Consulate Review: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
July 24, 2012 |
| Embassy Review : |
I've read several reviews here and overall the experiences were at least tolerable, but mine certainly wasn't. PLEASE NOTE MY EXPERIENCE WAS IN 2004-5, so things have obviously gotten much better, but what happened to me might help someone.
The K-1 progressed normally to the point of me going to Saigon to be with my fiancee for the interview and to bring her home to the US. Then it went VERY bad very quickly because of corruption.
The day of the interview we had ALL required documents, but the Embassy would NOT allow me in the building. The Embassy property is owned by the US yet they wouldn't allow a US citizen to enter it! I had to wait at a small cafe nearby while my fiancee went inside. She came out after about 3 hours and said they wanted more proof of how long we had known each other, so we rushed to an internet cafe to print off MY side of the chats with her.........we had supplied HER yahoo chats with me, but they wanted mine, which were identical to hers. She went to give the chats as requested and they were accepted as proof. Go figure. About an hour later she came back outside saying they wanted more financial records from my co-sponsor! We had added my mother as a co-sponsor even though I more than qualified on the financial requirements. We did it to make SURE there wouldn't be a problem, but there was. We rushed back to the hotel, made a call back to the states to wake up my mother and she quickly fax'ed the requested documents to our hotel office. We returned to the Embassy and she went inside to give them the requested documents but they said they didn't need them anymore. They then told her leave since the office was about to close and to call the Embassy back after 10am to check the status of continuing her interview. We went back to the hotel in total frustration and later that evening two men came to my hotel and the front desk sent them to where I was. They politely introduced themselves with huge smiles and fairly good english.........then proceeded to try and blackmail me for $1500usd. They said I had very serious problems with the K-1 and they would make it go away for $1500usd. I declined, not so politely, but declined none the less. They left.
She called the Embassy at 10am to find out when her interview would resume and was told it would be several days but not sure when. My visitors visa was about to expire and by now I'd decided I wasn't leaving until her visa was approved or denied.....simple as that. I'd stay until the sun exploded if I had to, so I cancelled our flights and extended my visa which was quickly approved. After my visa was approved a courier arrived at the hotel unannounced with the approved K-1. We booked new flights and came to the US.....but they didn't get an extra cent out of me.
When I returned I spoke with a local congressman detailing my story. He happened to be on some committee over the DOS affairs. He said he would look into it.....since the stories now seem to be mostly positive, I assume he did. I hope no one has to go through what we did with the corrupt Consulate and attempted blackmail. |
| Rating : |
Not Rated |
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