not possible to get visa extension in TP. HCM direct

[hermespan]

The Immigration office (now at 196 Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, phường 6, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh) a 15 minute sweltering brisk walk N and E of the old office on Nguyen Du *looks* straightforward and welcoming. Get N14/M form ar kiosk on next floor up from basement, take a number (press screen), wait, stumble along in street Vietnamese or be shifted to fluent officer.

Short answer: You can't cut out the middle man as a tourist.

Bureaucracy w/ no practical purpose as far as I can tell. Tourist visa can be extended only via sponsor (i.e. travel agency). No explanation why. What purpose served? Actual gov't fee only $10 for 1 mnth sgl, $40 1-3 mnth multi. So agencies are making lion's share. Is it gov't corruption? Is it Soviet-style bureaucracy? Does the VN gov't need the hard currency? How does making one go thru an agency prevent criminals from staying in country? Why does Vietnam discourage tourism (compared to Thailand and especially Malaysia)?

Vietnam has the same problem of all nation-states if various forms of state socialism - it's not up to the marketpkace ot community, it's up to officers of the Federal level.

Who can fathom their reasons?

Visa policy in Vietnam is up, down and sideways (gets easier, gets tougher, confusion reigns at some land borders).

A journalist in my libertarian and libertine adventurer newsletter on travelling SE Asia in the 1990s put it well when he wrote "Vietnamese government would prefer if we just sent our money and stayed home."

[hermespan]

Trying to beat the state and corporate machinery at its own game, I walked into DB Bahn / GOTADI the travel agency at 194 NTMK (I am getting tired quickly of Sai Gon's 5-syllable street names) immediately next door to Immigration Office. Hey, it's right friggin next door. They just walk up the ballustraded staircase next door, fill out a form and comply with all the phoney rules.

1 month sgle = $60
Nothing else available at any price.

Hey, I am all for the convenience and utility of corruption. Its State Socialism with its willy-nillyness and disconnect w/ market realities that I have issues with. Give me gangsters over Commisars any day.

[MaxB]

Long may they continue to make it awkward for foreign tourists.

As soon as it gets easy: there goes the neighbourhood.

[hermespan]

Long may they continue to make it awkward for foreign tourists.

As soon as it gets easy: there goes the neighbourhood.

How true. I look forward to it becoming *really awkward* then. Vietnam is in limbo, neither hard nor easy (for seasoned travellers anyway - just sent a US citizen home after 2 weeks. He longed for Pattaya. He couldn't hack anywhere outside of HCMC. Eating out after 8 pm was almist impossible in Hanoi and Northern Vietnamese border towns (Mong Cai, Lao Cai etc) win the award for matresses like torture chambers.

[Hanno]

Long may they continue to make it awkward for foreign tourists.

As soon as it gets easy: there goes the neighbourhood.

I am afraid the neighborhood done and gone about 10 years ago.....

Visa fees just came down BTW.

[hermespan]

Long may they continue to make it awkward for foreign tourists.

As soon as it gets easy: there goes the neighbourhood.

I am afraid the neighborhood done and gone about 10 years ago.....

Visa fees just came down BTW.

Could have fooled me. Unless it happened in the last hour. I read the posted fees at Immigration office - comprable w/ Cambodia and expats tell me they have to leave VN every 3 months. I am not talking about guys with businesses, just regular blokes doing the sojourning indeterminably on tourist visas a la Pattaya 1995.

A travel agency around corner just quoted me $45 due to my 'special situation' of having last entered from China - insinuating I am supposed to he in country only 15 days? Stamp in my passport makes no such stipulation!

Chaos rules in Vietnam. And not just in traffic - charming practice of motorcyclists threateninv to mos down pedestriand *on the sidewalk*

[hermespan]

SAME travel agency (BLUE HORIZON) just told me she quoted me an incorrect fee. It is $157 for a 1-month visa. Ready in 7 days. She says that due to my 'special situation' (entering in North of Vietnam from China) it is complcated and expensive. But she can get me a 3-mnth multi for $400.

Uh, no thanks. I think I will chill in SHV where getting a lengthy visa can be (used to be, anyway) done while you wait or at most overnight. Anyway, visa fees are *supposedly* coming down in January.

I will believe it when I see it - proved by what I open my wallet for and what paper glued in my passport a tually says. And not hust that - what actually happens at the border.

She seems competant and smart. She implied that cheapo travel agency doesn't have all the facts.

[gavinmac]

What does TP mean?

[hermespan]

What does TP mean?

TP = city?

vs.

HCMC

It is on al Bietnamese business cards and signs. Have you never been to Vietnam?

[Hanno]

What does TP mean?

Thanh pho: city.

[gavinmac]

It is on al Bietnamese business cards and signs. Have you never been to Vietnam?

No, I need to get out to see more places.

[alanclarke72]

I like it when places in SEA get too expensive for degenerate sex tourists watching their meager budgets like herpespan. The sooner than vegetarian freak fucks off back the welfare state of wherever he comes from the better.

[PenhMan]

So $400 US every three months. Without going out of the country? Oh, screw it. It doesn't matter. I had been considering moving to Saigon to join up with a friend with a new job there (visa and permit supplied) but pretty much decided against it recently because of what I'd previously read about 1-year back-door visas at $350 to $500. Well this latest info puts paid to any such Vietnam plans.

I write this from Siem Reap, where I am checking out the lifestyle vibe.

When it comes right down to it, Thailand offers all the visa "products" for every need, including a true retirement extension. I've only just had to admit that after months of playing around with moving back to Cambodia or Vietnam. I would be leaving my lovely $200US/mo apartment in a quiet, well managed resort-like setting and an easy visa retirement extension for only $160US a year: extension and re-entry permit total.

It hurts to say it but Thailand has got its game down. As you can tell, I'm not a fan of the junta and, well, the whole smug, moronic population.