imjohn

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.

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

Dashinka, thank you for that advice.

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.