Applying for a US visa from Vietnam requires legal documents that are routinely unavailable in Vietnam simply because the government does not have a central recorded database and many old documents have been lost due to poor storage. Therefore, documents are commonly fabricated, unverified, and leaving it open to false identities and document fraud.
Legal and Certified Certificates of Marriage, Registration, and Birth
Immigration documents such as a valid marriage certificate, household registration, or birth certificate may be extracted if the original was initially registered at that office. Administrative fees for this service is nominal if the requesting party has detailed information and a local Vietnamese resident to make the request in person. Requests from abroad requires a power of attorney or a relative and months of processing to complete.
Original Documents for US Visa Requirements
For the US Embassy visa requirements, original documents such as a Vietnam marriage certificate, registration, divorce decree, death certificate, and legalization are required to be presented at the US Consulate for the consular officer to examine even though only a certified copy is required at the time of submission. Normally originals are returned to the visa applicant after the consular officer examine whether the translation is complete and conduct a due diligence of the information in the documents.
Divorce Decree in Vietnam
As for records of divorce and death, the Vietnamese courts maintain the certificate of divorce where it was originally issued. A certificate of death is maintained at the local district office and similar to the certificate of divorce, the Vietnam agency that issued it will be able to provide a certified copy. Keep in mind that the US Embassy requests these documents to establish the person’s eligibility for a visa to America and to determine the person’s identity. As such the consular officers are trained to detect fake Vietnamese documents and routinely investigate further if they suspect the authenticity of documents are less than legitimate.
Household Registry for Vietnamese Family
At the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, marriage documents submitted should be verified by the issuing authority, unless they are independently verified by a US official in Vietnam. However, most issuing officials do not verify the information they certify and rely on the reporting parties statements as facts. When a US consular officer verify documents in Vietnam, a common occurrence is that the documents are fraudulent or inconsistent with information at hand.
For US immigration purposes, the most commonly requested document is the household registry. The household registry lists the name of the people that reside in that residence at a particular time along with their date of birth and national identification number. The Public Security Bureau maintains this record, however, the information enclosed is not verified by any Vietnamese reporting agency. Saying that though, the US Consulate accepts the household registry as evidence of residence and family relationship since this is an acceptable method of identification in Vietnam.