fastest way to obtain travel visa

[dtc 1]

i wish obama actually know how to fix the economic here in the us, tax the rich and help the poor , that should do it. or bring back all the jobs that lost to china , that even better

[ScottThuy 140]

living on the west coast i sympathize with you guys on the east with the extra 5-6 hrs flying to sfo or lax than another 17-18 hrs to vietnam. i went with the overnight layover this last trip ($100 cheaper...money saved is money earned etc) and they put me in a very nice and modern hotel in taipei. it's better than those smaller hotels that asiana air puts you in for those that are familiar.

price of living has certainly gone up in vietnam. everything seems to cost at least 50-75% more than just a couple years ago, while the exchange rate remains the same. even as a VK i feel the dollar doesn't go as far. i feel for natives...gas/food/electricity have gone up while most workers' salaries remain the same.

From here I have a total of 22 hours of flight time and 3 layovers totaling 5 hours and that is considered a very short trip given the options available... its already over a day of traveling not counting any time lost due to jet lag and to save a hundred or so I would spend an extra day hanging out in airports... its not worth the $ for me to spend the time waiting... I guess it does matter how long it takes one to earn the 100... and if one doesnt mind hanging out in the airport or has a hobby like online gaming to kill the time that would make the time go by easier..

The exchange rate is far from stagnant.. over the past 4 or 5 years the value of the dollar relative to the dong has increased 25% from 15,000 ish to 20,000 ish... keep in mind that the value of the dollar has dropped over that same time frame relative to other currencies,, the canadian dollar for example...Inflation in VN has really started kicking in over the past year or less... IMO it has a great deal to do with the fact that as Jim said, the US economy has tanked significantly and the shock waves are now being felt to those who produce the goods we have been consuming. its not so easy to earn the same USD in VN right now so they are jacking up prices to try to maintain that income level from before... salaries are staying the same for the most part and thats no surprise given that there is likely a drop in GDP..

The USD dollar goes farther in VN than it does here but if they know you have the $'s they are going to try make you spend them so they can get those dollars from you. inflation its everywhere at the moment....

there is very little that Obama can do that will not hurt him politically... the US wants instant results and there is no short term fix for the current problem... anything that is done will incur a period of increased inflation and pain here in the US... most voters wont take an option with any additional pain involved.. so politicians will follow the vote rather than lead the country...

[astrlsrfr 1]

...the US wants instant results and there is no short term fix for the current problem...so politicians will follow the vote rather than lead the country...

yep. No leaders with guts anymore. And be clear.. We are in a major cooling-down period. Watch out for phrases like "housing recovery", "soft patch" & "double dip". These are all phrases meant to manage the commoner's perception (confidence) that things will return back to the way they were. But they won't.. and we should not even WANT to go back there. But if everyone saw how bad things really are right now, the Great Depression would look like paddy-cakes. Most banks are currently insolvent due to the toxic (under-water) real estate they have on their books, but they are being allowed to mark their value to the market of 2007 still. That's why they are carefully metering out the foreclosures at a very slow rate. If people realized this & started pulling their money out of the banks, things would spiral out of control quickly. Banks are leveraged 10-1 on CASH. That means for every 10 you put in there.. they INVENT 90 more dollars out of thin air to loan out. Devaluing the $ also serves to de-motivate the hoarding of cash. Think about it.

The whole issue centers around debt. Enslaving the consumer with debt is tantamount to a harvesting of cash process. The common consumer got over-harvested by the greedy rich and the amount of accumulated debt crushed the net ability to repay. This same thing is about to happen to the US government itself. That's why they have to keep printing money & thereby devalue the US dollar. Remember debt = slavery, so until people figure out how to live within their means & quit feeding the consumer-harvesting machine, the endless cycles of suffering will continue.

[Ban Hammer 13,443]

5 posts removed for baiting/quoting bait.

don't make things personal, don't bait each other. you know what happens when you do.

Edited June 6, 2011 by charles!

[tcTTct 37]

The wait is negated, since you have to fight for all of your luggage and then you have to wait for the luggage to even get put on the belts. When I do the visa on arrival by the time I get done all the bags are on the belt and many of the people have already got theirs so the line is not nearly as thick and I usually get out a bit quicker because I dont have to sort through all those bags looking for mine.

I'm going to try visa on arrival on my next trip. Which visa processing website did you use? Thanks.

[confusedasheck 21]

I'm going to try visa on arrival on my next trip. Which visa processing website did you use? Thanks.

Are you sure you want to do that? Having the visa sticker and exit entry stamps can provide evidence that you entered Vietnam. The visa on arrival is taken from you when you leave Vietnam. You will have no proof in your passport that you entered Vietnam. You can get a single entry sticker in your passport.

[pholy 0]

awe man...guys i just bought 8 bottles of grey goose and 8 of those girly gift baskets from bed bad and beyond. yeah they are gifts for the 8 heads of my family in vietnam. im not screwed am i?

Edited June 6, 2011 by pholy

[tcTTct 37]

Are you sure you want to do that? Having the visa sticker and exit entry stamps can provide evidence that you entered Vietnam. The visa on arrival is taken from you when you leave Vietnam. You will have no proof in your passport that you entered Vietnam. You can get a single entry sticker in your passport.

Yes, the visa on arrival actually gets stamped into your passport and therefore will be proof that you entered Vietnam. The way I do it currently is to have my travel agent send a photocopy of my passport to the VN Consulate here in the US, and the VN Consulate sends me a stand-alone visa. That visa gets stamped on the way in and is kept by VN immigration on the way out,so there's actually no prooof in my US passport anyway. I've been having to shell out $100 for the multi-entry 3 month visa every trip just so I can keep it as proof.

[ScottThuy 140]

Are you sure you want to do that? Having the visa sticker and exit entry stamps can provide evidence that you entered Vietnam. The visa on arrival is taken from you when you leave Vietnam. You will have no proof in your passport that you entered Vietnam. You can get a single entry sticker in your passport.

wrong.. they put a sticker in the visa when he gets there and there is eveidence of stamps in the passport as well...

Edited June 6, 2011 by ScottThuy

[ScottThuy 140]

Yes, the visa on arrival actually gets stamped into your passport and therefore will be proof that you entered Vietnam. The way I do it currently is to have my travel agent send a photocopy of my passport to the VN Consulate here in the US, and the VN Consulate sends me a stand-alone visa. That visa gets stamped on the way in and is kept by VN immigration on the way out,so there's actually no prooof in my US passport anyway. I've been having to shell out $100 for the multi-entry 3 month visa every trip just so I can keep it as proof.

just wait till you get that 5 year visa and you dont have to spend so much $ anymore.. I love it...

[ScottThuy 140]

5 posts removed for baiting/quoting bait.

[AnhXao 0]

I payed for Visa on Arrival and the manager for UA in Houston got into it. She told me that copies or fax is not valid and I needed the original. That was money wasted on them. I will never fly United Airlines. That day I ordered my visa stamp for next day delivery and it cost 150 dollars.

I am all upset. They kept my sticker and did not stamp anything in HCMC customs. They did not even want to look at my little page that I filled out at the last minute.

[confusedasheck 21]

wrong.. they put a sticker in the visa when he gets there and there is eveidence of stamps in the passport as well...

I might be getting confused, but is there a difference between "Visa on Arrival" and the "loose leaf visa"? You don't get visa stamps with a "loose leaf visa" and the visa is taken when you leave Vietnam. Is "Visa on Arrival" different from "the loose leaf visa"?

[ScottThuy 140]

I might be getting confused, but is there a difference between "Visa on Arrival" and the "loose leaf visa"? You don't get visa stamps with a "loose leaf visa" and the visa is taken when you leave Vietnam. Is "Visa on Arrival" different from "the loose leaf visa"?

yes.. there is a huge difference... visa on arrival is just like if you sent the passport to the embassy here prior to leaving in that you get a sticker in the passport... loose leaf is when you send a photocopy of your passport and they send you a peice of paper that is the visa... visa on arrival is not a loose leaf... they screwed up the date on a visa here in the US one time... when I arrived the immigration officer laughed so hard because the visa was not good for another 120 years... I had to go and get a new visa issued, the same process as getting VOA there at the airport.. took 15 or 20 minutes and as Jerome said.. the lines at the immigration windows were shorter by then and the luggage was there waiting on me rather than me waiting on it...

I payed for Visa on Arrival and the manager for UA in Houston got into it. She told me that copies or fax is not valid and I needed the original. That was money wasted on them. I will never fly United Airlines. That day I ordered my visa stamp for next day delivery and it cost 150 dollars.

I am all upset. They kept my sticker and did not stamp anything in HCMC customs. They did not even want to look at my little page that I filled out at the last minute.

That was a loose leaf visa.. different process.. they still usually stamp entry and exit in the passport with loose leafs... did you send them passport or copy of it?

Edited June 7, 2011 by ScottThuy

[BinhJerome 14]

I'm going to try visa on arrival on my next trip. Which visa processing website did you use? Thanks.

http://www.vietnamvisaexpress.com/

This is the one I used with no problems. Safe and reliable. Jerome