My wife was born in Vietnam and has a Vietnamese passport. We just got married a few months ago and she's applying for paperwork to stay in the U.S.

We're going to Vietnam in about a month to see her parents. Both of our flights are booked with points (80,000 United miles/person to Vietnam). She has a layover in Canada (YVR) on the way there and back. She also has a layover in Hong Kong. Because she has a Vietnamese passport, she has to file for a transit visa in Hong Kong (we already took care of that) and a "temporary resident visa" (seem like it's their term for a transit visa) for Canada.

It took 3 weeks and Canada rejected her visa due to her immigration and "financial" status (we were never asked for that information). Air Canada confirmed that she won't be able to even get on the plane to Canada without a visa and United says they can change her flight for $100 and 45,000 miles........each way.

At this point, I'm at a loss of what to do. I already had her apply for a Canadian temporary resident visa again but I don't know what good that'd do. I really don't want to have to burn 90,000 more of my hard earned miles (per person) just to have us both avoid spending a few hours in Vancouver airport. And we're flying before Christmas so booking a flight will be very expensive now.