I have recently been writing about how the visa situation has vastly improved in Vietnam as we have returned to the 90 day visa by default. For many countries, they don't even need a visa at all and can just turn up here and get 45 days on arrival with a visa waiver program. Unfortunately this doesn't apply to my nationality but I'm ok with that. I am just happy to get 3 months at a time instead of 1.
During Covid, things got strange here in Vietnam and a lot of the expat community simply stopped getting visas because travel was too difficult and there weren't any sort of guarantees that you were going to be allowed back in. The world has calmed down since then and now getting in and out of Vietnam as well as the rest of of the world is very easy.
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There were a number of people that I know that simply didn't do visas anymore and overstayed for a year or more. The consequences were financially dire for those folks but I guess it depends on if you think $1000 is a lot of money or not. That was the penalty and there was a lot of paperwork that you had to sign that states some BS reason for why you were overstaying, that you are sorry, that it was beyond your control, and that you will never do it again.
A great way to get this approved was and is to hire an agent, who knows exactly what you need to put on the documents in order to get it approved, and he/she also knows whose palms need to be "greased" in order to ensure an easy pathway to victory.
Everyone that I know who overstayed was forgiven provided they paid the fine and of all of them those same people left the country on what is known as an "exit visa" and then came back in. Sometimes they came back in immediately and were not harassed at all for having done so.
That is except for one particular person that I know whose last day in Vietnam is today. I feel bad for her a little bit because she is a nice person but her downfall and inability to get another visa is entirely her own fault. She was one of the ones that overstayed by over a year, I believe it was nearly 2 years and instead of immediately hiring an agent to find the path of least resistance, she would go over to Immigration on her own and attempt to plead her case... this would largely happen with people who didn't understand her because not only does she not speak Vietnamese, but she also has a rather difficult to understand Kiwi accent. I struggle to understand her and I have spoken this language my entire life.
The reason why this was a bad idea on her part is because she is making their jobs more difficult and she was also trying to get through the process without paying a bribe. In an ideal world "money under the table" wouldn't exist but I got news for you guys out there, that is just the way the world kind of works. They now remembered her name for the wrong reasons. She was seen as problematic and processing her exit visa and the overstay paperwork ended up taking about 4 times as long as anyone else that I am aware of.
Despite all of this, Immigration still granted her an exit visa, and she was allowed back into the country as long as she promised to follow immigration protocol from that point forward and never overstay again. I don't think this is a big ask on their part and they were being very generous because of the problems that Covid put on everyone in the world.
Just sign this paper that states you are sorry (even if you aren't) and then never break the rule again? Ok? Sound easy enough?
Well it isn't for some people and this woman has only herself to blame. She managed to make it only about 2 months before she drunkenly slept through a flight and then even though there were 2 additional flights that were available that same afternoon, she was so hungover that she decided that sleep was more important than leaving the country on time as she had promised.
She put it off for weeks before she finally turned herself in for overstaying.... it's not like the police come and look for you or anything. She wasn't hiding. However, she ONCE AGAIN made the mistake of turning up at Immigration with a Vietnamese friend of her translating for her rather than using an agent. It didn't take long for the people to remember her and eventually she was told that she will be granted an exit visa, but then she must leave Vietnam and that return visas will be denied.
She thought they were bluffing but sure enough, when she got to Bangkok expecting to come back she was denied E-Visas twice. She arrogantly left her belongings here in Vietnam while traveling on what she thought (or hoped) was going to be a visa run.
Eventually she went to the Vietnam embassy in Thailand and pleaded her case about needing to get back into Vietnam just for a few days to gather her belongings. They were apprehensive to allow her even this because of her past history of violating visa rules and was told that she would be arrested if she didn't leave in the 7 days they granted her to get her affairs in order and get out of the country. I don't think this is actually legal on the part of Vietnam but I wouldn't test them.... and she is not going to test them.
Later on today we are getting together for a BBQ that will have alcohol at it and she is one of those people that simply cannot be responsible with booze. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if she ends up so hungover tomorrow that she ends up missing her flight again. I hope she doesn't do that because Vietnam is being really cool with visas right now and we don't need people like her to be screwing this up for the rest of us.
I like the girl, but she got what she deserved. Any other country that I can think of would have banned her from re-entry quite a while before Vietnam did but she just decided to F**k around and find out a bit too much.