Job Discussion Forums

[lizarddoctor]

I just wasted 2 hours in the HCMC USA Consulate office to get info about what I need to get my paperwork for these new work permit regulations. They told me I had to go myself to my home county in the states and get my police report, would not notorize my cv, and after 2 hours gave me the Vietnamese phone number for immigration that I already had. I watched them give all kinds of paperwork to Vietnamese with green passports, hmmm whose consulate is this?

Canadians can get their police report processed through the consulate, australians over the internet, the US consulate only seems to be there to give service to all the vietnamese who want to enter the US, NOT to provide anything to its own citizens. Has any other US citizens tried to get their documents and hit the same wall? What about flying to the Thailand USA embassy and getting the job done without flying to the US?

[junkmail]

Don't know but the UK take two months to get a 'police clearance certificate'.

You might find you can do it by post.

[JosephP]

As an American I think all you need is to go to a cop shop, get your fingerprints, get a money order for USD$18.00 and mail it all off to the FBI in West Virginia. Then wait for yonks. It's worked for me.

[Micro67]

[junkmail]

Try this link:
http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/consular/policeclear.html
Then write out a hundred times

[lizarddoctor]

Some food for thought,

Good Morning,

My name is ############ and I am an American Citizen working in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I have been into the US Consulate in HCMC, called and left phone messages, sent emails, and still haven't heard anything from your offices regarding paperwork to obtain the paperwork now needed by the Vietnamese Immigration office for private language institutions. This now is being sent to any and all offices in Vietnam and the United States who should be aware of the current US Citizen problem in Vietnam.

Currently, many teachers and other US Citizens are trying to comply with the new government regulations requiring work permits in HCMC, Vietnam. This consists of notorizing a simple Police Background Check, CV, Medical Check-up, and University qualifications. All are very easily remedied from the internet or through the offices in the US, but now we are all in Vietnam and the US Consulate in HCMC is not helping any of the US citizens. We have been told to get a notorized Police Background Check that we have to leave Vietnam and come back. This is not possible for many of us to just jump on a plane to head back to the States just for one item of paperwork.

I was in line waiting behind about 30 green Vietnamese passport holders who were being helped getting paperwork to go to the USA, but watched as all of the American Citizens were turned away. When I got to the window, i was given the number for the Vietnamese Immigration office which I already have. I also did not get to talk with an American at the window, I have called and tried to make a sit down appointment to get my questions answered, but have not been called back yet. The language schools have until July 1st to comply with all necessary paperwork of be forced to cut all of the American Teachers they currently employ. All of the other consulates (Australia, UK, and Canada) are helping their own citizens with no trouble.

If the HCMC Consulate does not provide the services of getting a police check from the USA and notorizing it along with a cv notorization, then why do they not just tell me so and how to obtain these so myself and all of the other American Citizens working here can get the process completed. I know of at least 30 other teachers in the same situation. I work for at least one school in which I do not need a work permit. This is because it is a govenment funded school. But as for the other school which I work for, they are very necessary. I found the priorities of the US Consulate office the other day very disturbing.

I am also forwarding this notice to the following offices and if any office has any recommendations or assistance available, please contact me as soon as possible. I am in contact with many US Citizens in need of this information very quickly.

[email protected] - US Consulate Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
[email protected] - US Embassy Hanoi, Vietnam
[email protected] - George W. Bush @ whitehouse.gov
[email protected] - Richard Cheney @ whitehouse.gov
[email protected] - Jeffery J. Armbruster - District 13 Senator - Ohio
[email protected] - Larry A. Mumper - District 26 Senator - Ohio
[email protected] - Education - US Embassy

no direct email available for Paul Gilmore or George Voinovich - Ohio

[spycatcher reincarnated]

Lizarddoctor

As per the private email I sent you last week, getting the police background check is relatively easy. Getting it notorized is more of an issue.

[lizarddoctor]

I had already looked into getting it off the net before I went to the consulate 2 weeks ago. Thanks for the links, but I had some of them already. I sent the email to the consulate (et. all) to give them another chance to pull their collective heads out of their hind ends. If they are not going to notorize it, then what is the point in paying 30-40$ to get it. The consulate told me no, but wasnt american and wouldnt make an appointment for me to speak to one. Thats what made me a little cross more than the fact that I wasted 2 hours in there. The clerk of courts in my hometown is looking into the issue and trying to get my a notorized copy without me actually going back to the states to sign for it. She said there was some issue with doing it, so she said she would find out after memorial day. This is not just for me, its a little research for the website im building too.

What did you think about the forward to the white house?

[johnyarrington]

Dear lizzarddoctor,

Do you actually, honestly believe that the President of the United States is going to read, have read to him, respond to, or do anything about your E-Mail??!!! Last I heard, the guy is pretty busy.

I have a feeling Mr. Cheney is in the same boat.

I take well your point of being frustrated at not being able to get your papers notarized (which is one misspelling, btw, of many in your E-mail, in addition to numerous grammatical errors, and which would immediately "jump out at me" if I were someone important and seriously considered trying to do something about your problem. These errors only make it more unlikely that you will get any kind of answer, not more likely that you will)

But the rest of your letter is filled with so many issues, so confusing, and so impossible-for-one-person to solve, that, even if I were in a position to help you, I wouldn't want to.

One of MANY issues you address is the "refusal" of the local staff (Vietnamese, I assume you mean) to "give (you) an appointment with an American".

Can I ask how long you've been in Vietnam? People there will not respond to rudeness, they will not respond to "demands", and they will ignore (as a basic national character trait, I think) your apparent "insistence" that you get what you want. They will certainly not respond to "an attitude" or a perceived chip on your shoulder.

I really don't mean to criticize you or your approach. And I apologize in advance if this hurts you. My point is, I have seen dozens and dozens of times in Vietnam how, "doing things the Amahrican way!!!" just doesn't work.

I'm surprised you haven't learned this yet.

In my experience, getting any and all documents needed to get married, buy property, have your professional credentials certified, notarized, authenticated, or whatever you need to do, is, although sometimes a tad frustrating, nevertheless easy to do. Eventually.

Good luck to you.

[lizarddoctor]

Though I am having better luck getting my paperwork from my Clerk of Courts in my hometown, I did get this e-mail from the US Consulate in response to my letter posted above. I just sent him a very large letter telling him about the responses I got from my Senator and from the Clerk of Courts and will add additional information when he responds again. His e-mail is below and looks like the Consulate actually has opened its eyes a bit with the posting back to the states. A valid e-mail for Consulate questions and complaints is below. Sorry to all the past sceptics of my letter, but the 'American Way' works best when dealing with American business.

Dear Mr. ##########,

Thank you for your email of May 31. As this is a matter for American Citizen Services, I have been asked to reply. I will try to address your questions and concerns. To begin, this is not a new Vietnamese regulation. Thisregulation has been in effect for a number of years. The Vietnamese have only recently started to implement this requirement for Labor Certification.

The Consulate is looking for ways to help our American Citizens in Vietnam. The attachment will help you better understand the procedures available. I am looking into other possibilities for fingerprints to be taken in Vietnam and accepted by the FBI. Unfortunately, the Vietnamese police do not provide this service. At present there is the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at 43 Tran Xuan Soan Street, District 1, tel. 971-6911 that is providing this service.

I hope this information has been useful. If you have further inquiries, please do not hestitiate to contact me.


Regards,

Aida Norman
Norman, Aida R (Ho Chi Minh City) <[email protected]>


American Citizen Services Unit Chief
U.S. Consulate General
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

^ The squeeky wheel gets the grease.

Congratulations on your small miracle!

[Micro67]

Well done.

[johnyarrington]

Dear lizarddoctor,

Congratulations on hearing from the US Consulate in HCMC.

I think.

I'm left with some questions:

1. What actually, in fact, did the attachment that Aida Norman sent you, about "the procedures available to American citizens in Vietnam....", say?
Did it give you information on how to get your police check and CV notarized in Vietnam, which I thought was your original intention, or not?

Basically what I'm interested in is, did this attachment that (s??)he sent you, help?

2. Is the address and phone number for the International Organization for Migration useful for you? Why exactly do you need this address, or them? Are THEY the ones who are going to notarize your police check and CV?

3. Did you actually get inside the Consulate and speak to an American?

I'm just wondering how you're making out. I've just found that dealing with anything that has to do with the Vietnamese government, vis-a-vis a Vietnamese national, is best to do "the Vietnamese way". But that in dealing with anything concerning YOUR rights, responsibilities, and procedures, as an American citizen, even when those rights involve a Vietnamese national, it's always best to speak to a "real" American, i.e., someone born and raised in the USA, whose heritage is not Vietnamese.
So, I mean, not "Viet Kieu", many of whom have acquired American nationality.

I'm really not trying to "flame" here! It's just that I have dealt a LOT with the Consulate in HCMC, but not with this particular issue, and I had to learn "the hard way", I guess, about how to get what I wanted. In the end, I found it easy.

Good luck to you.

[sigmoid]

[Snaff]