Canberra Ho

A post in which I journey to Canberra.
An interesting visit. The main purpose of my visit was to inspect a property which I have owned for several years and which the tenants are now advising needs some maintenance. That is to say more maintenance than the agent that manages it seems to be able to arrange, such as repairing blinds on windows. I won't use this, however, as a forum to list the many shortcomings that I find with the property manager.
I departed Darwin on a 12:45pm flight. Delayed. No reason given. As I had only a short time gap between arrival in Brisbane and my connecting flight I had a mild concern, but the captain came on the intercom and promised to make up the time. Which he indeed did. A seamless transfer onto my flight into Canberra and in fact we made up more time on that flight due to tail winds.
We landed ahead of schedule and I picked up my hire car and made my way to my hotel. Large parts of the city were in darkness as they were observing Earth Hour and the lights of major landmarks like the War Memorial were dark. It actually made driving more of a challenge than I had expected as streets were darker than normal.
I found my Hotel after a false start had a quick drink in the bar and headed for bed.
The Bludger has no profound thoughts to pass on.

Marrying a Vietnamese Person pt 2

Some small steps today. I phoned and managed to get through to the Vietnamese Embassy in Canberra. The man who answered was really helpful, although confusing. He confirmed that I needed to send the following documents to the Vietnamese Embassy for Certification:

• A certificate of being Single,  (also referred to as a No Record). This needs to be no more than 6 months old.
• A certificate from a Health Organisation to prove that I am Physcologically OK and disease free. When questioned he said any Australian Medical Centre would do.
• Photocopy of Passport or Identity. The copy needs to be verified by a Public Notary. 

All the documents need to be passed to DFAT and certified. (Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade). This sort of thing is new to me, but I checked their website and it all seems ok, and they even publish their scale of fees. DFAT charges $20 per document, the Notary Public charges by the hour with a minimum $40.
The Vietnamese Embassy also want a $30 Certification fee for each document.
I think that I will get DFAT to certify a copy of my Australian Citizenship Certificate also. I won't send it to the Vietnamese Embassy I will keep it in reserve I just have the feeling that this may come up sooner or later.
I arranged a "NO Record" result from the Births Deaths and Marriages Registry. That was done on the spot. $25 thanks very much.
It's Friday afternoon, offices will close for the weekend, I can only do the copying for now.
I have also asked my Fiancée to investigate at her end what procedures she must do.
The Bludger is working his way through bureaucracy. Slowly.

Foreigner Marrying a Vietnamese Person. Pt 1.

(Update 8/12/2011: This all turns to custard, and the marriage never happens. But read on through the blog & posts if you want to see why).
This is the first of what I expect to be many posts on how to marry a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam. There is not much information available on-line. What there is I found to be confusing, not logically laid out, not intended to be a guide to others, or written in Vietnamese, or assumes that the foreigner is based in Vietnam.
My situation is that I live in Australia, I was born in Britain, I hold dual citizenship, that is English and Australian. My girlfriend, Fiancée now, lives in Vietnam. I struggle with Vietnamese, but am learning. My fiancée struggles with English. Despite that we are learning to communicate well.
I met my girlfriend while on holiday in Vietnam. I wasn't looking for love, or a relationship or even sex, I was just on holiday. In fact Vietnam was an add on at the end of the main holiday in Cambodia. The attraction was mutual and almost instantaneous for both of us. We kept in touch after my holiday and I have since been back to spend more time with her.
I am about to blog about this as both a record and an aid to others. I have trawled the net for the best part of 2 days and there is not a lot of helpful information, as I said above. One person who has married a Vietnamese lady blogs under the name The Final Word. You will need to look back in his Archive to July 2006 to start the thread.
I have been in touch with Jonathon who authors the blog, he has told me that a Vietnamese marriage is a lengthy bureaucratic process. Others have confirmed that. Processing speed and acceptance of documents is at the whim of the person that you are dealing with. Obstacles are put in your way that can sometimes dissappear with a gratuity. It was a lengthy process taking a full 3 months for Jonathon and he was based in Vietnam.
The Australian Embassy in Hanoi in Vietnam has some generic information about foreign marriages. However they assume that you are already in the country. I am not. According to the Australian Embassy web site my first steps are to obtain the following documents.

• Certified copy of passport;
• Original Single Status Certificate not older than 6 months;
• If applicable, a certified copy of Decree Nisi of Dissolution of Marriage; Not required for me.
• If applicable, a certified copy of the Death Certificate of previous spouse. Also not required for me.

That is where I intend to begin.
Until then the Bludger has work to do.