Job Discussion Forums

[LettersAthruZ]

[esbam2002]

All together again the cost of my work permit (3 Years) and my residency card (3 years) minus the cost of the legalization in the US cost me $120 for the 3 year residency card only....if you are paying the prices here you are getting robbed paying 650 - 1525%....

[LettersAthruZ]

[inhanoi]

Calm down, you're going to have a stroke. My experience and that of others I've met has been much closer to what esbam has stated. Most people don't seem to get all bent out of shape about all this, it's an imperfect system that usually ends up working, with costs varying to a degree.

Please don't make statements like "an alarming number of schools are doing such-and-such" unless you can cite actual statistics. Otherwise you might cause new teachers undue concern.

[esbam2002]

Actually again the total cost that I paid for my work permit (3 years) and my residency card was according to the actual costs at $120 for the residency card and the school paid the 400,000 VND on the work permit fee, as per how they should. If you are being charged more than this, it is more likely that the school, person, or agency is intentionally over charging you to put the extra money in their pockets, such as Cleverlearn in Binh Tan that I hear is charging teachers $300 for the work permit alone, following the idea that a fool and their money are soon parted. These people are praying off the ignorance, fear, and desperation of teachers here. Your posts will I feel only serve to fan those flames, but again total cost of a work permit and residency should not be more than $120 through a school.

As for the comment about marriage costs here in my ignorance in my first year here I was tricked into a marriage. The marked price was 1 million VND and the price I paid was 1 million VND, and that was 3 years ago.

Again my experience, in HCMC, is it is not bribes, unless trying to get a work permit without a degree, but greed, exploitation, and robery on the part of the person, or school, you have doing your applications.

[sigmoid]

The most helpful thing would be to post a link to the VN gov't webpage that lists the official rates and policies regarding this issue.

I wonder why no one does that....

[The Mad Hatter]

Maybe the reason the do not is because such a webpage if it existed would only be somewhat helpful if that. citizens are not consumers like we think of ourselves and getting things done is not directed by the applicants side of it. You do not just have access to a way to look up something and then follow what it says or what the instructions are. That would be far too easy and logical. Logic does not exist in this sense. Just walk into any official office and try to figure out where to go what line to stand in, which step to do first and you will see a lot of milling around. The best you can do is wait for someone to call you and help you. In the case of these permits you are at the mercy of whoever is helping you. If you do not like it or suspect it is wrong you have to start over and get a second or third opinion. eventually you find someone who will be a better deal . But you can pay a lot more. Once i applied for a long time to get a resident card, and three people told me amounts of up to 400 USD, eventually someone helped me get to a clerk at a window and i paid about 100usd. Which was the actual fee. You have to be persistent and dont just believe everything.

[LettersAthruZ]

[inhanoi]

I politely asked that you cite actual statistics to support your statements. If you can't, then please don't write things that can confuse and disturb new arrivals (either to this website or to Vietnam).

[sigmoid]

[mark_in_saigon]

It is my opinion that citing links or statistics, while sometimes helpful, often cannot give a true answer. I have seen many articles from semi official sources with information that was blatantly untrue. Seeing it in writing gives us a warm feeling, but buying a story as truth because it is in writing is not always a good idea.

Mostly what we deal with on this site are our own experiences and opinions. It is nice to present them in a non confrontational manner. It is unavoidable that some of these experiences and opinions will confuse or disturb new arrivals. Folks who have been here all their lives get confused and disturbed by what goes down here. I think that if we just tell our real stories and if some potential teacher is disturbed and uses that information to decide not to come over, then we benefited that person. If our stories cause others TO come over, we have also benefited someone.

Links and stats are fine, I find our own stories and opinions to often be more on the mark though, compared to what some semi official publication spits out, or what we read in the press. I saw a story about in the Washington Post referencing the motorbikes as cyclos. A lot of other mistakes in that story too. So if I link that story here does it make all that stuff true? I say; just be polite, honest, and let your stories and opinions stand on their own merits. Someone else can have a different opinion, that is fine too. It is up to the reader to decide what he takes from it all.

[esbam2002]

[just noel]

[mark_in_saigon]

yes, hopefully. I know a place that cranks out TESOL certs for the natives at about $500 a pop, they do have classes, the students think they are real certs, and certainly they are operating openly, so they have some sort of approval. But the American system that they are using on their name has never heard of them, or does not admit they do anyway. Yet, if the cert gets you a job, and it has some form of approval, then, is that not what matters? The legit cert given by the big provider is not much better in terms of what you learn, maybe even worse. This stuff is so opaque, it is very hard to say what is really right or wrong in this system, or even what is real.

[LettersAthruZ]