The community of overseas Vietnamese is very interested in the policy of visa exemptions for them when they return to Vietnam. How is the policy being implemented?

In the visit to the US, President Nguyen Minh Triet informed overseas Vietnamese in the US, as well as all overseas Vietnamese in more than 90 countries in the world, that the Vietnamese State has decided to exempt visas for all overseas Vietnamese who meet some conditions. Related agencies in Vietnam are compiling documents to realise this decision since September 1, 2007.

Under the above decision, overseas Vietnamese must fulfill some formalities to be granted a visa exemption verification document, which is valid for many times of travelling and takes effect within five years, not only one time like in the past. 

The maximal residency time in Vietnam is 90 days each time. If they want to stay longer, they must ask for visas and fulfill extension formalities in Vietnam.

We have defined three subjects of overseas Vietnamese who will enjoy visa exemption:

-  The people who have Vietnamese nationality
-  Vietnamese people who hold foreign nationalities
-  Foreigners who are wives, husbands, children of Vietnamese or Vietnamese who hold foreign nationalities

How about the policy that permits overseas Vietnamese to buy a house in Vietnam?

Decree 90 dated September 6, 2006 of the Government stipulates this right as follows:

- overseas Vietnamese who return to Vietnam to invest in the long term
- overseas Vietnamese who have earned distiction in the country: in the past those people were defined as those were awarded with medals and certificates of merit of the Vietnamese State but at present, this subject has been expanded, including the people who contribute to the country in various fields such as social charity, diplomatic tasks and those who do business well in Vietnam.
- Experts in the fields of culture, sci-tech, who need to return to Vietnam frequently or reside in a long term in Vietnam to contribute to social and scientific and technological development.
- The people who want to reside stably in Vietnam, for example the elderly who have retired already. For those people, they previously had to complete the repatriation formalities and to report the reasons for their repatriation. But now they don’t have to do this task.
- Other overseas Vietnamese who have lived in Vietnam from six months upwards can also buy a house in Vietnam.

In the coming years, if this policy is implemented well we will extend the subjects of overseas Vietnamese to further meet the requirements of them. (VietNamNet Bridge – Tuoi Tre)