[SingViet]

Marriages to Vietnamese decline

FOREIGN BRIDES: An official said that a rule requiring potential brides to undergo an interview was the reason behind a 70 percent drop in marriages from last year

CNA , HO CHI MINH CITY. Thursday, Dec 29, 2005

The number of Vietnamese women marrying Taiwanese men plummeted this year, mainly because of the resumption of the individual interview program by the government, a liaison source in Ho Chi Minh City said yesterday.

Because of a regulation requiring Vietnamese women planning to marry Taiwanese men to visit Taiwan's liaison office in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi to be interviewed individually, the number of Vietnamese woman marrying Taiwanese men declined by 70 percent to 3,461 in the first 11 months of this year from 12,202 last year, said Chen Shan-lin (陳杉林), representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City.

Taiwan withdrew the individual interview regulation in 1999 and allowed potential Vietnamese brides to be interviewed in groups, resulting in a record high 13,863 marriages between Vietnamese women and Taiwanese men that year.

The figure averaged 12,000 annually between 2000 and last year, Chen said, adding that the Taiwan office in Ho Chi Minh City approved a total of 90,215 Vietnamese women to go to Taiwan after marrying Taiwanese men between 1995 and last month. The total number exceeds 100,000 if approvals issued by Taiwan's liaison office in Hanoi are included, he added.

Under the individual interview system, the average period between a Vietnamese woman filing an application and departing for Taiwan is about eight months, Chen said, adding that the average wait for an interview in Ho Chi Minh City is about six months because of the large number of applicants.

Consequently, marriage brokers have since this year begun to encourage potential "Vietnamese brides" to submit their applications in Hanoi instead of Ho Chi Minh City to accelerate the process, Chen said.

The average wait for an interview in the Vietnamese capital is only between one and two months, Chen added.

According to Chen, potential Taiwanese husbands usually fly into Vietnam on the weekend, and arrangements are made for them to meet with their potential brides. If the couple hit it off, they usually get married on Saturday or Sunday and then jointly file applications with Taiwan's offices in Vietnam for entry into Taiwan on Monday or Tuesday.

About half of the Taiwanese men marrying Vietnamese women are between 30 and 40 years old, while about 23 percent are aged between 41 and 50. By comparison, some 77 percent of the Vietnamese women marrying Taiwan men are between 20 and 30 years old, while some 14 percent are under the age of 20.

Nearly 67 percent of the Taiwanese men marrying Vietnamese women have a junior high school level education, and about 20 percent have a senior high school education. By comparison, 63 percent of the Vietnamese women have an elementary school education, and 28 percent have a junior high education, according to Chen.