Opinion

Expat VoicesOpinion
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Harry Returns Home

Posted byNguyen Ayi

After over a decade in Vietnam, this ex-pat shares his repatriation experiences and cites better jobs and reconnecting with family as motivators to move home.

By Harry Hodge

This is how it’s been going since we moved to Canada just over five months ago, my first time living here since 2010.

My family (My and our kids Avery and Payton) had planned to make an earlier return, circa 2020, but of course, the old pandemic situation was an issue. In addition, after more than a decade in Vietnam, I had become accustomed to life there and worried how things would go should we move to Ontario. My father and stepmom are in Toronto, my mom is in Port Hope, and I grew up in Ottawa so I have friends there, making it the logical destination. Work-wise, it also seemed to have the most job postings and opportunities for me.

Returning to the Homeland
Being entrenched at my school and occupying a position of middle management, we had a number of reasons to stay where we were. While the hotel business, where my wife had been working, suffered greatly during COVID, education kept on chugging along – albeit with a forced move online. My children also benefited from the arrangement as I had a substantial discount for their tuition, and, as an employee, I could stroll by their classrooms whenever I wanted to check in to see how they were doing. Things weren’t perfect (as in any workplace) but all things being equal, there was no need to move elsewhere.

Except – there was. Almost 12 years overseas and you start to see all the life events from your homeland that you’re absent for: My grandmother’s funeral; my friend’s weddings (and some divorces); and mainly time spent with my parents whom … Read more

Expat VoicesNewsOpinion
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Easier Work Permit Exemptions In Hanoi

Posted byNguyen Ayi

 

Easier Work Permit Exemptions In Hanoi

Opinion by Joe Fotalattee

The Hanoi Department of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs streamlined the approval process for hiring foreigners in recent years.

Most foreigners who want to work in Hanoi must apply for a work permit, which is a legal document that allows them to be paid by an employer in the capital city.

As stated in Decree No. 152, foreign nationals having a work permit exemption certificate may work in Hanoi without a work permit. This certificate can be used to apply for a temporary residence card and is equivalent to a work permit. It is valid for a maximum of two years.

The following categories provide a work permit exemption:

– People from outside Vietnam who are in charge of running foreign NGOs or international organizations in Hanoi.

– Foreigners employed and foreigner experts in Hanoi for less than three months, and working to solve challenging technical issues that cannot be resolved by Vietnamese.

– Foreign nationals with valid passports employed by governments, political parties, or other organizations with sociopolitical goals.

– Foreign nationals who have received authorization from the Ministry of Education and Training to conduct research and teach in Hanoi.

15,000 foreign workers by more than 10,200 businesses were employed in Hanoi in 2022. The department checked 20 businesses for adherence to the law regarding the hiring of foreign workers.

Hanoi Times reported the department held a training conference on the issuance of permits for foreign workers on December 20, 2022, for 120 organizations and businesses in the city.

 

This post has been updated as it may have misstated the current status of gay marriage in Vietnam, or not.

Opinion
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Major Report From US Congress Ignored By Vietnamese Media 

Posted byNguyen Ayi

The arm of corporate media runs long and deep.

by Joe Fotalattee

The Vietnamese press likes to follow Elon Musk’s latest Tweets, but continues to ignore the pending indictments of former president Donald Trump.

The final Jan. 6 select committee report published on Thursday was completely ignored, and I had hoped it was because of Christmas festivities because I didn’t ever want to write about this asshole again.

However, five days have passed and we have to recap, hopefully only once again, why that criminal orange clown is on the faces of books at every Vietnamese bookstore. If Vietnam Beat doesn’t work out, we will write “Satan’s Guide To Unethical Business, Not Paying Taxes, Stiffing Contractors and Preventing Blacks From Renting Apartments.”

Trump was the “central cause” of the incident, according to the report: “The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed. Without him, none of the activities on January 6th would have occurred. “.

The report’s findings are detailed in its more than 800 pages, which also include the rationale behind the committee’s recommendation that the Justice Department bring a former president to justice for the first time in U.S. history.

The report stated the attack was “foreseeable”. It provides a damning account of how law enforcement responded to unsettling intelligence before the attack.

To attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia, Trump made 18 attempts to contact the Secretary Of State there.

The “entire White House senior staff” wanted Trump to step in, according to the report: “The entire White House senior staff was in favor of a Presidential statement” urging all rioters to leave the Capitol.

Two days before the assault, then-President Trump insisted he wanted to march with protesters to the Capitol and floated the idea … Read more

Expat VoicesOpinionTravel
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Final Destination

Posted byPaul Blake

by Paul Blake

 

People often ask what it is like to live in another country, but no one asked what it is like to die in one. I pondered this question as I put Kevin’s ashes on the TSA’s customs conveyor belt in Newark, New Jersey, just after a contentious exchange with a wannabe cop, who did his best obtaining a GED. The ashes were already spread upon the Saigon River.

What was left, I was told, were the bones inside of an urn, inside a cubed box one might ship a small globe or 5 kilos of cashews from Australia. But it was my friend Kevin’s human remains, and I didn’t want to make a scene. I tried to discreetly slip insecure Officer Power Penis an official US Embassy letter and a certification from the Ministry of Health and Disease Control, which clearly stated the remains were in good health based on the number of red stamps on the documents.

As I passed the certified stamped papers, I hoped it would sufficiently explain why I was traveling internationally with human bones, as I figured it may be a red flag as it passed through the x-ray baggage machine.

However, an official letter alerted Captain Self-Important more than the 8,372 bags before, which contained foreign products from socks to microchips to lotus seeds that could unravel the economics of freedom quicker than Sargent Ball Fondler could read a sentence. “What’s this??!!!” he shouted as his routine of doing nothing was interrupted. “Sir,” I whispered, “I am carrying human remains and this is the paperwork.”

“Just put it through!” he said callously and it created a moment of uncomfortable silence as I stepped forward.

Then Agent Asshole added loudly, “NO ONE CARES!” Welcome to Newark I thought.

Then there was … Read more

NewsOpinionReal Estate Crash
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Alibaba Fraud Not Unique

Posted byNguyen Ayi


By Joe Fotalattee

Alibaba Fraud Not Unique

Over 4,000 people lost money and accrued debt by investing in projects run by Ho Chi Minh City-based real estate developer Alibaba. These pie-in-the-sky development opportunities turned out to exist only on paper.

At the hearing on Monday, 300 victims attended and some testified to the false promises made and illegal land deals. It was one of several sessions that the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court will hold until January to hear from the more than 4,000 victims of Alibaba, according to a report by VNExpress.

Nguyen Thai Luyen founded the HCMC-based business in 2016 and also formed 22 subsidiaries to invest in 58 projects in the provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Binh Thuan. The projects were all falsely advertised to customers and illegally laid out on agricultural land.

Investigators were able to get in touch with 4,065 of the customers who had invested VND2.1 trillion after Luyen instructed his staff to illegally collect nearly VND2.4 trillion from 4,560 clients.

Why This Case Is Important To The Beat Community:

As foreigners are not legally allowed to purchase land, many of those cases go unreported to authorities. Common tactics by fraudsters include selling a single plot to multiple investors and delaying red books or returns by using false promises of new roads, bridges, and infrastructure to lure more money out of unscrupulous investors.

Other tactics include agents returning the original investment after years of collecting interest or turning profits on a separate legitimate transaction. The agent will claim government problems with the investor’s particular land deal, and the buyer is often satisfied with recouping a fraction of the original amount.

Foreigners are also hesitant to report cases closer to home, involving friends or family members’ land they will inevitably … Read more