 50 photos of his second trip.

His girlfriend was interviewed not too long ago and passed on the first try. I am delighted for them.

I concluded that Lady Luck plays a significant part in this process.

We've seen cases like that here on VJ, as well. It happens. But we generally give advice based on the trends we've seen. We've seen many more of those cases end with that proverbial trainwreck interview.

Forewarned is fore armed, they say. If you know in advance that certain circumstances can stack the odds against you, and you have the opportunity to change those circumstances and improve your odds, it would be foolish not to try. That's not to say that if you do nothing you won't win, but if you do nothing and lose then you'd feel pretty foolish when you knew you had a chance to do something about it and you didn't.