Vietnamese wife

My son went to a friend's wedding in December of 2010 spent 2 months dating his friend's sister-in-law. He went back and married her in May and spent 2 more months in Vietnam. They had the wedding and the honeymoon. They applied for the marriage license before the wedding but were refused because she isn't fluent in English. He is now back in Canada and is not sure what the best way to proceed to get the marrige license so he can apply to sponsor and bring her to Canada.

Thank you so much for shedding some light on our situation. I should have explained that my son went through the wedding ceremony, pictures and all without the marriage license...I'm not sure exactly why he did it that way, but it seems that it was on the advice of his wife as all the wedding plans were already done. They exchanged the wedding rings but there was no one there to officiate...So a few weeks later( just before he returned to Canada) they had the interview with the Vietnamese officials to get their marriage license and they were refused and told that his wife was not able to speak enough english to communicate with her canadian husband ?????? so they said come back in 3 months for another interview. He can speaks some Vietnamese and has bought an electronic translating dictionary...but I guess it did not impress the officials ???

Embassy did not give any advice, only the 2 options.... to apply as a sponsor or to bring her to Canada on a visitor visa.

Reading with interest your questions and the knowledgeable answers from those offering help. Having been through a similar situation several years ago, my advice i'm sure will not be received well. In order to get that marriage license, i am 99% sure your son will have to make that return trip. I married in Vietnam, but had my wife do a majority of the leg work before my arrival. I made two trips before marriage, the first was to see if after three years of correspondence we were indeed compatible, the second for the marriage and honeymoon. I have since returned again for vacation with family and friends.

The interview where your son was asked how they could communicate if he could not speak Vietnamese and she could not speak English seems to be a standard question and i do understand its place in the interviewing process (i'm not going to get into what i feel the interviewer was or is looking for) But we all practice for interviews whether they be employment or otherwise, my suggestion is to do a mock up interview before the next process takes place.

If the decision is to wait until it is financially feasible and then make another trip (and i hope it is) Please ask your future spouse to do all that is necesary on her end before you get there. A simple ceremony is all that is needed for now so a legitimate marriage licence can be attained. Once this has been done, i highly recommend going to I.O.M. the International Organization for Migration, it's located in Ho Chi Minh City (sorry, i forget the address) but the website is www.iom.int. These people werre absolutely great in helping out, but i'm sure you have to be married..check them out anyway, they speak both English and Vietnamese, as well as many other langages. I do hope this helped in some way, i understand the hassle of sending for documents, waiting, sending them back, etc. I also know it is costly to travel to Vietnam. If you have no where to stay when you're there (friends, family) check out the back packer district for economical accomodation, you're future wife can set up a room for you. Get your times in order in regards to all that must be done, remember, something may come up that you did not count on and all of a sudden you're spending an extra two to three days...compensate for this, as you are aware of, things happen. Once this is done and as i shared I.O.M. took over once i returned to Canada, my wife was over within six months. Good luck, God bless.

Hello Petee,

Having got married in Vietnam last year, I thought I'd share a bit of my personal experience. First of all, I think your son is a bit naive or uninformed in this matter and should really have made more research while over there to find out what to do. Better late than never, but it's important to know Vietnamese culture and laws before making such big decisions.

There are many fake weddings in Vietnam and some vietnamese girls being "sold" to foreigners. The Vietnamese government is trying to fight this. So it's totally normal that they find suspicious the fact that both bride and groom don't speak the same language and can barely communicate. That being said, 99% of Vietnamese officials are corrupt. You can do anything with money. They will bend the rules for Mr. Franklin. Once they know she is marrying a westerner... you can expect them to make trouble and push them until they "break" and offer a bribe. That's the way it is and that's all I can say.

I've lived there for 8 months last year and get the wedding certificate in my last few months there. I have two friends who did the same. It usually takes 4-5 weeks to get that paper, and both groom and bride need to be physically there. Also, there's one important thing you need to know about Vietnamese traditions. The wedding itself is completely separate than the wedding certificate. When we got the certificate, we did not have the ceremony yet... our ceremony will be in january, but we got the certificate last march. The Vietnamese governement doesn't care much if there was a traditional wedding or not, it's not a condition to get the certificate. Unless your son's bride is catholic, there's no priest in Vietnamese weddings, you need to inform yourself of their traditions.

Once you have the certificate, your son can apply for sponsorship, average time at the moment is 1.5 year officially, but many couples got their VISA after 9 months recently. The package your son sends needs to be GOOD! If the canadian government has any suspicion it's a fake wedding, they will send a team from Singapore to interview the bride, and it will add 12 months to 1.5 year to the process. Also, I heard that if the tries to come to Canada as a tourist before that she will 99% get refused, and it can harm their VISA application later.


Edited by willy0275 - 13 Sep 2011 at 3:11pm