And so it begins: Panic strikes Vietnam expat community as all are told to leave in 30 days

Those of us that have been living in Vietnam for years or more have always loved the way that this country seemed to have a really fantastic visa policy in that you can basically stay as long as you want to. I don't know what has changed so dramatically in the past two weeks but it appears as though we are no longer welcome here.

In the past, we handled our visas on our own by simply taking a cheap flight or bus over to a neighboring country and then re-applying for another visa that would cost $25 - $100 depending on how long of a visa you wanted. Only Americans were eligible for the $100 one-year visa and that was the type I have been using for 3 years now. Just a few days ago the news started hitting social media and now the entire expat community is in a panic as it seems that our time is up here and the hospitality that this country has shown us for the past many years is over.

I cropped the post a bit to somewhat conceal the agency in question but they are a long-running operation that has been assisting people with visas for as long as I have lived here and well before that. Basically they are a trusted team that would stand to gain nothing by lying about any of this. The English isn't great but you get the point: Basically, we have 30 days to get out of here.

In some situations that I have heard of but don't actually know anyone that it has happened to, they are holding your passport hostage until you can provide proof of an outgoing flight to another country. This doesn't sound terribly legal but that is the way that it is and as far as I know, there is nothing that you can do about it.

There is a lot of confusion as to what the hell we are supposed to do because there aren't a lot of flights out of this country at the moment and even internal flights are limited due to certain areas of the country being locked down because of Covid. This is most noticeable in the only two operating international airports in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon.) Unless they change something in the next week or so, one can expect great difficulty in simply getting to those places.

I don't know a ton of people, maybe like 100 or so, and everyone is already talking about how they are getting out and it is quite tragic actually because I quite like it here.

There has been no word as to why this is happening either. While there has been an uptick in Covid cases, it isn't like the foreigners are responsible for it: All of the recent cases have been spread from Vietnamese person to other Vietnamese people so I don't understand why they would be doing this.

A lot of folks have been staying here for free on amnesty visas for about a year, which was very nice of the government to provide but I gotta be a little cynical here - the expat population tends to spend a lot more money than the average Vietnamese person does - even if it is mostly on beer.

So unless some new notification is made in the next week or so, I will be joining the masses in the panic to get out of the country. It's been a nice ride and it is a shame that it has to end. I suppose I need to do some soul searching to figure out where to go to next.

There are thousands of digital nomads in Vietnam, all that work legally for overseas companies. The amount of lost revenue to the economy over here might not be noticed at first. According to government statistics there are less than 100,000 expats in Vietnam, but these are likely only counting the ones with work permits that work for Vietnamese schools and companies. The number of people that work remotely here, mostly be teaching English to Chinese people are probably several hundred thousand more. This is a lot of restaurant, bar, and condo money that is going to disappear in the next 30 days.

I hope that they don't regret making this decision because I for one, will not return because the entire process already has me thinking I am going to have a chip on my shoulder because of it.

Oh well, we have no choice. Time to get packing I guess. It's a good thing I am not the type of person that acquires a bunch of stuff so moving wont really that be a very big deal.