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hijohnmark
Joined: 19 May 2016
Posts: 1
Location: San Francisco, CA
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 Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 7:29 pm Post subject: Banking in Vietnam |
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| Hello! I'm moving to HCMC in August for a teaching job at Major Education. I'm looking for advice from seasoned teachers/travelers—what are some of my best options for handling finances when teaching and traveling abroad? Right now I live in the US and I have a bank account with Wells Fargo. Should I just maintain that or is there a local bank in HCMC I could switch to? Or better yet some other option for people like me who plan to teach and work and live in many different countries throughout their lifetimes? I'm a bit clueless here, so any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. |
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half moon
Joined: 17 Jul 2007
Posts: 49
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 2:22 am Post subject: Re: Banking in Vietnam |
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| hijohnmark wrote: |
| Hello! I'm moving to HCMC in August for a teaching job at Major Education. I'm looking for advice from seasoned teachers/travelers—what are some of my best options for handling finances when teaching and traveling abroad? Right now I live in the US and I have a bank account with Wells Fargo. Should I just maintain that or is there a local bank in HCMC I could switch to? Or better yet some other option for people like me who plan to teach and work and live in many different countries throughout their lifetimes? I'm a bit clueless here, so any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. |
I stand to be corrected.
A couple of months ago, the govt made opening a bank account only possible if a foreigner had a work permit?
Is this still in effect. Someone will post the current situation.
A new arrival was hired at my company and my company does direct deposit, but the banks would not let him open a bank account. He was very annoyed, and somehow he and my company jumped through some hoops. I didn't ask any follow up questions, and this guy actually left.
That said.....
If you can open a bank account, you can keep your current US account open (but I assume there are fees).
You can close your US account.
If the regs have changed you can open an account in VN. |
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ExpatLuke
Joined: 11 Feb 2012
Posts: 744
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:12 am Post subject: |
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I'm not sure about a work permit, but you need an agreement between the bank and the company you're working for. Valid work contract and all that. All of our teachers are set up with bank accounts as soon as the sign their contracts.
They're just making sure you're paying taxes. If you have a contract that doesn't stipulate that you're paying taxes, you can't open a bank account. |
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TRH
Joined: 27 Oct 2011
Posts: 340
Location: Hawaii
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 12:05 pm Post subject: Re: Banking in Vietnam |
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| hijohnmark wrote: |
| Right now I live in the US and I have a bank account with Wells Fargo. Should I just maintain that or is there a local bank in HCMC I could switch to? |
Believe it or not, you can be a US citizen and lose your residency and there are certain advantages that accrue to residency. Maintaining an address and banking in the US are central to that. If you are young, use your parents' address and if you are older, use your children's. If not, rely on a trusted friend.
One thing is that residency is necessary if you ever wanted to bring a spouse to the US. That may not be on your radar now but you never know. As a teacher you can surely exclude 100% of your income from US taxation but you still have to file. Losing your residency will not remove that obligation. |
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Mattingly
Joined: 03 Jul 2008
Posts: 249
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:14 pm Post subject: Re: Banking in Vietnam |
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| TRH wrote: |
| hijohnmark wrote: |
| Right now I live in the US and I have a bank account with Wells Fargo. Should I just maintain that or is there a local bank in HCMC I could switch to? |
Believe it or not, you can be a US citizen and lose your residency and there are certain advantages that accrue to residency. Maintaining an address and banking in the US are central to that. If you are young, use your parents' address and if you are older, use your children's. If not, rely on a trusted friend.
One thing is that residency is necessary if you ever wanted to bring a spouse to the US. That may not be on your radar now but you never know. As a teacher you can surely exclude 100% of your income from US taxation but you still have to file. Losing your residency will not remove that obligation. |
Out of curiosity I googled a few times if a US citizen can lose residency.
Nothing comes up.
I've never read nor heard of this.
It does not apply to me, as I have a US bank account and mailing address.
However, I have not filed taxes in about 15 years. I never got or sent in the "exclusion income form."
If income is below a certain level (as one accountant said) like $7,000 you do not need to file. But in all other circumstances, Americans are required by law to file. The reasoning is, if it was not law to file, then millions of Americans would not.
I'm vested in Social Security already, and I don't think not filling matters b/c I'm not paying into the SS system, even if I did file. |
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TRH
Joined: 27 Oct 2011
Posts: 340
Location: Hawaii
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| Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 11:52 pm Post subject: Re: Banking in Vietnam |
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| Mattingly wrote: |
Out of curiosity I googled a few times if a US citizen can lose residency.
Nothing comes up.
I've never read nor heard of this.
It does not apply to me, as I have a US bank account and mailing address.
However, I have not filed taxes in about 15 years. I never got or sent in the "exclusion income form."
If income is below a certain level (as one accountant said) like $7,000 you do not need to file. But in all other circumstances, Americans are required by law to file. The reasoning is, if it was not law to file, then millions of Americans would not.
I'm vested in Social Security already, and I don't think not filling matters b/c I'm not paying into the SS system, even if I did file. |
I may have chosen the incorrect word in my initial statement. The word that US Immigration uses is "domicile." The problem comes up in the Form I-864 Affidavit of Support. This is from a third party immigration website and the second link is from US immigration.
http://www.immihelp.com/affidavit-of-support/country-of-domicile.html
"A U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident petitioner who is not domiciled in the United States can not sponsor. The law requires that sponsors be domiciled in any of the states of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any territory or possession of the United States." They further define temporary and permanent domicile There are ways to get around the domicile requirement, but they are somewhat difficult.
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864instr.pdf
As far as not having to file taxes, for a single person under 65 in 2015 that was $10,300. However on the same page (Form 54 ) the IRS says "For purposes of determining whether you must file a return, gross income includes any income that you can exclude as foreign earned income or as a foreign housing amount." So for purposes of illustration, if a teacher makes $12,000 (not an unreasonable assumption) he would still have to file even thought his taxable income and tax liability would both be $0 due to the Foreign Income Exclusion. The reality is that the IRS surely has bigger fish to fry than English teachers in Vietnam. Where it could get a little sticky is if and when you decide to go for Social Security. Missing 15 years might set up a red flag. However, as long as you keep good records you could file the back years all at once without penalty as long as there were no taxes owed. When you file your 1040 the exclusion is attached as Form 2555.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf |
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sigmoid
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 1276
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Should I just maintain that or is there a local bank in HCMC I could switch to? |
Just do both. Keep your account in the US and open a local account in Vietnam.
| Quote: |
you need an agreement between the bank and the company you're working for. Valid work contract and all that. All of our teachers are set up with bank accounts as soon as the sign their contracts.
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This is true if your employer pays you by bank transfer, and yes, usually they handle the paperwork to open the account for you.
If that is not the case, you may have some difficulty opening an account on your own. However, there are many banks operating in VN now and policies differ. For example, http://www.acb.com.vn/wps/portal/en is generally considered a good (easy) place for foreigners to use. Basically, you will need to shop around a bit and see which banks match your needs.
| Quote: |
| Or better yet some other option for people like me who plan to teach and work and live in many different countries throughout their lifetimes? |
If you're moving around on the Asian English teaching circuit, it can be a good idea to maintain accounts in several countries if there's a good chance you'll be back for work or travel. Leave some money in it, check about fees and it may come in handy later.
You might also look into online payments services like PayPal, etc. and maybe talk to someone at Wells Fargo. They probably have someone who knows a bit about overseas banking there that can offer some insights and advice. |
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TRH
Joined: 27 Oct 2011
Posts: 340
Location: Hawaii
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| Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 8:11 pm Post subject: |
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| sigmoid wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Should I just maintain that or is there a local bank in HCMC I could switch to? |
...Keep your account in the US and open a local account in Vietnam. .....
If you're moving around on the Asian English teaching circuit, it can be a good idea to maintain accounts in several countries if there's a good chance you'll be back for work or travel. Leave some money in it, check about fees and it may come in handy later.
You might also look into online payments services like PayPal, etc. and maybe talk to someone at Wells Fargo. They probably have someone who knows a bit about overseas banking there that can offer some insights and advice. |
This is good advice but you might want to think about banks other than Wells Fargo. Two that should both be in CA and Vietnam are CITI and HSBC. If you only plan to be in Vietnam, then CITI might be best while if you think you might be moving around HSBC will be in more Asian countries. I think there was a long thread on this and ways to transfer funds but I will let you do the searching.
Another thing is that while it may be costly to use US credit cards in VN because of added ATM fees, emergencies may happen. You should give all of your credit cards a call and tell them you want to make a travel advisory. That way they won't reject transactions because they are coming from Vietnam. I had that happen in a major computer shop and it is embarrassing.  Look around for cards that don't have an added foreign transaction fee. I know all Capitol One cards do not while only one card at Bank of America doesn't. If you have a card with Wells Fargo you should check on that too. |
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Mattingly
Joined: 03 Jul 2008
Posts: 249
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| Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 1:10 am Post subject: |
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| TRH wrote: |
| sigmoid wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Should I just maintain that or is there a local bank in HCMC I could switch to? |
...Keep your account in the US and open a local account in Vietnam. .....
If you're moving around on the Asian English teaching circuit, it can be a good idea to maintain accounts in several countries if there's a good chance you'll be back for work or travel. Leave some money in it, check about fees and it may come in handy later.
You might also look into online payments services like PayPal, etc. and maybe talk to someone at Wells Fargo. They probably have someone who knows a bit about overseas banking there that can offer some insights and advice. |
This is good advice but you might want to think about banks other than Wells Fargo. |
For expats (and I think everyone) Credit Unions are much better.
They have lower fees and sometimes even no fees. |
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