After Part I and Part II, here's Part III.
I recently discovered that most people use a company to organise all the documentation for their wedding applications for them. Not Chi, she organised everything herself. Apparently it's quite tricky.....
We dropped into our favourite public office for our interview yesterday afternoon. The new rules. Firstly, again without eye contact, we were told that we needed to have a translator for me. Would have been nice if Mr Happy had told us that last time, but Mrs Happy informed us through what I can only describe as a forced scowl. So Chi calls up her friend from work and he comes down to the office to help us out. We sit and wait and eventually Chi gets called in. She had a 30 minute grilling - the only thing missing was the bright lamp and windowless room. I won't go into the details of what he asked but it was all highly personal, and some of it, in my opinion, highly inappropriate. Stopping short of what color my grandfather's living room is painted, Chi was asked if the people she had invited to her house and travlled to Phu Quoc with over Christmas and New Year in 2005 were really my family - she described her incredulousness to me. Is he serious? I can speak English. I saw them talking together for 2 weeks. I went to Phu Quoc Island with them for 3 days. I saw their passports. He looks exactly like his Dad for GOD SAKE! He then went on to describe to her what would happen if we failed the interview; once again Chi related her feelings to me and it requires some brain-racking to find synonyms for incredulous which I have already used.....ah yes, here we go, flabbergasted, dumbfounded, astonished and thunderstruck. How could we fail? We can communicate. We have no age gap to speak of. We have lots of evidence of our relationship. "Just for example....I have to tell you" he says.
My interview was much more humane, although that may only have been because the office was due to close at 5.00 and I sat down at about 4.30 (we arrived at 2.15). It may also be the norm, and the officials are much more interested in what she knows about me than vice versa. All I know is that this whole process has drilled my better half into the ground and she came out of it a little frazzled and definitely stressed out; it's a little too premature to be relieved, we find out if the interview was successful on the 7th September.
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14 comments:
Jon, good luck to you and Chi -- we will be eagerly awaiting your blog posting on 7 September saying everything is now officially blessed.
Unreal. This kind of officially-sanctioned hassling really makes me appreciate the things we take for granted in North America and Europe.
I'm in the USA now, and I tell friends here that Vietnam is "Tony Soprano land." Everyone's on the take, and official power is used for the ultimate protection racket.
Yeah sure, thanks vn. In fact I never saw my Mrs so stressed out before. The guy who interviewed her was meant to interview me....but after 20 more minutes of waiting for him to call me he said he didn't have time to do it, and the office was closing in 30 mins. He said to ask the other lady who had been very unhelpful when we first arrived (I had followed her around the office saying 'Excuse me, can you help us' very loudly). She refused to help us again! At this point Chi was absolutly exasperated. We had to tell her to calm down; upon seeing this the lady had a change of heart and gave me the interview.
jon, they just love that piss you off with silly petty double copy triple copy waste of time string their job out shit..... they're just bitter cos their job is crap.
good luck and be sure to inform us all.
that was dan smith who wrote the anonymous.
ha ha poor Chi! ah well, it will all be worth it in the end, i am SO happy that you are getting married to such a wonderful girl and you will be happy forever! (i just know these things).
Hehe, you learn new things everyday living in Vietnam bro. If you want things go through, you need to adapt to new "procedure style" unlike in Europe or North America.
I understand very well what you have been through, 'cause as a vienamese, I also got piss off of it after 9 yrs come back from oversea. Here we have a proverb saying "Money go first is smart money", which means it's smart if you give the "gift" to someone before you want to ask for a favor than after you ask them.
Good luck to both of you, John and Chi.
Yes I am learning new things everyday here sonvd, but especially through this process I learnt a lot about how things work. Nice proverb. Money that goes first is smart money. Amen. That is my lesson.
Have been browsing through your blogs... impressive. I admire you for just simply being able to exist in Vietnam. The Vietnamese are a remarkable people. The majority of them are judgmental and complex. My partner of 30 years is Vietnamese. He also admits that he feels ashamed of their behaviour. You and Chi deserve heaven on earth....CHEERS!
Hi i noticed this "I recently discovered that most people use a company to organise all the documentation for their wedding applications for them". At the beginning of your post i was wondering if you could point me in the direction of the company which arranges this service. Thanks Mark.H
Mark H....when I said company, there isn't one exclusive company. You need to find a lawyers office who specialize in marriages, and they will do it for you....
Hi Jon thanks for the reply. I do not suppose you know of a lawyer in Saigon who you would recommend. Or if not recommend at least know of one. Many thanks again. Mark.H
yaaa did u try paying them off lol work alot better that way
so after they grilled her for 30mins did she admit shes marrying you for financial reasons? wanna know why the bureaucrats dont like your wife or you? becuase they know shes doing it for money and they know your taking advantage of some poor girl. lol
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