•  Home
•  Bangkok Lawyer
•  Corporate Services
  • Corporate Tax and VAT Registration
  • Foreign Business License
•  Purchase Services
•  Legal Blog
•  Contact Us

US Visa Vietnam

The United States Immigration process generally begins by finding solid intelligible information and making informed decisions. Unfortunately, in the digital age this has lead to something of an “information overload” in the sense that even though there is information available about the process it is oftentimes written by those with little practical knowledge.

Vietnam has one of the fastest growing economies in the world. This is largely attributable to the fact that this Southeast Asian nation is home to new industrial projects as well as ever growing numbers of tourists.

As more Americans journey to Vietnam, many find themselves meeting the love of their life. In many cases, the couple wishes to reunite with each other back in the United States. For these situations there is the US Marriage Visa and the US fiance visa. The most often sought marriage visa among newly married couples is the CR1 visa while the K1 visa remains the only family based visa available to the fiance of a US Citizen. At the time of this writing, the K3 visa is no longer an option for most married couples due to the fact that the National Visa Center is “administratively closing” those K3 applications they receive before, or at the same time as, the underlying CR1 application.

Many American Citizens have a large number of extended family members in Vietnam. For this reason, Immigrant visas in the preference categories are highly sought after by the extended Vietnamese family of some Americans. In cases involving extended family the waiting time is often longer as such cases do not have the same priority as compared to visa petitions for the spouse or child of an American. However, in some cases the process is relatively quick.

Although the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City processes a large number of cases for immigrants to the USA; this Post, along with the US Embassy in Hanoi, process many non-immigrant visa applications as well. Visa applications for such travel documents as the B2 visa (Tourist Visa), the B1 visa (Business Visa), and the F1 visa (Student Visa), are regularly adjudicated by Consular Officers at both Consular Posts in Vietnam. That said, unlike the Immigrant visa categories, non-immigrant visas have a much higher rejection rate due to rejections pursuant to section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  

As the US visa process seems to become more cumbersome over time many couples take solace in knowing that their visa petition and application are being handled by a competent US Immigration Lawyer.

For more information about Consular Processing in Vietnam please see: US Embassy Vietnam or US Consulate HCMC.