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| Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |  Review on July 29, 2008: |
duyen&sean
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
In my opinion, this is the bad side. (Four stars, so it's not too bad.) Vietnamese staff are rude to US Citizen petitioners who have to wait as their fiancees do all interviewing/preparation work. We had to go a total of five times on three different days, and every time I was made to wait outside on the opposite sidewalk. (No biggie, but it was frustrating.) There is no place to wait inside the Embassy and they won't let you in if you mention you're hoping to wait with your fiancee. The people at the door are totally uncoordial, but I think this is part of the image the US is hoping to generate globally--indiscriminant, belligerent ungratefulness. (What luck!)
To our complete surprise, our interview was a quick success (after hours of waiting--she got in line at 7:30 and was out by 11:30), with a pink slip on the first try. I was worried sick (literally) because I'm a grad student with $7,800 in income for 2007 and no significant work history, and people said that financial issues were paramount in HCMC--alllegedly they do not accept "cosponsors" (or other people filing the I-134 in place of the sponsor, such as the petitioner's parents, etc. The Vietnamese minions at the Consulate even said that we had a slim-to-none chance of getting the visa because of my low income (even with parents as "cosponsors"). On her appointment date, as she gave her documents to the Vietnamese lady at one of the windows, she wrote "public charge???" on the paper that was later given to the consular officer.
As our case turned out, not one question was asked about finances. The extent of the interview was this, with Duyen's answers being very short. Her English is near-native with an American accent, as she works as an English-Vietnamese-English conference interpreter.
"Have you ever been to the US?" No, never.
"Have you ever been out of Vietnam?" No, never.
"How did you meet?" We met in the French library in Hanoi during the summer of 2005.
"What did he do here in Vietnam in 2005?" At that time he was dating another Vietnamese girl and he came here to visit her family.
"Do you know his ex-girlfriend?" Yes I do. I met her once, but I didn't talk to her.
"How did they meet?" I don't remember very well.
"You didn't ask him about that?" Yes I did--she went there to study in America and they studied in the same school, and he met her and they dated.
"What does he do now?" He's doing his master's degree at USC in California.
"What major does he study?" Economics
"When will he graduate?" May 2009.
"He's living in Vietnam now, right?" Yes, he is living in Hanoi.
"In 2007, you said your relationship was not romantic." (She didn't hear.) What did you say?
"In 2007, you applied for a tourist visa to go to the US and said in your visa interview in Hanoi that your relationship with this man was not romantic." (In fact, this was a trick question.) No, I *did* say that our relationship *was* romantic. (He had "white-lied," in fact, to try and catch her.)
Can I see the evidence? Yes. (He didn't really look.)
Can I see the photos? Yes. (He also didn't really look.)
He had already been writing on the pink slip.
He then gave back the petition with the documents along with her approval notice, in under five minutes.
It seems he nearly asked more questions about my ex-girlfriend than about my fiancee and me together. I'm certain that to every question they asked, they knew the answers. I'm betting that they had extensive income on my relationship with my ex-girlfriend--I can't imagine how, but why else would they ask questions whose answers they don't know? Other than that, details are details. He hardly looked at her. He was Asian with some sort of accent, according to her. There was a translator present, but they didn't talk. She said the consular officer was mechanical during the interview, but afterwards he seemed very nice--just a "normal" guy. She left under the impression that there was a big disconnect between the kind attitudes of the officers and the snooty Vietnamese nationals running the place.
Background: I am 23 years old, caucasian, never married, a current master's student in economics, relatively proficient in Vietnamese. I met my fiancee in the French library in Hanoi in 2005 (I was 20) on a trip to meet my ex-girlfriend's family (she was also vietnamese, and we broke up that summer). Upon filing the petition, I had over 6 months in Vietnam in two trips, one during the summer of 2005, the other during the summer of 2006. I studied at Hanoi University of Education during my 2006 trip and included documentation in my petition. My fiancee and I met on a daily basis while I was in Vietnam, exclusively at her house in Hanoi. We had pictures from that summer, extensive DVD records including a 10-day "offroad" dirtbike trip together through the NW jungles. In addition to hard evidence, we also had the usual email printouts, phone message records, but no chat transcripts, etc. By the time of her interview on July 28th, 2008, we had celebrated a not-so-traditional "betrothal party" in January of 2008 with over 700 people attending, and my mom had come from the US to spend time with Duyen during that time, even after I'd gone back to school. We had letters between her and my mom, three letters that my grandmother had written to her, and cut-outs of magazines showing wedding gifts my grandmother had selected for her when she comes to the US.
Financially: in school, with no financial aid or and W-2s reporting $7,800 of income and no real assets. My parents (mom & dad both) filed separate I-134s and included notarized letters detailing the reasons for their support of Duyen. Their I-134s listed a total family income of $75,000 with $100,000 in assets in the form of equity in a family home. For my parents, all relevant financial documents were included (letter from mortgage company, deed holder, appraisal company, bank, employer, notarized tax returns for 2007, W-2s, 6 recent pay stubs, stamped tax transcripts from the IRS for 2007). I had included proof of studednt status (enrollment verification letter from my school showing records of past enrollment and expected date of graduation). I had no letter from my employer (I had none). I had a bank letter saying I had $2,400 in savings and total deposits of $4,000 over 2007. The point here is to say that SHE GOT THE VISA DESPITE ALL THIS.
I had gone to the Department of Homeland Security office in Diamond Plaza in HCMC to talk to the people there, to get their advice. They claimed that financial information wasn't too important so long as I focused on the relationship validity. They said that if I could prove that we had a really, really legitimate relationship, then they won't care about financial sponsorship even in the worst of cases. I don't know how true this is, but it sure made me feel good. Marc Ellis told me there was a very slim chance of my getting the visa owing to our financial shortcomings.
NOTE. On the pink slip she got, they did NOT list a cosponsor in their decision, and I was listed as the only source of financial support--with no letter from an employer and proof of having no assets, and only a meagre income of 7 grand. They did, however, keep the affidavits and financial docs from both me and my parents. I don't really know what made the difference in the end. But at least we can put a rest to the idea that having a deficient monetary income means that you cannot bring your fiancee to the US under any circumstances. It may be the "student" thing--having a record of unemployment or current unemployment could put doubts surrounding "public charge" into a more significant light. MY OPINION: It seems the main concern is to address the "public charge" question directly, using a variety of sources. In my case, one year left of graduate school in economics may remove any notion that she'll be applying for welfare in the future. However, if they have doubt the legitimacy of our relationship, then it doesn't matter how good my income is. If they believe that our relationship may not make it beyond a year's time, then--even though our relationship is not "fradulent" and we may have ample income (imagine I had a good job)--it could be considered likely that she will become a public charge if I do not voluntarily support her after our split. (After all, I don't really have to with the non-binding I-134.) I've heard of this kind of thing happening, but I don't know. Just a guess.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3172