Job Discussion Forums

[uruguay1]

I have been told that documents can be authenticated and translated in Vietnam by a an organization called expat.vn. Information can be found on their website, expat.vn. If anyone deals with them, please let me know how it works out, whether positive or negative.

[jeffelse]

I check the site, expat, doesn't really say where they provide the services.

If you need to get your degree, transcripts, fbi background check, police record check authentication + translated, contact apostille pros www.apostillepros.com

Or if you just need information, they can help you.

Have you've been to Ph� Quốc, pretty nice place. You should go there.

[Captain Willard]

I thought that the FBI background check isn't needed, and that only the state level background check is wanted?

If I have an FBI background check do I still need the state check?

[Oh My God]

[CThomas]

Why on earth would you use a service for something that's so easily done yourself? btw, it's authentication, not apostile: Vietnam didn't sign the Hague treaty, so it's different here.

http://saigonalive.blogspot.com/2010/09/step-3-documentation-before-you-leave.html

Includes contact info for everyone you need. If you're here already,you can use DHL and get it done.

As for the FBI check, I have no idea. I imagine they'll take it, though they want the state level check. There's discussion of this in the sticky thread but nothing conclusive. How long have you been here? After 6 months here you can do a local check (which you may have already known, but just saying...).

[Jam T]

[u]Hello,

I have read CT Cambell's site and agree he is right, one must do all these steps. It seems not a bad idea to use an authentication service.

I know it seems like a ripoff to use the authentication services as ctcampbell mentions, not having lived in the US for over 20 years, I encounter a world of problems:

1. No US checking account to send payment to the US dept of State in DC
2. No friend near Washington DC to do the legwork for me
3. No USA DHL or FedEx account, so no possibility to send a prepaid Fedex or DHL envelope from where I am at (Spain)
4. Even if a friend somewhere in the USA could send couriers for me, how could I pay them without a checkbook? Foreign transfer would be 35-40USD. Western Union would be time consuming for both the friend and myself. Also add 20USD for Western Union charges. Add courier charges two round trips from friend's house to DC (120USD). Then add at least 50 USD for my friend's time. Luckily I have my Michigan apostille otherwise another round trip courier from friend's house to Michigan.

However if I have missed something here, if there is a cheaper way, then please let me know.

Jam

[Jam T]

For just the Federal authentication and the Vietnamese Embassy authentication these are some prices I have found:

US legalisation services
80USD for one document 120USD for two.
Plus SOS charge 8USD + VN Embassy charge 70 or 50USD (depending on speed)
They can send the documents back by courier if you give them your credit card.
They don't seem to have an email address, but do have a toll free number (which is useless if you are not in the US)

US Authorisation Services
120 USD for one document 200 USD for two.
Plus SOS charge 8USD + VN Embassy charge 70 or 50USD (depending on speed)
They can send documents to Vietnam via their fedex account and bill you.
They seem very organised, friendly, flexible and reply quickly to emails. They have been rated positively by others in this forum.

Apostille Pros
Are you sitting down??? If not grab a chair...
495 USD for first document, 355USD for each additional document!
Return of your documents to a US address by FedEX overnight is included.

Apostilla.com
I immediately lost interest when they told me that Federal legalisation was 200USD and Embassy authentication was 500USD. They said something about other (more economical) services telling lies...

Hope someone finds this useful!
Jam

[EFLeducator]

Seems like NOTHING is really needed in HCMC. I would say that 90% of the "teachers" here have no work visa. Seems like a party town with schools that will hire anyone.

You may be one of the few legit teachers they will have here.

[sigmoid]

[EFLeducator]

[biliana]

[EFLeducator]

[TRH]

Before this topic gets locked, I wanted to add my experience with the original topic. Before I came to HCMC I authenticated two sets of documents with the Vietnamese embassy in DC. One set was for employment; my college transcript, the TEFL cert and the criminal records check. I pretty much followed the CThomas blog on that. The other set was for marriage. In that case I got the documents that were listed as needed on the Viet embassy website. (It turns out that the authorities in Ben Tre, where we were married, said they did not need two of the seven documents so $$ wasted there but that's how it is. If we were one document short it could have been a lot worse.)

I handled all of these fully myself, including creating the documents or obtaining them from government as required. I got them notarized, authenticated at the State level, at the US State department level, and at the Embassy. I walked the documents on the state level but each set going to DC and back twice represented a $35 Express mailing with a $35 return envelope enclosed.

What I am getting to in a round about way is that in Honolulu at least I could have had the work beyond the first levels done for a flat fee by a Viet Kieu travel agent. All the Vietnamese agents in Honolulu's Chinatown will do the same. I calculated the direct costs that I had in fees and mailings and they were more than the flat fee the agent charged. I asked him how he could do it and he opened up that he did not go through the Embassy in DC but went to the Consulate in San Francisco. He admitted that because of his connections there where he regularly arranges tourist visas, they allowed him to skip the certification by the State of Hawaii and just approved the notarized documents saving a whole layer of time and money. It may be that they even discounted him on the per document fee. Notice how the connections based way of doing business extends over the water.

If uraguay1 still has friends in the US who could contact a Viet Kieu travel agent maybe that would be a way to get it done. It still would be tough and you would have to get the documents delivered to the agent somehow but it may be a way around the dilemma.