Shipping a car from U.S. to Vietnam

Yes, you need to have resident permit to register it to your name. You should not need workpermit. But you have to pay all taxes and that its not cheap.

Blang44:  Are you Viet Kieu yourself?  It is not clear from your message and your profile.  There used to be tax exemptions for Viet Kieu importing autos but I have read that they are being phased out.  Maybe someone with direct knowledge can help.

Thank you for your response THIGV, I am a U.S. citizen. My wife is a citizen of Vietnam and we now live in Vung Tau. My understanding is that of I do this as a us citizen I can bring one car tax free.

Not sure where you got the tax free info from, maybe you are confused with Viet Kieus. Have a look at this.

https://smartexpat.com/vietnam/how-to-g … -a-vehicle

There is a lot of misleading information regarding this subject floating around the internet so I will share my experience as I was looking to import my car a couple years back. I had no intention of actually going through with it once I saw how ridiculously expensive  it was, but I basically had all the paperwork complete pending my signature and payment. I wanted to get as far into it as possible just to have an idea of what to expect should I ever want to in the future. Basically it's not worth it at all. It is hard to read your last statement but I'm not sure what you mean you can import a car for free since your wife is Vietnamese? That's completely incorrect but again, I don't 100% understand your last sentence. As THIGV questioned above, tax exemptions for VK's importing cars to Vietnam was suspended late in 2016 due to too many people abusing the privilege (shocker!), so that won't help you out either (not even sure if you are VK).

Here are  just  some of the conditions that had to be met at the time I tried importing my car (keep in mind I'm sure some things have changed slightly):

- Car had to be less than 5 years old
- The car could only be imported if you were the original and first owner of the car. Meaning you had to buy the car brand new off the dealer showroom. There had to be proof of this as  well meaning you would need all of your original paperwork from the dealership verifying you are the person who bought it. 
- Car has to be registered in your home country for at least  6 consecutive months prior to being imported.
- Car has to have at least 10,000 KM on the odometer
- Valid work permit

The price will also depend on what car you have, engine size, etc and whether Vietnam considers it a luxury car. In my case I had a BMW M3. I used to track it back home in America and spent all my free time on it so you can imagine I was quite sad to have to sell it. The original sticker price was $51,000. Because my engine size was over 4.0 liters but under 5.0, I was imposed an initial tax of 90% of the car's value. On top of that because Vietnam considered my M3 a luxury car, they also slapped something known as an SST (Special sales tax) tax in addition to the initial tax. That was 70%. There was also a surcharge of $10,000 that is applied to every car imported plus several smaller miscellaneous fees. My total to ship the car (not including the original car price of $51,000) was over  $100,000 USD. I believe it was $118,000 or right around there. Again that is ONLY for the shipping of the car.  No thank you!

They may have lightened some of the restrictions since my experience but I can't imagine  enough to make it worth it. Basically, I don't see any reason to ship a car here even if it is your prized possession like my M3 was for me. You are much better off buying something here if you needed a car.

Take the X6 for example. That car stickers for over $200,000 here in Vietnam. In the states they start at around $65,000. You're not going to be able to purchase it in America AND be able to ship it to Vietnam for much less  than the $200,000 it would cost to just buy the car in Vietnam. Otherwise anyone who had the money would just do so.

Hope that helps a little,

Jerry

Only diplomats and lawyers can get cars tax free.. don’t think us citizens have that right, thibk viet kius also lost that already.

Thank you all for your very helpful responses. Especialy you Jerry!  I'll be selling the car in the U.S.  and probably just buy a second motorbike here.

***

..I also heard that.. I'm going to investigate..if either one of us found something on this matter..please communicate...

Hi to everyone, I plan to ship my car to Vietnam and drive to India, any suggestions or advices on this matter be great. I want to know if it possible to do it?

Did someone did such drive?

Fell free to contact me.

George ***

Although generally I feel that there is nothing wrong with bringing up old topics, I do think that the suggested follow on drive to India makes your situation rather unique.  It's highly unlikely that anyone reading this has had an identical experience although some may have done something similar involving one of Vietnam's closer neighbors.   You may actually be able to get a duty-free entrance to Vietnam with a provision that you will be immediately departing westward.   You will certainly need a lawyer to set that up.

Then you will need to do the same to transit, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Bangladesh before entering India.   I don't know for sure but isn't the Myanmar/Bangladesh border tense if not outright hostile.