Help! Caught up in fake visa stamp

Hi have you solved the problem yet? Same issue with my husband.

I don't understand why anyone who meets the legitimate criteria for a visa goes through third parties.  Maybe I was just lucky but when I moved to Vietnam, I entered on a visa that came from the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco.  It was arranged by my US side travel agent but with no markup.  As soon as we were legally married, my wife applied for and got a VEC for me and every three months went downtown to get another extension directly from immigration.  I even had one of these fixers that hung around my school tell me that I could only get three extensions, undoubtedly hoping that I would ask him to get the fourth one for a hefty fee.  When I left Vietnam, I think I had ten 90 day extensions without his help.  Understand that my wife is no lawyer.  She did not even finish high school due to her father's early death and is neither Party connected nor willing to pay bribes, but she managed to get it done. 

I can see why people who do not meet legitimate criteria, , such as teachers who remain and work illegally on repeatedly extended tourist visas, use agents.  But if you meet the criteria, why deal with these sharks?  The number of threads on visa-on-arrival scams on this site are too numerous to follow.  Nothing beats a visa glued to your passport by the proper government authorities either in the Embassy/Consulate in your home country or in immigration downtown.  But then as I said, maybe I was just lucky.

You might want to read this thread:  https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 77#3267009

THIGV - I see your need "every three months (to go) downtown to get another extension directly from immigration" as being a real pain ... Why not get a 3-year TRC "ĐT" visa ?

I got mine (and my wife's - we are both non-VN) from an agent in 24 hours. We have entered and exited dozens of times this year and absolutely no hassle - everything is registered on Immigration computers anyway. No glued-in visa, only our stamped TRC VN Identity card (better not lose it though). That's it ... I'll see the agent again in 3 years' time and not a moment earlier.