Just back from the Vietnamese-Foreigner Marriage Interview...

And what a complete farce it was.
Situation:
All our Marriage paperwork completed: all translations, all originals, all copies all certified and accepted as 100% correct. It must be to get to the interview stage.
We have a 3 year old son born in Vietnam, with all official paperwork completed a long time ago with myself as father (DNA test etc) all with us, including my son, at the interview.
My fiancée and I have been together for 6 years. We're just back from a month in England so I am not going to marry her to get her to England and put her into slavery. All evidence of our trip, like stamps in passport, photos of my fiancée in just about every corner of central London and with all my family in the UK, all with us at the interview.
We have bought 2 plots of Land in our village and already have all the official paperwork which was with us in the interview so they can see that we are financially stable.
Did we pass it? No
The Reason:

My  fiancée was asked questions like:

'What month and year did your fiancé get divorced from his first wife?'
'When someone gets divorced in England, where do they go to do this?
'What age can someone marry in England?'
'When someone gets divorced in England who takes care of the children?'
'When someone gets divorced in England who gets all the land and gold?'

I was asked among others questions like these:

'When someone gets divorced in Vietnam, where do they go to do this?
'When someone gets divorced in Vietnam who takes care of the children?'
'When someone gets divorced in Vietnam who gets all the land and gold?'
'What is the second biggest religion in your province?'

I don't mean to be rude here, but what is this? This is idiocy. I thought they were supposed to be looking for human traffickers and sham marriages? Not people who have children together, live together, buy land together, travel outside the country together and return together? If they asked me when I got divorced from my first wife I'd have trouble recounting the year yet alone the month - although that paperwork was there in front of them as required.
Some of the questions my fiancee was asked have different answers as all situations are different but that reply was incorrect apparently. Apparently in the UK it is black and white when a couple divorce and it is pre-written already who gets the children, land & the gold. Funny though UK Courts don't know that.
An absolute sham. I have to admit I am quite disgusted by the experience. It was nothing to do with my fiancée, my son and I. There was no relevance to our situation at all. It was either about prejudice or bribery I am unsure which, perhaps both but to place the happiness of genuine couples with children - or without - in the hands of incompetent fools should not be allowed to be taking place. Yes, I know this is Vietnam and I have already been through mountains of paperwork and bureaucracy but it all led somewhere and it all fitted into place at the end though it may have taken several strange loops to get there.
But this was a no-win situation. It was impossible to answer all the questions correctly or to know all the answers to all the questions. It was like a General Knowledge quiz, complete pot luck if you knew the answer by chance and even if you did; there was high chance they would say it was incorrect.

BUT!

Came home very disgruntled and did a quick search online to see if anyone else has had similar problems in this situation and came across the link below.

Apparently from January 1st 2016 the marriage interview is being scrapped

"... due to the incompetence of involved officials, there have been misconducts in the interview process"
"The ministry says these interviews have yet to prove effective in preventing marriage frauds. The process also creates an environment for corruption and bribery to thrive."

http://www.thanhniennews.com/politics/m … 49108.html

Wahey! 8-)

Anyone else had similar situations here in Vietnam?

Richie