If you are in an expat community it can get a bit boring about how frequently the talk of visas comes up but that is just a way of life over here and in many other countries like Vietnam where almost all of us are on short-term visas but staying for long-term.
When I first moved here to Vietnam Americans were entitled to 1-year tourist visas, which honestly was kind of absurd to begin with because who goes on a legitimate vacation for a year in one country? I don't think anyone does. Once you cross over a month or so I think we can say that you are actually living there, not touring around.
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As time passes since the 3-month tourist visa was re-implemented, stories will pop up here and there about people that have been having difficulty getting a visa and there are stories of people that are being told they have to jump through certain strange hoops to get one, and other stories of people being flat out denied.
Unfortunately for people in these situations, Immigration normally wont even tell you why it is that you have to do these extra steps or why you are being denied. They just make their choice and you have to deal with it. Some recent examples of complications or denials are as follows.
A friend of mine was told by an agent after being denied on the "DIY" website that he was required to apply for the visa out of country and would need to stay out of Vietnam for at least 4 days before he could come back. I have never heard of this happening to anyone before and even the agent couldn't tell him why this was the case.
Another friend of mine who has been here for nearly 4 years was flat-out denied a visa and not given any information about why or when or even IF he would be allowed at some point in the future. He is currently touring around Thailand and re-applying every now and then to see if the position has changed. It, as of yet, has not. He has a bit of a dirty past as far as visas are concerned because he was involved in these dodgy and kind of fake "investment visas" that were being offered by shady agents in the past. This is the only reason I can come up with for why they are taking such a hardcore stance towards him.
Other people I know as the rumor has it on the exceptionally unhelpful expat FB page that E-visas can only be applied for if you are currently not in the country. If this is true it must be on a case-by-case basis because aside from my very first visa when I first moved here, I have NEVER applied for the E-visa while currently sitting outside of the country.
Here is why I think I am not having these problems
For starters, I never got involved in any sort of fake investment or any other kind of business venture as a method of obtaining a long-term visa. I learned my lesson as far as that is concerned from living in Thailand. People would always come up with these wild "workarounds" for long-term visas and while they were fine for a little while, they almost always got busted and in bad situations even deported. Since I have a dog that I have to look after and it takes a while to organize their transport, I am not going to put that situation at risk.
For the most part here in Vietnam, the government doesn't really seem to care how many back-to-back tourist visas you have, but if you try to scam them on a multi-year investment or business visa and it turns out you never had a business nor the intention of investing in anything and they find out about it, they are going to throw the book at you. This is a powerful reason to never attempt this kind of visa no matter how attractive the agent or some friend of yours makes it sound.
Now here comes the major reason why I have never had any of these problems that it seems plagues many other members of the expat community here in Vietnam: I have ALWAYS employed the services of an agent to apply on my behalf. The online forms have some fields on them that are poorly translated and don't really make 100% sense but if you get the answer wrong, you will be denied. My agent and other agents like him are very familiar with these forms and they also are fluent in Vietnamese so even if the form changes, he will understand them.
My agent and other agents like him also spend a lot of time at the actual Immigration office and the officers there know who he is. He routinely does translations work for them for free and he is "in" with them. Therefore if a paper comes across their desk and it is an application for a visa that he is submitting, they are a lot more likely to pass it through the system even if it does have a tiny mistake or two.... but it wont have a mistake because he knows what he is doing.
I also apply for my next visa many months before I actually need it. For example, my current 3-month visa expires on the 17th of February but I applied for the next visa last week. This gives me plenty of time to prepare if the answer is no but the answer was not no so now I know that I am good until next May and that feels nice. When I return in February I will likely wait a week or two and then apply for the NEXT one after that as well.
I also pay the "express" fee even though it is clear that since I am applying several months before I need the visa that I don't actually need express treatment. This "express" is clearly a secret word for "bribe" and while I am not a big fan of corruption, if it can work out in your favor and it is part of the system anyway, you can either play by the rules or get burned by them. Since the bribe is only $25 and I have never been told no when applying in this manner, I am going to pay it.
Purists out there will say that by me and others doing this we are encouraging the system to remain corrupt and I suppose that has some truth to it but let me tell you something that comes from nearly 2 decades of experience: This country, and all the ones around it except for Singapore have ALWAYS been corrupt and they always will be, my tiny little contribution to the problem will have no impact on that.
The thing about me and my situation is that I am no angel. I overstayed my visa by 18 months during Covid and when the police finally came knocking at my door I knew the jig was up. I didn't resist, I made them coffee and offered biscuits, I was polite and I complied by everything that they wanted me to do. I also ended up paying a bribe that made all of this go away. As far as I know it isn't even part of my record anymore either. I didn't WANT to overstay but at that particular point in time traveling with a dog was all but impossible because of Covid travel restrictions. I was not going to abandon my dog so for me this was an easy decision.
So if you want to be told "yes" over and over the way that I have been since moving here do a couple of easy things: Don't get involved in shady, illegitimate long-term visas and employ the services of an agent to do the legwork for you.
The people I know that have attempted to navigate this system on their own have ended up paying considerably more than I have on his fees because they end up needing to book flights and stay in hotels out of the country while they wait for approval. In my mind, this $35 or so that it costs me every 3 months is well worth it.
Yes paying someone is the way to go and it has always been the case. I have a travel agent I use for my flights and have her phone number in case I need assistance whilst travelling. It has happened a few times in the past I have had flights cancelled whilst at the airport and she stepped in and got me re routed on the best flight available. Others were sleeping in the airport and she managed to get me on one of 2 flights which the first was as a standby that didn't work out, but the 2nd flight I was accepted. Sometimes it costs very little to pay for assistance and people don't quite understand the benefits.
I think for a while there the internet sites were the better way to go and it drove a lot of full service travel agencies out of business. Over time though the sites had their profit margins diminished by competition and the only way they could make money was to cut services. It is nearly impossible to get in touch with anyone that works for an online source of these sorts of things while your agent, that you are paying very little money to albeit more than Expedia, is going to answer every time. In my mind it is definitely worth the tiny bit of extra that you pay if for nothing else, peace of mind.
Yes I agree and it is friend money which is cheaper than online which she earns commission from. She has saved my bacon so many times and others who also use her and will never leave her services. I told her she has a business here and should expand it but has done nothing with this. Most businessman would use her if they only knew she existed.
Sometimes it is just better and easier to employee someone to do it for you like you mentioned. I've often thought about doing that with travel. I know that travel agents aren't as necessary as they used to be before the Internet, but someone who specializes in a field is usually always going to have a leg up on you no matter how good your Google-Fu is. If I ever become an ex-pat (doubtful!), I'll keep all of this in mind!
while this article was primarily about visas I think it also applies to travel agents as well. I use an agent for all my travel now as well but this was primarily inspired by my desire to use cash for as many purchases as possible since credit cards that I have issued by the US are very difficult for me to pay off overseas.
Ah, okay. That makes a lot of sense. I have never used one, but I can see the benefits.
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