Work permit 'through an agency'

That was the law for quite awhile. The other way to obtain a WP is by showing 5 years experience in relation to teaching and have it notarized by the previous employer. This may have changed as it was a few years ago that I did mine. Beware of agents, they couldn't care less what happens to you, they just want the bucks.

AFAIK, you need a degree, a teaching certification (can be a TEFL), a health check, a police background check and a passport valid for at least the duration of the work permit.

I am in the process of getting a work permit right now.

Things have to be notarized, translated, photocopies have to be notarized. The company has to go to the government with all that and documents of their own to get the work permit.

You'll need to go through your embassy/consulate to get your degree and a photocopy notarized. I don't think you need to get anything apostilled. The criminal check comes from your own country if you haven't lived here for at least six months. The medical check must be done here by an officially designated hospital. Translations are done here. A photocopy of your entire passport is made and notarized here.

Ok thanks.

So the agents telling me that I can obtain a work permit with them via them going through an agency are straight up lying?

I questioned the legality of it as I doubted it myself and they told me that 'Vietnamese work permits were flexible'

I had a fellow teacher in a public middle school who got his WP without a degree.  He did pay to his lawyer a large amount of money (either $2K to $3K I forget which) the bulk of which surely went to straight up bribes and possibly the production of fake documents that he never saw.  That could be what they meant by "flexible."

In this case the individual was a good teacher and his most fluent students attested to his ability in casual conversations that I had with them (I had taught them the previous year.)  He did tell me that he paid the cost because he was recently engaged and hence had a strong motive to remain in Vietnam but would not have done so if he had just arrived.

JudeMalone wrote:

Ok thanks.

So the agents telling me that I can obtain a work permit with them via them going through an agency are straight up lying?

I questioned the legality of it as I doubted it myself and they told me that 'Vietnamese work permits were flexible'

Anything can be obtained in Vietnam with some extra incentives provided to officials.

You can do a search on WP's and see the requirements to obtain one.

So the response I got when I questioned the legality of it was 'It was notarized by the labour , invalids and social affairs department'

No where online does it say anyone could ever be considered for a work permit without a bachelor's or at least 5 years work experience. Yet, this is the 3rd agent that has said they can obtain w/p for people w/o a degrees through an 'agency' for around 200 USD.

Don't know what to make of it as they wanted teachers with degrees. Only when I told them I didn't have one they mentioned about a wp. So it's not like they're going looking for people w/o degrees.

As I said before, money will get you anything and everything in VN.

A document can be a total fraud; as long as it has that red stamp it's OK.

What was notarized?

Work permits are not notarized.

University degrees must be notarized by your government through your embassy/consulate.

You'll need to be sure that your government won't actually check to make sure that your degree is real. For many universities it's as easy as entering your name and birth date on their website.

I assumed what he meant was that the WP was certified by DOLISA.  People use terms like apostille (which is irrelevant in Vietnam), notarized, and certified almost interchangeably even though they mean very different things.

Work permits aren't certified by DOLISA as that implies you got it from somewhere else. Only DOLISA can issue a work permit. I have no idea if they certify what they themselves issue however.

Vietnam and Canada are not signatories to the apostille treaty. So documents for Vietnam or from Canada are notarized instead.

University degrees need to be notarized by the applicants country. If you are here then that means you have to take your degree and a photocopy to your embassy/consulate and ask them to notarize it. I can't say for sure but that might mean they would check to see if it is a legitimate degree. OTOH they might just stamp it while you wait. IMHO I would think one would like to know the answer to that question before showing up with a fake university degree. Both for financial and legal reasons I would suspect.

Since OP is from England, he should stay informed that UK missions in VN don't legalize any British document here in VN anymore.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/notarial-an … or-vietnam
(Scroll down to "Legalisation – Change to our services from 13 November 2017")

VietCanada wrote:

Work permits aren't certified by DOLISA as that implies you got it from somewhere else. Only DOLISA can issue a work permit. I have no idea if they certify what they themselves issue however.

Now we are really splitting semantic hairs.  Whatever you want to call it, DOLISA gives you back the document with the magical circular red mark.   

First time that I heard that Canada is not a non Hague convention member but neither is Vietnam, it matters not what country you are from;  Apostilles not required or recognized.

Again, I can't speak for Canada but I am sure that the US Consulate does not certify the authenticity of your diploma.  They simply notarize your affirmative statement that it is real.  That way they can't be on the hook if it is fake.  Apparently that's good enough for DOLISA.  As I have said before, in Vietnam, it matters not whether your documents are authentic as long as the appropriate body has stamped them