Job Discussion Forums

[rrruss]

Well, first the good news! With no empty pages left on my passport I sent my application and old passport off to Hong Kong. 3 weeks of nervous waiting with baited breath passed and a shiny new passport arrived by courier along with my battered old one.

Now comes the problem!

My school tells me I'm ok with the old passport and visa until it runs out on 2 April when they will have a new visa put in the new passport for me. My work permit will be transferred accordingly.

However, the British Embassy has told me that this is wrong and that I must transfer the current visa from the old passport to the new passport. My school tell me this is impossible!

Looks like my thoughts of flying to Singapore for the Hung Vuong Kings holiday at the end of the month are now in pieces. Good job I hadn't booked a flight! The school say I can leave on the old passport and come back in on the new one gaining another 3 month visa on the way (fortunately at their expense) but the Embassy has said that the old passport is now cancelled so I can't do that!

Does anyone have any experience in this sort of situation???

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!!!!!

Russ

[ExpatLuke]

No experience with this myself, but since you have your visa, I don't think it should be a problem. Your visa is still valid even if it's on your old passport. If I were you, I would just bring both passports with me, and show them the still current visa on the old passport. If worse came to worse, I would think you could just get a visa-on-arrival when you got back from Singapore.

Sounds like a bit of a headache though.

[rrruss]

Thanks Luke

The British Embassy told me today that I cannot leave Vietnam on the old passport and that I must transfer the visa to the new passport. The old passport is now invalid.

[Kram]

@ OP. I doubt the British Embassy can dictate Vietnam's policy on work permits. I'd contact the appropriate Vietnam govt. department and find out what they say and I also realise this is easier said than done.

In the country I'm in it's acceptable to leave with a cancelled passport and current visa + replacement passport, but you can't use the cancelled passport to re-enter, therefore a new visa would be needed in the replacement passport.

I apologise for not being more helpful in regard to Vietnam.

[LettersAthruZ]

[Jbhughes]

I had a slightly similar issue when I went back to the UK earlier this year.

Thanks to the thoughtful officials on either sides of the Moc Bai Bavet border and the size of the the damn visas, my passport is nearly full. I'd intended to get a nice new jumbo passport in the UK until I realised that of course my temporary residency card and work permit have the current passport number on them.

So I contacted the Vietnam Customs and Immigrations freephone who told me in perfect English the correct procedure (I still don't understand why my keyboard doesn't have a sarcasm key). No, the only means of procuring any information I could find was contacting a well-known expat company, they told me that they had had customers who had got through customs (coming in to VN) with their new passport, using their the visa in their old one. They said it was a matter of luck though, sometimes it was ok, sometimes not. I decided against renewing my passport, as I didn't want any bother.

DO bear in mind though, that this was for coming INTO the country and my t.r.c and w.p. still had months left on them, months I didn't want to lose. Given that you would be leaving the country and that you don't have much left on your visa anyway, I would try it. I don't think you have as much to lose and there are surely less potential problems leaving the country in this situation than entering it.

Should you decide not to go on holiday, then I wouldn't worry about it at all quite frankly. If you school can arrange a Visa and will pay for it (and have a track record of doing this for you or others in the past), then just wait for then to sort it all out for you at the end of April. By the time you actually get to using your Visa again, the authorities will have the shiny new Visa in the shiny new passport and will stamp with glee. I have been through customs (Moc Bai-Bavet) with a whole years worth of time unaccounted for in my passport (an old temporary residency card) and they didn't ask any questions (or ask for any money).

Good luck either way.

[snollygoster]

I HAVE had a similar experience. The general rule of thumb is "Whatever costs the foreigner most and is most inconvenient is what is required".
I guess all cases will be the same- more or less. I had to get a new visa, and pay for it, despite the original visa still being valid- reason? My old passport was cancelled when the new one was issued, so according to a MR TUYEN at the Immigration Office in Hanoi, either a new visa, OR a considerable "surprise package" in the folded up newspaper he shoved at me, would suffice. I refused to give his newspaper any second look, so was issued with a 5 day visa to either get a new visa or leave Vietnam.
Phone call to a friend in HCMC and trip there got the visa, but a visit from Mr TUYEN and armed friends to my home revealed that according to Mr. Tuyen, the visa issued in HCMC was a fake. A call to my Embassy and a few words to Mr Tuyen saw him leave with some swearing and vowing to rid Vietnam of foreigners. Nice attitude, and most probably wont have to deal with the infamous Mr Tuyen.

[Jbhughes]

Snolly, did you go directly to the Immigration Office to ask them or did they somehow contact you through other means? The first option withstanding, do you think they would have somehow 'got to you' had you not have contacted anyone?

While I'm certainly not advocating being visa-less or passport-less (I'm sure those 3 weeks were nervous indeed, OP), I don't see the officials at the airport making a fuss and I could see the issue just sliding by until April when the OP gets their new visa. Or do you think they would make a problem at that point? Your thoughts?

[Kram]

[deessell2]

I was in the same situation in 2009. I had to get the visa transferred to my new passport and it cost $10. This was facilitated by the HR Department at my workplace.

[rrruss]

@deessell2 - thanks, so it can be done! That's what I thought!

Passports will be handed over to HR today so we'll see what happens. Yet another 4 passport photos required. What do they do with them all?????

[cb400]

I can tell you a few months back I was 'fined' at the Hanoi airport for having my Vietnam visa in my old passport and not having it transferred to my new one. At the time my employer told me it was ok to have the visa in the old passport and carry both. However I was stopped at immigration and they put a new visa in the new passport and explained it is against Vietnam law to have the visa in the 'old' passport.

I think it cost 20$ at the airport and I suspect my HR at the company were just being lazy and didn't want to deal with this.

[Jbhughes]

[snollygoster]

I went to Immigration hanoi myself to organize the replacement visa, and met with this Mr Tuyen, and the rest of thye story is history.
Obviously the way to go is to give it to your schools HR dept if you have a good school. I guess that is what i should have done and would do if there ever is a next time. As for making a fuss at the airport, it may depend on just who you get. I was with a friend whose visa had expired when she wanted to exit (one day), and there was a huge rukus. She missed her flight and had to pay a hefty fine to get another 3 month visa which was only good for a few hours as as soon as she got it, she was on the next plane, never to return to the friendly land of smiles from jumped up officials. That being said, I also know of others who have walked through with a small incentive.

[rrruss]

Hopefully I'll let you know of a positive outcome in two weeks time but it's likely to be too late to find any cheap flights for the holiday weekend!