Vietnam first impressions: Immigration

In the past near 15-years I have been subjected to what I consider to be some of the meanest immigration officials in the world. If you follow my stuff at all you will know that I am referring to Thailand.

On my way out of the Thailand just yesterday, the guy behind the desk was constantly shouting at the people in line – kids, adults, teenagers, you name it – to be quiet while waiting in an extremely condescending manor. No one was being particularly loud, it is a boring line that is moving really slow because there are only two officials working and there are 300 of us who needs stamps out of the country. He would then slam the stamps into your passport, throw the passport at you and if you paused even briefly, he would berate you again.

There is no reason for this guy to be acting like this and of course they would probably shoot you if you made a video of it so I didn’t dare. Thankfully, I ended up in the other guy’s line and he seemed to be a subordinate to grouchy-britches and was starting to follow his lead of unnecessary rudeness.

This is just one of the occurrences to what I have come to expect from Thai Immigration. Multiple times I have been interrogated about where I am staying, why have I stayed in Thailand for so long, when I am leaving (despite the fact that I have a work permit and am entitled to stay indefinitely,) told that I need to have a return ticket despite what I just said, told I need to produce bank details to prove I have a certain amount of money that was just made up on the spot.

Chinese customers of ours have told us they charge all Chinese people on chartered flights from China 1000 Thai Baht per person, even though there is no law that states this should happen… they are simply pocketing the money themselves.

So when I got off the plane in Hanoi, Vietnam, I was expecting more of the same, but just in a language that I know none of (I don’t even know how to say “hello” and “thank you.) I come to you, quite proudly to say, that Hanoi’s immigration was not like this at all.

I approached the visa counter where there was no cue, just a bunch of people gathered around and I was unfamiliar with the process. Because I have been scarred by immigration procedures in Thailand, I very meekly approached the counter and a woman in her 30’s smiled and said “can I help you?”

just so you know I did not take this photo as I was terrified of breaking the rules

It’s a trap! I was thinking in my mind, but lo and behold, she genuinely wanted to help me. I gave her my documents she asked for a photo and I was so nervous that I forgot to give her my passport. I fully expected her attitude to turn at any moment, but it never did. After she laughed at me for a second for not providing the one document her position exists to examine, she told me (again, very politely) to “wait back there, we’ll call you when it is ready.”

In Thailand I would have expected to be waiting there for several hours and God help the person that ever asks what is taking so long, but no, it wasn’t like this. After about 15 minutes Stephen Hawking called out my name – and yes, they really do have a robot voice pronounce everyone’s name and your face is on a screen to let you know they are talking about you.

I go up to the counter, was asked for the amount of money that is on their official website for the visa I had requested (not a penny more) and boom! That part was over.

I then went to the lines to get stamped into the country expecting the roller-coaster back and forth line that never seems to move that exists in Thailand because despite the fact they know 4 flights are arriving, they only put 2 dudes on staff. Again, this is not how it was in Vietnam. They had a guy that was directing people to a multitude of lines that had no more than 5 people in each and I was stamped into the country without a single question being asked of me and was on the other side of the counter within a few minutes. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't being lazy... she confirmed it was my passport for sure but she didn't ask me a bunch of pointless, probing questions.

Maybe you have had different experiences in various countries but I have been to a LOT of countries and have never found any immigration department to be as unnecessarily evil as Thailand is. The number one reason I am even in Vietnam right now is because I am completely fed up with the way that Thailand treats its visitors and am looking at other places for me and my doggo to live. I am just so incredibly thrilled that Vietnam doesn’t operate that way.

I hadn’t considered really rating branches of the government but I am just so impressed that I gotta do it.

Vietnam Immigration… kudos to you and well done.
10 / 10