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 (e.g. things don't work out in Thailand) hopefully this information proves useful.

Why COUNTRY?

Legal gender recognition: Nothing favorable
Anti-discrimination laws: None that apply
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.

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.

Political Situation for Trans People

Largely, trans people are not a subject of political discussion as far as I know.

Access to Trans Healthcare

Basically doesn't exist as far as I know.

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.

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. 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 -- and there are occasional crackdowns.

Special visas that essentially equate to residency are available if you have Vietnamese heritage (colloquially called a VK or 'Viet Kieu' visa).

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. Your employer should arrange all this -- if they say you can do it yourself, they are probably lying.

Lawyers are sometimes eligible for a special visa status.

Investment visas require starting a company. The Vietnamese government does not like shell companies -- so you cannot reasonably open a company for residency purposes. 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). You also must have at least one employee. Minimum investment is around 5k 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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. I can assist in doing so. Generally speaking, the optimal strategy will be forming an enclave.

National Organizations

None.

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 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.
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.
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 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".

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

please add details

Ease of Travel to Other Countries

What about neighboring countries, visas for those, airports to travel etc.

Animal Policies

Is COUNTRY is pet-friendly or not
What do you need to do to bring a pet?
Consider adding a section on the Traveling with pets page