Vietnamese Passport Renewal

[wait4ever 0]

My wife's Vietnamese passport is expiring soon and we need to renew it. AOS is still pending, so her Vietnamese passport is the only valid status document that she has. We have tried for two weeks now to contact the Vietnam Consulate in SF as well as the Vietnam Embassy with no answer. Phone calls end up in a dead end phone tree, and they won't answer e-mails either.

Does anyone know the renewal fee for a Vietnam passport? How long does it take to process?

Thank you and Happy Holidays to the Vietnam family.

[wait4ever 0]

My wife's Vietnamese passport is expiring soon and we need to renew it. AOS is still pending, so her Vietnamese passport is the only valid status document that she has. We have tried for two weeks now to contact the Vietnam Consulate in SF as well as the Vietnam Embassy with no answer. Phone calls end up in a dead end phone tree, and they won't answer e-mails either.

Does anyone know the renewal fee for a Vietnam passport? How long does it take to process?

Thank you and Happy Holidays to the Vietnam family.

Well, we received a nice little Christmas eve gift from the SF Consulate in that they finally replied to one of our e-mails. For those of you interested, the fee for renewal of a Vietnam passport is $50.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

[Matt_Stevens 5]

How does one get it renewed? We never received an answer to our emails and we sent many over the last year. My wife's passport is now expired.

[CK&Tydi 0]

My wife's Vietnamese passport is expiring soon and we need to renew it. AOS is still pending, so her Vietnamese passport is the only valid status document that she has. We have tried for two weeks now to contact the Vietnam Consulate in SF as well as the Vietnam Embassy with no answer. Phone calls end up in a dead end phone tree, and they won't answer e-mails either.

Does anyone know the renewal fee for a Vietnam passport? How long does it take to process?

Thank you and Happy Holidays to the Vietnam family.

Well, we received a nice little Christmas eve gift from the SF Consulate in that they finally replied to one of our e-mails. For those of you interested, the fee for renewal of a Vietnam passport is $50.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

Let's me know how you get it done. My wife passport will be expired in March, 08. I need to get her renew too. Cuz my AOS case is still pending. thnx.

[wait4ever 0]

How does one get it renewed? We never received an answer to our emails and we sent many over the last year. My wife's passport is now expired.

Matt, you will be closer to the Vietnam Embassy in Washington,D.C. They have a Consular Section at the Embassy where you can renew your wife's passport. The forms and instructions for passport renewal can be downloaded at their website : www.vietnamembassy-usa.org . Follow the link to the Consular Section, where it says "Passports". From there on it's all in Vietnamese script so you will have to get Anh to help you navigate that part. The forms and instructions cover a variety of passport renewal types for Vietnam citizens.

We filled out the form for the parts that were pertinant to her renewal and sent along photocopies of passport pages (main), three passport type photos, copy of her I-94, copy of our marriage license, return priority mail envelope prepaid, her passport, and a money order for $50. We sent it to the Vietnam Consulate in San Francisco by certified mail.

The Vietnam Consulate wants to know the status of the Vietnam citizen in the US and requests some kind of proof like photocopy of the green card or I-94. They also ask why the Vietnam citizen is in the US and why they want to renew, which is why we included a photocopy of our marriage license.

It's really difficult dealing with the Vietnam Consulate and Embassy. It's a real cluster at those places, likely because of the run-up to the Tet holiday and who knows what else, the usual problems that plague our own Consulate in HCMC. The best you can do is just fill out the forms and send in what you can, short of trekking down to D.C. and making a personal visit to the Embassy.

I will try to update this thread with our progress on this matter.

[patricks 0]

Yes, my wife had a new 5 year Vietnamese passport issued (renewed) from the VNs Embassy in Washington DC:

1.) All the forms can be downloaded from the Washington DC, VNs Embassy web site. (don't need to go there)

2.) Fee is $50, certified Check

3.) It took a long time.......about 2 months :-(

[CK&Tydi 0]

Yes, my wife had a new 5 year Vietnamese passport issued (renewed) from the VNs Embassy in Washington DC:

1.) All the forms can be downloaded from the Washington DC, VNs Embassy web site. (don't need to go there)

2.) Fee is $50, certified Check

3.) It took a long time.......about 2 months :-(

Do you have to send it the orginal Vietnam Passport or just the copy one? I really go afraid it get lost by mail. For my case, the CO already pull out the I-94 from her passport and we still wait for the AOS to approve my wife case. The passport is the only ID that she got.

[patricks 0]

Yes, you need to send the original.

They'll put a stamp with "Expired" on the first page and return it with the new one (at the same time)

I've sent my passport via post numerous times throughout the years and I've had no problems. Use certified mail that requires a return receipt that someone has actually signed & received the package at the embassy.

Yes, she'll be without a passport for approx. 2 months; my wife had a driver's license for identification.

[M-OK 0]

Yes, you need to send the original.

They'll put a stamp with "Expired" on the first page and return it with the new one (at the same time)

I've sent my passport via post numerous times throughout the years and I've had no problems. Use certified mail that requires a return receipt that someone has actually signed & received the package at the embassy.

Yes, she'll be without a passport for approx. 2 months; my wife had a driver's license for identification.

Can my wife get her renew passport with her new marriage name? She has changed to my last name when applied her Green card?

[patricks 0]

If it was up to me, I would say yes,.....if you slip me a 50,000vnd note on the side :- )

You'll need to ask the Washington DC VNs Embassy that question

Good Luck,

[wait4ever 0]

My wife's new passport arrived today, making it exactly one month from mailing off the application to receiving it. It was not without a little hiccup along the way. On Friday, we had a message on our phone machine from some guy at the SFO Consulate, who stated that before they could finish processing her passport renewal they needed some info about her family and an ADDITIONAL $70. He was not very specific about the info needed, or why they wanted more money. He just said, send us the info and the money. We had already sent the $50 we were quoted by an earlier e-mail from the Consualte. So it was a little shocking to think that we would have to pay a total of $120 just to renew a Vietnam passport. A US passport doesn't cost that much to renew.

When you are dealing with the Vietnamese governement, and someone is asking for more money, you naturally jump to all kinds of conclusions. My wife was really steamed when I gave her the news , which suprised me as I thought she would be used to this having grown up in Vietnam. Of course the phone number the guy left on the message was a dead end message box which was not taking messages. We both stewed over this incident mostly in quiet, but occasionally it would boil up and we would vent. I think I had decided that we would just let them sit on the application until we got a decent answer. We didn't send any extra money or info.

Today the package containing the new and old passports showed up. The new one is good for ten years. There was no further correspondence from the Consulate, so I am hoping this matter is settled. My wife was jumping up and down happy when she saw her new passport. So, that was our little drama with the passport renewal thing. It's so frustrating trying to communicate with the Vietnam Consulate and Embassy. They don't post their fees on the internet, so it's hard to know if what you are being quoted is legit. Some of the prices for their services seem to differ wildly. I wish they would get their act together and provide more timely info, and maybe answer the phones once in a while. At least they processed the passport renewal fairly quickly, given that they are probably busy issuing visas for the Tet holiday.

[menyoo 0]

Wait4ever,

Wow! No surpise to me at all in fact that's how the Vietnamese government operates whether here or in Vietnam makes no difference. Every Vietnamese government employee is in for himself or herself. Didn't you guys know that some VG employees pay bride money to get a government job? I know for a fact that my distance relative who lives in Vietnam had to pay someone higher up to get a job as "Canh Sat Giao Thong" traffic police.

You did the right thing for not sending any extra money for your wife's passport renewal. I learned something from you when I need to renew my wife's passport.

Thanks for the info.

Menyoo

[David-Hien 11]

My wife's new passport arrived today, making it exactly one month from mailing off the application to receiving it. It was not without a little hiccup along the way. On Friday, we had a message on our phone machine from some guy at the SFO Consulate, who stated that before they could finish processing her passport renewal they needed some info about her family and an ADDITIONAL $70. He was not very specific about the info needed, or why they wanted more money. He just said, send us the info and the money. We had already sent the $50 we were quoted by an earlier e-mail from the Consualte. So it was a little shocking to think that we would have to pay a total of $120 just to renew a Vietnam passport. A US passport doesn't cost that much to renew.

When you are dealing with the Vietnamese governement, and someone is asking for more money, you naturally jump to all kinds of conclusions. My wife was really steamed when I gave her the news , which suprised me as I thought she would be used to this having grown up in Vietnam. Of course the phone number the guy left on the message was a dead end message box which was not taking messages. We both stewed over this incident mostly in quiet, but occasionally it would boil up and we would vent. I think I had decided that we would just let them sit on the application until we got a decent answer. We didn't send any extra money or info.

Today the package containing the new and old passports showed up. The new one is good for ten years. There was no further correspondence from the Consulate, so I am hoping this matter is settled. My wife was jumping up and down happy when she saw her new passport. So, that was our little drama with the passport renewal thing. It's so frustrating trying to communicate with the Vietnam Consulate and Embassy. They don't post their fees on the internet, so it's hard to know if what you are being quoted is legit. Some of the prices for their services seem to differ wildly. I wish they would get their act together and provide more timely info, and maybe answer the phones once in a while. At least they processed the passport renewal fairly quickly, given that they are probably busy issuing visas for the Tet holiday.

Thank you for your information.

I will send my passport for renew soon. So, the fee is 50usd??

I will send application to Vietnam Embassy in Washington D.C. I think it would be the same.

[HQL2K 0]

My wife and I just went to the Vietnam Embassy to renew her expired VN passport. She had to pay $110. The passport will be valid for 10 years. They said it will be ready in 3 weeks.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

My wife and I just went to the Vietnam Embassy to renew her expired VN passport. She had to pay $110. The passport will be valid for 10 years. They said it will be ready in 3 weeks.

THREAD NECRO!

... I mean...

You realize you're responding to a thread where the last post was a year and a half ago, right? I think it's safe to assume that the OP has worked out his problem by now.