Job Discussion Forums

inky · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 283 Location: Hanoi

My point wasn't to debate the cost, but to explain the importance of the health check for a teacher vs one for a motorbike driver.

deessell2 · Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 132 Location: Under the sun

A professional school will pay all the costs incurred in getting a work permit. If you're not paying, why bother with 'local' when you can go 'international' standards?

sg9015 · Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 69 Location: Saigon

My wife recently undertook an exam at Cho-Ray for WP purposes. I'm in a position to compare her experience of that exam with the one I undertook to get my VN car and bike licence (that I didn't need anyway but that's beside the point).

The only things that she had above and beyond my test were a blood test, a chest x-ray and a 30 second ENT test. I would have thought that $50 would more than cover it. She doesn't have to pay, the school pays. But we are debating the gravy train of medical exams here for WP's and my feeling is that they are hiked up.

I'd love to know the statistics for teachers from 1st world countries who teach at international schools, arriving on Vietnams doorstep and presenting with TB. I bet it is close to zero.

inky · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 283 Location: Hanoi

How about teachers who've been teaching in 3rd world countries "arriving on Vietnam's doorstep?" How about teachers who've been teaching in VN without WPs for years and now have to get them?

sg9015 · Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 69 Location: Saigon

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

New visa rules leave expats bemused
from Thanh Nien News

http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=53862

some excerpts (click link for full article)

"He is married to a Vietnamese citizen and has lived and worked in the country legally for more than a decade. A visa extension has been a routine formality all these years. UNTIL NOW."

"An expat who did not want to be named said he could not believe it when his travel agent told him a couple of months ago that his visa extension for a year had been rejected. Why, he asked, but received no coherent answer."

"The latest immigration rules allow foreigners without a work permit to extend their visa twice for three months each. At the end of the six months, they will have to leave Vietnam."

doublea71 · Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 23 Location: The 'Nam

I'm going to try to get the work permit so I can stay here and teach without fear of massive fines or deportation but I have a question - perhaps someone can help me with this...do you need notarized official transcripts from your university or is it enough to have the original degree certificate? I know that some countries require official transcripts (Korea, for example) but what is the case in Vietnam? Also, is there any recent news on getting visa extensions? I got one via a border run but this runs out in January so I don't know if I should do another run or apply for an extension. I hope all is well for my fellow teachers here in HCMC.

sg9015 · Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 69 Location: Saigon

My wife's school asked for notarised photocopies in order to get her WP. She only had notarised originals so those were sent off. They advised against this as stuff does go astray. She decided to take the risk as it would be a complete PITA.

doublea71 · Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 23 Location: The 'Nam

sg9015 · Joined: 03 Sep 2009 Posts: 69 Location: Saigon

Her qualifications are British so they are purely certificates issued by the respective Universities. No transcripts.

You will have to forgive my ignorance on what transcripts actually are. The only transcripts I know of are a typed version of an audio tape and I'm guessing that this has nothing to do with what you are talking about.

Sorry I can't help any further on that. My advice for what it is worth is just get a pretty notaries stamp on anything that you have. They love the wax stamps.

doublea71 · Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 23 Location: The 'Nam

Thank you for the response - it sounds as though a stamped diploma will suffice.

Pizza Lover · Joined: 20 Jun 2009 Posts: 13

inky · Joined: 05 Jan 2009 Posts: 283 Location: Hanoi

"And the schools won't help any of us get a work permit."
Completely false. Many schools are assisting teachers to get Work Permits.

wasted_ace19 · Joined: 19 Nov 2009 Posts: 41

Pizza Lover- yours is the sort of mindless negativity I think deserves banned just as much as any personal attack on another specific member. At the end of the day it could be just as damaging, and its probably even more thoughtless.

You now need a work permit to work in vietnam. (supposedly- I guarantee you in five years time there'll still be thousands working without one, but that's a separate issue, we'll ignore it for now.)

You "need" a work permit to work in most countries; and generally, its the ones "worth working in" that tend to require one.

The answer? GET A WORK PERMIT.

"oooh the school won't help me boo hoo"; tough, do it yourself like you have to do most things in vietnam/life.

Don't have the credentials? Get them. Can't get them? Move to cambodia or laos until their government pulls itself together.

I appreciate I may appear a bit rash here; I KNOW its hard to get a WP. But I feel someone has to say it, because there's far too much crying over this issue, and when I hear people writing about how "(other) people are (going to be) leaving" I start feeling sorry for those whose arse starts picking the rivets out the chair every time they log onto this hive of negativity.