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I like this attitude of yours 
I never paid a dong as bribery. Like you said, it WILL BE a precedent and they will kill poor people for that. Some of our members wrote proudly that they paid 'tea money' and get it done fast. I really pity on them. May be many of us can give to avoid hassles but should remember always the commoners who are going to suffer for some urgent documents !

khanh44 wrote:

Don't know if she played hardball for tea money or it's just normal procedure. I have a principal of not paying tea money as it just sets precedent for future corruptions against others that apply after me.

The viet kieus do this a lot when they visit Vietnam for a couple weeks. They will give money to relatives and take them out to lavish places.

I'm living in Vietnam but expected to do the same. I love to visit Can Tho but I can't because of these unreasonable expectations even for my grandparents death anniversary.

Picked up my VEC extended stay. Was surprised they gave me 6 months as I was expecting 3 months. I even wrote 3 months in the application form.

khanh44 wrote:

Picked up my VEC extended stay. Was surprised they gave me 6 months as I was expecting 3 months. I even wrote 3 months in the application form.

https://s24.postimg.org/40chpc5hx/WIN_2 … 36_Pro.jpg

Why be surprised?

    We all admire your integrity         

the VEC thread everyone was saying if you extend your VEC stay in Vietnam you only get 3 months but if you go outside the country you get 6 months.

Funny that, I got my visa exemption a few months ago and it says i'm allowed to stay 6 months at a time. My parents who got their's a few years before me has 3 months written on theirs. New policy change?

the 6 months on VEC's that is stamped in passport changed sometime last year.  I think it says 180 days. Previously as you said it used to be 90 days.

And when it was 90 days I always got 90 days extension. Must have got at least 5 of those in my old passport.

With the new 180 days VEC I haven't tried extending my stay as I fly a lot back and forth between Vietnam and Canada hence my making this posting.

You will always get 180 days stay in Vietnam if you fly into Vietnam from another country. Where the confusion arises is that after your 180 days stay you have to go extend your stay.

You have 2 options. To extend it in Vietnam by going to your local immigration office or going out of Vietnam to another country and re-entering Vietnam.

What most people said was if you extend it at your local immigration office they give you 3 months and if you leave Vietnam and re-enter they give you 6 months.

Now Vietnam has this twisted logic that not every city/district follows the same law as each have their own interpretation of Vietnam laws, regulations, decrees. I did my VEC extension in Dong Nai and I guess they interpreted it as permitting 180 days extended stay. Most ex-pats do their VEC extended stay in Ho Chi Minh city and I guess they interpreted the new decree as 90 days despite the VEC saying 180 days 're-entering' Vietnam.

phikachu wrote:

Funny that, I got my visa exemption a few months ago and it says i'm allowed to stay 6 months at a time. My parents who got their's a few years before me has 3 months written on theirs. New policy change?

Your parents with the 90 days VEC when they enter Vietnam will get stamped for 6 month stay. I also got 6 months last year on my 90 day VEC.

Not that it matters much but I notice from the photo that you shorted you a week by going 6 months from the date of the new stamp instead of 6 months from the expiration of the old one.  All my 90 day stamps were based on the expiration of the last one even though my wife picked them up well before the deadline.  I wonder if this is policy or just a provincial difference.

So it was a one off?

Let's say it is and you want 6 months instead, if you leave the country is there a certain time you have to wait before you can re-enter using the visa exemption?

phikachu wrote:

So it was a one off?

Let's say it is and you want 6 months instead, if you leave the country is there a certain time you have to wait before you can re-enter using the visa exemption?

Not sure where you are living, but if you are living in Saigon you can do a day trip to Moc Bai. No need to stay out of the country, just go to Cambodia and then come straight back in.

THIGV wrote:

Not that it matters much but I notice from the photo that you shorted you a week by going 6 months from the date of the new stamp instead of 6 months from the expiration of the old one.  All my 90 day stamps were based on the expiration of the last one even though my wife picked them up well before the deadline.  I wonder if this is policy or just a provincial difference.

Yeah here in Dong Nai they give 6 months from when you submitted the application. It could be many reasons one being officer's view. I always see the same guy that I've been doing these extensions last 3 years being the same guy that processes my VEC. I saw him on Monday and he glances at my name and said come tomorrow. So I think it's just 1 guy that does all the processing here in Dong Nai.

That's why I always try to time it near the end. Luckily I got approved because I would have over stayed the next day.