Gearing Up For 2017

Make driving legally in Vietnam your New Year’s resolution Many of our friends and acquaintances have shared their worries about driving a motorbike in Vietnam without a proper license. So, we thought it would be a good idea to remind all foreigners about the basic legal requirements in Vietnam in this field. Most foreigners wonder

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Work This Way

Foreigners with degrees forego work permits, however… Dear Antoine and Caroline, I am a Turkish citizen, planning to move to Vietnam permanently. I heard that a new decree has been issued allowing foreigners with three years work experience and a bachelor’s degree the ability to obtain work in Vietnam without a work permit. Is this

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Rooms Available

Must-knows before starting a hotel business. Dear Antoine and Caroline, I’m looking for information on how to register a hotel license in Vietnam. I am an EU and Australian national. The Vietnamese economy is booming and I understand that you are enthusiastic about setting up a business here. However, unlike many Western countries, such as

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The Kids are not Alright

What to do if you suspect child abuse Dear Antoine and Caroline, I hear my neighbors yelling all the time. They have a kid and I have seen him several times with bruises on his body. I am very worried about him. Do you know if there is anything I can do to help him?

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See You In Court!

Keep calm and find an alternative method to settling legal disputes in Vietnam Dear Marijn, My name is Azad and I work for a Turkish manufacturing company. We’ve been operating in Vietnam since 2008 and throughout the years we’ve been involved in a few minor business disputes. Once, we even started court proceedings in Ho Chi

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Taxation Elimination

The European Union-Vietnam free trade agreement, what’s in it for me? Dear Marijn, I am an importer of dairy products from Europe. Initially, I focused on butter and buttermilk, but more recently I have started importing dairy spreads and blue-veined cheese as well. I saw an item on the television about a new free trade agreement between the European Union

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The Viet Kieu Treatment – Perks of having dual citizenship

Dear Marijn, I recently started working in Ho Chi Minh City as an architect. I have heard the term “Viet Kieus” used a lot but I don’t really know what it means exactly. I’ve also heard that they enjoy many benefits, for example with investment. Is that true? Even though the Vietnamese term is widely used in practice,

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Southeast Asian Integration

What to expect from ASEAN and the AEC? Dear Marijn, I’m a music teacher from Sweden and have been living in Vietnam for five years now. Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)—is this something like the EU of Asia? And does it mean that I

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Own it

Reading the fine print on foreign ownership of real estate in Vietnam Dear Marijn, I hope you can shed some light on this. A few months ago, I found the apartment of my dreams in Nha Trang. I paid for it, moved in and went to the local notary office to get the paperwork sorted.

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Waterlogged

Protecting your deposit from an unreasonable landlord Dear Marijn, I currently rent a serviced apartment in District 2. About a month ago, I came back from work one evening to find pots and pans floating around in my kitchen. The service pipe had burst and the first thing I did was call my landlord to

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