Visa for married to Vietnamese

As far as I know you can get 1yr, 3yr, 5yr residential visa if you are married, have a family and a business here. Most I speak to get 5 yr no problem. Talk to my visa chap, Phatman Visa, Mr Phat Dang, 090 831 1294. Tell Dang I sent you. Malcolm Green
He knows whats available and prices are good.

I am "representative officer of an overseas company" and have a one year resident visa for $150 USD. Thats because I am director of Australian based company. I could get a 3 year version of same visa for $275 USD. I dont have to have Vietnam  registered company, or be married to VN. All I had to do was show company registration documents, and past years financial statement to show I had sufficient income. I can work here simply by filling  out a work permit request myself!

Hi Mike,
This is my experience regarding our application for residency in Vietnam for my husband, who is australian.
Your wife should be the one who does the application at the office of Notary (so tu phap) of the province where she is registered permenantly. You have to submit all of your basic papers like passport, temporary resident certificate (giay xac nhan tam tru), valid marriage certificate,... same for your wife, plus evidence of yours and her income in vietname to prove that you are both able to finance your family's life here. If you already have child, then submit also his/her papers, that will make it even easier. Please tell your wife to go to So Tu Phap to get the application and the list of required papers. it can be slightly different from province to province. For residency card, you can ask for 1 year or 2 years at maximum.
One little reminder: papers are important here so get them be prepared sufficiently. However, there is one thing that is even more important. That is to make good relationship with the one handling your application in the province right at the first place. That will guarantee trouble-free for your application. In the HCMC is good, but in other provinces, money still comes first in those official places... it is annoying, but can not go without it
If your wife is resident of HCMC, then go to 161 Nguyen Du, D.1 to get forms and instruction.

Good luck with your application!

Phuong

Phuong,

Thanks for the info. I will have my wife look into that. I do not work, have a co. or want to so I guess I am retired. I dont mind doing 1 or 2 year visa of any kind. What should the cost be for doing the papers? When we were married it was all corruption money up front. I figured on about 500usd and that is what we bargined for. What should I expect to pay or what is fair? I have no way of proving my income as it is in a trust and distributed on an as needed basis from a family member back in the states. I have no way of receiving any information on the funds available, it is just taken care of for me. Do you think that could be a problem. Would you suggest that I get some little job so that I have working papers? If this makes it easier I have a friend who owns a co. and he will put me on as an employee.

Thank you for the advise,
Mike

Hi Mike,

My husband does not work here either. He comes back and forth between OZ and VN, but still fine. The residency certificae makes his travel easier. As your wife shall be your sponsor so I guess all papers she should show shall be her registration for business (beauty salon) and other related papers. I worked for a company before with proven track of income so it was not a problem for us. Well, we only paid 150$ for the official fee and about same amount to the one handling our application (We gave twices, one time a million vnd and a promise for more later, as i didn't want to pay all perhaps to a wrong person. Who knows?!!). I think it was not that much when it saved us alot of time. When we registered for the marriage certificate, I only paid 500.000VND for the official fee and about 100 AUD to go under the table. All was fine. If your wife are Saigon resident, then I can recommend you can use a travel gency or a lawyer to handle from A-Z for you. They can do that for about 500$. If you don't have reliable one, I can recommned a friend's husband who is good lawyer in HCMC. I think asking your friend to sign a paper saying your are his employee is a good idea too. My husband did that too

Good luck! Phuong

Hello Everyone,

I am from India. My wife is Vietnamese, she doesn't want to live in India. So I came here to live here. I am a software proffessional and looking for a Job in Vietnam. In every interview they are rejecting me because they are afraid of work permit. Is this still a problem, Cos I already married a Vietnamese national and I have a temperory Residence card. Can any one give some suggestions..

If you are married to a Vietnamese citizen and you do not have a business structure from which to create your own work permit, your spouse may still apply for your 5 year Visa exemption. I got both the 5 year exemption and my actual visa in HCMC despite my wife being from Ben Tre.   You don't need any employment verification.  I just put Retired on the form.   In HCMC the office of the Immigration Department is 254 Nguyen Trai, Q.1. 

1) You will need to go once to pick up the application form and maybe once more to bring it all in, but if you have everything you need with you there are tables that you can use to fill out the form.  The form is bilingual Viet/English. 
2) You need your foreign passport with at least 5 years remaining before expiration.  I had to renew mine at the US Consulate, which takes $110 and about a week.  (The US Consulate does not take VND but they will take US credit cards.) If you get a new passport you still need to bring the old one to Immigration so they can see current visa.
3) Your Viet spouse will need his/her identity card and the house book (SỔ HỘ KHẨU) for their official residence.   If they are from outside the city they will have to go home to get it. 
4) You will need an official copy of your marriage certificate.  This not a photocopy, but a red stamped document originating from the government office where you were married that contains the same information as the original document.   Fortunately my wife had the foresight to have several copies made when we were married.  The Immigration Dept. will keep the copy.
4) You need two 4x3 cm passport photos as well and photocopies of some of the documents.  I had photos but they have a service right inside the building.   They have a photocopy service there too but if you are going to take the application home, your spouse can ask exactly what copies they need.
5) Fee is $25US but payable in VND.

Now here's the catch.  The Visa exemption does not really exempt you from having to obtain visa renewals but the key thing is that you will not have to go to the border to do them as texas mike seems to be considering.   If you read the fine print what it really is, is a five-year, multiple entry visa with each entry good for 90 days.  When you get it, there will be a stamp on the next page with the date of your most recent visa.  The good part is that every three months you can get that extended just by submitting the application with the equivalent of $30US at 161 Nguyen Du, as explained by PMikhail.  Both you and your spouse must sign that application and your local police need to stamp it as well.  The form is translated on the paper as “Application for issuance, replacement, modification, or stay extension”.  If memory serves me right your spouse will only need to bring his/her ID card, but you might bring a copy of the marriage certificate to be sure.  I could add that my wife did this all in HCMC without paying anyone more than the posted fees.

For texas mike in Nha Trang I guess this still means a trip to HCMC or Hanoi every three months but that's probably a lot better than a plane ride to Bangkok.  It's also a small price to pay for living in a place as lovely as Nha Trang.

Have a look at for work permit process

http://www.business.gov.vn/licensedetai … gType=1033

Visa and work permit are two different things. Having a visa does not help the work permit process.

If you have problems, go to the immigration office to ask.

Anatta

Do you have information about foreign representative office
proceedures to establish and maintenance compliance.. For
one, self employed, representative of a foreign xyz company?

1) understand you do not need Vietnam work permits or license
2) understand you can represent alone any foreign business
3) What official papers do start up a representative office?
4) What are annual reports/obligations of rep office filings?
5) Any other business information, suggestions are welcome...

Please advise consolidated questioner herein from experience
and thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge

Don't think you can be a freelance rep for a foreign company. You must be employed by that company.

This is an extensive subject. I'd recommend you to go to
http://kieubaoviet.vn/
to talk to them, since I suspect you are a Vietkieu.

Hi
Thank you
I am in Vietnam as the director for a high tech medical company
However
My interest is to explore what is possible as a representative
of a foreign biomedical engineering consulting business

@expatviet -> This thread is on Visa for married to Vietnamese. I think you should start a new thread with your questions on the Vietnam forum.

Thank you,
Aurélie