... in response to Marriage in Vietnam, posted by Wes on Jun 11, 2003Marrying in Vietnam is not a quick (or simple) process. Generally it is best done over 2 trips, unless you can spend 3 months or so in Vietnam. If you are not able to stay and do it yourself it would be best to have someone who knows the process to keep things rolling while you are not there.
I'm Australian, so the process may vary for you.
I needed Birth Certificate, Single status paper and medical from my doctor. These had to be sent to Foreign Affairs in Australia to be authenticated as genuine, then sent to the Vietnamese Embassy in Sydney so that they could issue a "covering" paper saying that everything was in order for me to marry in Vietnam.
In Vietnam I had to take these papers to the Australian Embassy to get a "No obstacle to marriage" paper.
All these documents (in triplicate)had to be submitted to the Vietnamese agency that handles marriages to foreigners, along with all of Doan's papers.
In all, we had about 40 pages of documents (multiplied by 3 sets) to submit. (ie 120 pages)
The medical papers that I had done in Australia were deemed no good by some 'rubber stamper' so we spent 2 days going all over Ha Noi to 3 different hospitals trying to get the 'right' medical. In the end we gave up and bribed some officials to 'over-look' it.
We spent a crazy 2 weeks putting all of Doan's papers together. We would take 10 hour overnight train rides to get papers from Doan's village, followed by a motorcycle ride around the district to find the official with the correct stamp. Then we would return to Ha Noi hoping that this time it was OK.(2 such trips)
Once all the papers were in order we had to wait 3 months before our marriage permit was issued.
I returned to Vietnam a month later for the wedding.
I think the process would have been next to impossible for me without the help of a lawyer friend of Doan's who had earlier worked for the department that oversees foreigners marrying Vietnamese citizens. He knew who we had to bribe to expedite things. (They were his old work collegues)
It's all worth it now though.
mal