getting married in vietnam

Try doing it without a lawyer! You have to be detailed and thorough.  Alot of stuff was missing online about this process...

My wife and I did ours, total cost 3 million vnd. A few trips to the local government office and one trip for the mental health check, which was a complete joke.

Trying to get married to a Vietnamese woman in Vietnam.

We have been dating for over 1 year, I finally moved here and we had the wedding in January.

We have all the documents (single cert., mental health cert, passports), but now the office in her hometown is asking for a Temporary residence certificate.

I'm here on a 6 month business visa, starting in January, and now someone is saying I have to live here 6 at least 6 months to be eligible for this temporary resident certificate from Da Nang.?!?!?!?

I told her this sounds like nonsense, and suggested she just try to get this document in Nghe An and register my address in Nghe An, at her fathers house, which is where her families lives and where we will apply for the marriage.

Seems completely pointless that a Vietnamese person can't even navigate this god-forsaken process.

The entire bureaucracy in this country would be run over by a steam-roller and replaced by fire hydrants, everyone would have a better time.

VN civil servants create 'problems'  such as this to enable them to ask you for 'tea money' so they can 'help' you overcome the problems they have created.

FYI my sequence of events was different in Saigon 2016:

1. tourist visa
2. submit marriage application, paperwork, interview, etc.
3. legally married
4. marriage ceremony
5. With marriage certificate, got VEC, then TRC

Your sequence is this?

1. work visa
2. marriage ceremony
3. TRC
4. submit marriage application, paperwork, interview, etc. + TRC
5. legally married

gobot wrote:

FYI my sequence of events was different in Saigon 2016:

1. tourist visa
2. submit marriage application, paperwork, interview, etc.
3. legally married
4. marriage ceremony
5. With marriage certificate, got VEC, then TRC

Your sequence is this?

1. work visa
2. marriage ceremony
3. TRC
4. submit marriage application, paperwork, interview, etc. + TRC
5. legally married

This second sequence sounds strange.
Is this another standard procedure in some regions, or from where do you have this information?

Just for my understanding, why you applied for a VEC and not directly for a TRC after the wedding?

Haha, well the "procedure" changed.

My spouse called the marriage office in her hometown, got a friend of her family on the line who works there, and he'll do the marriage application it for "extra money" over the weekend. We'll apply Friday, pick up marriage certificate Monday.

Apparently this office has never dealt with a foreigner and didn't want the headache, but now after money and family friend is in play, everything is fine.

Sometimes it really does help to know someone !  Good news ! Congratulations to you both!

wildbore88 wrote:

Haha, well the "procedure" changed.

My spouse called the marriage office in her hometown, got a friend of her family on the line who works there, and he'll do the marriage application it for "extra money" over the weekend. We'll apply Friday, pick up marriage certificate Monday.

Apparently this office has never dealt with a foreigner and didn't want the headache, but now after money and family friend is in play, everything is fine.

I was probably also the first foreigner for the civil servants at the registry office in my wife's hometown.

Well her uncle submitted copies of our documents last week to the marriage office last week, and the employee said great, they can come down with the originals, pay and we'll print off the marriage certificate.

Well we took the 11 hour 'sleeper' bus to her hometown.

Then the single certificate from the Canadian consulate I presented was not accepted because it did not have the legalization from the ministry of foreign affairs vietnam (MOFA). They were also saying, since I'm a resident of Da Nang, I might need to get a single certificate from Canadian embassy Hanoi, not the consulate in HCMC.

My wife got them to accept the Ho Chi Minh consulate issued single cert, saying the HCMC Canadian consulate wouldn't stamp it if it out of their consulate jurisdiction, but it still needs this sticker from MOFA. Fortunately I'm on other business in HCMC this week and hopefully can get the legalization from MOFA.

What a pain in the ass. Would've been nice if the pricks at her hometown had gave us accurate info to begin with, we both had to take time off work,  and I had to endure the tiny sleeper bus cubicle which is too small for me.

Oh well.

wildbore88 wrote:

Well her uncle submitted copies of our documents last week to the marriage office last week, and the employee said great, they can come down with the originals, pay and we'll print off the marriage certificate.

Well we took the 11 hour 'sleeper' bus to her hometown.

Then the single certificate from the Canadian consulate I presented was not accepted because it did not have the legalization from the ministry of foreign affairs vietnam (MOFA). They were also saying, since I'm a resident of Da Nang, I might need to get a single certificate from Canadian embassy Hanoi, not the consulate in HCMC.

My wife got them to accept the Ho Chi Minh consulate issued single cert, saying the HCMC Canadian consulate wouldn't stamp it if it out of their consulate jurisdiction, but it still needs this sticker from MOFA. Fortunately I'm on other business in HCMC this week and hopefully can get the legalization from MOFA.

What a pain in the ass. Would've been nice if the pricks at her hometown had gave us accurate info to begin with, we both had to take time off work,  and I had to endure the tiny sleeper bus cubicle which is too small for me.

Oh well.

Most officials in the smaller towns are lucky to know their own name, let alone government procedures.