Opening a new business branch & Visa questions

What do you mean when you say a "business branch?"  Do you mena a branch of a company in another Vietnamese city or a branch of a business in Canada?  If the former, it should be easier, the later will be more difficult.  There are several threads on starting a business on this site but they have all pretty much been pushed onto the back pages by talk about COVID-19 and visa problems.  Unfortunately the search function here is rather poor.  You might do better by simply perusing the thread titles on back pages looking for relevant titles.  If you do it this way, make sure you are at the Vietnam level and not Da Nang level so that you will see all threads.  You can see this at the top of your page.  You want it to read /Forum/Asia/Vietnam and no more.

Our resident business visa guru was recently banned, but I would try to get a 1 year business visa if I could, even if it costs a little more.  You will be justified by the fact that you are trying to establish a business.  Once you get the business set up there are other visa or residency card options.  Search for this topic at the /Forum/Asia/Vietnam/Visas level where you posted your query.

THIGV wrote:

Our resident business visa guru was recently banned, but I would try to get a 1 year business visa if I could, even if it costs a little more.  You will be justified by the fact that you are trying to establish a business.  Once you get the business set up there are other visa or residency card options.  Search for this topic at the /Forum/Asia/Vietnam/Visas level where you posted your query.

Canadian citizens haven't been able to get the 1 year business visa for a while now.

It surely seems the OP would qualify for a business visa (3 months, at least) as someone who is "exploring business opportunities".

SteinNebraska once posted about how he made the transition from business visa to (I think) TT visa.

If the Canadian website for the Embassy or Consulate of Vietnam is similar to the updated site of the San Francisco Consulate, the OP might not need to provide a sponsorship letter.

Otherwise, a trustworthy Visa On Arrival agency will probably be able to provide legal sponsorship for him.

I am interested in your experience, as I am also Canadian and have a legit business partner in Vietnam. My vietnamese partner is hesitant to use the business visa option, maybe because their business friends have all relied on the (easier) tourist visa option to get their foreign business partners into Vietnam. Hard to get information.