Job Discussion Forums

[snollygoster]

Does anyone have experience, contacts or information regarding import of motorcycle for personal use in Vietnam?
I have asked the Vietnam Customs dept, but get nothing but deafening silence.
Any help will be greatly appreciated- no opinions without evidence thanks-hard facts please.

[jb0072009]

I have read somewhere in the official Viet tax laws that import of used motorbike is prohibited but you can import a new one but at a very high import tax rate of 60% I believe. Same for auto. Of course the source might have been wrong (it was an international moving company) or the law changed

[Oh My God]

I've never done this myself but I once knew a guy that shipped a house full of furniture, a car, and a motorcycle (none new) here. He said that it was due to the laws concerning a Work Permit that enabled this. However, I've lost contact with him thru the years - no cold hard facts.

Sorry!

[The Fat Rabbit]

I've got a friend who speaks english well and has imported numerous bikes including a 900cc harley. He'll know all about it and I'm sure he wouldnt mind talking to you. So, PM me or email me. You know me.

the only thing i can tell you off hand is that if you can prove that its going to be used for a business then it will be a whole lot cheaper to import. So, find a friend with a business and get them to import it for you, thats what i would try to do. Since foreigners can't own or register motorbikes yet, this shouldn't matter. As for licence and registry, anything over 175cc will cost more to register because it requires registry with the national government and you'll need a different class of licence in VN.

do you have a residence card/permit? those have some kind of tax allowance benefit. that info is on the net somewhere...

[londo]

Even with a company it's not that easy, bikes are not wanted here, local industry is quite strategic, under WTO rules it's not so easy to completely ban new imports but secondhand they definitely try to discourage.

Foreigners most definitely CAN own motorcycles, you just go to the shop and hand your money over and get a bill of sale, just like buying a burger, registering them for use on the road is not so easy. When you see any car or bike with 'NN' plates it means thay are registered and owned by a foreigner. Unlike in our own countries buying a vehicle and registering it (i.e. getting the plates) are two different things.

I've registered two vehicles here and had to show residence certificate, passport and business registration papers, if you are an employee I guess that would mean showing a WP instead.

Normal foreign car licences (exchanged for VN licence) mean you should take a test for a bike, a bike licence, however, allows you to ride anything upto 175cc. anything over this needs a licence extension (can't remember if it's A2 or C2) and theoretically to be a member of a bike club.

[The Fat Rabbit]

How many NN plates have you seen though? I've seen at most 5 NN plates in 2 years in VN. So I think it's difficult and annoying to own and register a motorbike as a foreigner, but not impossible. I've seen a few of those NN plates around but from what I've been told, they're usually for business owners. i've never heard of an employee owning one, but I'd like someone to prove me wrong here. I tried this. I tried to buy it from one of those big honda shops, they said I couldn't. So I had a friend purchase it for me. Then we registered the bike using my friend's name. Then I got my friend to write up a bill of sale, selling it to me, and I had that document signed and legalized by the local police. At that time, I was the owner. The next step would have been to switch the name on the registration card from my friend's name to my name. To do that, I would have had to pay sales tax, again. So I didnt bother, but I guess I could have and at that point I would have been given a NN plate.

[londo]

Exactly, you can 'own' a bike without being its registered user.

Around here we are thick with them (NN plates), but I guess that explains it. Most teachers haven't had the docs necessary till now (more people having to get WPs) and they, like other short-contract workers, have tended to rent or buy cheaper bikes in girlfriends' names.

However around D2 and in particular, D7 there are many, as most 'long-termers' tend to open businesses sooner or later and live in these areas. There are employees who have them, RMIT lecturers for instance, so with the documents it is possible.

Looking at the docs I needed; I also needed my tax code number.

Oh, and a boring fact; the numbers after NN denote country of origin of owner - 011 British, 296 American, I'm becoming an anorak with this kind of stuff.

[chopwet]

A little big on topic: how do you get a motorbike driver's licence here?

Would I be able to get one by showing my South African driver's licence?

[The Fat Rabbit]

yea, your SA licence works. but it's another whole ordeal in itself. you might want to search the forum for the answer to that question which i think has been asked 100 times in the past. or, you can pm me and i'll give you a rundown. hehe.


hey, londo, you ever seen a Canadian NN plate? whats the #? definitely not a boring fact, I can't wait to tell my friends about that. im serious. hehe

[londo]

Well, if you're really bored, stuck in traffic....

The little bod in green who did my last set of plates gave me a little list;

the first 2 numbers are the District/province like all the others, the numbers after NN are the foreign designations.

around here most are: Jap 446, Korean 636, Taiwan 888, 691 Singapore.
I believe Canada is 156.
red NG plates are diplomatic or NGO and are tax free (so if the OP has a friend at a consulate..) but must be re-exported...heard it is possible to 'acquire' them

Red plates are military or state police, blue are local, city, provincial, national authorities and local police/militia.

The former (blue) should be re-registered when sold..but you can see many old bikes and cars, with families, trundling around with them so I guess they kinda forget...

and as for the Bentleys, AMG mercs and Caddy SUVs with red or blue plates I've seen...I'll leave that to your imagination.

[londo]

As for licence, did mine yonks ago, but if it hasn't changed:

Application form from Dept of Transport; 63 Ly Tu Trong, D1.
translation of foreign licence in Pasteur (on corner- can't remember address)...2 copies, loads of photos, then back to D of T, wait a couple of weeks and you have your licence. Note, this was only good because i had a foreign licence for both car AND bike.

I have heard you need to show res. cert. now, when I did it, only a 6 month biz visa was needed....copies of that as well.

[jb0072009]

I got my license like 8 months ago. Pretty much like Londo said except I had to take a driving motorbike test (not written) even though I had a US motorbike license. I had a 1 year business visa. The car drivers license has done me no good though because Viets will not rent vehicles to foreigners without a driver no matter what. Guess I will have to buy one. Up here in HaNoi I see many NN plates, down in Saigon I saw few. Interesting how these Asian countries discriminate against foreigners on plates. In Japan all foreigner owned vehicles plates begin with Y (which stands for a derogatory Japanese word for foreigner)