CR1 Vietnam and Utah Online Marriage

[imjohn 2]

Anyone have any experience with CR1 interviews in Vietnam after a marrying online (Utah remote marriage). My fiance and I are planning to do online marriage and then I will visit her in Vietnam (consummate) and shortly after we will apply for CR1. But she is concerned that they will reject it during interviews as Vietnam is supposedly more strict than other countries. If anyone has been through this please share your experience. 

 

I guess the question is, will the method of marrying (Utah online marriage) be the hangup? We have plenty of other history to establish relationship so no worries there.

[Dashinka 24,488]

You may want to ask a moderator to move this question to the Vietnam specific regional forum by hitting the "Report" button, and requesting that.

 

Fundamentally, the Utah Online marriage certificate should be acceptable by the consulate in Vietnam.  I could not find anything that says otherwise, but I am not completely familiar with marriage culture in Vietnam.

 

Good Luck!

[imjohn 2]

Dashinka, thank you for that advice.

[TBoneTX 45,266]

Thread is moved to the Vietnam forum for country-specific advice.

And yes, Dashinka is a blessing to this site.   

[W199 333]

1 hour ago, imjohn said:

Anyone have any experience with CR1 interviews in Vietnam after a marrying online (Utah remote marriage). My fiance and I are planning to do online marriage and then I will visit her in Vietnam (consummate) and shortly after we will apply for CR1. But she is concerned that they will reject it during interviews as Vietnam is supposedly more strict than other countries. If anyone has been through this please share your experience. 

 

I guess the question is, will the method of marrying (Utah online marriage) be the hangup? We have plenty of other history to establish relationship so no worries there.

I would imagine it is just 1 piece of the puzzle.  What are all the other puzzle pieces that make the full picture? How did you meet? Have you met face to face yet, do you have any Vietnamese ancestry in you that could hint being a relative, how many times have you met, how many times do you plan to meet after getting married, why do you want to do a proxy wedding, why not just do the Utah wedding while in Vietnam together with her, assuming there is some issue with getting married in Vietnam, and why not just do a local wedding with her and her family? 

 

The embassy will look at the big picture and your unique circumstances  in light of the customs there ... Even if you get married there, all the above apply. 

[imjohn 2]

Thank you for your response,

 

What are all the other puzzle pieces that make the full picture? 

 

How did you meet? I was living in HCM 5 years ago, we met online, and began a relationship for several months before I went back to USA (right before COVID started)

Have you met face to face yet? Yep, most recently we took trips together in September 2023, and prior to that once in 2022.

Do you have any Vietnamese ancestry in you that could hint being a relative? None. I'm caucasian American.

How many times have you met? Only twice since I left VN, we took annual vacations together in 2022/2023. Covid years prevented trips before then.

How many times do you plan to meet after getting married? 2 times per year for my vacations from work.

Why do you want to do a proxy wedding, why not just do the Utah wedding while in Vietnam together? So my family/friends and her family/friends not currently in VN can join in (sadly, none would be willing to travel to VN), actually thinking will do it remotely while I am there, so it would be us there together with her family living there, officiant online in Utah, and family/friends outside of Vietnam dialing in at the time of online marriage ceremony.

Assuming there is some issue with getting married in Vietnam, and why not just do a local wedding with her and her family? Certainly having marriage in Vietnam is possible, though the Utah Online Marriage is a much easier process, able to include family/friends not available, less paperwork, etc.

 

I guess we are just concerned that, even in light of all other circumstances or evidence, the interviewer would deny her automatically because of the method (Utah Online Marriage). I think she saw on some VN forums people doubting the validity of Utah Online marriage as it passed through interviewers in HCM. Now we are both worried as, if our CR1 petition is denied, we will be apart for even longer

[Stein 276]

At least you have several meetings and five years of history.  I don't have any knowledge of anyone doing the Utah marriage in Vietnam that I could refer you to.  I assume your fiance is concerned as many Vietnamese are about the worst possible outcome on things (if something bad can happen, it will happen).  I can tell you that the paperwork side of marrying in Vietnam is a pain and there is virtually no chance of getting it done in a two week visit even if you do everything correctly on the US side first.  It probably took us closer to a month to get everything lined up but I was living there during this time and it didn't matter much as we had a date set a ways out.

[W199 333]

I’m not 100% sure, but technically if you do the Utah wedding while in Vietnam, it wouldn’t be considered a proxy marriage, plus you’d have more evidence her family was present for the marriage. Both would make a stronger case.

 

You don’t seem to have any obvious other red flags, unless your fiancee has some, so I don’t see an issue.  

 

USCiS accepts it as an legitimate marriage.

 

Check if Vietnam itself would accept your marriage certificate. There was a point in time when the Philippines government would not accept it but that went to court and now it’s settled and now Philippines accepts it.

 

Perhaps one way to check is to call the Vietnamese embassy and see what they say. If Vietnam accepts, and the USA accepts, then I can’t see why the embassy wouldn’t.

 

Or you can just file for K1 Visa today no need to wait to go there and consummate the marriage. All your local friends and family can attend a real live wedding.

 

 

 

 

[TexasRafael 134]

If you are going to Vietnam to meet, then why not just get married when you are there and not have the addes uncertainty about the Utah marriage.

[SalishSea 17,818]

I don’t think the Utah marriage should be an issue.   VN is a high fraud country when it comes to US immigration, and one of the ways to mitigate that is lots of time spent together in person, which you definitely seem to have.  

[imjohn 2]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond. Feeling a bit more reassurance.

 

A couple of responses

 

“…you can just file for K1 Visa today no need to wait to go there and consummate the marriage. All your local friends and family can attend a real live wedding.” - Considered this but then it’s the dilemma that very few of her family / friends in VN could obtain visas to US. Also we were advised that the process is taking a bit longer than CR1.

 

“If you are going to Vietnam to meet, then why not just get married when you are there and not have the addes uncertainty about the Utah marriage.” - Considered this but due to my work schedule, it wouldn’t be feasible to stay there for more than 10 days or perhaps 2 weeks at a time, and what we’ve been told is in line with another post in this thread “can tell you that the paperwork side of marrying in Vietnam is a pain and there is virtually no chance of getting it done in a two week visit even if you do everything correctly on the US side first.  It probably took us closer to a month to get everything lined up…”

 

This comment “I assume your fiance is concerned as many Vietnamese are about the worst possible outcome on things (if something bad can happen, it will happen).” Relatable haha

 

Thanks again everyone. If anyone has gone through with an online marriage to a Vietnamese, please add your thoughts.

 

[Liam2021 583]

On 11/14/2023 at 7:23 PM, imjohn said:

you can just file for K1 Visa today no need to wait to go there and consummate the marriage. All your local friends and family can attend a real live wedding.” - Considered this but then it’s the dilemma that very few of her family / friends in VN could obtain visas to US. Also we were advised that the process is taking a bit longer than CR1

In Vietnam culture, if you consummate the marriage(wedding, party) then you are marriage. K1 is fiancé visa.

[jace5869 9]

My wife and I married through Utah online, then flew to Thailand to meet, and filed our paperwork as soon as we got back to our home countries a month later. I was lucky enough to file locally at the consulate in Germany so things moved quick.

 

Anyways, there is no issues with marrying online with no prior meet ups. They don't even bat an eye at it. You WILL have to meet AFTER the marriage at least once before you can file.

[Nour Hassan 0]

May I ask you when did you get married? Because some people says it was easier during Corona 

[TD6886 37]

20 hours ago, jace5869 said:

My wife and I married through Utah online, then flew to Thailand to meet, and filed our paperwork as soon as we got back to our home countries a month later. I was lucky enough to file locally at the consulate in Germany so things moved quick.

 

Anyways, there is no issues with marrying online with no prior meet ups. They don't even bat an eye at it. You WILL have to meet AFTER the marriage at least once before you can file.

Do you have to register in vietnam after the Utah? since Vietnam does not legalize same sex married I was wonder if I can go this round if my K-1 is Denied. is anyone have any suggestion please advise if this possible.  Thanks