Um, Radar, this is the point at which you are supposed to be slipping them the bribe. Otherwise, they will be "looking at" your paperwork until the next revolution there.

And you better lose that "public servants work for me" attitude, they chew up and spit out dozens just like you every week. Been there, done that.

I think he's refering to the US consulate. We all know US gumint employees don't take bribes. :lol2:

The thought has crossed my mind. I'd have done it already if the problem was with the Vietnamese government, but many people have lost jobs at the Consulate or their cases when they try to bribe the U.S. workers.

You know that's not true; a very large number of them don't want her in at all.

I guess that depends on who you ask. I see the racist, jingoistic, protectionistic, anti-immigrant types as a very tiny group of whackos compared to overwhelming majority who understand America was built by immigrants and who welcome them.

radar i hope everything works out with your wife. i also hope that your *ahem* strong beliefs haven't rubbed off on her too much yet. if she were too actually believe that the people who were interviewing her actually DID work for you, there isn't a chance in hell of getting here.

it is at this intersection with reality that your strict libertarian beliefs leave you high and dry.

You may have to choose which is more important to you at this stage of your life ... your principles or your wife.

Go kiss your Senator's ass, your wife will be here in two weeks.

If she really wants to come.

You have not been present at any of her interviews.

You do not know precisely what was said.

You have been supporting her and her family for some time.

Yes, as a matter of fact, my glass is half empty. But I'm rarely, if ever, disappointed.

Even libertarians indulge in false hope from time to time. I say move heaven and earth to get past the beauracratic crap, then worry about the other stuff. Too much reality at once is bad for you.

I think it rubs off on them, Radar. It's like, when you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas. Imagine how I felt when I found out that supposedly AMERICAN citizens who are consuls in Manila have special bank accounts set up for laundering the bribes they require? How insufferably arrogant they are with the applicants like us who take a number and get in line while completely uninvestigated people who pay up sail right through. My friend has an aunt who got into an arranged marriage with a man who had been a friend of her father's, just to get out of the Philippines. Every time she leaves to go back to the US for an interview (she doesn't even live there with her new husband) they pay $5,000 for her exit-and-return visa to be approved :mad:

I bought a ticket today to go to Vietnam. I'll be leaving on May 19th and coming back June 4th. Hopefully I'll be able to arrange a meeting with my servants while I'm there. ;)

I'll also travel around a bit with just me and my wife. This is the first time I've gone to Vietnam alone, and it will be the most time we've had alone together. Her family even came with us on our honeymoon.

Tell them you have connections in Philadelphia. ;)

Please take a camera to post some pics here. Good luck.

Probably a stupid question but is living in Vietnam out of the question?

Probably a stupid question but is living in Vietnam out of the question?

Go for it dude !!!!
You think your basic human right are stomped on here ???
Go live in a THIRD WORLD country !!!!!
I FUCKING DARE YOU !!!!!!


Dude ,, just incase you DON'T konw ,,, Life is cheap in the 3'rd world .
I have seen kids shot down on the street just for snagging a dudes wallet , $20US and its all forgotten .
FACT !!!!!!![

Oh, but it's not the third world. It's a shining example of the Communist Worker's Paradise.