The Way To America

A Vietnamese guide to moving to the United States

✓ Updated to the latest laws
✓ Step-by-step clear guidance
✓ Guided by experienced specialists

The second year is often harder than the first

The first year has structure: everything is new, everyone helps, and survival counts as success. The second year has neither the novelty nor

15/09/2026

Quick tools

Quick answers on time zones, plugs, dialling codes and flight distances — plus counters for the day limits that are easiest to get wrong. Every result has its own link to save or share.

Time zone The time difference, the time right now in the capital, and how the two clocks line up. Day length Sunrise, sunset and how many hours of daylight there are in each capital, on the date you pick. Plugs Socket types, voltage and mains frequency — worth knowing before you pack an adapter. Dialling codes The dialling code of each country and how to place a call in and out. Driving side Which countries drive on the left, which on the right, and what to know about driving permits. Schengen 90/180 Add up the days spent in the Schengen area within the rolling 180-day window and see how many are left. Country type Read a country through its geographic and constitutional type: island, landlocked, federal or unitary. Tax residence Add up the days spent in each country over 12 months to see whether a tax residence threshold is reached.

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Browse by topic

Common legal and administrative topics

Before You File 7 posts Petitions & Evidence 6 posts Medical & Vaccines 6 posts The Consular Interview 6 posts Getting Ready To Fly 7 posts Your First Month 6 posts Settling In 6 posts Sponsoring Family 6 posts

Latest articles

Guides updated to current Vietnamese law

Thai family with two children and a grandfather wheeling suitcases through the bright, high-ceilinged departure hall of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, morning light, wide shot.

Getting Ready To Fly

USCIS immigrant fee before you fly: how your green card gets made

An immigrant visa lets you enter the United States, but the physical green card is only produced after the USCIS Immigrant Fee is paid; pay it online before dep

19/10/2026 7 min read

Wide aerial view of the Golden Gate Bridge over blue San Francisco Bay on a clear morning, a ferry crossing below, bright sunlight, no people visible.

Before You File

How to move to America legally: six real pathways compared

There are only six realistic legal roads to living permanently in the United States: family sponsorship, employment, investment (EB-5), a treaty-investor bridge

18/10/2026 9 min read

a wide window looking out over a residential street with two chairs turned toward it

Sponsoring Family

Four questions before you petition for someone else

The last review on this site, and it is the first one again with the roles exchanged — because the person who was sponsored eventually reads chapter one from th

15/09/2026 5 min read

an elderly couple sitting on a low wall outside a Vietnamese house in late afternoon

Sponsoring Family

Ask whether this is right for them, not only whether it is possible

Eligibility answers whether a case can be filed. It says nothing about whether moving is the right thing for the person moving, and that is a separate question

15/09/2026 5 min read

a video call set up on a laptop facing an empty chair in a quiet living room

Sponsoring Family

Being honest with the relative who is waiting

A long case is lived by two people in very different ways. The one who files gets on with life; the one who waits often puts theirs on hold, and that is largely

15/09/2026 5 min read

a fountain pen resting on a closed folder at the end of a long polished table

Sponsoring Family

The commitment you are about to sign is a real obligation

Family categories carry a support commitment that is enforceable, lasting, and largely indifferent to how the relationship turns out. It is the part of sponsori

15/09/2026 5 min read

a seedling in a pot on a windowsill beside a stack of folders in morning light

Sponsoring Family

What you must wait for, and what you can start today

Eligibility to petition depends on your own status and cannot be hurried. Almost everything else can begin immediately, and the families who understand that spl

15/09/2026 5 min read

a person at a desk filling in a form by hand with a darkened window behind them

Sponsoring Family

Now you are the one who files

At some point the person who was brought over becomes the person doing the bringing. The first chapter of this site reads very differently from that side of the

15/09/2026 5 min read

a kitchen table with two mugs and a pair of gloves in low morning sunlight

Settling In

Four questions for the first year

A review to run at six months and again at twelve, when there is no checklist left and it is genuinely hard to tell whether a household is making progress.

15/09/2026 5 min read

a filing drawer pulled open in a quiet room with neat dividers and afternoon shadows

Settling In

Keeping the immigration record clean during the quiet years

Once a family is settled, the immigration side goes quiet — and that is exactly when the habits that matter for every later application are either formed or not

15/09/2026 5 min read

a cardboard box of folders opened on a living room floor with papers spread around it

Settling In

The paperwork of a previous life gets harder to obtain every year

Evidence of who someone was in Vietnam is easy to obtain in the first year and progressively harder afterwards. Almost nobody collects it until it is needed, wh

15/09/2026 5 min read

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