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| Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |  Review on August 23, 2008: |
Melrose Plant
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I would really like to be able to blast the system and give the HCMC consulate a bad rating, but from personal experience, I really can't do that. I do believe that the system is really flawed, but that is mainly because of understaffing and lack of time to give sufficient personal attention to each case.
Here is our experience: We arrived in Saigon on May 5th to prepare for a May 9th interview. We met with Marc Ellis to finish the preparation of our case. Twice. I hate Saigon. What a shithole. If I never return to Saigon, it will be too soon.
On the morning of our interview, we were running late. We were staying out in Sector 2 (as I like to refer to them). For some reason, Sector 2 is very far away from Sector 1 where the consulate is. Some idiot numbered these things evidently. Anyway, I had allowed about an hour of slop in our schedule, and despite the taxi driver's unwillingness to take the ferry (the shortest way), we arrived in plenty of time, which is to say that about 3/4 of the people were there before us. Which is ironic, since to any other function, Vietnamese are always an hour late.
I am writing this more than 3 months after the fact, so my memory is not 100% correct about everything, but this is my best present recollection: This was an extremely stressful time for both Mai and me, and I really wanted to pace up and down the entire time I was waiting. Even that plan was foiled by the security guard, who in a most friendly manner (really, I am not joking) suggested that I join the other people waiting across the street from the consulate. I found 3 white guys and figured one of them must be my VJ buddy Dave from Minnesota (he was). The other 2 guys were not on VJ. One of them was military, and the other was a jackass. Actually both of them were jackasses. The military jackass announced that we better have given our passports to our fiancees. The other 3 of us panicked, begged the security guard to let us in the cattle gate (which is really what it reminds me of), so we could give our fiancees our passports. We all breathed a sigh of relief and set in for the wait.
I am really glad I had Dave to wait with, because it was a long wait. Had it just been the two jackasses, I think I would have about gone crazy. The non-military jackass was the worst. He claimed he had hired an attorney who was good friends with the "Chief," and was therefore guaranteed a pink. Of the 4 of us, he was the only blue. As you can imagine, I didn't hear exactly what happened, I could just see from what was going on that he wasn't happy. The military jackass actually got called in by the CO to answer a few questions (I never heard of such a thing before), but in the end his fiancee got the pink.
So that left Dave and I waiting there. Across the street. The very busy street. I hate Saigon. Dave and I talked. And we were silent. And we talked a little bit more. And we were silent. We watched as others came out and were obviously very happy or very unhappy. Then at about 10:15, Mai came out and within seconds, I could see that she had gotten the pink. I ran across the street (at my peril) to meet her. She was so happy, she had forgotten her common sense and gave so much money to the girls selling books. They practically cried on our shoulders with us.
But poor Dave was still waiting. He had been through this before and had been rejected. Mai had made friends with em Thao inside the consulate because of the passport thing. It identified em Thao, and Mai and em Thao talked about Visa Journey, and their experiences while they were waiting. After Mai got her pink, she really comforted Dave, and all of us waited to see what would happen. It was a very long time. Noon got closer and closer. Dave became quite nervous. Hoestly, I hoped I would be strong enough to be there if em Thao got blue. What would I say? Fianlly, about 11:30, em Thao came out of the building, and after about 5 seconds, I could see she got pink. Dave collapsed on the sidewalk. I rushed across the street and took em Thao's arm and escorted her across the street. That was one of the most powerful moments of my life. The couple that had waited more than 2 years for this moment was finally going to be together forever.
In the end, I would say we got lucky. The CO only asked Mai 4 questions, and he spoke Vietnamese. We had to stay in that shithole called Saigon for another week to wait for the visa, but overall, I think our experience was easy. It could have been much worse. Why do we have to have family and friends in Saigon?
A post-script: Mai was treated very poorly by the Vietnamese staff before her actual interview. We were encouraged to file a complaint, but by the time we entered the U.S., the sting was gone, and we never did file a complaint. I suppose we are part of the problem then, by not saying anything.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #3266