Work Permit Required Documents from the US

Don't know your time schedule but the criminal record has to be certified but it can be done here.

When you bring them over here and have the US Consulate sign them off. They will require an OFFICIAL translation (VN government translator/notary) and then you are ready for your Permit application. Fees apply a;; the way in the process.

Your home driving licence will have to follow the same procedure if you want a VN licence.

Welcome to the home of Red Tape.

[Moderated: Off topic]

It has been so much confusion about this issue so I decided to find out the official way.

Given it is Vietnam, I am not saying it is the only way.

For official guideline, here is the link

http://www.business.gov.vn/licensedetai … gType=1033

It is based on this official circular

http://www.business.gov.vn/WorkArea/sho … gType=1033

Note the wordings:

Any documents of the foreign employee - copies of certificates of professional qualifications or skills, health certificates (if issued abroad), curriculum vitae - which are in a foreign language shall be translated into Vietnamese and certified by a Vietnamese notary public; however, if they have been legalized and confirmed by the relevant consulate in accordance with Circular 1413-NG-TT of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 31 July 1994 on legalization and confirmation by consulates, then they shall not have to be translated and certified by a Vietnamese notary public.

Circular 1413-NG-TT can be found here (link in Vietnamese). http://www.vanbanphapluat.com/danh-muc- … c&id=78055

It essentially says that the Vietnamese consulates abroad can perform notary public services for papers/applications to be processed in Vietnam and how.

What does it mean?

1.    You need to bring your original papers to either the Vietnamese consulates abroad or the authorized notary public in Vietnam to have them copy and notarize (certify that the copy is authorized) your papers.

Here is the list of authorized public notaries in Vietnam
http://www.congviendiaoc.vn/articles/c8 … t-nam.html

2.    Then bring the notarized copy to an official translator to have him/her translated into Vietnamese. No need to bring the original any longer since the notarized copy is a legal replacement of the original. One of the official translators is

The translation service desk at the Department of Justice in Ho Chi Minh City (go straight in and the desk is on your right hand side).

Sở Tư Pháp Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
141-143 Pasteur, D 3, Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
tel: 08.38290230

Note: the official procedure says that if you have your paper notarized (and legalized??) by a Vietnamese consulate then you no longer need to have it translated officially, but I doubt if the Immigration office here in Vietnam accepts it. The reason is that the Vietnamese consulate only certifies that it is a true copy of the original, nothing more. It does not vouch for the authenticity nor the value of the certification. You can buy a Ph.D. degree from fakeuniversity.com and bring it consulate to be notarized and they will do it gladly. Worse, you can bring your kindergarten certificate in Swedish language to have it certified as well. Now, I have a hard time to imagine that you can claim that certificate to be a MSc degree since you don't have to have it translated just because it has been duly notarized by the Vietnamese consulate. However, it is just my speculation.

3.    Submit your notarized copy along with the official translation. Note: they will keep those papers so have several notarized copies, just in case you need them for other applications.

The following is what I have written about my knowledge as well as own experience about the process:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=184366https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=175738

Hope it helps.

Anatta, Thanks for the links.  Of course they aren't working.  VN gov't I suspect. 

The University diploma is done.  Hillary Clinton's signature on the final authentication.  Got the info on my background check this AM and will get that done this week. 

Now the only document I am unsure about is my CELTA certificate for teaching English.  It's a program of Cambridge Univ, in the UK.  I took the course in the US (Boston), but the certificate comes from Cambridge.  The school in Boston can't authenticate the signature, so do I have to send it of to Merry Old England for certification?   Any first hand experience would be wonderful.

Jaitch wrote:

Don't know your time schedule but the criminal record has to be certified but it can be done here.

When you bring them over here and have the US Consulate sign them off. They will require an OFFICIAL translation (VN government translator/notary) and then you are ready for your Permit application. Fees apply a;; the way in the process.

Your home driving licence will have to follow the same procedure if you want a VN licence.

Welcome to the home of Red Tape.

Where would we be without fees? 

I remember my ex having all sort of problems when doing her docs for US immigration.  So it's all coming back to me now, kind of like an ice cream headache. 

From what your saying, and I've read elsewhere, is that  don't need to send my docs to the VN embassy here for translation.  It can be done there.

Anh Map wrote:

Anatta, Thanks for the links.  Of course they aren't working.  VN gov't I suspect. 

The University diploma is done.  Hillary Clinton's signature on the final authentication.  Got the info on my background check this AM and will get that done this week. 

Now the only document I am unsure about is my CELTA certificate for teaching English.  It's a program of Cambridge Univ, in the UK.  I took the course in the US (Boston), but the certificate comes from Cambridge.  The school in Boston can't authenticate the signature, so do I have to send it of to Merry Old England for certification?   Any first hand experience would be wonderful.

The links work fine here accept from the one with the public notary list. It says the site is down for maintenance, so may be it is up later.

Don't know anything about those teaching certificates, so can't help you there.

However, if I understand you correctly, you need to authenticate the signature on the certificate? why? There is no need for that!

As I mentioned, you just the original certificate and have it notarized (here or at Vietnamese consulates) then translated by someone recognized by the Vietnamese government. No need to authenticate. No need to get Hillary Clinton's signature.

Again, I don't know much about the CELTA thing, so may be it is an exception?

Anatta wrote:

However, if I understand you correctly, you need to authenticate the signature on the certificate? why? There is no need for that!

As I mentioned, you just the original certificate and have it notarized (here or at Vietnamese consulates) then translated by someone recognized by the Vietnamese government. No need to authenticate. No need to get Hillary Clinton's signature.

Again, I don't know much about the CELTA thing, so may be it is an exception?

I am thinking that the ESL teaching certification does not need all the authentication.  I will do some more asking for that specifically just to settle my own questions. 

I've got the college diploma and background check authenticated.  So I believe that I am good with those (except for the translation).

Thanks!