Foreigners in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

He is married to a Vietnamese citizen and has lived and worked in the country legally for more than a decade. A visa extension has been a routine formality all these years.

An expat who did not want to be named said he could not believe it when his travel agent told him a couple of months ago that his visa extension for a year had been rejected. Why, he asked, but received no coherent answer.

The expat eventually got an extension of three months, but is not sure what awaits him at the end of that period.

Many expats who have been caught unawares by an “abrupt change” in visa renewal regulations are angry and upset about receiving no advance notice or explanation.

Immigration authorities have since informed that expats with labor contracts valid for more than one year need to renew their visa every three months or six months.

“This situation is a major concern for foreign employees and their employers because of the waste of time and the additional expenses,” said lawyer Albert Franceskinj of the DS Avocats law firm in Ho Chi Minh City.

Franceskinj confirmed there was no official change in the immigration rules but

Vietnamese immigration authorities are now observing and applying more strictly the provisions in issuing visas for foreigners who do not have work permits.

The visa duration has also been reduced without any explanation, Franceskinj added.

The latest immigration rules allow foreigners without a work permit to extend their visa twice for three months each. At the end of the six months, they will have to leave Vietnam.

But investors in Vietnam or those who are granted with a work permit may apply for temporary residence cards of one to three years duration.

Unamused

Franceskinj said expats were not so upset about stricter regulations but the lack of any notice.

“Legally speaking, the [Vietnamese] government is not obliged to announce [the stricter rules] in advance. But given the fact that Vietnam is accommodating many foreign communities, local authorities should have the expats prepared for this,” he said.

He said the Vietnamese authorities should contact relevant embassies to let them know about the stricter rules.

If informed in advance, the expats would have appreciated the move instead of feeling frustrated, uncomfortable and worried, Franceskinj said.

Unwelcome?

A program manager of a British NGO which sent young people to Vietnam to teach English on a voluntary basis said the less flexible rules would discourage his people.

“It might not make a big difference but it will be a big nuisance,” he said, declining to be named for fear his organization would get in trouble.

Tong Phuoc My, sales and marketing manager of MV-TRAVEL tourism firm, also told Thanh Nien Weekly his firm and many others have been unable to apply for six-month visas for their clients.

“We understand that Vietnam now has to solve several of its own problems and the collateral damage for foreigners (caught in the firing line) would be inevitable. What they would need is just better communication from Vietnamese authorities,” Franceskinj said.

Illegal labor headache

The HCMC administration said in October that it would ask the federal government to increase tenfold the fines imposed on firms that employ illegal workers.

A total of 16,800 foreigners are currently working in the city and nearly 3,000 don’t have labor permits, the city’s Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs estimated. Most of them are employed in footwear and textiles and garment companies.

The city’s Immigration Department said that many unskilled Africans have entered the country as tourists and stayed on to work temporarily for businesses in the city.

The department said companies that had employed foreigners for three months in Vietnam without work permits would get three more months to get them. After that, foreigners without work permits will be asked to leave, he added.

In the first nine months of this year, HCMC police registered 52 crimes involving 127 foreigners. Sixteen of these were involved in drug trafficking, 16 others in swindling and 12 in robberies. Most of the violators were from Nigeria, Turkey, Iran, Korea, the Philippines and India, city police said.

Reported by An Dien