I went thru the entire process in 2018 to relocate back to vietnam to retire. Here is how I would do it now based on my past experience:
1. The most important document you need for the entire process is a legit copy of your vietnamese birth certificate.
2. Go to the nearest Vietnamese embassy in the US & apply to get your vietnamese passport. It is less headache, hassle, and way less cost in "bribes" aka "coffee fee" (it's really just an "expedited fee"). If you do it in Vietnam you will have to pay the coffee fees. If you do it in the US or the embassies in any country outside of vietnam there is no coffee fees. There is a vietnamese embassy in San Francisco, Houston & Washington DC. I tried multiple calls and only the San Francisco office answers their phone. I got my passport in houston cuz I lived in dallas at the time. Only the san francisco embassy site had the most accurate and updated info. The other embassy sites are not as good. The vietnamese are accustomed to doing paperwork at the government offices through a "middle man" and not online. Therefore they do not care about building fancy government websites to give all the info to their citizens like US websites. If u see a modern, fancy government website, more than likely its a private citizen's website and not a government website. Most vietnamese government websites look like they were made in the 1990's.
3. After you complete the passport application with your vietnamese birth certificate. The embassy will send it to the province where you were born for verification. After the verification, they will issue your passport at the embassy. Your passport will indicate that it originated at that embassy you used. This is EXTREMELY important when you come back to vietnam to get your driver's license. I'll explain it later in #9. You do not pay the fee until your passport is complete. The vietnamese culture is that you do not pay for anything until you have the document in hand. This process is very simple & it cost me less than $400
4. Once you arrive in Vietnam, you have about 15 days to go to your ward or commune district where you were born and your birth certificate was issued and register your name into a document called a House Registration Book. Only people who own land can have a House Registration Book. You have to find someone in your immediate family like your parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. that owns land and ask them to add you to their house registration book. You MUST register into a House Registration Book immediately within 15 days or else you will run into a lot of headaches later so do not jack around going on tourism or goof off. Get this done first. The House Registration Book is how the government keeps track of all their citizens, for census purposes to allocate funds to each province, and for finding wanted criminals, etc. They have been trying to do away with the House Registration Book & old national ID's & consolidate everything into a single national ID card to reduce cost, expenses & make the legal document process more efficient & computerized so everyone can access it online. It is a work in progress & not done yet.
https://en.nhandan.org.vn/society/legal … apped.html5. After you are registered in the House Registration Book, they will take your picture and issue you an old style, flimsy, & very cheap looking national ID called a CMND that looks like it will fall apart after a month of use (which it will). If you are in the big cities or provinces, they will issue you a new style, durable, national ID that looks like a US driver's license or credit card.
6. The process to get registered into the House Registration Book & CMND is a few hundred US dollars. Mine was less than $400 because no one in my family told were aware I had to register in 15 days so I had to pay a "late fee". The smaller the town you were born in the higher the "coffee money" to get it done because that government worker has to pay the government worker higher up than him to expedite the paperwork for you, and that guy has to pay the guy higher up than him and so on. The bigger the city, the less you have to pay. In the big cities & provinces there are "middle men" hanging out in front of all government offices to help you fill out the paperwork, do your legal documents, & collect the "coffee money". This is standard practice because vietnamese people do NOT ask questions because it indicates you don't know, if you don't know you are uneducated, if you are uneducated you lose a lot of face. I talk more about the Losing Face culture in vietnam here:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=23UNkK412TYIn the smaller towns, villages, etc. your family will usually know someone that knows someone in the government office to help you get it done. In the west, people call the "coffee money" a "bribe". In vietnamese culture, it is NOT considered a bribe. It is just an "expedited fee". If you don't pay it there is no incentive for the government worker to do it right away, he will put it on the pile of applications & you wait until it is your turn so it will take 2-3 months to get it done. If you pay it, it till take less than a week to get everything done. The coffee money is very negligible compared to the speed in which you get things done so do not worry about it. What you hear about the corruption in the vietnamese government is mostly fake news by people that do not understand vietnamese culture.
7. Before you come back to Vietnam, go take a 3 day motorcycle driving safety class for less than $300 in most cities. Go take the motorcycle test & renew your driver's license so you have the longest expiration date on your license to drive a car and motorcycle. When you arrive in Vietnam, go to the Department of Transport (driver's license conversion) office & ask them to "convert" your US license to a vietnamese license. Your vietnamese license will have the same expiration as your US or foregin license. Any foreginer can convert their driver's license at the same office. In HCMC, the office is here:
https://goo.gl/maps/VJL6iD71wvUMdLQB98. In vietnam, any motorbike up to 175cc is called a "scooter". Anything above 175cc is considered a "motorcycle". 0-50cc does not require a license this is why most kids drive 50cc or less for school. 50-175cc requires an A1 motorbike license. Anything above 175cc license requires an A2 license. If you have an A2 designation on your license it is considered more "prestigious" because only rich people can get a motorcycle license. Everyone else just gets a scooter license.
9. When you convert your license, they will need PROOF you got your driver's license overseas. If you have documents to show you went to driving school in the US, that will work or you can show your green card or US passport to verify you are a US resident. I did not have either one so I proved I was in the US because my passport indicated it originated in Houston. The cost of your vietnamese driver's license is negligible and not worth mentioning.
10. Also before coming back to the vietnam, apply to get the ABTC card for about $40 from US Customs. This card will allow you to go thru the Diplomat line at the airports in Vietnam & southeast asia without having to wait in line in the General Public lines which usually have about 60 people waiting in line. I have never seen any lines in the Diplomat lines using the ABTC card.
11. The cost of your a) ABTC card - $40 b) US motorcycle class, test, license, etc. - $400 c) house registration - $300 d) vietnamese license - $50 e) vietnamese passport - $400, etc. should be a total of $1,190. This is the absolute max cost. The real cost should be less. I paid the highest cost cuz no one around me knew how to do it so I had to go figure it out for myself.
Hope this helps cuz there was no place online that explained how to repatriate a vietnamese citizen living outside of vietnam back into vietnam. If you ask most vietnamese people they do not know how to do it either.
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Have a smooth repatriation & you will really enjoy vietnam & it's magnificent beauty!
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