Integrity Legal

The following is a transcript of the video which can be found here: K-1 Visas from Vietnam

In this video we are going to be discussing K-1 Visas specifically in the context of cases that will be processed presumably through the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City primarily.

As can be heard from the preamble to this video, I’m an American attorney but we’re located here in Bangkok. Primarily we do the vast majority of our cases do involve Thai nationals though we do deal with cases regionally and I sort of thought about it the other day and I said that you know, I really don’t do enough videos talking about some of the other posts and other nationalities we deal with in the immigration context within the immigration practice here. So I went ahead and decided to do this video.

The way to look at the K-1 process specifically and the K-1 fiancée process is slightly different than dealing with other family based petitions. First of all, you have to be intending to marry an American citizen unlike marriage visas where you can be married to a lawful permanent resident and process a case that way for one of the preference categories. K-1 Visas are only between a foreign national and an American citizen. Both parties have to be legally free to marry, that’s rather important. This can come up and cause some confusion, and cause some problems in a lot cases because folks think “oh, we filed and now we can marry”. “No, you have to remain fiancées throughout the whole process!”  You have to be legally free to marry up until the fiancée, the Vietnamese fiancée comes to the United States at which point it is then possible to go ahead and get married in the United States and file for adjustment of status to lawful permanent residence. In another video on this channel I discuss specifically adjustment of status. Adjustment of status is the process by which an individual comes to the United States, in this case in K-1 status, gets married and goes ahead and  lawful permanent residence attached,  aka Green Card Status. Another thing to keep in mind with respect to the K-1 specifically, the couple in question needs to have met physically in person within 2 years of the filing of the petition for the visa benefits.  There are exceptions to this rule but they are very, very narrow in scope and for that reason it’s best to effectively just go ahead and say “look, I have to meet in person. That usually means they are going to have to travel at least once to, in the case of a Vietnamese fiancée, presumably Vietnam and meet physically in person, the Vietnamese fiancée before filing can be perfected or at least before an acceptable filing can be perfected.

Some things to think about as far as how it works.  Well the case starts off over at the Department of Homeland Security, specifically USCIS, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. They go ahead and process the petition. If the petition is approved, the case moves to the National Visa Center which is under the auspices of the Department of State. The National Visa Center, they act as a sort of clearing house or sort of administrative hub for sending these cases out, making sure it gets from the approval at DHS and gets to the appropriate embassy or consulate. In the vast majority of cases involving Vietnam you’re  not going to be dealing with the post in Hanoi, in the vast majority of cases at least that we deal with, you’re dealing with the consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. It is a higher volume post, so processing can take a little bit longer. In Vietnam, as far as Consular processing goes, it can take a little bit longer when compared to other posts in the region, Bangkok included, but Bangkok is a pretty high volume post as well. Some of the other smaller posts, Cambodia, Laos definitely, even Yangon, don’t quite have the volume so things may move a little bit more quickly.  But that being said, it’s just the process you have to deal with and every case is sort of being unique and you have to deal with the circumstances as you take them.  So that being said, it will go to the Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and at that point the case, the Vietnamese fiancée will be informed of the protocols that he or she needs to undertake to go ahead and complete the consular processing portion. In the cases where we have been retained to assist in these matters, we often assist with translations, compilation of documentation, filling out of various forms, both online and physical forms cases and in a lot of cases going ahead and submitting the request for the actual visa application interview.  And then on top of that we go ahead and assist in preparing certain questions or I really hate to say we provide the questions that they are going to ask, we don’t; we provide an overview with respect to how, what is the process looking for? What kind of due diligence is the Consular Officer likely to be interested in conducting? In most cases it’s ascertaining that the couple is a genuine couple, they are legally free to marry, they’ve remained legally free to marry, they adhere to the law, they adhere to the Immigration policy, they don’t have any legal grounds of inadmissibility and all the documentation relevant to the case that that officer feels is pertinent is present and accounted for with respect to the underlying application. That’s basically what they’re looking to do. It’s not an exercise in “stump the applicant”, it’s an exercise in due diligence. They want to make certain that the couple is bona fide.  So for that reason, that is sort of a general overview of what the interview process is like. If the officer requests further documentation, they can issue what is called a 221-G request for further documentation.

In some cases they may feel that the case is denied for various reasons. They have to give a legal reason why they are denying the case. In most cases that I have dealt when you get a denial, you are looking at a legal ground of inadmissibility, and a legal ground of inadmissibility is defined in the Immigration Nationality Act and in some cases it’s often possible to overcome that legal ground of inadmissibility through use of an I-601 waiver. There are various videos on this channel with respect to the I-601 specifically but to sort of just sum up K-1 visa processing through Vietnam, you’re looking at a matter of months; I think you are looking at probably 8 or 9 months with respect to the overall “door to door” process with respect to processing a successful K-1 visa, on average.  There are outliers on both sides. Every case is unique; it’s like a snow flake. But that being said, that’s kind of a general overview with respect to timeline, the thing to keep in mind, just sort of in sum. It’s a 3 part process. It effectively begins in the US, goes through various offices in the US, finally to wind up, generally speaking, at the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City where the matter will be adjudicated by the Consular Officer at the Immigrant Visa Unit. Again, K-1s are interesting because they’re a non-immigrant visa that has dual intent. You are actually a non-immigrant visa but to all intents and purposes, the consular section treats it as if it were an immigrant visa and you go ahead and undertake the interview and hopefully, presuming a successful interview, a visa will be issued shortly after the interview date.

Tags: 90 Day Fiance, American Visa Vietnam, Fiance Visa, Fiancee Visa, K-1 Visa, K1 Fiance Visa, K1 visa application, k1 visa interview, K1 Visa Vietnam, US Consulate Ho Chi Minh City, US Embassy Vietnam, US Fiance Visa, US Visa Vietnam, USA Visa Vietnam
Posted in US Consulate HCMC | No Comments »

The administration of this blog routinely posts the holiday closing schedules of various United States Missions in Asia in an effort to share this information with those Americans or foreign nationals traveling outside of the United States who need to obtain services which can only be provided by an American Post abroad. The following is the holiday closing schedule of the US Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam as quoted from the US Embassy’s official website:

The following list of official holidays for 2011 has been approved consistent with the provisions of 3 FAM 2336 (American holidays) and the revised Article 73 of the Vietnamese Labor Code. The U.S. Embassy will be closed on these days.

V = Vietnamese Holidays
A – American Holidays

Those seeking services such as issuance of a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, US Passport, or addition of visa pages to an already issued US Passport are well advised to contact the American Citizen Services Section of the nearest US Embassy, US Consulate, American Institute, or US Mission with appropriate Consular jurisdiction.

Those seeking the homepage of the official website of the US Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam should click HERE.

Those seeking information regarding matters pertaining to United States Immigration are well-advised to contact a licensed American lawyer in order to receive advice and counsel regarding the practical implications of the application of relevant American Immigration law.

Those seeking Non-immigrant visas such as the B-2 visa for tourists, the B-1 visa for business travelers, the J-1 visa for cultural exchange visitors, or the F-1 visa for students are likely to have their visa application processed through the Non-immigrant Visa Unit of the nearest American Mission.

Generally, those seeking US family based visas are required to process their application through an Immigrant Visa Unit of a US Mission abroad. For purposes of visa application processing the non-immigrant US fiance visa (the K-1 visa category) is treated in essentially the same manner as the Immigrant spouse visas such as the CR1 Visa or the IR1 Visa.

Those seeking business and/or investment based visas such as the EB-5 visa or the L-1 visa are generally required to process an Immigration petition at the Department of Homeland Security‘s United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) prior to Consular Processing of the visa application.

For related information please see: US Visa Vietnam or K-1 Visa Vietnam.

Tags: American Citizen Services Vietnam, American Embassy Hanoi, American Embassy Vietnam, American Visa Vietnam, B-2 Visa Vietnam, Consular Report of Birth Abroad Vietnam, CR-1 Visa Vietnam, EB-5 Visa Vietnam, F-1 Visa Vietnam, IR-1 Visa Vietnam, K-1 Visa Vietnam, K1 Visa Vietnam, L-1 Visa Vietnam, US Embassy Hanoi, US Embassy Vietnam, US fiance visa Vietnam, US Passport Vietnam, US Student Visa Vietnam, US Tourist Visa Vietnam, US Visa Vietnam, USA Visa Vietnam
Posted in CR1 Visa, EB5 Visa, IR1 Visa, J1 visa, K1 Visa, K2 Visa, K3 Visa, L1 Visa, US Consulate HCMC, US Embassy Hanoi, US Embassy Vietnam, US State Department, US Tourist Visa, US Visa, US Visa and Immigration, USCIS | No Comments »

Those familiar with this blog may have noticed that administrative closure of K3 visa applications has been a topic of discussion since the Department of State’s National Visa Center (NVC) announced that K3 visa applications would be administratively closed if the underlying I-130 petition arrives at NVC prior to, or at the same as, the supplemental I-129f petition. Those who conduct research about the US visa process over the internet may have noticed that the buzzword used to describe a US Marriage Visa is: K3 visa. However, the K3 Visa is not the classic travel document used to bring a Vietnamese spouse to the United States of America. This is due to the fact that in the relatively recent past the only travel document available to the foreign spouse of a US Citizen, based upon the marriage alone, was either an IR-1 visa or a CR1 Visa both of which are only available to those filing an Immigrant visa petition.

The K-3 visa category’s creation was the result of a piece of legislation commonly referred to as the “Life Act”. This bill was promulgated by the United States Congress and signed into law by President William Jefferson Clinton. At that time, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) was processing Immigrant spouse visa petitions quite slowly due to a rather significant backlog of such petitions. The K-3 was designed to alleviate some of this backlog as well as reunite bi-national married couples as quickly as possible in the USA.

Recently, the USCIS has been processing Immigrant spouse petitions in a much more efficient manner. This has lead to many approved Immigrant petitions reaching the National Visa Center (NVC) at the same time or before the supplemental petition used to seek K3 visa benefits. As a result, the NVC made the policy that K3 visa applications would be “administratively closed” if the CR1 or IR1 visa petition arrived at NVC prior to or at the same time as the K3 petition. This has effectively compelled bi-national Vietnamese-American couples to seek Immigrant visa benefits rather than non-immigrant K3 visa benefits. That said, the Immigrant visa really is a preferable visa category to the K-3 as those Vietnamese spouses of American Citizens entering the USA on an Immigrant visa are granted Lawful Permanent Residence (either CR-1 or IR-1 status depending upon the couple’s circumstances) upon admission to the United States at a Port of Entry. Those entering the USA on a K3 visa are not granted lawful permanent residence upon admission, but instead must file for adjustment of status in the USA which can be costly and rather time consuming. Therefore, some have argued that NVC’s administrative closure policy has actually lead to an overall streamlining of the US Marriage Visa process.

For related information please see: K3 Visa Vietnam or K1 Visa Vietnam.

Tags: administrative closing, Administrative Closure, American State Department, American Visa Vietnam, CR-1 Visa Vietnam, CR1 Visa Vietnam, Department of State, IR-1 Visa Vietnam, IR1 Visa Vietnam, K-1 Visa Vietnam, K-3 Visa Vietnam, K-4 Visa Vietnam, K1 Visa Vietnam, K3 Visa Application, K3 Visa Process, K3 Visa Vietnam, K4 Visa Vietnam, National Visa Center, US State Department, US Visa Vietnam, USA Visa Vietnam
Posted in CR1 Visa, IR1 Visa, K1 Visa, K2 Visa, K3 Visa, National Visa Center, US Embassy Hanoi, US Embassy Vietnam, US State Department, US Visa, US Visa and Immigration | No Comments »