Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
Vietnam	Introduced by family	Hi, I'm in the process of petitioning a K1 VISA for my fiancee in VN. We were introduced by family members (her sister and my uncle). I read in the forum that this could be considered a red flag. I would think being introduced by people who know each other is much better than by total strangers. I guess that's just my own point of view. My question is, should I address this and if so, how? Thanks in advance for any advice. --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2010-08-11 05:21:00
Vietnam	Timeline format	In my personal opinion when you are writing this, do not focus on the length. Focus on the details that they are asking for and provide clear explanations for each. Also make sure to get the Time Line notarized. Good luck! Thanks for the suggestion. Does the notary public need to be authenticated? --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2010-08-31 22:35:00
Vietnam	Timeline format	Hi, I was advised to submit a timeline document along with the evidence of the relationship. I was wondering what kind of events are included in the timeline. I only visited my fiancee once. Thus, the timeline only consists of the following: date met fiancee date visited fiancee date of engagement party We basically just video chat the rest of the time. Do I include events that doesn't involve my fiancee? Thanks in advance for any pointers... --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2010-08-18 22:35:00
Vietnam	High School address unknown	It is in HCMC. But she forgot which area/district. I.e. she went to the area where she thought the school was. When she asked local residents if a school existed around there 20 years ago, they said no. All of the streets are different. She also tried looking online and calling nearby schools. We've exhausted all possible avenues of finding the address other than it was in HCMC. We've already tried to find it for three weeks. I think we've done more than enough to try to locate a school that existed 20 years ago. --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2010-09-01 17:19:00
Vietnam	High School address unknown	Hello, My fiancee doesn't remember her high school address, but does remember the name. She lost her high school diploma and has no other data from attending high school. When we fill out the DS-230, what should we do for the education institution question? Should we leave out the high school or enter it and leave the address blank? My fiancee is afraid the CO will ask questions, and she won't be able to produce any documentation that she went to high school. My fear is that if we leave out this information, and the CO discovers it somehow, then he will accuse us of lying on the form. Thanks in advance for any advice. --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2010-08-31 21:35:00
Vietnam	Using fiancee's address	Hi, I'm returning to Vietnam to attend the interview with my fiancee. I have a question about the address I provide when I enter Vietnam. Will there be any problems if I use my fiancee's home address? I'm afraid the consular will find out and won't like it. Anyone tried it before? --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2010-12-21 00:51:00
Vietnam	Contents of the blue slip	Be sure that everything on that list is thoroughly addressed when she takes those docs in.. Hello, I have some follow up questions. The 4th item requests a list of relatives in the US. My fiancee has a sister, her husband and son in the US. The blue slip says to include evidence of the residence in the US such as phone bill or driver's license. To be thorough, do I need to provide the driver's license for all of the sister's family members or just the sister's driver's license? And just for clarification, the blue slip asks for 4 items, but I can probably fit my residence and my fiancee's residence information on one sheet of paper instead of two. I should probably put them on separate papers instead, each sheet with one item of information asked? Anyone have examples of how I should format the information? Has anyone done this before and was told they wrote the documents incorrectly and had to redo it? Thanks in advance for any pointers. --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2011-01-23 23:21:00
Vietnam	Contents of the blue slip	Hello, My fiancee received a blue slip asking for sworn statements. 1. Timeline 2. Petitioner's name/dob/address(10 years)/phone 3. Beneficiary's name/dob/address(10 years)/phone 4. Beneficiary's relatives in the US (name/relationship/address + evidence) Note, there is a star next to #1 and #4, what's the significance of the star? #4 asks for relatives, the dictionary definition of relatives is anyone related by blood or marriage. My fiancee is still in contact with her sister in the US, but lost contact with her cousins in the US, what should she do about the cousins? Thanks in advance for anything pointers. --jc P.S. The details they are asking for seem to be very insignificant. Anyone know why they would want such information? I've read that in some cases, the CO will deny the visa as soon as these documents are submitted without even an interview, what are the odds of that happening?	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2011-01-18 23:44:00
Vietnam	Extend visa to stay in Vietnam	Hi all, Does the US consulate in HCM extend visa to stay in Vietnam? Or is that done in a Vietnamese department? Anyone done this before? How much does it cost and do I have to leave my original passport with the department? Thanks in advance for any insights. --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2011-03-14 22:55:00
Vietnam	Pink Too	Hello. What the other person said in another thread is certainly true. They allow the fiance' into the room, as I easily went in. In fact, the guards indicated to me that I could cut in line to go to the front (I politely demured). Before my fiance's interview I walked up and down the rows watching people being interviewed. I saw far more pinks than blues. My fiance's interview lasted about 20 minutes. They ONLY looked at photos. Questions that I can remember were as follows: Overall, the experience was pleasant, efficient, and generally fair. The American CO was very polite, but her translator was a battle-axe. My advice is to get there early, as it interviews were done on a first-come, first-serve basis, as I paid close attention to order in which people first submitted their initial evidence, and then finally the order in which they were interviewed. The really great thing is that you can walk up and down watching (slyly) people being interviewed. In nearly every case I say there was a pink sheet on the table. Re: fiances in the waiting area; yes, but not only. On my fiancee's interview date, I saw entire families accompany the interviewee to the interview. Like you, only the interviewee is allowed at the window. I did see one case where an elderly women, in her 70's to 80's accompanied by, I assume, her son. He was allowed to accompany the interviewee to the window because she couldn't hear or understand or something, because he basically repeated everything to the old woman. As for cutting in line. If your interview was at 9:30, then anyone with a US passport can also enter the consulate. If you were there for a notary, then you don't need to stand in line. The line is only for interviews. Perhaps the guard thought you were there for something else. Re: the number of pinks on the table; I should note that the people there for interviews are not all K1 or CR1 visas. Many are family petition immigration. They also have interviews in that area. I know, because on my fiancee's interview date, we saw a female monk also there for an interview. I'm pretty sure she wasn't there for a K1 visa. ;-) Also, when we went back to submit documents for the blue slip, my fiancee spoke with a woman who is there to submit an update to her health exam. It seems at the her interview, her husband and child got pink, but she got blue. Her husband left for the US, while she waited until then to submit her new exam documents. She got pink. As for getting blue slips, I saw people getting blue slips multiple times. My fiancee got blue twice (actually, the second time was white). We submitted the requested docs and got pink. Re: photos; I agree. During the interview, the CO went through our photos one by one. We had at least 200 photos submitted. The CO went through the photos pretty quick though. So I don't know what she was looking for. After looking through the photos, the CO mainly looked at the computer screen during the interview process. Even though the CO did not look through the mail, cards, and phone logs, they did take them. But only the Vietnam side. I.e. the mail, cards and phone logs at my end were returned during the intake session. They took my fiancee's phone logs and the mail and cards that I sent her. Re: the CO; I think you had the same CO I did. My fiancee's interpreter was also a battle axe. We sat outside this CO's window and watched many interviews taking place. The interpreter was rude to many of the interviewees. My fiancee prayed she wouldn't get this CO, but she did. Was your CO's initials DS? We got blue twice, so she signed the blue slip DS. This CO was very nice though. After the interview, my fiancee got blue, so she wanted to ask some questions. The interpreter snapped and said she was off duty and ran away (my fiancee was one of the last to be interviewed). The CO was still there, so I was able to ask a few questions. She was nice enough to answer all my questions and gave me directions on how to submit the requested documents. Re: order of interview; the first-come, first-serve order is only true on a per CO basis. In other words, each CO will process the petition in the order that he/she receives them. But different CO's can process their own petitions on their own timeline. So if you were number 5066, then 5067 could be interviewed before you because he/she had a different CO and that CO processed petitions faster than your CO. We saw this situation many times on our interview date. Re: walking around; yes, people are allowed to walk around the waiting area. During my fiancee's interview, there was this teenager who accompanied her sister to the interview (most likely a family petition). This teenager would walk around and then stand right next to the interview window. The windows are slightly slanted (facing at an angle). Thus, you can stand behind a wall and the interviewer would not see you. This teenager, on multiple occasions, would stand behind this wall and listened in on the interview of other people. Of course, this wasn't really necessary. The waiting area is about 1.5 meters from the windows. Thus, if you had a good ear, you can hear everything. Assuming you understood Vietnamese, as all of the interviews we heard were done in Vietnamese. One last observation; I should mention that you might not receive your results on the date of your interview or submission of documents. Personal experience, when we submitted documents requested by the blue slip, the CO had too many petitions to review and was not able to open our file. Thus, we were asked to go home and wait for a letter. Luckily, our CO was walking by and I spoke with her. She promised to review our file within the week. We received a letter (a white slip) two weeks later. --jc P.S. there are no clocks in the waiting area. So wear a watch or walk to window 11 or 12 to look at the clock inside the consulate offices. Note; when we were there to pickup the visas, all of the windows had their shades down so you couldn't see the offices. Thus, wear a watch if you really want to know the time.	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2011-03-24 00:39:00
Vietnam	cheap notary service	Justice Department ( So Tu Phap) in HCM will do it for around 200 nga`n (10 bucks) . Here is the address 141-143 Pasteur, ph??ng 6, qu?n 3, Thành ph? H? Chí Minh S? ?i?n tho?i: 08.8290230 Thank you for the response. I went to the Justice Department at this location and asked an office on the side. The person in there said the Justice Department doesn't do notaries (cong chung). I don't know if this person understand the difference between US notaries and Vietnamese cong chung. The way my fiancee describes it, a Vietnamese government cong chung a document by verifying the data in the document. But that is not what a US notary does. The US notary stamps the document indicating you signed and sworn the data in the document is true, no verification is done. Does the Justice Department do Vietnamese cong chung or US notaries? If they do US notaries, can you tell me exactly which window in the Justice Department performs this service? There are different windows doing different services. The notary is for the documents requested by the US consulate in a blue slip that my fiancee received after the K1 visa interview. The blue slip requests timeline, my address, her address, and her US relatiives' data. Thanks in advance for any information. --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2011-02-18 10:43:00
Vietnam	cheap notary service	Hi, Does anyone know of a cheap place to get documents notarized in HCMC? I heard the US consulate in HCMC will notarize for $50. A bank in the US does it for $5-$10. Will US banks in HCMC notarize documents? --jc	Jimen & Kenly	Male	Vietnam	2011-01-23 22:49:00
Australia and New Zealand	Going too Quick	I have another questions about all this. Well the petition made it to Sydney and I found out there is a four month validity on it. No problem, I hear consulates renew them pretty easily. My question is, should we wait to send the packet to Sydney, then ask for a renewal for the interview, or send the packet in soon, and ask for an interview date outside of the validity time?	Thomas J	Male	Australia	2011-08-02 00:25:00
Australia and New Zealand	Going too Quick	Since you are not having your religious wedding in the united states, could you not just have your fiance come here get married with the now approved k-1 visa do the legal marriage and then go back to Australia for the religous ceremony? (according to your time line your just got your noa1 just in april have you already received your noa2 and had your interview at the embassy just curious?) Also note that even if you do decide to cancel this K-1 visa and then reapply latter. There is no guarantee you'll get approved in a timely manner for you wedding next year. They often tell you not to make arrangement until you have visa in hand. I haven't received my NOA-2 officially yet but got the emails and texts stating that it was approved. I'll update that once I get the NOA-2 in the mail. I've thought about maybe having her come here first but because of personal reasons I'm not sure if it would work. Don't think cancelling it would be a good idea. Hopefully we can ask for a delay in all.	Thomas J	Male	Australia	2011-06-23 21:51:00
Australia and New Zealand	Going too Quick	Hello, I just got word that our K-1 Visa got approved. Its great news but it will be sent to Sydney and our wedding isnt until March of next year (a religious one in Australia then a legal one in the states soon after). I filed in April of this year and saw from the info that it should take longer then it did. Once approved the K-1 Visa is only good for 6 months. So can we stall the embassy by not sending that first letter back, or is there a way to have the push the interview date back a few months? Thanks everyone.	Thomas J	Male	Australia	2011-06-23 20:09:00
Australia and New Zealand	Interview Fee	Hello, my fiancée got an interview date for a K-1. The instructions for the fee payment are a bit odd. Does she just go up to the post office and tell them to do a K visa application fee in the amount of 350$ and then take that receipt to the post office? Or is there a form to have done. The instructions are a bit hard to understand. Thank you.	Thomas J	Male	Australia	2011-11-18 03:28:00
Australia and New Zealand	VIC Police Check	Hello, I'm starting to look into police checks in VIC for my fiancee. They only have one form but it has two selections. One is a "National Name Check" which is $32.50 and the other is the "National Name Check and Fingerprint Records Search" and is $134. I'm having trouble seeing where it says what kind of police check she will need for the interview. Help would be great. Thank you.	Thomas J	Male	Australia	2011-04-13 23:32:00
Asia: East and Pacific	translatings Indonesian documents	Hello, Though it could be useful. I asked this question to Jakarta Embassy ,not that long time ago. Mr. Ongko, Unfortunately all panel physicians are located in Jakarta. Applicant must have the medical examination done by the appointed panel physician. We won’t require sworn translations. Any accurate translation by a person competent in both languages is sufficient. If someone’s personal translation is not good enough, we’ll require another one. Regards, Immigrant Visa Unit Embassy of the United States of America | Medan Merdeka Selatan 5 | Jakarta 10110 | Indonesia Email: JakIV@state.gov | Fax +62 (21) 385-7189 | internet: <a href="http://jakarta.usembassy.gov" target="_blank">http://jakarta.usembassy.gov</a> From: Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:32 AM To: Jakarta, Consul Subject: Question Hello, I have some questions regarding K1 requirements 1. Do you have a list of approved doctors for K1 medical exam in city of Surabaya? Or this can only be done in Jakarta? 2. Also , if documents that need to be translated to English, can we go to any Translator to get it translated? Or it has to be from a certified place? If i may also have a list of these translators for city of Surabaya (if possible) & Jakarta. Thank You, My fiance just received his K-1 yesterday from the Jakarta embassy . He had his documents officially translated by someone who was able to give the translation a materi (special stamp) and signature proving it was authentic. There is actually a list of translators provided by the US embassy Jak website, some who are located outside Jakarta. My fiance's medical interview was scheduled on April 14, and he had all the neccesary documents for the interview about 4 days later. His interview was on April 20. Be sure to call the doctor's office and make an appoitnment ahead of time - there are only three embassy approved doctors in Jakarta and they are all quite busy. Also, just FYI - HIV tests are no longer required by the embassy, and neither is the police letter from your local office or from POLRI. I have this in writing, and would suggest you email them and get in writing the same information (which you can print out and can be carried to the interview). Hope this helps! Salam K	manguniputih	Female	Indonesia	2010-04-20 12:55:00