The US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City has declared that it will grant immigrant visas for married homosexual couples, according to VNExpress.

On May 12, David R. McCawley, representative of the US Embassy in Vietnam, announced that all homosexual spouses and their children now have the same immigration rights as heterosexual couples when applying for visas to the US.

The policy, which went into effect on April 13, applies to all counties and so far, 10 Vietnamese same-sex couples have been granted immigrant visas.

However, only legally recognized marriages are accepted, so in the case of Vietnam, where the practice is neither banned nor officially recognized, couples must have been previously married in one of the US states where same-sex marriage is legal.

According to the US Embassy, in 2013, 23,000 Vietnamese successfully gained immigrant visas to the US. Over 62,000 were granted non-immigrant visas, an increase of 15% over last year – of which 11,000 were student visas, making Vietnamese students 8th largest group of foreign students in the USA.

[VNExpress // Photo via The Atlantic]