Ask anyone who lives abroad about the headaches of living in a country that they are not a citizen of and I guarantee one of the top things on that list will be getting, and especially maintaining, a long-term visa.
I know that I have at least a dozen whiny articles between here and the other site that we don't talk about regarding this very issue. Visas are a pain in the ass and a lot of the rules don't really make a lot of sense such as why is it that I need to apply for a new visa to a country that I am currently residing in outside of the country, when the answer is always "yes?"
Since no one can travel right now to anywhere aside from the rich, famous, and powerful, Vietnam made it possible for those of us that are stuck here, or like in my situation not-so-stuck, to obtain a visa extension without leaving Vietnam.
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There are a number of options for visas in Vietnam, none of them are difficult to acquire - almost all of them require some amount of leaving the country, reapplying and paying a bit of money. I have never heard of anyone that INTERPOL or the FBI wasn't looking for being denied this visa regardless of how often or even consecutively they perform this process. Vietnam has a very laid-back approach to visas and that is part of the appeal of living here.
However, even though I was entitled to the best tourist visa that this country offers based on my nationality (USA), I was still going to need to leave the country once every 3 months, even if this simply meant jumping to a border, then entering Cambodia or Laos for 2 minutes, and then coming straight back in. It all seems a bit dumb but I would guess they have their reasons for doing that and it is pretty universally applied at many other countries I have lived in (all of them.)
This is more of an inconvenience than anything else but when Covid came to town the game and the rules of it all changed. You can't leave this country and go into another one other than the one you are from and even then you are subjected to the very real possibility that there aren't any flights anyway. Therefore, myself and thousands of other people were faced with a real problem: You can't renew your visa in country and you can't leave the country - what now?
I just got my passport back this morning (too early!) and I am now legally residing here until the 22nd of August and all other people are entitled to do the same thing - however, this is not given away - you have to pay for it.
For 3 months extension it was $300 for me including what I presume is some sort of fee for the agent who did the legwork. I was happy to pay this just for the convenience but there are a lot of people in the expat community that are bitching about corruption and how this is too much! Normally, a 3 month visa would cost $50 at the border and everyone is crying foul.
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Let's look at this logically ok? My previous plan had been once every 3 months I was going to fly over to Thailand, tour around for a few days, and then come back and my visa (because I am USA guy) would cost nothing. So $300 still seems like a lot. However, the flights to and from the places I might choose to visit in Thailand such as Chiang Mai, Bangkok, or Phuket, would easily cost $120 each way unless there was some sort of super special offer going on - which is unlikely and then between hotels and food and mostly drinks (for me) I would definitely spend more than $300.
This temporary immigration "corruption" is actually saving me money.
I'm not going to get on anyone's case for being stingy or just angry at anything the government decides to do that costs more than free, but I think people are kicking on the wrong door here: Vietnam and all other countries that rely on tourism for a big part of their overall income are suffering right now - and honestly they could have charged us a LOT more than this and we would have no choice but to pay it.
I'm just saying, you might want to save your outrage for something that is a little more reasonable.
For the time being: If you don't have enough or make enough money to afford $3 a day for a visa, you may with to reevaluate your decision to live as a expat.
Good mindset for an expat. Never thought of it that way but I am a home body, never having live outside of my home province.
We are in a tourist town and I really feel that pain. As it is, the seasonality of the tourism makes it EXTREMELY challenging to run a business. Too much business and competition in the summer, not enough business in a long winter for certain businesses. Take tourism out of the equation (for a whole year as it will be here) and you will see proportionally more businesses shutter for good. Especially the dis-proportionally high number of restaurants for such a small town.
Back to the point at hand though you have a fantastic perspective on the process and I am glad you are in the position to pay the fee and not harbor any resentment.
Stay safe old friend.
I didn't know one had to leave the country, then apply to get back in from another country.
The whole visa thing was surprising to me when I lived in Germany in 2017. I had a six month student visa and didn't know Americans could stay in the UK for that long, but needed to apply for a German visa after 90 days. I stayed from September 2017 to mid-January 2018.
We applied for our visas in early December, but due to the city office forgetting to process many, I didn't get mine until two days before I left. However, many students traveled all over Europe without one.
well it is quite common for various nationalities to receive different visa options. I don't know why but USA citizens are the only nationality that is eligible for the 1 year tourist visa in Vietnam.
The whole process of needing to apply for your visa outside of the country at a consulate when you are already in the country on a valid visa is something I've always found perplexing. I'd love to know the rationale behind it.
Here they gave everyone free carte blanche until 31st July........that's the theory anyway. I will wait to read all the angry reports of people being charged overstay when they finally leave!
ha! Yeah the "rules" keep changing by the day and even the agencies are starting to get upset with people because the agencies don't know the answer to just everything because Immigration hasn't decided what to do yet.
I believe the free visa extension for everyone is until the end of June and the government announcement was "don't worry about it - we won't charge you" something like that but it would be funny if they renegged on this when people were leaving.
I can't do that process because the idea is that the visas are extended free of charge if you are "stuck here." It is expected that you will actually leave once July 1st rolls around. For those of us that live here long term we could get in trouble... or at least that is the word on the street. To be on the safe side, I just paid the money.
Same same! On the safe side I spent Tuesday extending properly . Funny thing is, with a marriage visa extension you have to wait for approval and as I was on a 60 day extension already they told me to come back on the the 21st of June to do my first 90 day report and come back again on the 23rd to get my extension stamp.....I love jumping through hoops!
Hope your move to Vietnam is going well :-)
the move to VN has been really great actually. The only downside is that I went from being able to speak about anything in Thai to being able to say nothing in Vietnamese. I don't think I have it in me to learn another impossible, tonal, one-country language.
In Taiwan, tourist visas got extended for up to 180 days, free of charge as i understand
wow, that's one heck of an extension for free.
I thought you had some plans to come back to the states on one of your renewal trips? Not that you would really want to bum around over here right now anyway. That is cool that they are doing something to accommodate those who have no other recourse, even though they are kind of making you pay out the nose for it. Kind of reminds me of what you went through in Thailand, only a little less corrupt!
I normally come back to the States in order to renew a visa and visit family once a year, but that isn't possible this year and I'm happy i didn't try to do so. Since I don't bring my dog with me on these trips that could have been a very bad situation.
Oh yeah, for sure. I saw a news story the other day about some people who got married and before they could move in together all this happened. So one of them is stuck in Canada and the other is in the US. They meet every day on this road between the two countries that just has a guard rail separating them. Border patrol stands around to make sure no one jumps over bit people bring lawn chairs and set them up on either side of the rail to talk fave to face with friends and family.
What is encouraging is that, despite the population density, Vietnam is a shining beacon of hope for humanity in the reaction to the pandemic. Knowing that the whole country will do what it takes to keep people safe is something the world notices.
So, I hope the people can support each other fiscally as well until the world takes notice and visits there for a very strong bounce back tourism season next year.
they are already talking about opening up tourism again but only to Australia and New Zealand... at least that is the word on the street.
I hope you live close to a border, for the in-out trick every few months.
I do not. But i live in a town with an international airport and would normally just fly somewhere on a "government enforced vacation" once every 3 months. But with things being the way they are now the game's changed.
Are they cutting you some slack due to the virus? Is this stepping in-out an official thing. Do they record it in case of a challenge?
it is an emergency measure because of Covid. All the countries around here have suspended some of their sillier notions such as forcing people to senselessly leave the country because no one can. What are they going to do otherwise? Deport us? We can't leave! :)
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BEER.As soon as you mentioned $300 for the extension and you don't need to travel I thought that is a result for you. It would easily cost way more than that in expenses so you actually saved and worked out for convenience anyway. I can understand why the bitching but then again this is not normal times we live in currently.
correct, strange times indeed. There are a lot of Thailand expats that are currently trapped here and don't know when they are going to be able to get back to their homes and families in Thailand. It doesn't seem to matter to the government of Thailand that they have families over there, the fact that they are not Thai is reason enough to not let them in.
That actually seems to be a nice solution to a temporary problem... but I still don't quite understand that need to go abroad and comeback every 3 months or so. It seems so... pointless. 🤔
I would have certainly visited more countries if it were not for the VISA madness. That's the main reason I usually stick to visiting places inside the Schengen zone. Gladly, there are a lot of them. 😂
Someone a while ago must have just decided that it would be easier to frustrate people out of getting back to back visas and this would be sufficient to get people to spend their money and get out or something. I dunno, i bet that visa policy changes dramatically for all countries coming up soon as everyone basically be begging for people to come and spend money on tourism, even if it is kind of a fake, extended tour like my own life where I don't actually ever stay at hotels and rarely to go tourist attractions.
I never saw it like that... so, it's just a scam for governments to increase the money coming in from "tourism", eh? That is very possible, indeed. 🤭
well when i first moved to South East Asia in 2004, Vietnam was considered the MOST difficult country to keep long visas for. Thailand in particular had a stance of "don't break any laws, stay as long as you want." Things have changed a lot since then as Vietnam is now (or was) seen as the easiest with the least amount of red tape involved. It will be interesting to see what happens after Covid is behind us because all these economies are going to be willing to take on just about anyone who is willing to spend money there.
At least that is my opinion and hope.
$3.00 a day?? Just another cost of living. You could easily drive yourself crazy if you try to make sense out of every dollar spent. That fee as compared to the general cost of living for what your trying to accomplish, sound pretty reasonable to me. I once tried to map out the tax I payed on every dollar earned once and got furiously pissed off.. Needless to say I tried to put that whole ordeal behind me and agreed not to do that again. Interesting to know the real cost of pushing paperwork though. Also.. your having fun! That's the important thing. Tell Nadi hello for us!!
The funny thing about the people that are complaining about the $3 a day cost are very vocal about it and normally very drunk because they are out at the bar every day definitely spending more than $3 while they are there.
great example!
I was just thinking I would be happy to pay :-)
How you like Vietnam so far?
I pushed my luck a bit too far and did not make it in time back to Thailand.
Hopefully 1st of July
Vietnam is pretty rad dude. I haven't really done much outside of my little area here in DaNang but I am yet to find anything I don't like other than the fact that I can't speak the language at all. I suppose I'll have to remedy that a bit.
Where did you end up?