Vietnam

Vietnam is a comparatively LGBTQ+- unfriendly country located in Southeast Asia, without specific legal protections for trans people. Overall, it's not a specifically attractive option -- however if you do end up here, hopefully this information proves useful. Over the years, I've met many people who ended up in Vietnam after their plans not working out in Thailand or Cambodia.

Most of the content here is general information about immigrating / residing temporarily here for US citizens, and not trans-specific.

Why COUNTRY?

• Legal gender recognition: Nothing favorable
• Anti-discrimination laws: None that apply. Expect discrimination in the workplace.
• Public healthcare: Decent if you speak Vietnamese, except HRT. Terrifying if you don't speak Vietnamese.
• LGBTQ+ rights and community: There are no specific rights granted. There is a community (I don't know it well though)
• Immigration pathways: Yes, but it takes years, you must learn Vietnamese, and give up all other citizenship.
• Cost of living is very low, violent crime is very rare, and tourist visas are amenable to moderate to long stays while you figure something else out.

Why not COUNTRY?

• Legal issues: Frankly, LGBTQ+- is just not a topic of discussion here. There are not really any specific legal protections.
• Housing issues: As a foreigner, you must register your address with the police. Your landlord usually does this for you. The police may pound on your door once in a rare while. As long as your visa etc. are valid they will check it and leave without issue.
• Visa issues: Generally, Vietnam is not an easy place to immigrate to. For long term stays, what you want is a work permit or investment visa. A fairly large community of foreign residents uses a string of 3-month tourist visas. This is fine if Vietnam is just a stopgap measure, but not great for stays of 1 year or more.
• Stimulant medication, like some commonly used to tread ADHD is not permitted, even with prescription. You may not bring it in. The consequences can be serious.
• This is a developing country, and life is hard here. Assimilating culturally is difficult -- not because people are unwelcoming (quite the contrary), but because it's so different here. You will have to sacrifice a lot to make this work, and you will not get those parts of yourself back. Such is the lot of us immigrants.

Political Situation for Trans People

Largely, trans people are not a subject of political discussion as far as I know. Visibility of trans people here is very close to zero. I have met a handful, once, at the first Pride parade in Vietnam. Which was tiny, but nothing bad happened.

Generally, unless you can pass as Vietnamese, you are simply a "foreigner" here. Anything else you might be will, in most part, be obscured by that label. Most young people are curious about life in the USA and, in big cities, will often be aware that trans people exist. Most people have heard of Thai "ladyboys", and this label may be applied to you.

Access to Trans Healthcare

Basically doesn't exist as far as I know. HRT will be a challenge to purchase. The most viable option is likely to buy it elsewhere (e.g. during visa runs) and bring it here.

Until fairly recently, nearly all medication was available without a prescription. De jure, a prescription needs to be on record for any medication intended to affect the mind (e.g. SSRIs). Until quite recently, de facto you could just buy it anyway without issue. Now, sometimes you will be asked for a prescription, and probably the trend will be towards increased compliance. Thankfully, getting a prescription is quite easy (FV Hospital or Careplus are good choices), and the pharmacies seem willing to keep them on record more or less permanently.

While a bit off topic, if you have a serious food allergy, you have to be careful here. Food allergies are very, very rare here. So most people don't really understand that they exist and are real things. Generally you will need to prepare your own food in this case.

Immigration Policy

Visas are required for many nationalities, including US citizens. You can now get an e-visa online in advance -- this is what you will generally want. They will often try to upsell you a service to cut in line at immigration. This is a real thing -- immigration lines are usually about 1-1.5 hours on entry. If you have a medical condition that makes standing for long periods uncomfortable, it may even be a good idea.

Tourist visas are generally 1 or 3 months. Some people "live here" on a string of 3 month visas. It's a fragile setup -- every single person I've met on it (~30 people) gets sent home eventually, but usually only after some years. If you search online, people will tell you it's "completely OK", but that's because no one posts about being sent back home. In summary, this is a possible setup but risky if you need to stay for more than a year or two -- immigration tightens up the laws periodically but not that often. Generally the communities of foreigners living in Vietnam are only as old as the last crackdown, and do not remember earlier communities or their fates.

Special visas that essentially equate to residency are available if you have Vietnamese heritage (colloquially called a VK or 'Viet Kieu' visa). If yo uare eligible for one of these, and have a good relationship with family here, Vietnam can be a very attractive immigration option.

Work permits generally require that you possess a university degree (bring proof) and work contract with an employer. You will also undergo a mandatory medical exam, for the purposes of determining if you can reasonably fulfill your duties at work. You will also need a criminal record check. Your employer should arrange all this -- if they say you can do it yourself, they are probably lying, and don't intend to pay you. If they ask you for money to do it, generally it's best to walk away.

Technically, the university degree you bring must pertain to the nature of your employment -- however for English teaching, my understanding is that this is not an issue. In this case, a certificate from a short TESOL / CELTA course is probably required.

Finally, there are some exemptions for the university degree requirement. However, they are rarely used -- e.g. you are an expert in maintaining equipment required for business operation. Or you have 5+ years managerial experience in a field that Vietnamese universities don't cover. Stuff like that.

Lawyers are sometimes eligible for a special visa status.

Investment visas require starting or owning part of a company. The Vietnamese government does not like shell companies -- so you cannot reasonably open a foreign-owned company solely for residency purposes (at least not for long). You must actively operate it, or it will be shut down. It is very hard to make money here this way, and there is no owner's draw (the company owner cannot pay themselves a salary, yearly dividends only). You also must have at least one employee, and rent a physical office (no virtual offices, although the virtual offices will lie to your face about this). Minimum investment is around 5-10k USD (which remains under your control in the company), with 1-2k in legal fees besides. The tax laws are very strict and work differently than you may expect. If you deviate from them, the fines are eye-watering. Also you have to pay for a yearly audit to check if you made mistakes (although it's not that expensive).

Investment visas for small companies get you a 1-year visa. With ~ 150k USD capital investment, you can get a 2-year residency card. With a very large investment, a 3-year card. No criminal record check or university degree is required.

What some people seem to do, is open a joint-stock company, and sell 5% of the shares to people who want residency, then declare them a member of the board of directors. This meets the requirements for residency, without the heavy scrutiny of a foreign-owned company. However I am not super familiar with this type of company structure, so would have to pay a lawyer to get the details. The paperwork for the share purchase is fairly complex. This also requires a criminal record check.

With a work permit or some investment visas, you may be issued a temporary resident card. These are good for 2 or 3 years. After residing on one for a while, you may move to other forms of residency/citizenship.

Overstaying

It is not recommended to overstay your visa. A few days just one time will probably just result in a fine. More will result in expulsion from the country, and being blacklisted from re-entry. In short, giving people a reason to expel you from the country is not a good idea if you plan to stay here. I realize that sounds obvious but...

Over the years, I've met several people that judged the fine for overstaying as smaller than the cost of compliance. One had to go through a very expensive legal process to avoid being blacklisted, the others are gone. Others just didn't think much about it. They are also gone.

If you do accidentally overstay your visa by a small amount, don't panic. Call a visa agent (I can recommend one, but most are OK, we'll figure it out). If you purposely overstay your visa by a lot, I may not be able to help you.

Medical Inadmissibility

Vietnam has immigration laws that would find people with disabilities or health challenges inadmissible to emigrate here.

Mostly, this takes place in the form of a medical exam as a requirement for work permits. It is generally a rubber stamp. However, it's at least conceivable that it could make some people medically inadmissible.

Permanent Residency

You may apply for permanent residency after residing here for a few years (I recall 3) under a temporary resident card. Oddly enough, the permanent residency card is not permanent -- it's like a temporary resident card, but valid for 5 years.

Citizenship Pathway

Once you have permanent residency, you may apply for citizenship. The number of applications round down to zero. I have heard of two or three -- but they were indeed granted citizenship.

You must choose a Vietnamese name, give up all other citizenship, and speak the language. A portfolio of volunteer work doesn't hurt.

For completeness, I'll mention there is also a shortcut to citizenship if you are declared a national Hero. This is not really available unless you are perhaps the eminent scientist in your field (Hero of Science is a thing), or coming here to employ thousands of people (Hero of Labor).

Labor and Tax Law in Vietnam

First, the letter of the law:

Legally, all labor done by foreigners in Vietnam requires a work permit. There is no distinction for remote work. There are very few exemptions, and they are as follows:

1. If you own a company, you are exempt from needing a work permit to work for your own company.
2. If you are married to a VN citizen, you may apply (it's not automatic) for a work permit exemption. My understanding is that they are usually granted, but few people apply. So, the process will be met with some amount of confused bureaucrats.
3. For emergency or temporary replacements (a few months in duration), or when marketing a new product in Vietnam, there's a vague provision that allows someone to work, for a short while only, on a business visa. This one is super unclear.

Taxes are higher than the USA, and it's a progressive tax system. It maxes out at around 30% in the highest bracket. You become a tax resident of Vietnam after residing here for over about half a year (does not have to be contiguous, e.g. 7 months split into 3 trips? You're a tax resident). This is true regardless of visa status or tax resident status in other countries.

There is no tax treaty between Vietnam and the USA. It was signed by both parties, but only ratified by Vietnam. So, if you become a tax resident of Vietnam without ceasing to be a tax resident of the USA... you owe tax to both countries. Hopefully this will be resolved in the next decade or so, but it seems to be moving slowly.

Now, some (slightly depressing) ground truth -- most foreigners simply ignore labor and tax laws. The truth is, the government has better things to do than track down foreigners who are making a couple hundred bucks running English study groups or yoga classes or whatever. So this level of economic activity is generally tolerated.

Besides that, some people do contract work for US companies remotely. Since the funds are send between US bank accounts, local authorities do not become aware of the income. As there is no remote work visa here, usually these people stick around for a working vacation of a few months and move on. Similar for people running dropshipping businesses.

There are also quite a few people running unregistered businesses, figuring they can get by with bribes. Sometimes this works for a while, but usually ends poorly. There are also a lot of foreigners running MLM schemes, and a lot of cryptocurrency scams operate from here. Generally these groups are super toxic and to be avoided.

As an aside -- people doing these various things have caused tax compliance for foreign companies to increase in complexity over time (we get tangled in nets designed to catch someone else). So it creates quite a headache for me, but my goal is to provide you with the best information possible.

Actually Working in Vietnam

If you have sufficient passive income to avoid the need to work, or to work minimally (e.g. some informal English classes) this is probably best.

If you must work, teaching English is the easiest way to survive. Next up is working as a software engineer or manager. Be advised that in the latter two cases, office hours may be longer than you are used to.

Overall, life is hard here, once you have to struggle with the rest of us. Workplace politics are cutthroat, and you are at a disadvantage. Discrimination is very real. You will not always be paid. It is possible to plan around all these things, and survive.

Bureaucracy and Bribes

Contrary to popular belief, it is not generally necessary to pay bribes here. I have not done so in my 12+ years here. No one ever believes me. I have been extorted only twice, over trivial amounts of money (20 and 80 dollars, respectively).

As a general rule, the foreign community here pays bribes, and we all pretend it's necessary, to normalize our behavior. We also re-label fines for breaking the law as "bribes". Common reasons are incorrect police registration, driving violations (without a license), running unregistered and non-compliant businesses, and visa violations. Finally, I suspect some agencies claim that bribes are necessary and just... pocket the money.

The main tool I use to avoid bribes is to learn to use the People's Committee. The People's Committee is awesome -- it's sort of like a town hall or whatever. It's where you go to get paperwork done. If you don't feel comfortable going personally, you can send a friend. Some services that they offer:

1. Notarizing documents -- 5 cents or so per page (most common reason to go). Valid for 6 months.
2. Official translations -- few dollars per page. Needed to legalize foreign documents.

Going to the main branch in D1, HCMC is a bit busy, but there is a ticketing system. Early morning is best, but they are open in the afternoon. Smaller branches are quicker, and open a little later into the afternoon.

Next up, there's the HCMC Department of Foreign Affairs. This is the authority that can legalize foreign documents, e.g. a foreign university degree as part of a work permit application. To use this service you first get your document officially translated at the People's Committee. Then, you go in the morning to the Department of Foreign Affairs (conveniently it is close to the People's Committee of District 1). You used to need to show up with a specific printed form at this step, but now it's online, get a friend to help you fill it out : https://hopphaphoa.lanhsuvietnam.gov.vn/Legalization/Legalized-Registration.aspx

You will be given an appointment a few days later in the afternoon to pick up your legalized documents.

Any lawyer's office can do the above for you for a small fee, but it's not that difficult to do yourself. One small thing though -- semi-formal clothing is expected in all government offices. Not, like... a suit. Long pants and a shirt you would wear in an office is fine.

Banking and Currencies

Banking is a bit of a problem.

Opening a personal bank account generally requires a work contract, and a visa valid for at least 1 years (so, not a tourist visa). You may not deposit cash into your bank account (except ~20$ on account creation).

You may receive deposits from the employer in the work contract you registered with the bank. You may send yourself money from overseas occasionally. If it looks like a monthly deposit -- that is to say, if it looks like a salary -- it will bounce (at your expense). When depositing into your own account, you will have to call the bank to keep asking if your funds came in (they may or may not call you). Then, you have to show up with your passport to authorize converting the US dollars to VND. You can write a letter to the bank to permanently authorize this conversion, but you'll have to find a bank employee that knows that it's permitted.

Conversely, opening a corporate bank account is really fast.

Also worth noting is that US dollars are not accepted here. You can exchange them trivially at most gold shops. Physical gold is essentially a currency here, and the fees to exchange it to and from VND can be as low as 0.5%. It's a bit easier to store and transport safely than piles of bills.

When traveling into or out of Vietnam, there are maximum amounts of physical currency you can carry with you -- 5000 USD or 15 million VND (~600 USD). More than that, and you have to declare it and will likely be asked to prove the provenance of funds. If you need to do that pay a local lawyer to tell you what you need to do in advance.

Bizarrely, cryptocurrencies have a moderate level of adoption here. Personally, I have a strong dislike of such things. However, it may be useful to know that it's trivial to exchange BTC and USDT for VND here. Either as comically large piles of cash, or a bank transfer (bank transfer is not a good option for a foreign bank account).

LGBTQ+ Friendly Cities

What are potentially good places to live in?

• Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) -- by far the largest and most cosmopolitan, and by far the most viable choice. Economic center of the country, so if you need work, this is the place to be. Air pollution is somewhat bad. Thao Dien is the district with all the foreigners, but rents are inflated as a result. There are also a lot of foreigners living in District 7 in an areas called Phu My Hung. This area is quite nice. For locals, these areas are sort of weird and expensive. For us, District 5 along Tran Hung Dao is a convenient place to live, as are most areas in D3.
• Da Nang -- nicer, and cheaper that Ho Chi Minh City, but very little work for foreigners available. Great if you don't need to work.
• Da Lat -- colder due to altitude, mostly a tourist trap, few services available. Still, there is a small foreign community holing up there.
• Ha Noi -- The capital. Air pollution is very bad. Somewhat harder for foreigners to integrate here -- while this is often exaggerated by people living in the South, it's true that scams and various situations where people will take advantage of you are more common.
• In all cities, if you can't pass as Vietnamese, everyone will be low-key staring at you all the time.
• English service is occasionally available in HCMC, Ha Noi, and Da Nang. As a general rule though, you *must* learn some Vietnamese in order to survive.

Top Trans-Friendly Cities

• None specifically. HCMC is probably the only viable option.

Community & Support Resources

• None, unless we build them ourselves. Generally speaking, the optimal strategy will be forming an enclave. I can assist in creating it, maybe call in a few favors and get it some minor financial assistance. It's going to have to mostly fund itself though.

National Organizations

• None that I know of.

Cost of Living

• The cost of living here is very low relative to the USA. In HCMC (the economic capital), a decent salary for a university graduate is ~800USD per month. You can live off this alone without much issue. Much lower is possible if you integrate to a semi-local lifestyle -- at that point, two people can live quite pleasantly off ~800 USD per month.
• Much lower is possible through communal living, like Vietnamese families do. Scraping by with around 300 USD per month is probably attainable this way. Surviving off around 150 USD per month is possible, but acutely distressing. I had to do this for a few years while bootstrapping my company and nearly died several times. Do not plan to do this, it will not be fine.
• Rent is low. An OK modern apartment can be had for around USD 400 per month. However, the real value is in alley houses (nhà hẻm). These are narrow (2.5-3 meters), multi-story buildings. It takes some adapting to, but they can be rented for around USD 250 per month, and can accommodate 2-4 people (and substantially more in an emergency).
• You can buy apartments, but not other real estate. If anyone tells you otherwise, it's a scam. Apartments are fairly expensive, and your ownership is not freehold -- it's a 50-year lease.
• Public transport The bus is surprisingly nice. An elevated rail system was just completed in HCMC, connecting Thao Dien to downtown. Ha Noi also has a rail system.
• Private transport (Apps) We use an app called Grab here, instead of Uber. Learning to use it will probably be your first goal on arrival. Motorbike rides are very affordable, 1-3$ usually. Cars are more. There's a local competitor called "Be" that's more affordable. In both cases, the driver will often call you to ask for directions (they seem allergic to maps), but once they realize you don't speak Vietnamese, they will reluctantly use the map.
• Healthcare is inexpensive. It's very inexpensive if you use the Vietnamese system -- however, unless you understand Vietnamese this will be harrowing. In this case, in emergency care situations, you must have friends sort out your food and personal needs during your hospital stay (you get a bed and that's it). For medical care that you may find less acutely distressing, there are foreign hospitals. FV, Careplus, and Family Medical are examples.
• Grocery prices Are very low. The main cheap supermarket is called "Go", although everyone refers to it by it's old name "Big C". Cheaper prices and better produce are available at wet markets and independent vegetable vendors. These are ubiquitous.
• Education is quite good! However, it is Vietnamese-language only except at RMIT. If you want to go to university here, this is the only viable choice.

Housing Access & Cost

• Discrimination exists when renting and is fairly strong. A lot of landlords don't want the scrutiny from the police that renting to a foreigner entails. Let's just say their tax paperwork is probably not on the level and leave it at that. Besides that, they don't want to constantly be re-registering you with the police if you are on a tourist visa (you need to be registered again every time you change visa). Generally, you're going to have to look around a bit -- and if you don't have a visa that lets you stay for a full year, you may be asked to pay a year's rent in advance (personally, I would not agree to more than 3 months).
• While I know a fair amount about real estate law here, I can simply summarize it as "don't buy real estate in Vietnam as a foreigner". If you really want to do otherwise, please go pay a lawyer to teach you the law, and maybe also find a way to contact me so I can warn you about some things.

Law Enforcement ("How bad are the cops?")

• You are a foreigner first, and anything else second. The police basically don't want to deal with you. If they pound on your door and say you haven't been registered correctly? Call your landlord -- the police are not looking for you, they want to extract money from your landlord (there are both legitimate and illegitimate reasons for this).
• Generally, don't drive. Your US driver's license is not valid here, even when accompanied with an International Driver's License. A lot of people online say otherwise, but they don't know what they are talking about. This will eliminate the most common crime you can commit (driving without a valid license), and decrease your interactions with the police tremendously. Also your health insurance won't cover you (or will offer greatly reduced coverage) if you are driving without a license.
• There are exceptions to the rule above -- a bicycle is fine. A small electric bicycle is fine. A motorcycle under 50cc is a grey area, and probably inadvisable, but use your judgement. You can also get a VN driving license using a US driving license and a work permit. You can also go through the Vietnamese system to get a license if you have a non-tourist visa -- however it is Vietnamese-language only, and a guard at the door verifies your ability to read Vietnamese as a condition to enter the exam room.

Censorship & Digital Privacy

• Privacy is surprisingly good de jure. All companies collecting data on people in Vietnam are required to host the data here, there are serious restrictions on what is permitted to collect (e.g. no precise location or medical data), and have to go through special processes to export any data. De facto, Western corporations ignore the law, and also dodge taxes (this is the actual reason they get blocked). So your data privacy is perhaps a little better here than in the USA.
• Censorship exists, but is not that strict. Generally, most services and content on the web remain available. Some people recommend a VPN, but frankly, I've never needed one. A more common issue is that various services notice you are in Vietnam and block you from that end.
• Generally, if you come here expecting to organize against the government, you will encounter problems very quickly (as with most other countries). As long as you don't do this, generally no one cares about you.
• Steam is partially blocked. You can play games, but not access the store page. Again, they are blocked because they sell to VN citizens without paying taxes on the income.
• You must supply a valid passport to get a local SIM card for your phone. We've got a lot of problems with scam calls and text message spam. Generally there's no need to circumvent this rule. Getting assigned a random phone number costs ~2$. A 'lucky' phone number is ~20$. A common tactic is for the sales staff to pretend only the 20$ numbers are available. If this happens, you can order one online.

Non-Digital Privacy

Vietnamese people have a different attitude to privacy. If you're living in a small alley, there is not so much privacy. The walls are thin, and everybody talks to each other. In short, your personal life is considered the business of the whole area. On one hand, this can be pretty annoying. On the other, if you stay on their good side (more or less live quietly, don't flaunt wealth, greet people), they will look out for you.

All of this is amplified by general curiosity towards the foreigner living in the area. People will be low-key staring at you at all times. It's uncomfortable, but on the other hand, when you need e.g. help to get to the hospital it gets sorted instantly.

Buy a good padlock for your door though. If your landlord provides one, don't use that one, obviously.

If this is undesirable, an apartment (or long-term AirB&B) is a a better choice than an alley house. It's substantially more expensive and you get less space, but your neighbors will be essentially anonymous.

Anecdotally: During COVID, the solidarity in my neighborhood was important. One of us sourced food? We all got food.

Ease of Travel to Other Countries

• Vietnam is very close to Thailand, Cambodia (5hrs mildly terrifying bus ride from HCMC), Singapore, and Malaysia. So travel to and from other countries is quite easy.

Animal Policies

• Bringing a pet in is a paperwork nightmare. I don't even know how to do it, I think there's a way, you'll probably have to pay an agency to do it. Getting a local pet is trivial and fine though.

Other Notes, Warnings, and Tidbits

• If you are traveling from South America, you need proof of Yellow Fever vaccination (the little yellow card you receive on vaccination)
• If you get bit by a bat (very rare) or dog (less rare) drop what you are doing and immediately go get your rabies vaccines. It sucks, but not as much as rabies (you will die), and Vietnam has a fairly high incidence of rabies.
• Dengue fever sucks. If you suspect you have dengue fever, go to the hospital. Dengue fever can get worse every time you catch it (it co-opts your immune system). For this last reason, the dengue fever vaccine has some serious risks to consider (and it is not widely recommended). To be clear, this is not COVID-style vaccine conspiracy. It's a vaccine with well-known risks in mainstream medicine. Dengue is also contagious, another reason you need to go to the hospital.
• You may want to be vaccinated for hepatitis, it's a thing here. There are some additional vaccines (e.g. Japanese encephalitis) that are only needed in very rural areas.
• Malaria is not a problem in the cities. Antimalarials are only needed in very remote areas. Cholera has been eliminated in Vietnam. I was probably one of the last cases. It was terrible, and I nearly died.
• Take your de-worming pills (mebendazole usually) once every 6 months or so. Costs 50 cents. Just a little part of life in the tropics.
• Cultural integration is (surprisingly) possible here. While strangers will always see you as a foreigner, people who know you a little will be willing to accept you as Vietnamese if you make the effort.
• The Vietnamese language is one of the hardest to learn from English. Surviving here does require learning at least some basics. Many people will be willing to teach you.
• Do make friends! Probably avoid romance until you can confidently live independently (e.g. find a place to rent on your own, buy food, navigate the city, figure out money, etc.). This is the same advice I give everyone. People sometimes don't realize the risks of being dependent on your partner to survive in a foreign country, nor how harsh life can be here (and the bitter truth that some people must obtain money any way they can, including exploiting someone vulnerable). I've heard many sad stories and bad outcomes. I don't want you to be one of them.
• I've known some people who made bad decisions regarding drugs, alcohol, and criminal involvement. All of them are dead. I don't know what specific advice I can give you based on that, but I do want to communicate that I've seen these things lead to bad outcomes here much faster than in the West.