Work Permit for Vietnam

Getting the work permit is one of the most painful things about living here. I had to jump through way too many hoops and ask way too many favors of way too many people. So if you are interested in working here, you can follow my outline of the easiest way of getting it done. This explanation is primarily for people from the USA. Protocols for getting your documents acceptable for a work permit in Vietnam, will likely be different if you are from another country aside from the USA.

If you are still in your home country, then you can save on expenses and spare asking too many favors by doing things yourself.

Still in your home country:
1. get together your last degree of education/ training/ certifications, your work permit/ licences, and your criminal record file from your country.

2. make photocopies of all of them.

3. get all the photocopies notarized (can be done at any bank in the USA). If you go to a bank where you already have an account, they may perform the notarization for about $10 USD per document.

4. next get your documents authenticated with your state's Secretary of State office. You can find the location of the nearest office by asking the people from step 3 (there's usually an office in every major metropolitan city). In Massachusetts state, the cost was $6 USD per document.

5. next get your documents authenticated in Washington D.C. at the U.S. Department of State Authentications Office. This is the office of Condyleeza Rice, and her signature will actually appear on your document! The fee is $6 USD per document. There is a walk-in service, where you can have your documents in hand and authenticated on the spot. I don't know how this magically happens, since Condyleeza Rice is not always in D.C., but it does happen. If you can't get to D.C. yourself, you can mail your documents to the office, but the turn around time is about 2 weeks! If you are in a rush, then you should hire a courier service in D.C. to do the walking to the office for you. I used a courier service, which charged me $40 USD per office visit.

6. next get your documents authenticated by the Foreign Embassy. In my case, I was dealing with the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington D.C., which is just as slow and bureaucratic as its home country. There is no walk-in service. You can bring your documents there by hand, and the Vietnamese Embassy will tell you to come back in 1 week to pick it up. The cost is $50 USD per document. If you mail your documents to the Embassy for authentication, then the turn around time is at least 2 weeks. I have run into a few problems with their Embassy. I had my documents delivered FedEx to their Embassy with delivery confirmation. When I had received confirmation that the documents were at the Vietnamese Embassy, I called them 2 days later to ask if processing had begun. The Embassy informed me they did not receive my documents. I gave them the name of the person at their Embassy who had signed, receiving my documents from FedEx. Their reply was that they did not know who that person was! I had to keep repeatedly calling the Vietnamese Embassy back over several days, talking to various personnel there, until they finally found my documents! Their apparent disorganization extends to life in the mother land too.

7. the final step is to submit all of your stamped/ authenticated/ notarized documents to your workplace in Vietnam. They then process your work permit for Vietnam, which as of now lasts for 3 years for physicians. The work permit processing takes about 1 month. Without a work permit in Vietnam, you can still work albeit illegally. It is not uncommon to work in Vietnam illegally. But you will always live in fear that the communist police will come knockin on your door and haul your booty straight to the airport and send you home without any warning.

Many thanks to all of the people who helped me in the authentication process for my papers for Vietnam. Namely Betty, Edite and Anna. Of course, there were several people who refused to get involved.