Hopeful New Expat

Welcome to Vietnam

Not there yet, hopefully in a month. Thank you though!

EvanWilliams wrote:

I'm currently working towards my Bachelors Degree, and I'm well over half way there......... I'm working on my TEFL currently so that I can try and find a job as an English teacher in Saigon. I want to live in in HCM for many reasons, including finishing my degree abroad and the rewarding experiences........

Have you been reading the recent threads regarding the legality/illegality of working as an ESL teacher in Vietnam without a Bachelor's degree?  While no one will dispute that it can be done, there are serious issues as to whether it is legal.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=252315https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=83360

Both of these threads were started a while ago but have been active lately in part because some have asserted incorrectly that one may legally teach in Vietnam without a degree.  I can tell that you want to be with your fiance but read for yourself and decide.

Thanks, i look over those threads. Fortunately, I am not tatted hippy mechanic looking for easy money haha.

In a few months I will have my Associates degree, and my TEFL certificate, along with many years of training and teaching in the military, I'm not worried that it will be an issue to work as a teacher... Well I hope its not anyway. if it is, ill just find something else.

Plus I have the added benefit of the GI Bill providing me with a basic income while I'm in school. A monthly $800 if online and $1600 if face to face. Im also hoping to transfer to RMIT Vietnam and finish my degree there. I should be ok, but I really would love the opportunity to teach english abroad. I feel like it would be a very rewarding experience.

You do sound like a level headed fellow with a plan.  However, don't focus too much on the OP in those threads but on the subsequent discussion.  It would be a shame to build your resume with second rate schools just because you were ineligible for a work permit.  With a BA or BS, someone like you should be able to find the best postings, maybe even work at RMIT after your graduation.  I imagine that military instruction could serve to meet the 5 year experience requirement for a WP but only if it was a full time posting as an instructor at a school.  Then you would have the problem of translation of orders and might even need letters from commanding officers, all pretty tough to get in retrospect.

The other thing is visas.  As serious as you seem to be about it, you may have researched.  Let me ask you.  Is there such a thing as a student visa to stay in Vietnam?  I expect there must be but most people who post here wouldn't fit the description so I have never even heard it mentioned.

It looks like a Bachelors degree at RMIT costs about US$30,000 but you are half way there so less.  That would eat about $1000/month from your $1600 but if you marry your fiance, I expect she will be able to squeeze it out on $600 particularly if you live with her family and don't need rent money.  That may be not as bad as it sounds.  I could live in my mother-in-law's home.  It is my wife who could not.  <--- She of course loves her mother but this is her after the second week.

I'm an expat from the US I came here for a visit 2 years ago and ended up staying, got married to a wonderful Vietnamese lady and loving it here. It's a beautiful country with very friendly people.